Edinburgh, May 17.
A week ago all Scotland was discussing Sir James Barrie's Rectorial to the students at St. Andrews; this week every one is i and writing about the great feat of George Duncan in breaking the record of the Old Course at the Mecca of golf. Of course things have been happening, at Geneva and Dublin and Belfast and other places, but St. Andrews has held the attention. The most interesting matters for Scots during the fortnight have been the speeches of a Kirriemuir novellist and the wonderful putting of an Aberdonian golfer. No Rectorial address by a literary man has caught the imagination of the evblio so strongly since the days when Thomas Carlyle delivered his great oration to the students of Edinburgh University. The whimsicality of Barrie's address has seemingly been its greatest charm, and his reference to his double—his M'Connachie—has awakened recollections of his precious incursions into the realm of dual personalities. His most elaborate effort in this direction took the form of a political "skit."
Nearly 35 years ago, Sir George Otto Trevelyan - contested the Bridgeton Division of Glasgow in the Liberal-Home-Rule interest. He had just verted from Unionism, and a London evening newspaper published an article called 'The Strange Case of Mr. Otto and Sir George Trevelyan.' It purported to describe mysterious ongoings in the hotel where the worthy Baronet was staying during his election campaign. Three of the servants, it was alleged, had left one in con. vulsions (Now-a-days this would have been sufficient to reveal the author's hand). It was stated with full details how a deporter, who had interviewed Sir George's valet and the hotel boots gathered that the trouble arose from the presence in the hotel of a Mr. Otto, who had never arrived. One morning the boots took Sir George his letters, and, finding later on that there was yet another to deliver, return-1 ed to the Baronet's room, vhen the door was opened, not by its legal occupant, but by Mr. Otto, Sir George having disappeared. Bolton, Sir George's valet, was so upset about it all that he intended to resign, although Sir George was a good master. Mr. Otto was a man he never could stand. Mr. Otto was an out-and-out Glad-stenion, but Sir George was a staunch Unionist. Great amusement was caused by the Barriesqué picture of Mr. Otto as Sir George's alter ego, and it was quite the most popular bit of electioneering literature issued during the contest. Arguments, even personalities, can be fought and killed, but who can kill a wraith, the creation of a Scots humourist?
The tuniest part of the affair was the sequel. Sir George Trevelyan treated Barrie's skit in all seriousness as a malignant invention, and was at pains to point out, in the press and on the platform, that there was no truth in the report of his double personality! Sir George, as everyone knows, is an accomplished man of letters, quite capable of producing the light touch; but on this occasion, while all Scotland was rocking with laughter, in which his Bridge-ton Liberal supporters joined, his nse of humour wholly deserted im.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.