Mr. E. Charlton Black's Reading.

Mr. E. Charlton Black gave the first of his course of three readings last evening in Brattle Hall on J. M. Barrie and his writings.

At college, Mr. Black said, Barrie was a great favorite with his classmates, but much as he was beloved by them for his manly and beautiful character, few of them ever imagined that he was soon to acquire a world wide reputation as an author. He was a quiet fellow and good at his studies. After leaving college he went into journalism from which he finally branched off as an author. In 1889 he published his best known work, "A Window in Thrums," and in 1892, "A Little Minister," and this last named book is the last work that Barrie has written. All the shorter stories which have been published recently in America were written before when he was still a journalist.

Mr. Black then read a few of Barrie's sketches of the Edinburgh University professors, and extracts from "Shutting a Map," "My Tobacco Pouch," and "A Window in Thrums."