The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-10-10

1onBfelloW, Holmes. Emefson' I4oNell, Whittier, Bryant and almost a score If others nearly their peers as his contrib utors-a golden day that shows no pres ent indications of another dawning. The Breakfast Table series gave Holmes his greatest fame as prose writer and in them he was at his best Their loose and rambling construction gave him an opportunity to display the wholesome geniality of his nature. his deep insight into humanity his humor and his pathos, and running through them was that vein of mysticism which always was lurking in him. The story of Iris is drawn from The Professor at the Breakfast Table" and gives an idea of the character of the series
 WI HEN Iris appeared at that Bos- w ton boarding house she created
 W a mild boarding g-house sensation for she was not much over Is, as pretty as a picture, and the boarders, especially the women. began to consider as to whlch of the bachelors, young and old they would marry her off There was the pro fessor-but he was out of the quesuou' be was too old and too intellectual Tor sucb a bright young thing as lrlsa ihe" there was the deformed little gentleman who kept to himself so much, sat III high chair especially made for him al the +able and was supposed to be very wealthy. He might do if it were not for his deformity That large man with the broad expanse of shirt front and the buge diamond stud was persistent ana susceptible person-perhaps ne nilsnl carry off the prize in spite ol the lde1 that he was already engaged to the iahu- 1adv's daughter. The young clerk Who" everybody called John was of the flght age and was a hustling fellow, though bis manners were a trhe crude, and vol never can tell what direction the thoughts of girl of 16 or so will take
 Away up at the northeast corner ot the +ahle sat A dark-haired young man from Maryland. who was in Boston studying ers4neering-a rather reserved person. rrbe nrofessor. who was something of a matchmaker himself. had long thought that what the young Marylander neeoeu was a. wife. He had watched anxlously for the arrival at the boarding house ol some fair young creature who would sup nlement the dark-haired young Maryland CTS life, and when Iris arrived he exam ined her officially "One of those posi- tive blondes" said he to himself raw nv haired, amber eyed, full throated' sKin white as a. blanched almond. Looks dreamy to me-not self-conscious, though; O black ribbon round her neck sets It oh as a Marie Antonette diamond necklace could not do, So in her dress there Is a harmony of tints that looks as if an art given 9 hint or two like the finishing touch to a picture Looks calm, as blondes are apt to and as if she might run Wild II trifed with Yes. she'll do. The young Marylander will bs dead in love with her in a week"
 Iris father had been a college tutor and had died of consumption, which IS quite natural for a tutor. When she was horn the tutor had hung over her with ranturous delight and a flood of Latin ouotations. He must have a name for her of course out of the classics, and after having carefully considered Virginia, Lu- cretia and the like, finally decided upon 1ris-his little rainbow The mother died soon after, and the tutor after the usual course of getting better followed her to the grave, leaving Iris to the care or A spinster aunt, who was as everypody admitted. a "model of all the virtues. A very forlorn looking person, dressed in black and wearing white necKcloth' used always to speak of the aunt as sueh and 1t being taken for granted that ITS was to die of consumption like her rather the forlorn looking person, as soon as the girl could read, presented her with a memoir of a child who had died at the age of 2 years and Il months after having fully indorsed all the doctrines of the particular persuasion to which he not only belonged himself, but thought it very shameful that everybody else did not belong The Model and all her friends used to discuss the child before her face .Delieate child, very'-"Doubtful if you can raise her"-"Its heredity. they say; how sad; so young, too," etc.
 Fed on gloomy, forebodng and dreary deathbed stories it is wonder that the child lived, and she would not have done so had it not been that wise instinct had guided the tutor in the selection of his wife and the mother of his child. The deceased tutoress was tranquil, smooth woman. easily nourished, and from her Iris inherited enough vitality to fight her xvav along In matters of heredity two and two do not always make four-some- Hines they make three and sometimes five. JAS she grew she developed will of her own and a taste for drawing. She carlca- sured the mournful person with the white neckcloth, and even drew absurd pictures of the precocious child who died at the age of ? years and Il months in such an orthodox state of mind When she went to school she caricatured the teach CTS. and when she grew older she an- nounced that she was going to be an artist.
 The Model was quite nonplussed. Iris's refusal to die of consumption and early piety was inexplicable-it was against all inc rules. and she felt something as hen must feel who finds herself in charge of a brood of ducklings. Perhaps the Model became a trife afraid of young woman who was guilty of such rashness; at any rate, she allowed her to have her own jy, and brought her to Boston to study Art. That's how Iris happened to come to the boarding house. Only once did the Model assert herself. Tbat was when the "Koh-i-noor' r'-as the professor called the gentleman with the expansive shirt front and the big damond-sent to the blond beauty a package of scented