VESTA TILLY AND THE ESKIMO

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLVI, Issue 14109, 10 July 1909, Page 2 (Supplement)

VESTA TILLY AND THE ESKIMO

LONELY BOY'S MENTAL TORTURE IN »' Y . . : ; NEW -YORK. ' ( Miss Vesta , Tilley, .who, is as great, a favourite on the American music hall stage. as in England, has aroused New York to special enthusiasm by a kindly and * opportune' deed. •. ... '• ,"■

, ; The charming singer has authorised the expenditure,.of ' £200 for the repatriation of Mene, the Eskimo boy who was brought to >: New York by • his" father on' the ; return of-, one fof the ; Peary expeditions. ;• Mene's father died in New York, and thereafter the boy's troubles began. He was put ;to' school, and learnt English, but could never assimilate American ways, and New York, he declared, was always getting on his nerves. '--~. . ■■', ~ ,

He ' dared to assert that there was, more kindness in hie own Far North ; than there, and was always asking his guardian to send him home. At times Mene's piteous appeals to : be sent home reached; the .-. newspapers, and his case amounted almost to a.. public scandal. -When • Mene ; came *to know the white man's way,, he ,went to those who knew of n the death of his father to ask where his \ bones had been interred. No one answered him. - "

• One day, in the Museum of Natural History, New York, he came upon a glass case containing the skeleton of an Eskimo, and by reading the placard he found it was the skeleton of his father. The discovery greatly disheartened the boy, and lie announced a , plan to return -to his own primitive' people. ; He was baulked, and ran away.; He was missing for weeks, and recently a letter came from him to; a friend announcing * his intention of ending his life. Testa Tilley chanced to see'.the letter, and said she would send aid to Mene. He said he must receive - assistance or end his existence. The friend of Mene was at once despatched to . Montreal with money, and he; travels 'at Vesta' Tilley's expense. Llf more than ; £200 is required to repatriate Mene, Miss Vesta Tilley declares her readiness to head an entertainment to ;• be given for the boy's benefit. ' ,