LITERARY LETTER FROM LONDON.

Press, Volume XLVIII, Issue 14406, 13 July 1912, Page 14

LITERARY LETTER FROM LONDON.

MR BARRIES WAIFS. («rKCIALLT WRITTEN yon 'irrtE rr.ESS."). LONDON, May 22. Mr J. M. Barrio, who celebrated his 52nd birthday la*t week, is one of those rare people who really do "do Kood by stealth and blush to find it fame," and he will not thank tho irritrr for publishing the following details, which were told mc by a mutual friend tho other day regarding a little charitable enterprise of his—one of many, no doubt, if tho truth wero known —which never, before has been, written about. No apology for doing ?/> need bo made, however, for it is a thing that tho thousands of Barrielovors.all the world over will liko t>o hrar of. All the details cannot bo given—Mr Barries friend did not know them —but the essential thiug is this, that, unknown to all but one or two people. Mr Barrio is bearing all tho expense of bringing up half-a-dozen boys —youngsters minus both father and mother, who would have stood a poor chance of ever being anybody in particular if their eases had not happened u> come under Mr Barries notice. Perhaps, howevor, it would bo mor© accurate to say that Peter Pan, tho boy who wouldn't grow up. himself, is bringing these boys up. For every time the fairy-play about him ia performed —it ran into February after being revived for tho eighth time at tho I>uko of York's Theatre last Christmas, and Pauline Chase is now playing it in the provinces—its author's young proproteges benefit, Mr Barrio having sorno time ago arranged that a. regular percentage of the royalties from .''Peter. Pan" should be devoted to their support. Tho six boys live together in a home that Mr Barrio has arranged for them, and onco every month they have, dinner with their famous benefactor and report progress. Mr Barrio himself < has given up tho house at Leinster Corner, in Hyde Park road, 'which ho occupied for so long. It > overlooked Kensington Gardens, 'whero Peter Pan was born and whore Frampton's fitatue of the "Boy Who Wouldn't Grow Up" now stands. Mr 'Barrio, as you may know, is the private person who has a, key to tho gardolfs. Perhaps, like. Jludyard Kipling at Rottingdean, ho found tho attentions of sightseers embarrassing; at all ♦■vents ho has left Lcinstor Corner, and now-lives at Burnhani Beeches, close to Stoke , Pogea, whero Gray wroto his ••Elegy." Meanwhile, hero are two iew and rather amusing stories about Mr Barrio which were told, mo yesterday 'by Mr Chester Fox, who, as on© of Charles Frohmim's chief representatives over here, sees tho author of "What Every Woman Knows" frequently. Mr Fox, when asked for farther details about Mr Baxrie's "Peter P&n" proteges proved m communicative as the proverbial oyster, remarking that Mr Barries dislike of publicity being given to his private acts was so great that his name is never "even allowed to appear in subscription lists, though few really deserving causes appeal to Mm in vain. Mr Fox says that at tit© tim 0 . whan "Litt!© Mary" was in rehearsal at Wyndhani's Theatre, he- (Fox) was approached by a London newspaper man who declared that he waa determined to interview Mr Barrio. "I know that he ie rehearsing at Wyndham's," he said; "and I want yen to introduce mo. I'll attend to tho interviewing." Of course Mr Fox couldn't do as he was asked, bat lio told the scribe there was nothing to prevent his going to Wyndham'e, if he wanted to, and tho reporter set off forthwith. It was true that Mr Barrie was at Wyndham's, and as Mr Fox wasn't very busy that afternoon, h e strolled around,, too, as .he says, to se© the fun, Meanwhile, I it seems, the newspaper man had ar-.l riyed and been tdld : at th© stag© door that Mr Barrio ivas not in the theatre. 'As Mr Foi drew near.to tho playhouse, whom .ehouud *ho' meet bat Mi Barrio, short of stature,'careless of aitke, ana pipe in mouth, as usual, slouching unconoernedly along in the opposite direction. Mr Barrie nodded to Mr Fox, and tho latter -went on to th© theatre, in a door-way next to which he found his newspaper man, who had not credited thn stage-door man's denial and was engaged in mounting guard. "Well," said Mr Fox, "did you got anything out of Barrie?" "Hβ hasn't convo out yefc," said the scribe, ['but I know lie's in there, and I'm waiting for him." "Aro yon sure ho hasn't left?" said Mr Fox. "Dead euro,',' eaid the newspaper man. "there's only one person-left the building.since I've been he.ro —and he .'..was a soene-shifter." ■ .■, When '.'Peter Pan" was produced in Paris. Mr Barrrc, of course, went across tho Channel to supervise things, and ; half the English colony in the Gay City was keen to meet him. . "I'll rely on' you,", said Mr Barrio to Mr Fox, "to keep mc from being worried," so Fox fought off the admiring throng. : On the morning after they, had arrived in • Paris, ho and Sir Barrie went out for a walk in the Bois ' do Boulogne, and as they strolled along .Mr Fox suddenly was greeted by an -English-looking man, whom ho remem- ■ bftred only vaguely. A few moments talk, however, revealed tho fact that he was an inoffensive business acquainfc- . anco. and after a few words with him, ' the former turned to rejoin Mr Barrie. But Mr Baxrie hod taken no chances. He bad vanished. . ; ~.'., ■ . MR ANDREW LANG INDIGNANT. Andrew; Lang is righteously indig- . nant. He declares that his handwriting is not, as was stated at the ProofHeaders' dinner, ilost week, tho most execrable of his generation. Hβ says that at least two living men write*a worse hand than hc-*-"Professor A., whose typewriting is on a lower level than even Ins 'handwriting, and Professor 8., -whoso' hand looks plain and clear till you try to decipher it. , ! Mr Lanjt thinks, in fact, that liis ohirography must be -'reasonably plain, fit rill events. "I have just finished a book of GOO pages, -worse luck," ho says, - "on a" * heme which .1 do not choose to divulge. Three-fourths of the MSS. went to ■ press in welM-yped form, a» plain as priut. The rest was in my own scrawl. The scrawl was printed from rather more correctly than tho typed matter. So the scrawl - cannot bo so terrible as public denunciation m ight lead you to suppose." i

THE LATEST BAOOX "PROOFS." Are you 1 sick and tired of having it '•proved" that Bacon was Shakespeare? If not, or any way, pray listen to these new "proofs," which aro.put forth in deadly seriousness by Sir tdwin Durn-ing-Lawreuoe, Bart., fcho same who re-; cently called Shakespeare a "drunken, illiterate clown." Tho other day. a joker showed how easy it was to prove that Shalcespca.ro wrote tho Psalms. The number .46 was the "key" in this case,' being arrived »t by noting that thero are four vowels and six consonants in the -bard's name. Sir. Edwin . Darning-Lawrence,' who is not joking, ~ takes the number 53, which, he says, "for reasons, that it is not necessary to disease, Bacon selected as one- of the l*4?ys' to tho mystery of .his authorship of various works." -It is not, of course, necessary to discuss the reasons " for this, choice. may have b«?n tho number of Bacon's Louse, or hie waist-moasurement, or anything

j-bii like." .T\ei>p" it in mind! anyway, and then turn to the first pajjo 53-— there am three —in the First Folio edition of Shakesjjcarc.' and on it you will find the word "hog." On the nccond page ~M there is the phrase "gammon of bacon." On the third page o3 there , is nothing of tin* kind at all, and the man would bo disappointed. But Sir Edwin doesn't turn a hair. He quietly says that we must look up the ''invisible" page o.i, which, it .wins, is p.Jge o'd when you count back from tho end: and on this pago Is a prize indeed. For. according'to Sir Edwin, these three: words occur: "Ponipey," "in" and "got," and they ar« so arranged that the first is directly over the second, and the second over the third.

Now, says Sir Edwin exultantly, do the first letters of those three words spell "piji" or do thej' not? They do, undoubtedly. And the baronet, flushed and encouraged by tin's success., discovers, on another peige, that tho initial letters of three lines, when read upward this time, spe.ll "sow." It is all very well to talk about coincidences, but these three plain hints at Bacon — hog, pig, and sow—not "to mention tho "gammon," will need a lot of explaining away. At least, Sir 3'xlwin. thinks so.