REMINISCENCES.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 29, 4 February 1933, Page 11 (Supplement)

REMINISCENCES.

EARLY days of a publisher.

jnt. SHAW'S «PHOTO."

THE BALLET GIRL SPEAKS FRENCH.

The writer whose experiences carry him back into the 'nineties of last century possesses a rich field for reminiscences, and Mr. Grant Richards, the novelist and publisher, gives us gome amusing and interesting instances j n his "Memories of a Misspent Youth." One of Mn Richard's first jobs was •with W. T. Stead on the "Review of Reviews." He has some amusing records of those days in the shape of letters. One shows us that the Mr. Shaw -we know to-day was much the same in 1893. This outburst refers to a .photograph of hiaself which was to be used to illustrate a review:— "As usual, the S people have taken A decent photograph and then deliberately ruined it by rubbing every line and mark out of the face, which looks like a piece of dirty drawing paper. Please, in the interests of reasonable art and common sense, do not have it reproduced. . • • Reproduce the enclosed untouched photo, which you can see at' least represents a human face with the traces of a human life on it instead of the slob of wet dough which the g people have felt bound to produce." Note, says Mr. Richards, the word "•photo." < W. T. Stead's Dress-Suit. When Mr. Richards was working with < him, Stead paid a visit to America. All i his arrangements were made hurriedly, < and it was ordained that he should carry a dress-suit In his ' lu-eace. He had never had a dress-suit. I had to take him to my tailors. They ; made him one in 24 hours. He couldn't j understand why the coat would not button across his chest. lie refused to believe that such a thing was intended or to be satisfied; but there was no time to try again! Theodore Watts-Dunton, Swinburne's fatherly friend and the author of "Aylwin," had a dress-suit peculiarity, too. If he were going out in the even- , jng to a function that required him to dress, he would come up from his house , at Putney -In the morning carrying his dress-coat in a brown paper parcel, but otherwise wearing the rest of his dress-suit under his tightly-buttoned frock-coat. Being allowed to withdraw for one minute, he 'would emerge habited for the evening. . • . Lady Burton's Cigarettes. Mr. Richard tells us that he often •used to see Lady Burton, widow of Sir Eichard Burton, the translator of "The Arabian Jfights." Before her marriage she was a keen smoker, but as smoking for women was considered highly improper in those days.she kept her habit to herself. Burton smoked heavily, and after they were married he often urged her to try one of his cigarettes. One day she yielded, and then, forgetting her role of novice, took cigarette after cigarette from the box that stood open between them. After ■Hatching her for a while he spoke: "My dear, for a' beginner you have taken to the vice uncommon quickly!" She could not keep up the deception after that! Dr. George Bird, the famous; physician, was once listening to the tale of some of Burton's exploits, After a while he said:— .. ■ . "Barton, tell me: what does it feel like to Ml a man?" - . . "What does It feel like to kill a man? TVhy, surely that's a funny question for you, a medical man, to ask. Now, what does it feel like? Do tell.us." . When Gosse Was Shocked. A favourite meeting-place for people of the literary and artistic worlds used to be the now vanished Crown in Charing Cross Road. Here, one evening, Mr. Richards remembers, • were brought Paul V-erlaine, the French poet, and Gosse, "who looked extremely •unhappy at finding himself at such an hour in the bar-parlour of a London ipublic-house." Also among the company was a youthful ex-ballet girl who thought herself to be interested in art and letters. Unfortunately, she knew little French, but feeling that something was intended of her, she brought out one of the few French phrases she remembered, but did not in any way understand. It was an invitation in so many words to 6pend the rest of the night in a way which a younger man would have wel-| corned. ®he accent was execrable, but the meaning was clear enough to the poet. He was, however, hardly of an age for such an exercise. ... I remember the incident because of its effect on the respectable Gosse. He left the building with All possible dispatch. Frank Harris Mr. Richards remembers as a talker and as a teller of stories — "the magnificent stories that he afterwards published." Mr. Richards doubts whether the idea of setting them down on paper ever occurred to him at first: — Grant Allen fold me that Harris was very ooy when it was suggested to him that he would declare that to write and publish short stories less good than the best was repugnant to him, and so on. "But your stories are in the very front rank, Harris," his listeners would say to ;him. "Yes—yon think so. But are they equal ,to Maupassant's best?"