The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-10-25
'WANDER[UST GOT
 STEPHEN GRAHAM
Something of London Times
 Correspondent in Russia
WRITERS ARE SERVING
Erskine Childers, Who Wrote "The Riddle of the Sands," on Watch for German Seaplanes-Son
 of Tracy at the Front
By HAYDEN CHURCH

London, October 3.-(Special. )-F'ew | names have become better known ip the United States during the past year or so or few literary personalities moro familiar than that of stephen Graham, whose vivid articles on the Russian
 mobilization have been attracting go
 much attention on both sides of the
 Atlantic, and who is now getting his first experience of war, having recent ly. gene to the front on behalf of the London Times.
 Graham is now one supposes among those who know Russia and it's millions best, having travelled on foot thousands of miles in the Czar's domain and writ ten really masterly books on what he
 has seen there. as well as later in the United States. So far as one knows, however, the story of how he began his travels never has been told in print. It was clear case of the wan derlust. eff the censor will let this German word go through) although Graham has told the present writer | that he long had been attracted to Russia also by the spirit in her litera- : ture. As
 Aged now only 30, Graham is the son i of r. Anderson Graham, the editor of Country Life" and was until few years back clerk in Somerset house,
 one of the great governmental hives. where the wills of Shakespeare and other celebrities may be seen, aud where. incidentally, taxes are levied. All of sudden one day he got fed up,' as they say here, with going over claims for the repayment of incorc i tax, so he laid down his pen, reached for his hat and strolling down to Char ing Cross took ticket to Russia. The F. +. h was when one of them received a letter from him posted at village in the Caucasus I Since then, besides journeying on "shanks' mare" all over Russia, he has tramped to Jerusalem with the pilgrims and crossed the Atlantic. in the steer age with Russian emigrants, afterward tramping from New York to Chlcag and to the farms of the west. His wife l is a pretty Russian girl, whose name was Rosa Savary, and their London hcme is in Soho, the most cosmopolitan
 quarter of the metropolis. and once the habitat of Thomas de Quincey. When
 the war broke out Graham had started to walk from Russia to China. but he turned back from village a thousa nd
 miles east of Omsk with the mobilizing i Cossacks. | Erskine Childers, who in "The Rid dle of the Sans" wrote what is gener- ally considered to be the best of the
 many novels which anticipated the present struggle. is one of the host of l literary men and women who are DOW serving their country in one way or.an other. Childers, an amateur yachts man, whose Knowledge of the channels
 of the German coast was clearly shown | in his famous romance, is now acting as navigating lieutenant of the "Enga- dine" cross-channel boat which IS | oF4
 Childers is A and so far has been
 lucky enough to combine the adven turcus life with the intellectual in an
 unusual degree. During the South Af
 rican war he was in the City of Lon don volunteers. and wrote a volume O.
 the Times history of that war. and
 he also has written books about the work of cavalry
 1 Louis Tracy, who wrote "The Final
 War" is another of the novelists of re nown. who. too mature for active ser vice themselves. have sent their sons | to the front Tracy's heir, whose name | Is Louis T., is lieutenant in the fifth
 Yorkshire regiment and recently was given a commission in Sir Mark Sykes battalion which started for France las.
 week.
 l Miss May Sinclair has been so ah- l sorbsd in work for the war that she ' has had time to write nothing except
 two short stories since it started She
 saled for Ostend on September 25 with Dr. Hector Munros motor ambulance corps and will be stationed in Ghent 1 as secretary of the corps to stay till
 the end of the war If her health per mits.
 l Enrlish social reformers and writers 1 are anxious that the democracy of the United States should realize what their feelings are with regard to the effect l of the war on the condition of the people. not only those of the British ] Isles but of Europe. One of the bes!