Mr.Frost's theme was that these Kentucky mountaineers were really Elizabethan survivals; that their dialect, their ballads, their habits were really a case of arrested development; that by studying them present-day Americans could get a picture of their distant forbears.

Page gave vitality to the presentation by changing a commonplace title to this one: "Our Contemporary Ancestors." There were those who were offended by Page's willingness to seek inspiration on the highways and byways and even in newspapers, for not infrequently he would find hidden away in a corner an idea that would result in valuable magazine matter.

On one occasion at least this practice had important literary consequences.

One day he happened to read that a Mrs.Robert Hanning had died in Toronto, the account casually mentioning the fact that Mrs.Hanning was the youngest sister of Thomas Carlyle.

Page handed this clipping to a young assistant, and told him to take the first train to Canada.