The Birmingham age-herald., 1913-07-20

Ihls story, which was called, The Man
| Nho Had Conscience ran to Is col
umns, and was, according to Petit Ridge
| the kind of thing which / might write
II took up the pen in a moment of
acute madness lie at once commune
Gated with his literary agent, who
pounced on the editor of The English
Illustrated Magazine" and the latter
made an investigation. This resulted
| IN the discovery that the real author of
the story was grocer's assistant at
Bournemouth, whose real name was
Gubbins, but who explained. on being
! taxed with literary forgery, that he had
taken the nom de plume" of W. Pett
! Ridge.
Truly the editor of 1.-THE English IL
lustrated Magazine seems to have been
\ easily hoodwinked, for 1t appears that he
corresponded with the author of THE
Man Who Had a Conscience" without
| discovering his real identity. Pett
Ridges usual rate for a story of this
| length would, it was stated in court,
have ben 20 guineas, or $100 but the
editor felt himself able to offer only $40
for the supposed PETIT Ridge story, which
sum its sender accepted. Gubbins
never got his money, however being
unmasked before the magazines time
for paying up, and eventually he wrote
| to Pett Ridge expressing sorrow for his
misdeed and declaring that he would
| adopt another "pseudonym
Sued the Magazine
The author, meanwhile, considered
that his literary reputation had been
damaged by the appearance of so feeble
an effort as 1.-THE Man Who Had Con-
science and accordingly sued the mag
azine, the case being tried before that
ornament of the bench, Mr. Justice Dar-
ling, and special grand jury
Asked by the judge to what extent he
I.I -.
this was problema teal, declaring that he
could estimate the exact harm done only
| If he went to all the publishers in Great
| Britain America and the colonies and
asked them IL they were refraining from
accepting his work because of this story.
| In his allegation of damage he was
backed up by both Jerome X Jerome
and Barry Pain, who, it may be men,
toned are among his most intimate
| friends of the former of these authors re-
| marking that all magazine editors
watched the work of all authors to see
whether it went up or down.
"A man might have an Illness" said
Jerome, land his work fall away, and
| If / had been an editor and read The
| Man Who Had Conscience" ] should
| have said, Pett Ridge evidently has had
| a long illness. He Is not going to be
worth in the future what have been
paying him. Jerome added that the
publication of such stuff under his
| friends name was like man going
| about drawing pavement pictures and
calling himself il. S. Sargeant Barry
| Pain gave similar evidence, declaring
| that anyone reading the story would
| say, "Pett Ridge has gone all to pieces
shall not buy any more of his stories.'
Most of the real humor which this case
brought forth was supplied by Pett
| Ridge under cross-examination Asked
| by the opposing counsel if he was born
| with the name of Pett Ridge, he re-
| Piled sweetly. mo, I was not born with
| it, I was christened with it," The
author affirmed that in bringing his suit
| for damages he had hoped to get five
pounds for a charity and on being asked
| by the opposing counsel if this was the
| charity that begins at home he replied
| that it began at a babies home In Hert-
| fortshire," this being one of the philan-
thropic enterprises in which Pett Ridge
had for years taken a leading part.
The alleged humor in the case was
| furnished, as usual by the Judge, JUS
tice Darling being one of the NOSE incor-
rigible would-be funny men on the bench
and a glittering example of the judicial
| humorist'' whom w. S. Gilbert, himself
a Justice of the peace, declared never
would be missed. Determined to be
funny, regardless of the fact that the
comment had no point, Darling inquired
of Henry Fielding Dickens if there was
not somebody called Bog who wrote a
book and his name was not Boz" and
a bit later butted in with another side
splitting query
Pett Ridge had remarked that rather
than write IS columns for two guineas,
he would go back to the city," the ref
erence being to his original employment.
/ Does that mean that you would
rather gamble and lose in the city?''
asked the judge.
mo, | held a respectable position in
the city," replied the author
Excuse me- retorted the judge 'I
thought people only went to the city for
one purpose
AS usual, laughter follows, In brackets,
| after the report of this brilliant judicial
wheze. TIL jury awarded PETIT Ridge
8150 damages, which, to an outsider
seems a bit more than the case required
Some of us who admire Pett idge most
consider that if he were so terrible jel-
Gus of his literary reputation. he would
| write a bit less or consign to oblivion
some recent stories of his, both long and
short. which are infinitely more worthy
of Gubbns than of himself.
Every once in while we get a hint
of the literary tastes of the new baronet,
Sir James Matthew Barrie, and invariab-
ly the hint is uncommonly interesting.
A year or ago Barrie testified to his
Iadmiration of Henry Sydmor Harrison s
| "Queed." q suppose by this time he has
read ~ VS. Eyes'D and now 1t seems
that he is among tn kenest lovers of
| the tales of r. M Ballentyne. Most
| American boys have read 1.-The Boy CRU
| soe,' "The Fur Traders and the rest
of Ballsntynes adventure stories and
will rejoice to know that their liking of
them Is shared by the author of Peter
| Pan. Any literary work by Barry is
an event, nowadays, SO 1t is especially
Init m fhof ha hoe mr-ft
| a lengthy introduction to a sumptuous
new edition of ''The Coral Island" which
a London publishing firm is bringing
out in tn eearly autumn.
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