The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-05-23

deed, are many of the tales he has to I tell in consequence. Particularly of the | strange form of insanity which frequently l follows shell-concussion, plotting out from a mans memory sometimes even his own i identity. and robbing him of the power to coordinate" i. e.. perform such ordi- narily automatic acts as raising the hand l to the head, and so forth. But Norton says that most such victims of she'll ] concussion recover after little time. When they are not otherwise injured. i the plan adopted is to take them so far l back from the firing line that they can not even hear the guns, keep them abso- ] lutely quiet and even dress them in civil ian clothes. For a while they are almost 1 like children, and then, suddenly, per haps after a sleep of S6 hours or so, they | will return to complete nationality, and ask wonderingly how they came there and what happened after the shell burst ] just over them?
 i Norton, as he tells in his pamphlet, got quiet hunch to get out of Germany, 1 before the war started, and went to Bale. 1 in Switzerland, eventually travelling to England through France, then in the first l rounds of the titanic struggle. He got more than his fill of the horror of war fare, seeing wounded men by the hun- dred, and talking with many of them, and was thankful, indeed when he got to Dieppe, the French 'watering place" of peace times which most of us asso- l ciate with bathing. dancing and 'petits cheveaux," and which the war seemed 10 have left untouched. And then, as the noveiists say, strange and eerie thing happened.
 T was undressing to turn h." said Norton, when suddenly a dog began bowling in that lugubrious tone that su- perstitious folk believe herads a death. Then another joined in, and another and another, until 1t seemed as if all the dogs In Dieppe must be bowling in unison. It was q weird and curiously unsettling chorus. and kept me awake for a long time. and I rose in the morning feeling rather depressed.
 When went downstairs" Norton went on.' the concierge greeted me, and asked me if I had managed to rest. We had rather rough night here,' he said, they brought over TOO wounded men into the town and distributed them among various improvised hospitals
 T heard a most terrible bowling of dogs I said.
 Yes replied the concierge, never heard dogs howl so. I suppose they must have smelt the blood. Monsieur knows. of course, that a dog always will howl when there is to be a death.'
 Now, I've always heard that saying said the novelist, "and I've heard tell of lots of supposed genuine cases. but this is the only one I've ever had come under my observation, and I tell you, it inn- pressed me lot. It left me half-con- vinced, in fact, that the canine species must have some sense that we human beings lack and that foretells death or disa ster."
 Norton says that he has had enough of Torquay and rather thinks of trying Ireland next. The novel upon which he is now working is about half done, and he has not decided definitely what it's title will be.
 Vachell Going Strong
 Horace Annesley Vachel is certainly It in the theatrical world here, at present. With one play. "Searchlghts." running at the Savoy, and another, "Quinney's' on the eve of production at the Haymar- ket, he has just disposed definitely of a third and is negotiating for the sale of a fourth. The purchaser of the third piece which is called "The Case of Lady Cam ber," is H. B. Irving, eldest son of the late Sir Henry who, though Search lights" Is still going strong, wants to be ready with a promising successor when ever one is needed and who believes he has secured another winner in Vachell's latest. This piece, in which I under stand Sir George Alexander was more than a little interested, Is not war play, nor is it derived from any of Va chells books, though there is a possi- bility that he may make a novel of it later, as he did with "Jel's," "Quinney s." Blinds Down and Her Son''-or was "Her Son. a novel first? 1 really for get. As for Vachells other play, it is | called Her Ladyship." Nothing is set tied yet but I shall not be surprised to hear, any day. that it has been snap- ped up.
 Vachell's son, Reginald, who is with the British army in Flanders, got special leave to pop over to see an evening performance of "Searchlights," not long since. He was Fin front of the Germans in the morning, and Fin front at the Savoy the same evening" With him was another interesting young man who Is one of his great pals, young Laurence Irving. son of H. B., who was named after his bril-
 liant and ill-fated uncle. He Is now learn ing to fly at Tendon, preparatory, I un- derstand, to Joining one of the aerial arms of the service.
 PinerO in Movies
 Sir Arthur w. Pinero, who has been suffering from a mild attack of the "flu." left town, the other day, for Ramsgato. where he hopes to escape from the clutches of the universal scourge. Before leaving Sir Arthur at last succumbed to tempting offers which, as previously men, tloneu nere, nave been neld peIore nm for sometime, and consented to the film ing' of several of his most famous plays. These pieces which include, "The Second Mrs Tanqueray,' ''The Gay Lord Quex" and Iris" are to be enacted for the films by an all-British company, under the supervision of the author. who, you may guess, is not parting with the rights without humping remuneration. And thus the last of our playwrights of tho first rank yields to the tempting of the ''movies!"
 Other plays the film rights in which have Just been sold include, I hear Wildes Lady Windermere's Fan" and ''The Importance of Being Earnest" and Arnold Bennett's 'The Great Adventure.