Professor Stormbarner is of course best known in this country as the author of the famous romances, _Letters from Limbo_, _The Devil's Ducats_, _Narcotic Nelly_ and _The Sarcophagus_, but his versatility and accomplishments in other departments of mental activity will come as a surprise to his English admirers. He has penetrated the Arctic circle in a bath-chair drawn by reindeer; he plays with great skill on the balalaika, and he has translated most of the works of Mr. Edmund Gosse into Mæso-Gothic. At the present moment he is undoubtedly the first favourite for the Nobel Prize, though Willie Ferrero runs him close in virtue of the patronage of Mr. Andrew Carnegie and the Dowager-Empress of Russia.
Perhaps the finest and most convincing tribute to the overwhelming genius of the great Finnish romancer is the quatrain recently written in his honour by Mr. Edmund Gosse:--
George Eliot, greatest of blue stockings, Joseph and Silas K. (the Hockings), Watts-Dunton and Professor Garner-- Are all united in Stormbarner.
We understand that during his visit to London Professor Stormbarner will stay with Mr. David Dodder at Hampstead, but will spend a week-end with Mr. Lloyd George at Walton Heath.
Mrs. Ray Clammer, whose novels in praise of Blackpool, written at the commission of the municipal council, have gained her equal cash and kudos, has gone to Australia for a visit, but hopes to return in time to spend August at the famous health resort which her genius has done so much to adorn. Her only regret is that she has had to leave at home her Persian cat Abracadabra, called "Abe" for short. "Abe," by the way, figures prominently in a bright personal article about Mrs. Ray Clammer which Miss Marjorie Moult contributes to _The Penwiper_ for May.
[Illustration: _Lady Canvasser._ "I've called to ask you to give us something for the O.P.Q.S. The----"
_Old Gentleman._ "My dear lady, I already give away one-tenth of my income."
_Lady Canvasser._ "Oh, just this year, couldn't you make it an eleventh?"]
"Meanwhile Dick Smith is matched with Carpentier, and will receive £200 as the loser's end of a £1,200 purse offered by the Liverpool Stadium."--_Daily Mail._
If it is as certain as this we shall put our money on Carpentier.