Some Like Them Cold by Ring Lardner

First published: 1921

Type of plot: Wit and humor

Time of work: About 1920

Locale: Chicago and New York City

Principal Characters:

• Charles F. Lewis, an aspiring songwriter in New York City
• Mabelle Gillespie, a "working girl" in Chicago

The Story

Though "Some Like Them Cold" is told in an unorthodox way, its plot is quite simple. Charles Lewis and Mabelle Gillespie meet by chance in the Lasalle Street train station in Chicago. Charles is about to travel to New York City in order to pursue his fortune as a songwriter. Mabelle is waiting for her sister to arrive for a visit. Charles and Mabelle converse until Charles's train arrives. Before leaving, Charles makes a bet with Mabelle that he will write to her from New York. This he does. Mabelle writes back, and the two carry on their flirtation by means of the United States Postal Service.

At first all goes well. Charles masks his loneliness and uncertainty in New York City by describing his adventures to Mabelle. These adventures fall into two categories: first, the quest for success in the songwriting business, and second, resistance against sexual temptation. Repeatedly, Charles resists the advances of overly aggressive, "painted" women. At the same time, though he teases and flatters Mabelle, he is careful not to cast doubt on her virtue. Mabelle is quite sensitive on this issue. She refers to herself as a "bad" girl for speaking to Charles without a "proper introduction," and she assures Charles that she is not in the habit of doing such a thing. Definitely viewing her own aspirations as secondary to Charles's grandiose ambitions, she passes over most of her own trials and tribulations as a single working girl in Chicago. Instead, through the eyes of her sister and friends, she provides a self-portrait for Charles's inspection.

A "great home girl," Mibs (as her friends call her) is "a great talker," has a humorous nature, likes a good book, and loves to bathe. She goes out to dance or see a show only occasionally. In sum, Mabelle presents herself as modest, sociable, and wholesome. She also expresses boundless confidence in Charles's songwriting ability and repeatedly assures him of his ultimate success.

During the exchange of the first few letters, Charles and Mabelle seem to be pleasant, perhaps slightly silly young people carrying on an ambiguous but harmless flirtation. There is a steady diet of flattery and ego stroking on both sides, with Mabelle in particular providing the moral support needed for Charles to fight "the battle of Broadway." In addition, Mabelle has mentioned a fantasy about some "rich New Yorker" who might bring her there to live. However, exactly what the outcome of the relationship between Charles and Mabelle will be is not clear.

Within a few weeks, that is no longer true. Charles's interest in Mabelle is plainly waning as he makes some personal connections in New York City and begins to fall into the rhythm of the town. More specifically, Charles meets a lyricist named Paul Sears, with whom he begins to collaborate. He does send Mabelle the lyrics from their first song together, "When They're Like You."

Some like them hot, some like them cold.Some like them when they're not too darn old.Some like them fat, some like them lean.Some like them only at sweet sixteen.Some like them dark, some like them light.Some like them in the park, late at night.Some like them fickle, some like them true,But the time I like them is when they're like you.

Although the lyric might not seem particularly impressive to the reader, Mabelle is "thrilled to death over the song." The tide has turned, however, and Charles no longer needs Mabelle's encouragement. Whereas Charles described New York City as dirty and hot at the outset of the story, he now calls it a "great town" and seems willing to burn his bridge back to Chicago. He has found a new home, and because of this Mabelle is shunted to the periphery of his life. Soon Charles's letters become sketchy and much less attentive to Mabelle. "Dear Girlie" becomes "Dear Miss Gillespie." (In return, "Dear Mr. Man" becomes "Dear Mr. Lewis.")

The end comes when Charles, rather insensitively, announces that he has become engaged to Paul Sears's sister Betsy, whom he has described as being "ice cold" (thus the story's title). Though Betsy enjoys the nightlife and is just about everything else that Charles has said he does not like, he seems completely infatuated. Charles offers to keep up his correspondence with Mabelle. Mabelle refuses his offer, however, citing a jealous "man friend." She closes her last letter by congratulating Charles and wondering exactly how Betsy is going to "run wild" on the sixty-dollar salary that he will be earning as a musician in Atlantic City. With this, the story comes to an end less than two months after it began.

Bibliography

Cervo, Nathan. "Lardner's 'Haircut.'" Explicator 47, no. 2 (Winter, 1989): 47-48.

Cowlinshaw, Brian T. "The Reader's Role in Ring Lardner's Rhetoric." Studies in Short Fiction 31, no. 2 (Spring, 1994): 207-216.

Evans, Elizabeth. Ring Lardner. New York: Ungar, 1979.

Jones, David A., and Leverett T. Smith, Jr. "Jack Keefe and Roy Hobbs: Two All-American Boys." Aethlon 6, no. 2 (Spring, 1989): 119-137.

Lardner, Ring, Jr. The Lardners: My Family Remembered. New York: Harper & Row, 1976.

Robinson, Douglas. Ring Lardner and the Other. New York: Oxford University Press, 1992.

Yardley, Jonathon. Ring: A Biography of Ring Lardner. New York: Random House, 1977.