The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-03-01

course, all but one installment, in the | English magazine that has been publish ing 1t and may, for aught, one knows already be out ill volume form on youl side of the water. Here, however, we are not to have it until the end of the month
 Ii opened splendidly. l thought. but my Interest waned when the extravagantly beautiful hero started forming leagues for young Britons and falling in love with a
 princess instead of honest little Jane.
 However, the surprise of the book dis
 tinctly "comes off" and no doubt "The Fortunate Youth" will be popular though it's authors wit flashes out far less often than 1t did in, say, Stella Maris." Ev- erybody will be disappointed too, one thinks, that the lady of the comedian
 heart never reappears after the first chapters. unless, indeed. Locke is saving her for the wlndup, which is not remark able
 Meanwhile, the present writer Is Che hopes only temporarily In MT. Locke s bad books because he stated in print that Oliver Herford was the original of one of Locke's most delightful characters, namely, "Septimus."
 T no more thought of Herford when I wrote .Septimus' than 1 did of Julius Caesar wrote Locke in an indignant let ter, at the end of which, however he admitted that J. M. Flagg who illustrates the DOCK, might have been guilty of making Septimus look an absolute ringer, as the slang phrase goes for the genial author of The Bashful Earth oualke.'
 However, as l had been told in so many words by one of the best known men in the international publishing trade that Hereford never had forgiven Locke for. putting him into his novel" the latter 6 letter left me less contrite than he, no doubt, expected. Meanwhile, here's hop ing that he has found fin Egypt another heroine only half as captivating as Sir Marcusoldeyne's "Carlotta," who hailed rom Alexandretta, now that one remem- bers.
 Ghosts in the Air
 Ghosts. particularly literary ones. ap- pear to be Tin the air Just now-which, ot course, is exactly where one would expect them to be- Only last week Mrs. Katherine Macquoid was telling us how she once woke up and found the shade or George Eliot standing beside her bed ana now no less a person that the Right Honorable Augustine Birrell the distjn- guished essayist, who is chief secretary, for Ireland. reveals how consistently he has been shadowed by the spook of Sir Isaac Newton of all people, Speaking at q Press Fund dinner, at Bristol, a few nights ago. Birrell said:
 T have been haunted ever since was almost d boy by the constant repetition of one and the same dream. I dream am walking about somewhere in some plain or desert and I suddenly encounter the agitated ghost of Sir Isaac Newton He approaches me, his eyes almost start ing out of his head; he tells me who he IS, and how ignorant he Is of all that has happened in the world of science since he left. Now he says, I want you to tell me in a few words, for I have only quarter of an hour left. all that has happened to the race; the progress. How is it? I know what if was when l left it. What is it now?' MY heart sinks, and, covered with con 1us1on, stumble. I stutter, I stammer. become more and more involved, my ig- norance becomes more and more appar- ent. and at last the unhappy ghost throwing up his hands, leaves me with dismay. That dream constantly comes to me. The only difference Is that the moment the unhappy Sir Isaac Newton sees me now, he says, On, that old ig- noramus, and departs"
 "ySo cpdihiIHY Nlt
 Writing of Birrell reminds me that I was so placed at the hundred years of peace meeting at the mansion house the other day that | could have tossed the proVerbial biscuit into the lap of one or ms present colleagues in the cabinet In the person of the prime minister. or Into that of a former one in the per son of the former Right Honorable James how Viscount-Bryce. Their personali- lfv1@fia ia1tfg1z
 the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Lord Mayor who presided: Lord Cowdray and many other notabilities, l had the best or opportunities for studying and uncoa- monly interesting this occupation proved
 The Premier, H. II. Asquith whom I never had happened to see before. sur prised me by his geniality. One had imagined him as man of ice, but as he stood speaking, ruddy of cheek for all of his gray hair, and apparently care Tree, in spite of the shadow of Ulster and the constant attentions of the suffra- settes, he looked precisely like a pro.- porous city merchant in process of an- nouncing fat dividend to his fellow shareholders Nothing could have been more cordial than the tone of all his references to the United States and tha peace centenary movement which he dc clared was more significant and more likely to be fruitful because it was not an official one, but the spontaneous ex- pression on the part of the two great peoples of d feeling which is equally firmly and equally deeply rooted on both sides of the Atlantic
 The Archbishop Of Canterbury was another surprise. One has heard his grace described. more than once as a mere courtier, but his speech was an eloquent and, to one person at least a moving one, full of literary allus- ions With great feeling te archbishop quoted from the poem by Frederick Myers. The Prince of Wales by the Grave of Washington" and pleaded strongly for a new historical text book to deal with the early relations of the ] hirteen Colonies and the Mother Country.
 Lord BrYces speech was, of course. a delight and was listened to by the prime minister with beaming approval Especially was the great and distin- guished audience interested by the ex- ambassadors description of the frontier between the United States and Canada
 Tt was a frontier.' he said "of more than 3O10 miles. running over a large extent of it through densely populated Along it there were many oues- tions which could and did arise that fur nished ground for controversy.
 With rivers meandering from one to the other, with the great lakes there were endless questions-of fishing, navigation, irrigation use of water power-in regard to which war might arise if there were not good feel hot, gtI L,,,&