R. G. KNOWLES.

Evening Post, Volume LXX, Issue 79, 30 September 1905, Page 13

R. G. KNOWLES.

The most talked of and talked at man of the music-hall hour (says M.A.P.) is the eccentric comedian and dancer from Canada, Mr. R. G. Knowles. It is alleged against this most delightful of entertainers that he holds a poor opinion of the public taste, and that he has confessed as much to an interviewer. Going by what he is supposed to have said, Mr. Knowles has found that at some "halls" vulgarity is in much greater demand 1 than wit and humour — not a very offensive discovery, nor an original one either. There is still a great deal of vulgarity in the provincial houses of variety, and in those on tho fringe of central London, and if Mr. Knowles has noticed this, and has been interviewed on the subject of the audiences of such places, thero seems to be no very strong reason — except the reason of personal preservation, which is his own look-out— why ho should not speak frankly. Right or wrong in his opinions, the comedian of th© white duck trousers has certainly got the laugh of the irate gentleman who declares that Knowles came to London because he had no success in the music-halls of his own country. There were no music-halls in Canada when the comedian "had it last," and it may be that there are none thero to-day. Mr. Knowles, of Canada, who must by now have made a large fortune out of his stage eccentricities, teeing that he can afford to turn his back upon English music-halls for ever — so, at all events, it is alleged he has determined to do — • stained upon his working career in the role of errand boy to a small firm of drapers in the country of his birth. For two long and weary years he delivered parcels on an unvarying salary of eight shillings and fourpence a wesk — and notwithstanding that he delivered those parcels "so carefulee," even as the "ruler of the Queen's Navee," according to W. S. Gilbert, "polished up the handle of the big front door," the firm failed, and its successor, in retaining young Knowles's services, promoted him to shop-assistant. In serving customers he "made such a name" that he was given a post in the great "store" of Field, Leiter, and Co., of 'Chicago— and it was Mr. Loiter himself, the father of Lady Curzon, who conducted him over the premises and instructed him in the nature of his duties. Unsatisfactory health obliged him in the course of time to "dismiss the firm" (which is Mr. Knowles's way of putting it), and when ha was feeling stronger again he took up what he thought wouldbe tho lighter work of the stage. He made his first appearance at the Olympic Theatre, Chicago, and going thence to New York and playing heroes and villains and heavy fathers in melodrama, and subsequently doing somo minstrel work for the once famous Havorleys, he came to England and conqueied. Mr. Knowles is off now to entertain in the Philippines, the Fiji Islands, Samoa, Hawaii, and China and Japan. He leaves behind him several permanent friends and several temporary enemies. As everyone who has seen him knows, a feature, amounting positively to a trade mark, of R. G. Knowles is his weakness for white duck trousers. His identity would bo lost for ever ff he went on the stage in any other kind. They are to him more 'than is tho red noso to the circus clown. After his "turn" one night at the Tivoli, he gave the trousers to a dresser to get cleaned in time for the next day's matinee, but throngh a misunderstanding on the part of tht cleaner, who thought they wero for the evening performance, there, were no white ducks for tho oomedian when he went to his dressing-room it tho Strand house haH-an-hour before he snould want to put them on. The question of what ho was to do under these unfortunate circumstances was a question which needed an immediate answer or no answer at all. He must do one of two thing 3: give up the afternoon engagement, and with it, perhaps, his week's salary, or he must make a new pair. Deciding to risk the latter alter-i native, he rushed out to a draper's for some calico, and going back to his dress-ing-room, cut out and Stitched together a pair so like his others fhat no one in the theatre except himself noticed tho difference. Mr. Knowles noticed the difference because, in his hurry, he left the needle in.