MOORPARK BURNS CLUB.

REPORT-1914.

I am glad to be able to report a very successful year for 1914. Our membership is still well maintained, and the general committee still continue to work with great enthusiasm. All our functions for season 1913-14 were most enthusiastically carried out, and are now becoming quite a feature in the district.

Our Annual Festival was held on 23rd January, when the "Immortal Memory was proposed by Mr William Deans, M.A., second headmaster in Moorpark School, and was in all respects an intellectual treat. Our School Competition was held in March, when a very high standard of excellence was reached by the young competitors. The local children still continue to take a very keen interest in these competitions, and the Club have to acknowledge with thanks the kind co-operation of Mr Arch. Walker, headmaster of Moorpark School, Mr W. Deans, his assistant, and other teachers, who have all combined to make these competitions so successful.

The season 1914-15 will be a blank one owing to the European crisis, and all our arrangements which had been mapped out have been cancelled. The members, however, are being asked to contribute their annual subscription as usual, and this will be handed over to one or other of the war funds.

EBENEZER INGLIS, Hon. Secy.

ATLANTA BURNS CLUB.

Mr John M. Graham, in proposing the toast, "The Immortal Memory of Robert Burns," at the Anniversary Dinner of the Burns Club of Atlanta," Burns Cottage," Atlanta, Ga., on 26th January, 1914, said :-It is something of these qualities-this Burns spiritthat has given this Club its vitality and charm. Out here we get away from the artificial, and the sordid side of life, and dwell in a domain of sentiment and genuine good-fellowship; and we are refreshed by it, and are the better for it.

For eighteen years this Club has been celebrating these Anniversaries. Surely it is no passing fad or fancy or species of affectation' that has held these men together. Year after year we listen to the same old songs and poems, but they never tire by repetition. Like the old psalms and hymns and Biblical texts to the faithful worshipper, they grow sweeter and reveal fuller meaning as the years roll by and our heads grow whiter.

May the ties that have bound us during all these years still closer bind in the coming years; and, so long as life lasts, may we "yearly assemble all," to honour him, "the Bard that's far awa',""far awa' from mortal ken, but, in spirit, in the midst of us.

CHATTANOOGA BURNS CLUB, TENN.

Recent publication in the public press gave notice of the recovery of the famous Glenriddel Manuscripts of the Poet, Robert Burns, which were sold some time last summer by the Liverpool Athenæum Library, to whose care they had been entrusted since the year 1853. The feeling of the Scotch public in the matter may be imagined from the steps taken by several associations to prevent the consummation of the sale, once it was understood that it was contemplated. Suits were prepared to be brought; the appointment of an administrator de bonis non, of the estate of Robert Burns was suggested, in order that title to the volumes might be claimed and contested for at law. It is said that the Scotch law on the subject of title to personality is stronger than the English law, and while the legal aspect of the title to these volumes may be interesting, there does not seem to be much doubt that the imperfect title of the Liverpool Athenæum had ripened by long possession into a good one. However, the lawyers who were at work upon the case were not permitted to try the question, because while they were busily engaged searching the musty tomes of English and Scotch precedents for light on the best method of procedure, the unknown purchaser disappeared with the purchase, and the outrage was consummated.

Captain Riddel was a poet and a lover of poetry with whom Burns delighted to consult, and for whom he wrote copies of the poems, songs, and letters which have since become known as the priceless Glenriddel Manuscripts. That these Manuscripts are so highly valued by so many people cannot be accounted for except that they represent so much of the personality of Burns, and furnish such an intimate exhibit of the real heart and soul of Scotland's National Poet, and the best loved man of whom history offers an example.

I once saw a collection of some six hundred different editions of his Works, and it is said that “judging by the number of editions and reprints, and the sales of his Works, he rivals even John Bunyan, who has always been classed next to the Bible and Shakespeare ; and in the number and importance of critiques and biographies he vies with Goethe, surpasses Byron, Scott, and all his contemporaries and successors; whereas for eulogies from the highest

order of poets and literary and brainy men universally, Burns stands (excepting Shakespeare) without a peer."

In 1885, at the initiative of the Kilmarnock Burns Club, the Burns Federation was organised, and on January 25th, 1892, the first issue of the Annual Burns Chronicle and Club Directory was published. Forty-nine Clubs were at that time affiliated with the movement, which number had increased to two hundred and eleven in January, 1913.

The headquarters of the Federation are, and have always been, at Kilmarnock, the town in which the first edition of the poems was published, and which contains the " only properly organised Burns Museum in the United Kingdom."

What a delightful appreciation of noblesse oblige is afforded by the commendable action of Mr Gribbel in restoring these precious volumes to the land that gave them birth! How far-reaching should be its influence upon other collectors-in fact, upon all people who learn of it-no one can estimate.

Let us take off our hats to Mr Gribbel of Philadelphia.

Chattanooga, Tennessee,

3rd December, 1913.

ROBERT B. COOKE.

NOTTINGHAM SCOTTISH ASSOCIATION.

TWELFTH ANNUAL REPORT TO THE ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING.

The Council have pleasure in stating that the membership now stands at :

The meetings, with one exception, have been held in the Mikado Café, Long Row, and the attendances were very satisfactory. The thanks of the Association are due to the members who undertook and arranged the various programmes, and also to the artistes who placed their services a the disposal of the Association. The Association is much indebted to Mr J. Crosby Warren, M.A., for his lecture on "The Jacobite Risings," the subject matter being of a most interesting description. The special thanks of the Association are also due to Professor J. A. Todd, B.L., for his admirable lecture on "Cairo: The City of the Arabian Nights."

The special events during the session have been three :— "Hallowe'en Nicht was celebrated in typical Scottish fashion by the younger members and children of members, the attendance being the largest of the session, everything passing off with a heartiness and zest justifying the inclusion of the event in the season's programme. The second special event was the Whist Drive and Dance on Hogmanay in the Woodlands Ballroom, and although the attendance was not quite so large as in former years, still the Council are pleased to report that financially the balance is on the right side. The remaining special event was the "Burns Dinner," held on the 26th January, in the Victoria Station Hotel New Dining Hall, the partici. pants numbering 72. Professor R. Warwick Bond, of Nottingham University, delivered a characteristic speech on "The Immortal Memory. The later speeches were of a high order and the instrumental and vocal selections were much appreciated by all present.

The accounts and balance sheet show the financial status of the Association to be stronger than it has been for some years. JOHN CURRIE, Hon. Secretary.

It appears from the following newspaper clipping that the Burns Club in St. Louis intended to be represented at the abandoned London meeting of the Federation this year. Let us hope that they will adhere to their resolution in more propitious times :

ST. LOUISANS TO ATTEND BURNS MEETING IN

LONDON.

SAUNDERS NORVELL AND HANFORD CRAWFORD WILL BE FIRST FOREIGNERS TO JOIN GREAT BRITAIN IN ANNUAL TRIBUTF.

When Saunders Norvell and Hanford Crawford arrive in London, England, next September, to attend the Annual Meeting of the Burns Federation, they will enjoy the distinction of being the first foreigners to join with Great Britain on this annual event in paying tribute to the memory of Scotland's greatest Poet.

Crawford and Norvell have been delegated to represent the St. Louis Burns Club on the occasion set aside to honour the works and character of Robert Burns by the author's admirers in his native land.

BOTH SUCCESSFUL BUSINESS MEN.

Both men are held in high esteem in their own community. They have been successful in a marked degree in their lives. Both

are citizens of affairs and high standing.

The regard in which they are held in their home city is due to their fidelity to duty and honesty of purpose.

Eminently successful in business and particularly devoted to study, they have been elevated to a plane typically American. It was the belief of the St. Louis Burns Club when it selected Norvell and Crawford to represent it next September at Ancient Guild Hall in London that none were better qualified to join hands with British admirers in laying a garland of love and respect on the tomb of the great human Poet

During this session the Club held eight meetings, including the celebration of the " Immortal Memory on 23rd January, when the toast of the evening was proposed by The Right Hon. the Lord Provost of Glasgow (D. M. Stevenson). In the course of the evening the Lord Provost adverted at some length to the question of the Glenriddel Manuscripts, in regard to which he had been in communication with J. Gribbel, Esq., of Philadelphia.

The subjects of the session mainly dealt with Scottish Writers or Scottish Literature. Two evenings during the session were held as Ladies' Nights, when musical programmes were carried through in a highly successful and acceptable manner. The session closed with a membership of 101, including 9 life members.

The undernoted gives particulars of the Club's syllabus for session 1914-1915.

1914.

SYLLABUS-1914-15.

Oct. 1. "The Literary Instincts of the Scottish People "—Mr John Wilson.

Nov. 5. "Handel " (Ladies' Night)-Mr J. S. Paterson.

Dec. 3. "Burns and the Church "-Rev. R. Nicholson Thomson.

1915.

Jan. 7.-" Thomas Campbell "-Dr James Devon.

Jan. 25. "The Immortal Memory "-W. M. R. Pringle, Esq., M.A.,

LL.B., M.P.

Feb. 4. "Irish Verse "-Mr S. Langlands.

Mar. 4. "Border Song and Story "-Mr D. S. MacGregor.

Apr. 1. Annual General Meeting at 6.45 p.m.

(Ladies' Night) at 7.45 p.m.

Musical Evening