The Montgomery advertiser., 1902-09-07
LOVES NOT ITS FAME
THRu1Gs HAS NO HONOR FOR J.
 M. BARRIE.
He Wrote "Havers and Nonsense'' in the Villagers Eyes-The Place
 And Its People are As Described.

pc true 1t will recommend the tale to at least one community-Tnrums itself. Never was there people so 10th to be u,ah 1amous or at any rate. so dissatisfied achieved. Had thrust upon them' would pc more accurate description of the way the Thrunns ''fowk" feel about it. They resent Barrie's pictures of them Tie himself If they did not feel that, in a way. he is too trivial to be resented. A man who has seemed unable to find anything to write except just "havers everyday people and happenings! Bless you, he's too poor a body to be resented. Just by way of example, take the att tude of the old man who is Janitor of the held. v
 DO ken Jeems Barrier said this old man, in response to a visitors question. "Oh. ay: ken I'm as kennit his father an mither afore i'm"
 oh. ay.'
 There was reservation in the tone which piqued the visitors curiosity.
 Don't you like them?"
 m nae thinkin' muckle aboot them. Hey; l Know mony a story that my gran mither tod me that'd be better than ory O Jeems Barries.'
 That's the way 1t is with all the Thrums people, Never was there a prophet more without honor in his own country than this son of the red soil of Kirriemuir.
 Say Kirriemuir.
 That's the name you must learn to pro- nounce If you want to go to Thrums. It's just possible that, if you should go into the railway station at Edinburgh and ask for a ticket to Thrums. lightning or an inspiration might strike the agent and you would get what you want. But one can seldom count on lightning, and, in Great Britain at least, it is rank folly to expect an inspiration to hit native. So 1t will be safer to learn to say Kirrie- muir. not unpleasant task.
 It costs snniings ($1 .50) to go from Edinburgh to Thrums travelling third class, and you do 1t by way of Perth. When you have reached your Mecca. you will find a comfortable hotel, as hotels go in that land of tea and tin baths. The Airiie Arms is typical English inn, with the comforts and discomforts of its class, both of which can be enjoyed for a week for about $10 person. Incidentally, one can get the best mutton ever cooked; sheep from those fiocks which my fath- err kept on the Grampian hills hard by.
 It Is really surprising that more liter the most satisfying literary shrine the writer has ever visited. In other places one finds mementoes of an author. This is the pen MT. Scribbler used when he Strange Tale of So-and-So,'" says the snowman. and one gives up sixpence or a shilling or quarter. for the privilege of handling doubtful old quill or a still more doubtful steel point.
 It is different at Thrums. One doesn't see there the pen which portrayed Sent imental Tommy" No, one sees Tommy himself. At least any one with a grain of imagination sees him. For all the material parts of the history of that ex- traordinary small boy and strange young man are there to the most insignificant detail. Tommy and some of the others are lacking in the & flesh; but with the look over ones shoulder to find the char acters as actual.
 It would be almost foolish to attempt read Barrie. They know all about it . They can pick up Sentimental Tommy and from it's pages compile a guide book to Kiriremuir without ever crossing the ocean or the border.
 The very stones of Kirrie, as 1t Is called at home, are old friends to the man who knows his Barrie The stones of the Cut tie well. the coffin shaped stone which Lady's house, the path between two earthen walls from which Doubledykes took his nickname-thev are all there quite as they should he.
 Go To Glen Clova.
 There are the beauty stairs" down ceivel ideas of Tommy and of Elspeth took such a sad tumble They are out side stairs of stone, reaching from the ground to the second story and having a skeleton-like balustrade of iron rods Poor Tommy! lie had expected so much of the beauty stairs and even his soar ing imagination dropped dismally before the reality. And yet they are. not unpic- turesdue. Linked with their present as- sociation they are decidedly interesting.
 There is another Thrums character who will be sure to come to your mind if you're stopping at the Airlie Arms You -t- Lownie to let him off" from marrying g her. he having decided that he preferred Jean Luke. Mag. you remember. declined to let him off. though urged to think 1t over
 win assured her.
 How do I ken that?" she demanded and, as Tammas Hagart says, rale sen
 Am sure ot." Gavin says. flor ye're bonny to look at an weel kennt for bein'
 "Ay," says Mag. I'm glad ye like me, Gavin. for ye have to talk me"
 This Gavin. according to Barrie drove the Glen Quharity post, and if you stay at the Airlie Arms you may see that same post leave the inner court every morn in real life, the name of its destination is Glen CIova.
 If it isn't too late in the season you'd better go to Glen Clova with that same %s RSs wor m the hd ssts Poa on. and Is likely to break at almost any moment. It was the latter part of Sep tember when the writer was in Thrums. and he was told then that the eason had broken. It seemed to him to have gone all to pieces Every day it rained some. and some days 1t rained more.
 But one learns not to mind that. It is hard to be harsh with anything so tear full as Scotch skies are. The natives seemed to have learned that. In Krrie, for instance. they have such mild way of speaking of the weather. When there is a moderate rain they say it is mist ing" When 1t is hard rain the weather is "a bit heavy" and when 1t pours like a cataract, the weather has broken" and the landlord cheerfully remarked Its a soft day, gentlemen"
 Yes" replied the grumblers, ''so soft that it runs"
 Do Not Drink Soda.
 He gave us the puzzled look to which went back to the bar for a recuperative whisky and nothing. The ordinary folk in Scotland do not 'diddle around with any such foolish accessories as soda.
 There was a time, for instance, when we rode to Glen Clova ourselves We went with the post and for fellow passen- gers had five characters from an unpub- iished story by Barrie. When you go with the post you ride in wagonette; three on one seat facing three on the opposite seat and the driver snug and close across the front.
 Now 1t would be easier to keep your right hand from knowing what your left hand is ur to than 1t would be to try to draw a veil of secrecy over ones actions in wagonette. Our fellow passengers annreciated this fact, and though at first thev were somewhat embarrassed by the nresence of two strangers who spoke in