The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1898-04-08
j. M. BARRIE.
Mr.. Clarence Peabody's Lecture at AS.
sembly Hall.

sembly Hall.
Mr.. Clarence Peabody delivered an es-
say on J. M. Barrie at Assembly hall last
evening to large and interested audi
ence. The lecturer referred first to a
characteristic bit of humor with which
Barrie commences his latest book, Marga-
ret Ogilvy, in which he chronicles his
birth and certain other events of house,
hold economy. He said that the youth
| whose advent was thus auspiciously
heralded identified himself from the 1irst
with the circle of which he was mem
Der. He was to live in sympathy with its
life, look down the homely vista of Its
quiet streets, and from the Evolutionary
hum of ancient hand looms weave pathos
and humor, tragedy and romance. The
| same genius which has found romance in
the homely life of our New England fore
| fathers led Barrie to throw aside the ro-
mantle trappings of the Scotland of song
and chivalry and find all elements of hui
man interest in the live of the prosaic and
serious little community which was ruled
as with rod of iron by the tenets of
strange Anticipated religious sect.
The Thrums of romance, the little town
which is the centre of all Barrie's Scottish
stories is his birthplace. Kirriemuir,
small manufacturing town in Forfarshire,
Scotland, north of Edinburg. He wrote
of it not as of the busy factory communl-
ty of today, bat as it was in the first OF
the century, before great factories and
modern enterprises had begun to elbow
out of the way the quaint landmarks OF
it's early industrial life. In that part OF
Scotland where Barrie was born, in the
year 1860, education is never neglected,
so, although his father had large family
to support, the boy was sent to school at
Dumfries and afterwards to the Universe
ty of Edinburg. At the university under
the guidance of the lamented Prof. Mason
he devoted himself to the study Of English
literature, and after he graduated he &C.
cepted position as a writer of leaders on
! the Nottingham Journal. which he held
for about year. His novel ''When a
Mans Single' treats somewhat of news
paper life, with which Barrie had become
familiar during his Nottingham expert
ence.
Meanwhile a happy thought had struck
him, that there was a quaintness about
his native town of which he might avail
himself for literary material. With the
assistance of his mother, whose father
had been prominent member of the
| Aud LIGHT community, and whose
memory was stored with an abundance OF
dialect and anecdote, Barrie began to
produce his Scottish stories. These he
afterwards published in "Auld LIGHT
Idylls' and "a Window in Thrums.' In
the first book the subject is treated from
the outside; in the second the writer has
installed himself in the midst OF the
peoples life and has painted picture OF
them in which the minutest detail find
q place The book is marked here and
there with strains Of quiet humor but its
| kew note is pathos. In "The Little
Minister" which followed "The Window
in Thrums,'' Barrie makes an attempt at
a Thrums novel. The plot is fanciful but
fascinating; perhaps his pen felt reac-
ton from the homelY life of this people
and yearned to reach out into more re-
mantle world. the coming of Babbie the
Egyptian is the first introduction of a
powerful strain to contend with the
Thruns motif. A critic might philoso-
phize upon the struggle between the i'm
movable Thrums'life and the character of
the Egyptian, irresponsible and untamed,
but without law or purpose. Thrums in
the person of the little minister, staunch
| in faith and the practice of Puritanioal
| life, gains the victory and quells the law
less spirit. Though tile plot of 'The
| Little Minister" does not convince the
hook is great in it's portrayal of character;
the evolution of the boy minister is a
piece of literary work which entities the
book to a prominent place upon our
shelves. Barrie handles his tools more
skilfully in Sentimental Tommy. !"
Speaking from a mechanical point Of
view, this story rises to the dignity of q
novel, although the author brings it to q
close lust as hero and heroine are emerg-
ing from childhood. Barrie admits that
In is not in the smallest degree the book
he meant it to be. Tommy" he says,
iran away with the author" He had in
tended to write of Sentimental Tommy"
the man. From certain foreshadowings
in this work we may expect further
history of this precocious youth, and the
opinion may be ventured TINT this further
history will be novel of tremendous
power.
Barrie has also written several success
full plays, including his dramatization of
uThe Little Minister which is now on
the boards in New York. Another book
which we cannot classify is Margaret
Ogilyy. This is q masterpiece; it is a
| -. - 4l.o artist who deans his sub