HAPPINESS

Evening Post, Volume CVI, Issue 28, 2 August 1923, Page 11

HAPPINESS

THE ONE GREAT THING IN THE

WORLD

OSCAR ASCHE TALKS TO

ROTARIANS.

"I think no better epitaph could be wished for than a paraphrase of Falstaff's words, 'He was not only happy, but was the cause of happiness in others.' " Thus Mr. Oscar Asche, the actor, at the Rotary Club's weekly luncheon in Auckland on Monday, at which he was the guest of honouv. Mr. G. W. Hutchinson, who presided, said it was rather a coincidence that he should be in the chair tint day, as just twelve" years ago when. Mr. Asche was in Auckland before they were in the same house together—Mr. Asche on the stage, and the speaker "in the gods." (Laughter.) .Mr. Asche said he thought the motto of the club, "Service before self," should be the slogan of every thinking person in every thinking country, if we were going to get rid of the unhappiness and unrest that was so prevalent at the presenttime. Happiness was the one great thing in the world. Some people thought that success and happiness were synonymous, but they were not. So many people achieved the one without the other. So many achieved success at the expense of other people's happiness. Mr. Asche looked on the Rotary Club movement as a wonderful movement, just. a« he did on the Boy Scout movement originated by Baden Powell. An actor that achieved success, said My. Asche, fortunately achieved it by his ability to give others pleasure. He per sonally was pleased that in an idle mo merit in Manchester, owing to the fact that the weather was too bad for golf, he started writing a- pantomime—"Chu Chin Chow." It had been decried as .rubbish, and he quite agreed with the people that said so. (Laughter.) It only took a fortnight to write—perhaps too long for rubbish—but it had undoubtedly given a great deal of pleasure to thousands of people. It was put on during the war, and ran for nearly five years, as eve'-ybody knew, and he wag pleased to ihink that it had served a purpose. _ Mr. Asche gave some interesting reminiscences of l»is experiences in the air raids, and paid a, fine tribute to the pluck.of the London publio, which he said was truly wonderful. "Chu Chin Chow" made a fortune for Beerbohm Tree (Mr. Asche's principal). Mr. Asche told some very good stories of well-known people he had m«t in the days before "Chu Chin Chow." "We had not a great deal of money," said Mr. Asche, "but they wero very, very happy days." Some of the best were about Tree. One day Lewis Waller called about an engagement. How much would ho want to take the part? "£IOO a, week, and not a. penny less," retorted Waller. "Oh, you close the door as you .go out, won't you?" was all gruff old Tree vouchsafed.

Tree and Arthur Bourchier were great rivals, and once ivhen they were both pla.vinpf "Macbeth" there was a great gaa explosion in the Havmarket. ""What's that?" asked an excited actor. "Only Bourchier's head burst," muttered Tvec. Irving, who wits no great rider. was once playing Don Quixote, and wanted a sober old steed. He at last found something ancient and likely, and wag questioning the livery stable keeper. "Oh, yes," was the answer, "the horse was quiet, and just the one for the nurv pose." It had "agted" with Mi-. Tree. "Did anything happen?" asked the tragedian. "No, the horse simply yawned." 'Ah, thecritic," said Irving" ( During a certain production of tha ' Merry Wives," there was an all-star cast, including many former favourites. Ellen Terry and another of her colleagues drove up in the carriages, and Mr. Asche remarked to. Lady Tree: "Hers come the stars." "You mean the Ancient Lights," said Lady Tree, who had a caustic tongue, and was almost as ready as her husband, who was one of the quickest at repartea Mr. Asche had ever known.

Mrs. Patrick Campbell was one of the few women known'to score off Lady Tr?e. Lady Tree nearly always had fur on her dress, no matter what she wore "Ah," said Mrs. Patrick Campbell', Lady Tree is the only woman I know who can wear ermine and make it look like rabbit.

A good story well told was that of an actor named Knight, not noted for his acumen, who was once going up to Scotland in a party of which Stephen Phillips was a member. When asked if he Had been over the border before, Knight said no, and was regaled by Phillips with a long account of how the ceremony was something like that of crossing the Line for the first time. ■ They told him how everyone had to don kilts V ? T?l sVs. the tm'der for tlle first time Knight believed it, and the kilt in the properties of "Rob Roy" was resurrected The. guard of the train was in the joke, and Knight donned the garment half-an-hour before they got to drstairs. Ine rest of his costume was top hat button-up boots, frock coat, and k wellv,W? ♦if?' 1 °f ""fcnktfiimr. Convinced that a walk up an d down the platform was de ngeur, the weirdlv-at-lired actor played his part, much to the amusement of the but at Glasgow the climax was reached TY> carry on the joke the plotters hid his