"MICHAEL FAIRLESS," FRIEND OF TRAMPS.

Colonist, Volume LV, Issue 13756, 23 June 1913, Page 3

"MICHAEL FAIRLESS," FRIEND OF TRAMPS.

"Thousands of readers' of the-.un-pretentious little; green book, which sinco 1902, has gone through thirtyone editions, have asked the question: •Who wrote "The Roadmender" ?' (says the "Evening News.") " 'Michael Fairloss' was clearly a pseudonym, and the personality expressed iTi the exquisito little sketches was so fascinating that there have been many demands for rnoro knowledge of the author.

"And now? a volumo, uniform with 'The Roadmender' has been written by Mrs. Haggard, tho elder sister of 'Michael Fairless, 5 and W. Scott Palmer (Mrs Dawson), a close personal friend, entitled 'Michael Fairloss: Her Life and Writings.'

Ifc gives the author's real name as Margaret Fairless Barber. She' was born of cultured parents in 1869 at Castle Hill, Rasbrick, in the West Riding of Yorkshire. She travelled on tho Continent. She studied nursing, and flung hersolf enthusiastically into philanthropic work in the East End of London. Her health was never robust, and in 1900, a year before her death, it broko down completely. . " 'When I first learnt to know her,' says Mrs. Dowson, 'she had a little cottage on a high road, the great Bath road of many tramps. There she tamed her tramp men, and made them friends. Every man who came had a tablo and chair under shelter; tho plainest, simplest food; material for mending his clothes, tea or cocoa to drink; her smile, her wonderful eyes upon his, her open heart and word. " 'Never a thing was stolen from her doors, her wide windows; never a penny did she give; but many a man bogged leave to chop wood for her, to dig in her garden—some little thing to show what she had done for him.' "Tho story of how she wrote 'Tho Roadmender' has already been told— how when stricken with mortal and excruciating pain, when she could no longer sit up, she wrote lying in bed with the paper propped in front of her, first with her right hand, then, when that was disabled, with her left, and finally could only dictate." "Thousands of men and women are the better for Michael Fairless and 'The Roadmendor,' says tho 'Observor,' and they will treasure this little book of memories by her elder sister and her greatest friend. 'The Roadmenc&r' has brought a new philosophy of life to many thousands of Englishmen and women. Its fame grew by the simple recommendation of one reader to an-

other."