THE CREATOR OF THRUMS."

Otago Witness, Issue 2436, 21 November 1900, Page 63

THE CREATOR OF THRUMS."

Mr J. M. Barrie, the author of '• Window in Thrums'' and "The Little Minister," and so many delightful stories of Scotland, has gathered together so large a host of friends that the. appreciation of the auchor and his books which Mr J. A. Hammerton has written, and which is published by Messrs Horace Marshall and Son, is sure to excite the curiosity of the many. The severest critics of the works of the popular Scots novelist, we are told, exist in Scotland. . Even in his own village of " Thrums " he is not a hero to all his townfolk. An old woman there was asked what she thought of his books. '■ Perfect buff," she replied ; '" the work of an impident young smatchel." Erom which it will be understood persons actually do have their being in this world who use the uncanny language in which l\lr Barrie loves to clothe his ideas. THE AUTHOR. AIvD HIS MOTHER. Mr Barrie is pesonal in ail his works. His own heart, his own experiences, the lives of his own folk — these have been the subjects out of which his genius has made literature. Certainly in recent times there has been no writer who has discoursed in more charming phrases concerning the love which an honest man bears to a good mother. "I weaved sufficiently well to please her," he says, " which has been my only steadfast ambition since I was a little boy." ?»r Hammerton writes thus about Mrs Ban ie :, "Margaret Ogilvie — the custom of calling married women by their maiden names obtains to this day in some parts of rural Scotland — was a tj^pical Scotswoman. I have heard it said" by people who knew her as a neighbour that she was ' naething hy ord'nar grand to hae a book written about her.' She was poor in worldly gear until that fine day when her son's success brought to the modest home wealth undreamed of." "those barefaced scounduels." Mr Barrie wrote a delightfully humourous interview with his mother regarding his probable election to a London club, for which the admission fee was £30. He had been nominated by his literary sponsor, Mr Frederick Greenwood. " If I get in it will be because the editor is supporting me." "It's the first ill thing I ever heard of him." " You don't think he is to get any of the £30, do you? " '-' 'Deed, if I did I should be better pleased, for he has been a good friend to us. But what maddens me is that every penny of it should go to those barefaced scoundrels. " " What barefaced scoundrels ? " - " Them that have the club." " But all the members have the club between them." " Havers ! I'm no' to be catched with chaff." "But don't you believe me?" "I believe they've filled your head witb

| thair stories till you swallow whatever they tell you. If the place belongs to the memj ber e # , "wlrr tlo they have to pay £30?" , "To keep it going." j " They dinna have to pay for their dini ners, then? " " Oh, yes, they have to pay extra for dinner." "And a gey black price, I'm thinking." "Well, five or &ix shillings." "Is that all? Losh, it's nothing. I wonder they dinna raise the price." i This last is a delightfully typical bit of Scottish sarcasm. ! "when a man's single." I Mr Barrie began his career as a leaderwiiter on a Nottingham journal. After the manner of leader-writers, his pen had to cover a vast field of topics. On one occasion literary criticism was the subject. He concluded thus :— " In short, with 99 out of every 100 Hundred authors simple justice ; means indiscriminate praise." Mr Barrie j has lived to prove that in the hundredth j ca-.e the two may be almost synonymous, j in his novel, "When a Man's Single," Mr: Barrio has given to the world a permanent ! record of his life in Nottingham. i Then Mr Barrie journeyed to London and joined the staff of the St. James's Ga- i zette^ so ably edited by Mr Frederick ' Greenwood. A happy skit, entitled " The i | Strange Case of Sir George Trevelyan and Mr Otto," appeared in that newspaper from his pen on the occasion of Sir George Otto Trevelyan's successful contest of the Bridgeton division of Glasgow after he had gone back to Mr Gladstone. "Better Dead" was his first novel, which was published in 1887. | ! In his early days as a humourist, a certain ' countess sent Jor Mr Barrie in the expectation that he would enliven her party with his wit. But, hating to be either lionised or used as an instrument of drawing room ' amusement, he went with a plan of action already determined upon. : He drove to the castle on the box-seat ' and put the footman inside the carriage. ] Silently he dined with the great one.s pre- : .sent, and in the drawing room he slunk ' into a 'corner, where he twirled his thumbs in silence. i "It takes some courage and strength of will,' remarks Mr Hammerton, "to enter such a mute protest against the vanities of ; I aristocratic dinner parties." It does in- | deed. ■ i j But we cannot refrain from Believing that ( this story is, not founded on fact. It does • evident injustice to the manners and the wit of Mr Barrie