The San Francisco call., 1906-06-18
ROBERT H|CHINS
HAS CLOSE CALL
Author and the Actress
Mary Anderson in
Train Wreck.
SPECIAL DISPATCH TO THE CALL.

SHEClAL DlSRAICH IO THE GALL.
LONDON. June 17.-Robert Hichins, I
hear from Italy. has just settled down
for a long stay in the picturesque
Sicilian town of Taormina, and while
there means to finish his new book.
a sequel to his Call of the Blood" f"
which is just about to be published on
both sides of the Atlantic.
Hichins by the way, had narrow
escape from death the other day, in
company with his friend. Mary Ander-
son. the famous actress.
1t seems that the former Shakespear-
can actress and the author OF The
Garden of Allah who are old acquain-
tances, met by chance in Southern
Italy, a week or so ago. and that while
travelling together between Naples and
Raggio serious accident happened to
their train. The details which have
reached me are not quite clear. but
there evidently was a collision in which
the carriage occupied by Hichins and
Madame de Navarro was wrecked and
several persons to the right and left
of them either killed or badly injured,
the author and the great actress escap-
ing, however, with only severe shak-
ing up.
This exciting adventure over Ma
dame de Navarro elected to remain in
Raggio, while Hichins went on to Taor-
nina, where he at once began work
on his new book. AS is usual with
him. the author OF The Green Carna-
tion" has sought a particularly remote
and quiet spot in order to be able to
write without interruption. He will. by
the way, publish a couple of new short
stories, before long, and has also had
new four act play accepted by one
of the chief London theatrical man
ayers. And as his last book 1.-The
Garden of Allah" was generally ac-
knowledged TO be almost, if not quite,
real literature. there is reason for
general satisfaction over Hiehins' es-
cape from serious injury, if not worse
fate.
A pen picture of John Stuart Mill by
so great an artist in words as Thomas
Hardy cannot fail to be interesting to
American admirers Of both writers, so
it is not anisS to quote part of a letter
which Mr.. Hardy contributed to the
London Times the other day. apropos
of the recent centenary of the philoso-
piers birth.
In this letter, the author of Tess
describes Mill as he first saw him dur
ing the philosophers famous candida
ture for Westminster. in 1865.
The hustings," he says, had been
erected in Covent Garden. near the
front of st. Paurs Church, and when
IA young man HNluE III LONDON
drew near to the spot, Mill was speak
ing. The appearance of the author of
the treatise on Liberty (Which we
students of that date knew almost by
heart) was so different from the look
of persons who usually address crowds
in the open air that it held the atten-
tion OF people for whom such a gather
ing in itself had little interest. Yet
it was, primarily. that of man out oe
place. The religious sincerity of his
speech was Jared on by his environ
ment-a group on the hustings who.
with few exceptions. did not care to
understand him fully, and a crowd be-
low who could not.
He stood bareheaded. and his vast
pale brow, so thin-skInned as to show
the blue veins. sloped back like a
stretching upland. and conveyed to the
observer q curious sense of perilouS
exposure. The picture of him as per-
sonified earnestneSs surrounded for the