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142 THIS DIFFICULT INDIVIDUAL
in at a café to console herself. She seems to have been in a bad
mood, for, during the course of the afternoon, she took exception
to an innocent lady at a nearby table, and knocked her cold. For
this she was expelled from France. She finally died of starvation in
Munich.
Ezra wrote of her in Section: Rock-Drill,
& Elsa Kassandra, "the Baroness"
von Freitag etc. sd/ several true things
in the old days /
driven nuts,
Well, of course, there was a certain strain
on the gal in them days in Manhattan
the principle of non-acquiescence
laid a burden. 21
The Baroness' expulsion was not an unusual event. French
officials are violently opposed to violence, especially when it is
committed by "les gangstairs", that is, the Americans who pay so
much for bad champagne in Paris. Another assistant editor of
the transatlantic review, who often became quite belligerent after a
few drinks, slugged a café proprietor. In the United States, the
proprietor would have slugged him right back, but in France,
"Gendarme!" The difference is that in the U.S.A., a saloon is only
a saloon, and often something less than that, but in France a café
is the castle of the arts, and its proprietor le grand patron. The
editor was with difficulty rescued from jail, and during his hours
of imprisonment, Ezra took his bassoon along, and sat outside the
window, playing and singing the songs of Arnaut Daniel. Prison
has its compensations.
The transatlantic review printed some serials of current works,
among them Ford's fine novel Some Do Not (1924), and Gertrude
Stein's too-long novel, Making of Americans (1925), which, some
critics claim, does not describe the process.
Pound contributed various pieces on music, some cantos, and
much advice. William Carlos Williams, E. E. Cummings, and Tristan
Tzara also were represented during the short life of the review.
John Quinn had guaranteed its financing, but he had some setbacks,