The Birmingham age-herald., 1913-11-30

guests, by the way, included two vel
known actresses, one as Quakeress ano
the other as Dolly Warden, and the othel
characters ranged from Alice in Won
derland types to Dickensian characters
Charles Dawson. the poster artist, who
| described the reveis to me, did some
| lightning sketches after dinner. and then
| gave way to the host himself, who
/ promptly sketches "Chesterton as he
! imagines himself to be, Chesterton as he
likes to think he is and Chesterton as
! he knows he is
Altogether it seems to have been a
riotous and characteristically Chesterton-
ian evening.
Famous Author at Play
OF the 'boyishness" of J NJ. Barrie,
who has just suffered his first real re-
verse in the playhouse we have just
had new and delightful proof. Any
body who has seen or read Peter Pan
would not need to be told that its au-
thor must be a lover of dear old r. NJ.
Ballantyne whose adventure stories, in
cluding THE Dog Crusoe" and Coral
Island most of us have read. And so
1t proves. Sir James, as l suppose we
must call him, has written a preface for
a beautiful edition of the last named story
which a London house has just brought
out, and delightful reading it makes. So
delightful that | will not attempt to give
you a digest of it, but will quote the
best bits in toto.
At the beginning, Barrie says: ITO be
born is to be wrecked on an island; and
this, no doubt, is why the male child S
first instinct is to acquire a knife and
secrete pieces of string. Put a bright
little hatchet among his playthings and
he will at once drop all else to test its
sharpness He knows how useful it will
be in building of a hut. His delight in
watches is known to all uncles, but they
quite mistunderstand it. What he is after
is not to hear the tick, nor to observe
the wheels go round but to make a
lense of the glass whereby he may light
a fire.
Never yet was any one wrecked on an
island who looked up at the palms and
down at the surf without wishing he had
been wrecked with more experience.
1.-THE Swiss Family Robinson" Barrie
goes on "one remembers as almost too
satisfactory. Their house in tree was
certainly delicious and not to be forgot
ten, but on the whole, they found too
much growing to their hand; If they tired
of the dryness of bread-fruit, Ernest had
but to look upward and exclaim almost
without surprise), IF my eyes do not
deceive me- dear father, we are sitting
in the agreeable shade of the butter
tree
Ballantyne His Favorite
''Ballantyne was for long my man.,
Barrie adds land / used to study a
column in The Spectator about forth
coming books waiting for his next as for
the pit door to open. He wrote many Il
think I looked upon him as the author
of the Hundred Best Books, and won-
dered why that list ever needed to be a
subject of controversy, but they all
Jagged behind The Coral Island 1t
egged me on, not merely to being wrecked
every Saturday for many months in a
long suffering garden, but to my first
work of fiction, a record of our adven-
lures, the LogBool.'
1--WE had a sufficiently mysterious cave,
that had not been a cave until we named
it, and here we grimly ate cocoanuts,
stoned from trees which not even Jack
nor Ralph nor Peterkin would have recog-
nized as likely to bear them. And more
or less bravely we suffered for the same,
the cocoanuts not being of the season
that yielded Peterlxin his lemonade. Here,
too, we had a fire, lit as Jack contrived
to light his by rubbing two sticks to-
gether. So we said (even in the Log
Book; but, of course, this fire came by
more plebeian means and never in our
hearts did we believe in the efficacy OF
the sticks. No boy, so far as l knew,
did believe in them. Tt seemed too beau
tiful a dream.
''But the scene changes, and the time.
1t is a few years ago, and I am in a
solemn London club. which do not much
frequent, because I have never been able
to get the hang of clubs. I know you
select a chair and cross your legs, but
what do you do next? I was there tC
| meet a learned American who had vowed
that he would show me how to make G
! fire as Jack made it in The Coral Island.
| We adjourned to the library (where WI
knew we were not likely to be disturbed)
and there from concealed places abou
| his person, he produced Jacks imple
| ments, rough bow, and a rougher arrow
| pointed at both ends. Then he ordered
pat of butter the waiter must be won
| dering stilD, and, like Jack, he twisted
the arrow round the string of the bow
and began to saw, placing one end oi
the arrow against his chest, which was
protected from its point by chip OF
wood; the other point he placed against a
bit of tinder' Jack had no butter, but
we had no bit of tinder. The result
however, was the same. Tn half a minute
my friend had madea fire, at which
we lit our cigars and smoked to the
memory of Ballantyne and The Coral
Island
Wonder who that LEARNED American
could have been? I should like to ask Sir
James, but know too well that he wouldn't
tell.
Hall Caine Humble
Hall Caine. you may be interested to
learn, is really very humble" like Uriah
Heap. AT least, if he isn't he ought to
be, for quite a famous character-reader
says that humility is strongly indicated
in the Manxmans hand. or rather in
his first finger This digit is "short,
straight and shapely," which signifies. it
appears, that its possessor is humble,
and of an extremely sensitive and retir-
ing disposition. OF course we all know
how persistently he shuns publicity!
Some time ago, by the bye, it was an
nOllnced in This corresDondence that caine