Evening star., 1920-12-12
Pen Portrait of
A Playwright

A QUAINT little figure, in a seedy
brown suit. more to be venerated
for its age than it's cut; large head
covered by a hat very much the
worse for wear and want of brushing,
q shambling gait. a tightly held pipe,
putting great clouds of smoke. a pair
Of deep, thouehtful eyes; the break
ing of long. mysterious silences Tor
the telling Of beautiful stories-put
together all these and your MIND
eye will perceive Sir James Matthew
Barrie, the man.
There Is about him a curious union
Of the comic, the grotesque. the pa
thetic. the profoundly human that
gives a singularly versatile charm to
even an hours companionship with
him.
He is one Of the most delightful of
companions, with mind rich in folk
lore, fertile in strange fancies, partly
made up of fiction. partly of fact,
which he can narrate over table or
on a country walk. with the fascina-
ton of easy diction and personal
charm. It is easy to think OF him as
kind of modern Aesop.
Yet Sir James is far from being a
talkative companion. In an associa-
tion with him of whatever length
there is sure to be an entire abb
sence of conventional conversation, a
rent topics, and there may be, to the
great embarrassment of his compan-
ion. profound silence extending over
several hours. Almost all of the lit
tie details possible to get hold of
nowadays about the personality of
exactly the kind of characteristics
that would best describe Sir James
NJ. Barrie.
Everybody who knows him. even
those who can claim him as friend of
many years standing, will tell you
that James Matthew Barrie is just
as unusual. just as many-sided in
character, just as quaint and curious
as his Peter Pan. He is little man,
wise. whimsical and witty: his SYM
ness without end. His conversation
is kind of poetical and pastoral
excursion far-afield from the modern,
noisy world. He is as simple as a
shepherd boy. driving his flock to
field. or sitting under the hawthorn.
piping to his flock. ''as though he
should never grow old"
In company with him one seems to
converse with his forehead. which is
broad and high, light as If built Of
ivory. with large projecting eyebrows.
and sympathetic ii eyes Of f.o wonderful nss
pale, thoughtful complexion of the old
Spanish portrait painters. To look at
him is to think that the genius in
his face surveys him as from a height,
projects him into the unexplored
world of thought and imagination: as
if the little body was willfully veered
by the boundless imaginings of the
giant mind.
Perhaps of all who knew him in
this country, Sir James was best un-
derstood by the late Charles Frohman.
through whom and his organization
all his plays have been produced.
Their conferences over new manu-
scripts or new productions were
friends in counsel" rather than busi
ness talks, for 1T is impossible and
perhaps damaging to final results to
pin Barrie down to business methods.
Thus it was frequent experience of
Mr.. Frohman to SIT down before the
fireplace in the curious workshop"
in Barrie's house. thinking to hear
the full details of plot for a pos
sible play about which Barrie had
given a hint in a. letter And the
evening was sure to be plentiful in
the telling Of many plots, told in that
picturesque. fairy book fashion which
Is all Barrfe's. but it was equally
certain that the evening wore out
without ever a recurrence to the one
plot or material for a play which was
the original occasion of Mr.. Froh-
mans visit.