LAN MACLAREN'S DEBUT AS A STORY WRITER.

Otago Witness, Issue 2467, 26 June 1901, Page 76

LAN MACLAREN' S DEBUT AS A STORY WRITER.

■" It is some six years ago," says Mrs Cora B. Pearson in her interesting study of lan Maclaren in the May Temple Magazine, " since Dr Watson asked the question as to whether the writer had read ' The Lilac Sunbonnet.'- Then he went on to speak of Crockett's remarkable leap from the humdrum and somewhat sleepy life of a country minister into publicity as a novelist of the first rank. A month or two later and ' lan Maclaren ' had followed the good example. " The public, ever buzzing to know the identity of. an anonymous writer, were en the gui vive to learn the name of the author w hose stories wore appearing regularly in the British Weekly, and when the late Mr Gladstone added his testimony to the general voice of admiration, 'lan Maclaren' truly woke up to find himself famous. "It was through Dr Robertson Nicoll that his first stories were published, but they were written years earlier, and we have Dr Watson's own word that they were read .and severely criticised by his friends, being re-written many times before he could be induced to submit them to a more popular verdict. "The first story Dr Watson sent to -an. editor was accepted, the second was returned to him. with the inquiry as-.to whether it had been written before or after •dinner? "

—An elaborate organ is now being built in London for York Min«ter. I'y mi ingenious arrangement the wind for the instrument will be supplied by means of power obtained by a fall of water from one of the towers of the cathedral, the water being pumped up the tower by a gas engine.

—It is remarkable -nhat a number of Quaker families have worked up immense businesses and acquired great wealth. Both Messrs Cndbury nntl Fry, of chocolate fame, belong to the Society of Friends ; so, too, do Messrs Huntlcy and Palmer, the biscuitmakers, and Messrs Hullon. the equally famous seed-growers, while tlu family of Messrs Pease and Co.. of Darlington, are jlso Quakers. Messiv Horniman, (lie wellknown tea merchants, furnish another example. Besides gi\ing his attention to business, Mr -Horniman has found lime to indulge his hobby of collecting- curios. These are so numerous that they fill quite a considerablo museum, which he has most generciisly given, together with a libraiy and 15 acres of freehold land, to the public. li. is situated at Forest Hill, a southern oiiburL of London, and well ivyays a Msil.

A widow named Mrs Halfpenny, who has two young children, has commenced an action against the Eaglehawk Consolidated Gold Mining Company, Maldon, Victoria, for £3000 damages for the loss of her hus- | band, who was killed by a fall from a bucket to the bottom of the mine while be- j fpg hauled up the shaft-

A telegram in the London Daily Express from Marseilles states that a little girl, only nine years of age, committed suicide because her mother scolded her for eating with her finders. When her mother reproved her she left the table, ran into the kitchen, and cut her throat from car to ear v. ith » table kidfe.