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MY FATHER: W. T. STEAD. 



By HENRY STEAD. 



In the notes I hope to give about my 

 father during the next six months m 

 these cohmms, I intend to touch chiefly 

 upon his private life and make but 

 indirect mention of his pubhc work and 

 achievements. These will be fully dealt 

 w ith in the biography now in course of 

 preparation. 



A BOY ALL HIS LIFE. 



Father was always intensely human, 

 had immense energy and an enormous 

 amount of exuberant vitality. He was 

 a man whose presence could be felt the 

 moment he came into a room, so greatly 

 did he vitalise all those with whom he 

 came into contact. He was exceedingly 

 popular with children and youths, and 

 especially was he worshipped by little 

 girls. With all his marvellous journal- 

 istic instinct and great intellect, he was 

 really just a big boy in many things all 

 his life. He never enjoyed himself 

 better than when, surrounded by young- 

 sters, he picnicked and boated, built 

 sand castles and bathed, at the seaside 

 cottage he loved so well. 



A FINE TR.\IXIXG. 



He was a son of the manse, but 

 brought up to enjoy much freedom of 

 thought, and encouraged, with his bro- 

 thers and sisters, to look upon his father 

 and mother as companions. The latter 

 was a very remarkable woman who left 

 her impress on him throughout his life. 

 The stipend of a Congregational min- 

 ister in a Tyneside village was but 

 meagre, and father always attributed 

 his wonderful ability to ferret out from 

 the daily papers iust those things which 

 mattered, to having had to recount to 

 his father, when he got back from New- 

 castle in the evening, all the leading 

 news items he had seen in the paper he 

 was able to get the loan of in town. 



A " RUINED " ME:M0RY ! 



He was gifted with a truly marvel- 

 lous memory, although he used to say 



it was ruined during the Bulgarian agita- 

 tion which he led whilst editing the 

 K orihern Echo, by the attempt to remem- 

 ber addresses of three or four hundred 

 helpers in the cause. After he had fln- 

 ished his leader and notes he used to sit 

 down and address copies of the paper 

 to enthusiastic workers all over Great 

 Britain, without ever referring to an 

 address book. He mav have " ruined " 

 his memory, as he said, but most people 

 would consider themselves well equip- 

 ped with a tithe of such ruins. I re- 

 member well during the height of the 

 Boer War his speaking at one of the 

 debating societies in the Temple. The 

 hostile audience was composed of keen, 

 budding lawyers, with a sprinkling of 

 O.C.'s, and he was challenged con- 

 stantly to substantiate his facts. The 

 way in which he did so amazed his 

 audience ; not once could he be tripped 

 up. In many instances he even gave his 

 opponents the actual page as well as the 

 title and date of the Blue Book in which 

 the}' would find his authority. He had 

 no notes to refer to, he seldom needed 

 any, and as he left the hall, despite the 

 fact that at that time he was one of the 

 most execrated men in public life, his 

 opponents could not but cheer him to 

 the echo. 



AT SCHOOL. 



He was taught by his father at home 

 until he reached his teens, when he was 

 sent to Silcoates, at Wakefield, a board- 

 ine-school for ministers' sons. He had 

 an exceedingly bad lime there at nrst, 

 and vowed that did he ever have chil- 

 dren they should never be sent to board- 

 ing-school. He used to be i)ulled across 

 the ]ilayground on his back by the hair 

 of his head, and experienced other simi- 

 lar uncomfortable attentions until his 

 tormentors found that he was plucky 

 to the backbone. He does not appear to 

 have achieved much distinction in 

 study, but earned the reputation on the 

 cricket field of never funking, though 



