The daily morning journal and courier., 1906-02-24
TALK OF STEVENSON.
IN THE NORTH WOODS WITH
 THE FAMOUS NOVELIST

Hated thew inds and LOvedL title
 Children Andrew Baker With
 Whom He Made Hi sHome, Tells of
 Many of the Writers Moods.
 Andrew Baker has lived in the little mountain town of Saranac Lake in the Adirondacks for 50 years. It was in his cottage that Robert Louis Steven son, the Scotch novelist, spent the win ter of 'S7 and the spring of 'SS, when the writer was suffering from tuber- culosis, and found the disease had taken so magnificent turn that he could not live in Scotland. Baker was sitting in a canvas-covered invalid's chair one hot July day last summer when l came up the path leading by the winding brook that brawls in from of the house and spoke to him of the novelist whose stay in the little white low cottage with the long green blinds has made the place landmark to Adj rondack tourists. His wrinkled face relaxed when I mention the name of Stevenson, and he looked for a moment over the road, out on the great hills where the sun was setting in blaze of cerise before answering. The afternoon was gone, twilight was at hand and the shadows lay in great patches on the road at our feet.
 When he spoke his voice was very low. The tone was cultured Yes" said he, T remember Stevenson very well. Poor fellow" he added, 'he was moody chap. When he came to the house here he was broken down and in bad health. He got well up here, but you could not say anything to him. He had to be on the go all the time. He would never be quiet, fthey tell me in any place for long. He used to lie in his room there when he would write during the day, smoking / all the time He kept paper beside /hirn and when he wanted to write any, thing he would dash it off and throw the sheet on the floor. He was very unmethodical and his wife had to look after the papers he wrote on"
 A young woman came around the corner. She coughed brokenly as she entered the house. There was no mistaking the cough. That's the way they go," said the guide Stevenson used to cough a great deal, but he wasn't so bad as some. He never had any hemorrhages to speak of while he was here. And do you know" added the speaker with vehemence, "he would have gotten well if he had stayed here. He was doing finely when he decided to 1eave.'
 A note of sadness had come into the voice of the old guide and there was a moment of silence while he puffed great clouds of smoke from his lighted pipe. When he went on he had recovered his spirits. It was dark by this time and the lights of the town locked In between the mountains, were beginning to glim- mer feebly on the bottom of the op- posite hillside.
 ,H stevenson used to hate the wind. It was a bitterly cold winter when he was up here. The thermometer dropped as low as 4S degrees that year. He used to lie out here in the veranda, covered over with bear robes. But as soon as 1t began to get windy he al- ways went into the house. He used to stay, when he was in the house, at the back window lots of the time, watching the little children play with their sleds." This seemed natural thing for the author of the "Child's Garden of Verses to do. listened intently while the guide went on to tell me how fond Stevenson had been of the children, how considerate he had been to them and how he loved to watch them.
 On the subject of Stevenson and wis., itors the guide spoke thus: Steven son did not have very many visitors. Tn those days it was a long trip up from the nearest station; nearly is miles. There was no station Saranac Lake in those days. And then when people came up from the city some times Stevenson would not see them. He never seemed to want to see peo- pie, but just to be quiet, and to be left alone.
 '.But," went on the speaker, "when these people would come all the way to see the writer and could not do so, Mrs. Stevenson, his mother, would entertain mem. She was sweet, lovely lady, very gentle and kind Sometimes Lloyd Osborne would be in the room and he was a big, overgrown boy, just at the awkward age" When I had explained the success of Osborne is having MT. Baker was surprised. What" he ejac ulated. Lloyd a great writer! Well. you can tell what the young men are coming to. He was well put up boy. though"
 Stevenson did not go about much when he was up here," added the speaker when he had gotten back to to subject of our talk. T think he only went down to the town twice during ali the months that he stayed here"
 "He stayed in the house most of the time, didn't he?" inquired
 Well, mo-" answered the guide. q shouldn't say that he was indoors most of the time. He used to go back in the woods with me to skate. And, sir, he could skate. The people from the will lage used to come back in our woods to see him. He was the best fancy skater that I ever saw. He used to say that he was fond of exercise, but skating was the only exercise he took while he was here"
 Stevenson's leave taking was charac- teristic of the Bohemian nature of the man. He did not wish to be bothered with anything that would incumber him. so he announced one morning to