The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-06-14

dress, and at one time kept over 40 dogs.
 Those who have read his novel, .The
 Fire will remember that one whole
 chapter is about them. He keeps horses,
 too, but one of his most curious pets is
 a goldfish named Lou-Pe-Li-Tel. D'An-
 nunzio says he appreciates the compan-
 ionship of this pet almost more than any other, for it possesses the two qualities most rare in life-it is clean and silent" Adam Was Author
 Adam, you may be surprised to hear, was the author of a pamphlet What is more, at least one work to which the same description may be applied was pub lished even before the time of the great father of us all-about 2Ooo years before the creation of the world, in fact The above remarkable assertions are not made by the present writer person. ally, but are contained in a truly aston ishing work on the history of pamphlets generally which, a fellow scribe recalls, was published in the days of George l by one Myles Davies, an ingenious scribbler of the time, who has been sup posed, though enormously, it appears, to have been Welsh clergyman. The sub- ject of pamphlets by the way, is to the fore over here at present, leading poli- tician having recently dwelt on their use as political weapons and suggested thai they might, With advantage, be revived. However, to get back to the pamphlet in Adams time, and even in pre-Adamite days Myles Davies great work, in which he deals with these matters, had a hefty
 title, being called: "A Critical History of
 Pamphlets-Tracing out the Rise, Growth
 and Different Views of all sorts of Tracts
 or Writings both collectively or singly,
 in a general and gradual representation
 of the Respective Authors, Collections,
 and their various Editions, etc., and in
 Particular of all those from the Begin
 ming of the Reformation to the latter end of King Henry the Fights Reign; Espe-
 cially Here in Great Britain"
 There were 1T lines more of this title
 which I shall spare you, but no one could
 call it snippety, or stingy, or unduly terse. One may mention, too, that its
 writer followed this up by little pre-
 face filling S8 pages before he began
 the book itself
 In regard to his suggestion that pamphlets are older than the world,
 the author remarks that, in seeking for their origin, i've needn't go any fur ther back. than about 2000 years be- fore the creation of the world, when some Jewish rabbins profanely i'm agine that heaven itself had literally writ and finished the small volume or synagogue roll of their law"
 iidt tdhCS uS bdSk u BOOu way, dnu then the author proceeds to show that in other days considerably more re- lcent, those of Adam, in fact, the pamphlet was not unknown. Indeed
 he says that Adam, with all the rest of the patriarchs, have every one a
 pamphlet fathered upon them by the
 same rabbinical free thinkers" But he does not state what Adam wrote about Whatever his topic was copy of his pamphlet, especially oi
 first edition, would fetch a good price today.
 Meanwhile you may be interested tc hear something further of this Myle. Davies, who appears to have been 2 gentleman of much industry and en- terprise and no end of a cadger, as they say in England when they mear to indicate one who is prepared to live on other people. According to the Rev Edward Smedley, Fellow of Sidne1 college. Cambridge:
 Davies, who scrubbed for bread. ap. pears to have selected for eulogy an, public man whose purse he considered long enough; to have addressed him ir Latin ode; and to have blazoned his bounty or refusal as a warning to the
 next Maecenas upon whom he em, ployed his muse.'
 He tried this game with Sir Isaa, Newton and with Haley, the astron omer, Wnose comet was lurking about a few years ago. but with no luck in either case. Then he signified his feel.
 ings in the usual manner. On anothe,
 occasion he addressed a really uuite
 gushing ode to the Duke of Buckinp.
 ham. There was no result. but Davies
 was not easily shaken off. and he has
 left 1t on record that 'T attended about
 the door three or four times a week
 all that time constantly from 12 to or 5 in the evening""
 But the duke was not smelling out
 so Davies published his name and oth- CTS with this heartfelt comment: Those squeeze-farthing and hoard penny ignoramus doctors, with several great personages who formed excuses for not accepting my books; or they would receive them, but give nothing for them: or else deny they had them or remembered anything of them; and so gave me nothing for my last pres- gratis ct ingratfs."
 Occasionally. however, Davies made a raise. One Dr. Crowe to whom he had addressed Latin ode, sent him half a guinea-$2.50-accom by an icy request that the poet would not write about him again! But Da- vies' gratitude would not be denied. Sent into ecstacies of rapture by the half guinea he immediately wrote an- other Latin ode to pr. Grove, and, Il ,ypou hfn uauoa oN6racoad t,lvv,