The Washington herald. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1906-1939, 1916-02-21

? another forcibie argument against con
demning a man on circumstantial evi
I dence. And his wife, Mrs. Dandy. wha
duh senses she must have not to heal
the tones of a strange voice or to Sc,
the strange hand ! wonder II the ex
perience with Hall. who has now beer
sentenced to three years penal servitude
will make any of these dull. simple foil
think.
| How. these busy days, one misses ones
! friends! Every one is SO occupied. The
Prince of Darkness-for 1t is he who
originated war-finds no work for idle
hands to do. And as Barry Pain, who
belongs to the Royal Anti-Aircraft Corps,
could not come to see me, went to see
him. He is. as my readers know. prob
ably the most brilliant short-story writer
In England. although he does exceeding
ly brilliant novels as we'll Stories an
Grey" and Stories Without Tears are
both published In America, and one
story in each makes both books worth
buying. The next time / entertain any
soldiers shall try them with George"
the very perfection of an etching in
words, so short that it occupies not
much more printed space than long
paragraph. And yet 1t contains many
pages from life.
And Barry Pain occupies really "a
unique position In the reading world,
for he not only appeals to the multitude,
but men of great literary ability -appre-
ciate and praise. him. He married one
of the beautiful Misses Lehman. sister
or Lisa Lehman, the composer, the
daughter Of "a. L." a popular song
writer of the Victorian era. Mrs. Leh-
man GA. LIZ was brilliant Scotch
woman, the daughter of Robert Cham
bers, the editor of Chambers journal
and Chambers Encyclopedias. Mrs.
Barry Pain, brought UP in an atmos-
phere Of culture, is a writer of no mean
ability herself, and her youngest daugh-
ter, who has genius In music, will one
day be heard in America as a pianist OF
unusual ability.
Barry, for the moment, to be near
the great gun pointing skyward and the
searchlight securing the sky. works In d
studio on Golders Green. 1t is a big,
square room, with a gallery at one enc
and a tiny kitchen. So we had COM
Portable tea. and a delightful talk.
asked many questions about the guns and
the searchlights And he said that II
he answered them he would be taken
out and shot at dawn.
Then, for heavens sake, don't an
swer them" 1 said. And he didn't. In
spite of being on guard every other
night, he works between times, looks
we'll and his uniform with gold buttons
and stripes is more becoming than khaki.
The studio Is only temporarily furnished,
but noticed the head OF the mysterious
woman who drowned herself In the
Seine. Her smile is much more alluring
and inscrutable than that of the Mona
Lisa. 1t must have driven many
man mad when she lived, and after her
death the young sculptor who made her
death mask fell so passionately In love
with her beautiful face that he lost his
reason and drowned himself.
And SO the links in the chain of life
continue to form themselves-comedy,
tragedy. death. birth, mirth. love, sor-
row, regret-but always and ever hope
lifts her torch to iliumine the darkness.
The following little fable illustrates
Barry Pains brillancy:
There was once a great king who de-
vised a test by which he might know
which out of three maidens he should
marry. To each maiden he gave a hand
full of sapphires.
The first said: This is very kind of
you. Many thanks"
The second said. This is too sweet of
you, and II I only had a few diamonds
to put with them they would make a
lovely necklace"
The third sadly and gently put the
precious stones from her. II do not
need such things" she said in a soft
and ecstatic purr. IAN that I ask Of life
is love-"
So the king. who knew enough to come
in when 1t rained married the first Of
the three.
Moral-In a life partner affectation is
almost as undesirable as greediness.