Show I t BARRIE t R d. d R Jl O W IF 11 H AS BEEN UN KI N Ft F IBy By m One Olle Who Knows Him Well a 0 NOT many men have ve known Barrie B tor jor or as long as I have bave Certainly not more more than three or four out of them all nil know the theman theman man himself any better now than they than they did rat at first But we we know more about him him character and personality person J 4 The mystery of his personality has probably become as clear as it ever will wn be Every American I have hae met et lately has ba as asked ed me why he was given the Order of Merit the highest in the long English list of of- personal hono honors s the honor which one of us won won and wore as n a natural he heritage as soon as he be became beeam an Englishman n. n Sir James Tames Matthew Barrie arrie First Baronet is his style and title Over here ber A he is just Barrie Darrie No Ko one dares to call him JImmie twice it sounds too dismal J He lIe characteristically gives his address In f those books of reference which venture to mention It as N. N B. B lIe He Heis lIeis is is not living within several hundred hundred ni miles les lesof of it and he is seen as little in the L London d district he does inhabit as ho he is is' in Kirriemuir Kir N. N B B. B lIe He loathes what is called society I only once heard him make an after dinner after dinner speech a second-rate second form of genius It must be admitted and aUll that was when we wo YS were were entertaining Greenwood the journalist journal journal- 1st who advised Disraeli to buy the Suez Suea Canal shares I suppose Barrie Barrio remembered remembered he had been a journalist himself under W. W E E. E Henley in the Pall Mall inthe in inC C the old oM St. St James' James Gazette and elsewhere I saw sav no reason why he should ever eter be shy hY of public speaking but I remember very little of what he said except that he had bought his first tall shiny hat to call on Greenwood It was a frail fran f slight lIght figure that be made on em that occasion He has bas not grown more solid since There is still a J. J look of hunger th t ft al 8 t r i f n t o hd r 1 e in n t Ul h eyes eJ mui Lla a are un w ys s Ll So LV any expression from the outsider You feel that he looks out upon the world with unappeasable curiosity unable to to Interpret the undercurrent of Its gre greater ter motives yet falling failing in the persistent effort to persuade himself that his bis own life liCe is the more real of the two For his own life Ufe is a dream that has lIas never come true From the material material ma ma- facts of physical existence h he has withdrawn wounded first play was The Professors Professor's Love HIS Story which appeared in 1895 1595 and If I remember rightly it was with that famous old comedian Toole that Mary Ansell acted the heroine No Koone one could have chosen chos n a sweeter wife than Mary and no one ono 1 seemed e med more likely to be happy than the theauthor theauthor author of the play who married her But It was the first act in the tragedy r r- r i Though the divorce case was mercifully silent client I need add nothing now to the details def de details de- de f tails t that inevitably became public prop prop- erty The respondent co-respondent was Gilbert Can- Can nan himself a J. J novelist of no small smal promise at first and a private secretary who had hadI received 1 I received considerable kindness from the theR 1 R husband I 1 need say no more of him bim save iJ that Mary Ansell is alone again and when hen I last heard beard of of- her of-her her seemed happier In Capri than in England p Barrie Darrie himself appeared appear d to take the case with the same inexplicable aloofness or was wasi i vit it with the same pathetic effort to guard n himself from further visible hurt At any rate there was but one phrase heard from Whim him in court about a n contrite heart It i told the world little save In its echoes of off far-off Kirriemuir N. N B. B and in a n very short time the world that knew nev so BO little little v- v of him was wondering once more at his apparently inexplicable attitude to women They knew for instance that he had In Insisted In- In 01 misted on the baptism of Pauline Chase they knew too that he had wafted waited the Intangible incense of a legendary adoration before the kindly and entirely intelligent shrine of Sylvia du Maurier Mauder whose charm charm- charm ing piquant face in Charles Purses Purse's wonderful wonderful won won- I der ul sketch still pains us with the unI un- un escapable regret that both the artist and his hla sitter Bitter are arc no more I Sylvia daughter of the creator of Trilby had bad married Llewellyn Liewellyn Davies the brilliant scholar who died untimely of off a cancer Within about two years his widow brave bra smiling appreciative to the thel l last ast st had followed him bim to the grave But f the he knew that her five sons would never beg b g their bread Barrie took all five to his heart educated them and brought them up at at his bis own cost and loved one of them aa ns asI I 1 suppose few boys were acre ever loved It may almost be said that it was to an audi audience audience ence of this one one this boy that boy that Barrio Barrie wrote thc the work of oC the last ten years And this boy was drowned not long ago at Oxford The room billiard at the beautiful Adelphi at flat lint of which more must be said later ba bab Las has been b en shut up ever since The son to whom Barrie had opened the secret treasure of big ht bigheart heart had been taken from him bim TIc lie seemed ed j deprived of fatherhood cither either physically or orby by by adoption There is the secret of this slight shy reticent wraith of humanity of this soul Boul packed full of brains labored by the f creative urge of genius yet Iet alone in a world of physical impulses against which he be can but abut wield the Insubstantial buckler of fantasies fan fan- tastes and whimsies or visions fantastically fantastically fantas- fantas unreal that they grow more and more difficult to yes more I ghostlike This Is the psychological problem problem lem lm this the tragedy I have tried to sketch for you who seem so far away and I am amnot amnot amnot not sure that I have not omitted yet ono one shade in it that must be added if my pic plc- picture picture ture shall shaU be true For I have of ofen en asked myself Do th the children Indeed d love Barrie with even a a a- fraction of that love he ho has for them I 1 escorted one little fellow to see Peter f. f Pan ran who shouted to be taken away after ten ien minutes of the pirate-captain pirate and being so unfortunate as to behold the croco croco- S one Bile on his return insisted on going home bome for good where he e was with difficulty rescued rescued rescued res- res cued from a window sill on the fourth floor from which he lIe had determined to fly out with Peter to a better world Another youngster after earnestly asking me whether Captain Hook was va really his his' anxiety by telling us t that i t he was 0 off to to- the seaside the next nett m morning and had bad no desire to meet that gruesome villain swim swimming ming wing for the shore J 1 I I half s suspect pCt that Peter Pa Pan l is really given so so long a lease on on life by grownups grown grownups grownups ups But Dut children I I. I think not What child Is ignot not ot eager to gr grow w. w up What sympathy sympathy sympathy sym- sym pathy have they with Peter l eter Pans Inns r n s ambition tion ne never er to gro grow up K None ne I I be believe lev ARRIE often often entertained Americans I B BARRIE had had bad known know well before I lived ved ov over r here I I rem remember ber meeting G. G W. W Cable that Cable that prose-poet prose of Ne New v Orleans life with life with him J 3 1 1 I 1 r recall calI seeing rim play against Edwin Abbeys Abbey's eleven eleven of artists it must have been about 1001 1901 when Barries Barrie's score was only 4 but bit Conan Doyle wh wl bit up up 91 m and tool eight wickets easily gave the writers a resplendent ent victory victory- Another r year he had A 1 E E. E W W. Mason Mason and nd Maurice Maurice H Hewlett playing playing- for him I remember and I know that in 1903 Abbey was terribly disappointed not to be able to secure C C. C F. F McKim an old member of the Philadelphia Club to play against Barries Barrie's l literary eleven at Esher This eleven cleven Barrie Barrio called e the which being translated slated is God help them and he be lie attached more Importance than might be imagined to getting side to together together together to- to gether though hough Abbey who ras vas a friend of N N. N D E. E Roller captain of the English team at Philadelphia in or thereabouts thereabouts there thereabouts was was generally able to get a better one one ne Their mutual acquaintance E. E V. V Lucas of London Punch and tiger shoot ing has as published an appreciation of Abbeys Abbey's cricket which ich Jets lets so mu much h light lighton on Barries Barrie's queer ardor for the game that Im I'm t give a a few extracts from It Here is what Barrie Barri says Copyright 1022 by Public PublIo Le Ledger ger Company Company THE only real pleasure in which Barrie has ever been detected is strolling around London in ina T a hat and an old coat watching what people are doing Here a chance snapshot caught 4 3 him under a powerful arc lamp indulging in a cup of coffee from an night all lunch stall surn surrounded sur n j rounded by the night life of the city city chauffeurs chauffeurs and teamsters workers and unemployed ic a l' l Surely his insatiable inquisitiveness for human nature would be the only Jure lure to drawn him m thus w k I I r t rr 1 r 7 w p e r S A t t r l Y Yr r r S f i if f N. N n K ar f i y a ff a B 14 fW ti i c i tea 7 t 10 J L It l j vi K 1 1 k r. r Jt a r ass ass' i N JI IH e t bv f I J d j I 4 K Kl l Iv f Y F t r i j 1 I 1 f f fy i i S 3 r I y Sr Sri J n t r i r. r r r. r I 1 rr t y DI DIj j rl r. r There is isa a a look of hunger in the eyes of this genius who seems always striving to hide any expression from the outsider and whose real life st story ry is told here for the first time 1 v A b j was was ivas tremendously professional prof i and looked kith with remote reproof at you if you did m fi cati the ball the sphere or r the leather I To sing for first Innings inning's asa soI solemn mn ecstasy ip tp him It was fI in lie fielding dIng that he was truly great grea ti he he had llad vast ast courage as well tell as enthusiasm and and would wo here ve tried to stop a n thunderbolt to to save Eave the third one The only fault he Ire found with cricket was was that it was not sot sufficiently dangerous He tried to remedy this As' As soon As-soon soon as you I struck the ball you remembered Abbey and ana flung yourself upon your face Great were the evenings that followed though you might be in sticking sticking- plaster even now if I meet his shade suddenly at a street corner it ft is Is the cricketer I think of first and andI anaI I Involuntarily Involuntarily involuntarily duck my head head Barrie Barrio looks look's aa sa if he were were always meeting meetIng meetIng meet Ing shades and long before re 1911 1011 How many must he be be meeting now 1 Sometimes weare we weare are arc delighted to hear about it but not not always There was his Margaret l Ogilvy for or instance It was not so great a tribute to to motherhood as Whistlers Whistler's which will vi last as long as the Luxembourg rg that shelters shelters shelters shel shel- it It was not nearly so fine as Henleys lIen Hen leys ley's whose virile lines will pulse with feeling long after Barries Barrie's fine drawn sophistry soph- soph has lIas forever faded Barrie admired Henley with whom he did some of his first work But he remained re- re dumb I Jt It needed Daisy aisy Ashford's d' d stories child-stories to rouse him him to secure s secure te a cir cir- cu with his preface Before such magnificent eDt s Henleys Henley's his bis i lips seem closed If you come come to think think k of it it there is no red blooded love love making making in any book or play he ever wrote no hero you can re remember remember remember re- re member with the affection all the world can grant a lover no real passion lie He s seemed emed near it 1 when hen Irene made made so splendid a ai figure of Diana In fn The Admirable Admirable able Crichton But even poor poor Harry Harry Irving could not gain conviction for Cor the butler who Is changed from something like a n- n amale male man into nto a domestic domestic- who marries the housemaid simply by the arrival of a aliner aliner aliner liner on the horizon of their desert island And think of Little Mary lary or of the nebulous ghosts in Mary Rose nose Yet 1 we admit the charm We Ye hear we read with ever renewed delight that curious humor like the distant chiming of a n silver bell which moves as quickly to laughter as to tears Hilda Trevelyan suggested something something something some some- thing of that evanescent charm In fn What Every Woman Knows But Dut what Is it Where does it come from AUTHORS A are notoriously different from the Impression of their personalities' personalities produced in their writings I know not what Impression Barrie can have made of his but he lie must be singularly unlike the popular idea of him He lie knows know Co Conan a Doyley and I Hewlett U w ctt j i r q I L s t l' l r I 1 f 1 L J Sir James James' home hom home home-a ra a beautiful one one must must be full of dreams and ghosts Ills His flat is on the top floor of this building full of historic lore and nd Wells Wells and and d the rest lIe He even asks them oue butto dinner with a box at the theatre theatre theatre thea thea- tre afterward But there is no real conversation con con- at these mute festivities Even at nt such jolly gatherings as used used long ago tobe to tobe tobe be held at old George Lewis' Lewis hospitable house you might all beg him on your bended beaded knees to contribute a little fun to tor td the gen gen- general oral cral harmony and he would The only real pleasure in which he be has ever been detected is strolling about London London Lon Lon- don In n a n soft h hat bat and lA n an old cOat watching one group after another with apparently insatiable inquisitiveness to know what they can be doing doings He lIe has bas even had coffee at gt t a stall coffee-stall during his pilgrimages on the Em Embankment and I can think of no other lure that could have llave drawn him to such questionable refreshment Isis His real home home home-a a beautiful one one one-Is is where you might have Imagined Imagine though you r u would never have guessed it on the terrace of the Adelphi by that same Thames where Hen Hen- Jey ley saw lYl bridge lide touching touching the the tho tl J 4 I II l lit r r z r iZ r i Y Ya a If i i fI If The famous Adelphi Terrace Terrace v overlooking over- over i r i looking the Thames with the the- v 1 building containing Barries Barrie's flat J. J I projecting at the end nd ia row J tr l r r houses more famous literary folk than any other place in is the tha v world r troubled sky kY where Henry James ames n nail anS' l y Turner Turne died where many a royal page f passed and faded into gold and crimson sunsets Barrie lives Jives in A n homo hom that mu q Q full not only of dreams reams but Sho ghosts From the spot where he sleeps the tha senile gentle Lady Jane Grey set forth for her wedding with Henry VIII and set forth once mareon moro mare on her last journey to be beheaded at nt the tha Tower Here a little mUe later dwelt Sir Ste Walter Wal ter Raleigh in great state as ae Lord Warden of the to Queen Elizabeth In the tho spacious days before he too was be be- be headed Here later still were a It regiment of Cromwell's soldiers quartered after niter they x had beheaded Charles I. I It is a 4 place of tragic shadows ts scarcely lighted up P by the |