LITERARY GOSSIP

Press, Volume LX, Issue 18266, 27 December 1924, Page 9

LITERARY GOSSIP

♦ —— Smooili ravines collected by the N.Y. ".Evening Post." "What yon ran write about, freely <\mnot. always be endured by the living eye."-■ John Galsworthy. "The conflicting claims ci Life and Thought, wore never so strong as they are to-day."- W. B. Maxwell. "In these late days it is impossible lor ;my artist in any medium to areata h work that does not eamehow reeaM a )>re»lecessov."- -T2. V. Lucm. "You Trill not get two people tft ■'"'w as to what correct language is." --G. Bernard Shaw. "f j don't believe in mechAnice! hon-» wty."~P H. Lawrenw. How George Bernard Shew led police into a dnncang contest in a Loodon square is told by Mr Lincoln Springfield in a book of reminiscence* called "Piquant. People." It eecme that Shaw, after seeing a ballet one night, could not. resist trying to go round the square just, once after the manner of the dancer. "Tt proved frightfully difficult."' says Mr «9pringfield. "After his fourteenth fall he was picked up by a policeman, who, keeping fast, hold of his man, asked: "What are yon doing? I bin wntdiing you lor the last fire minutes.' Shaw explained eloquently and enthusiastically. 'flie policeman hesitated and then said: 'Would you mind holding my helmet while I luwe a try? It. don t. look so hard.' The next moment his nose was grazing the macadam. So they lnuig up their coal* and went att it again, until an inspector arrived and asked the policeman if that was his ide/i of fixed point duty. 'I allow it ain fc fixed point,' tisiid the policeman, emboldened by his new accomplishment, but I'll lay half a sovereign von can't do it.' The inspector could not resist) tho temptation to try t.Shaw was whirling round before his eyes in the most fascinating manner), and he made rapid progress. Thev were subsequently joined by an enrly postman and a milkman, who unfortunately broke his leg and had to be carried to the hov pital by the other three—according to Shaw." M. Herriot. the French Premier, wh# spends much of his leisure time in book collecting, had an interesting experience during :i reeent visit to London, where he sought relief from political matters in a tour of the second-hand shops. He found tho original indictment against Charlotte Corday, which cleared up a long-disputed point. According to Charlotte's biographer, Norman Judith, she passed tho night iu Marat's house after the murder, owing to fears being entertained of the fury of the populace, but the document makes it clear that she was transferred to the prison of L'Abbayo on the day of tho crime. M. Herriot has presented the document, which formed part of the Morrison collection, to tho Ministry of Arts. Rudyard Kipling and Stanley Baldwin, the reviews again remind us, are first cousins and great friends. They claimed the same grandfather—the Rev. GeorgeJßrowne MacdonahJ, who was a Wcsleyan minister. Mr Macdon aid had four daughters, all of whom made brilliant marriages. Two married into the Kipling and Baldwin families. The other two changed toeir names to Burne-Jones and Poynter. And any one who knows anything about pictures knows those names. "It may be," one journal remarks, ' "tha.fr Kipling inherited hie literary faculty from Grandfather Macdonakf, who was a well-known writer in his day. He was evidently a temperance advocate, for we find that in 1841 be published a sermon on 'Christian I tion aja to Abstaining from Aloohoiio I Drink.' and later on another which he called 'An Apology for the Disuse of Alcoholic Drinks.'" | The first volumes of an illustrated 'edition of the oomplete works of Anatole France, will appear next JWv Diary. Tho edition will oompoas twenty-five volumes in all, and will contain many hitherto unpublished yaw, notably a volume devoted' to Rabeuin brought up to date by the celebrated author a few months before his death.