The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1915-01-31

FERROUS manner, reads and loves my books
without buying them. strangely enough
assumes that l have made a large fortune
by authorship, and am living in luxury.
Now, 1 do not want large fortune, nor
luxury. but l am distressed by the knowl-
edge that this is general belief.
For many reasons, but lowest of all on
the ground of the great number of ap.
peals made to me for money for all
sorts of causes, the which IL I did as
wished and answered them, would cost
me 81 a week in stamps.
still, except for the wrong impressions
stated above. 1 have very little reason to
complain. There are far more gifted and
worthy persons than myself who have not
met with recognition, and have gone into
oblivion unreeognized. And If / had only
been a little more pushing, a little more
callous and oblivious to justice, perhaps
but, no, such success is not worth
having"
So that is the sad state to which a
writer of real brilliance and almost end
less experience of his favorite subject
has come. Though it may seem a trifle
ungracious to say so, one cannot help
thinking that, in his later books. Bullen
developed too markedly religious a strain
diversion, one of them, it may be re-
membered,, being called with Christ at
Sea-"
Read Paradise Early
This decidedly strange tendency in sea-
faring man was bred of his early reading.
A lonely little boy, whose mother died be-
fore he could remember her, he was taken
in charge by hard working aunt. Her
usual bedtime" he has placed on record,
was l a. M, mine was p. M, so as
slept with her and she lay soundly Sleep
ing until 9. the bright summer mornings
were almost unfortunately long to me. But
happily there stood on the narrow man.
telpiece few. books. a Bible, a cookery
book. somebody's advice to young SER
wants, a book of Common Prayer and
Paradise Lost When l became able tc
read I used to climb cautiously over the
head of the bed, get book and steal bach
again. Paradise Lost soon superseded
all the others and incredible as 1t may
sound, before l had completed my fftf
year I had read it through arguments
and all twice.
| When he was IL, and had been bulliet
| almost out of his life by a harsh step
mother young Bullen shipped as cabin
| boy on an 'old tub of a barque' bount
for Mexico, and was promptly wrecked
on one of the Campeche says. Rescued
marker at hotel in Havana, and late
became apprentice to a carver of ships
\ figureheads. He pinned for England how
| ever, and, having returned to this countr.
| in another ship, found himself in Londol
with no visible means of support. "Neve
| shall L forget" he says, "snatching
handful of whelxs out of a big tue in Bill
| lingsgate shellfsh market and scuttlini
away to a dark corner with them only L
| find that they were unboied and conse
quently UNBEATABLE, although hadn't brok
| en- my fast for nearly two days"
So he went on another voyage an,
saw 80 persons die of yellow fever OF
| the short passage. When he was % Bull
len married, his wife being just 49, Thi
was on a Monday, and on the follow
| ing Wednesday he sailed before TIL
mast again. bound for Calcutta. Mean
while he had made his famous cruis
in the Cachelot and incidentally bee
I wrecked a couple of times more. No
much of life has his been, so far a
happiness is concerned, though on
: packed with incident. And now he i
down and out. apparently for good. !
would be fine to hear that some of hi
more fortunate literary brethren, head
} ed perhaps, by Joseph Conrad, ahd pu
their hands in their pockets with
view to experimenting substantial
} that bare 80 shillings, or, roughly, SIS
a week
Lord Roberts Favorite Book
According to Sidney Whitman. til
veteran English publicist, who nun
bered both Bismarck and Lord Robert
among his personal friends, one
"Bob's" favorite books was that re
, nowned work by an American soldie
Gen. Homer LEAFS THE Valor of Ie
norance." Lord Roberts" says Viii
| a n of
publishers and buy number of copi,
, which he presented to his friends TT
, firm, impressed by this manifestatio
, of unselfish interest on the part of S
distinguished man, one day venture
to tell his lordship that they thought
rather hard on him to pay full price fl
books which he gave away, and the
made the suggestion that in future the
would be glad to supply him at a r.
duced rate Lord Roberts character
istically replied: Well, that is yer
good of you; for If l had gone on niue
longer at this rate l should have bee
"broke"''
: Here is decidedly curious episoi
of the recent bombardment of Sea-
/ borough, the English pleasure resor
by German warships that is recorded
; "T. P.s Weekly" In the shop of
bookseller named Dalton, in Newboi
ough, Scarborough, one book fell fro
a shelf as a result of the cannonadin
1t was book on Imperial Germany!