244 



REVIEW OF REVIEW'S. 



his legs were black and blue through 

 keeping wicket to fast bowling without 

 any pads. He introduced over-arm 

 bowling into Silcoates, and lost the first 

 match in which he did so, because the 

 umpire no-balled him each time he 

 bowled with his hand above his shoul- 

 der ! 



THE PRIZE WATCH. 



After two years he returned to New- 

 castle and entered the storehouse of a 

 merchant, who traded chiefly with Rus- 

 sia, with no prospect except to rise to 

 clerk from offtce-boy. He began to 

 write for different papers, and tried for 

 prizes offered for essays, but only once 

 did he achieve success. I have often 

 wondered whether any of those editors 

 who " turned down " the copy of the un- 

 known office-boy came to the great jour- 

 nalist for advice in later years ! The 

 prize he did win was a silver watch for 

 an essay on his favourite hero. Oliver 

 Cromwell. This watch he always cher- 

 ished and would never exchange for 

 a gold one. Its fate was curious. In 

 1900 he made his famous tour round 

 Europe, interviewing Emperors and 

 Kings. I accompanied him on that 

 occasion. We left Rome after a strenu- 

 ous week, en route for Paris, and 

 changed trains at the French frontier. 

 We then discovered that he must have 

 left his watch in the sleeping-car. For- 

 tunately I remembered the number of 

 the carriage, and telegraphed to Rome 

 about it. We spent the evening with 

 Baron de Coubertin — of Olympic fame 

 — in his villa on the Riviera, and ar- 

 ranged to have the watch, if found, sent 

 on to him. Now comes the irony of the 

 thing. The watch was found, and 

 reached him safely. He despatched it 

 registered to London, and that w-as the 

 last seen or heard of it ! 



HIS FIRST SUCCESS. 



Even in earlv davs father fully ap- 

 predated the power of the Press. He 

 wrote letters to the local paper about a 

 plague spot in Howdon, accurately de- 

 scribed as " clarty gutter." Having done 

 this he put into practice ?, custom he 

 followed ever after. He saw that the 

 paper containing his letter reached those 



people who ought to move in the mat- 

 ter. After you have written somelhmg 

 certain people ought to read, see that 

 they have it thrust upon them, was with 

 him a great doctrine, and much of the 

 success following his articles he attri- 

 buted to this. The clearing of " clartv 

 gutter " was. I think, his first successful 

 effort for the welfare of the community 

 at large ; others followed rapidly. 



EDITOR AT T\VENTV-T\VO 

 His principal ran for public office in 

 Newcastle, and achieved considerable 

 fame for the cleverness of his sj^eeches. 

 No one knew that they had been 

 written for him by his office-boy ! Soon 

 father's articles began to be accepted, 

 the first. I think, by the Sheffield Inde- 

 pendent, and ere long he was writing re- 

 gularly for the 'Northern Echo. He re- 

 ceived no pay for these articles, which 

 were sufficiently brilliant to be used 

 constantly as leaders in that paper, but 

 they brought him the offer of the actual 

 editorship of the Northern Echo when 

 he was 22. He had therefore the extra- 

 ordinary experience of starting at the 

 top of the tree without ever having to 

 go through the drudgery of a news- 

 pajier office. His wonderful ability of 

 getting hold of the essentials immedi- 

 ately enabled him on this occasion, as 

 on so many others when far greater 

 issues were at stake, to come through 

 triumphantly. His ])olitical articles 

 sj^eedily drew Mr. Gladstone's atten- 

 tion, but after the proprietor had once 

 induced him to attend a local ball in 

 order to write it up. he vowed that never 

 again would he risk offending all hi- 

 lady readers. Father's ideas of describ- 

 ing a dress were amusing, to say the 

 least ; in fact, he seldom noticed what 

 people wore. A very sore point, I be- 

 lieve, to many who hoped to impress 

 him by their toilettes after he had be- 

 come famous. 



SALVATION LASSES. 



My earliest recollection of my father 

 is characteristic of him. It is of driving 

 in our little pony trap with two Salva 

 tion Army lasses from our home al 

 Granny Hill to Darlington, father and 

 the two of them singing at the top of 



