"THE HARBOR LIGHTS."

NZ Truth, Issue 78, 15 December 1906, Page 8

"THE HARBOR LIGHTS."

■ * STORY OF A GREAT TRAGEDY. The Murder of William Terriss. (By George E. Sims).

It was e^rly m the seventies that I I first met" William Terriss. I know that it was at' a ball, and a theatrical ball, but I have only the vaguest recollection of the ocoasion or of the general company. But I . distinctly remember four, people— Arthur ■ ' Swanborough, Sir John Bennett, Walter Joyce, and William Terriss. Terriss was then playing, I believe, at Drury Lane. As I remember him, I see, him, a handsome boy, with his girl wife, bright and breezy and romantic-look-in-" then, as he was to the end that was so black. a tragedy. . William Charles .James Lewin, who tobli the stage, name. of Terriss, be.gan to train for ah Adelphi hero from his youth. At the age of fourteen his friends got; him , a berth as a middy onboard one of Green and Co.'s ships. The statement, widely circulated, that be had been m the Navy, "arose from this fact. He was at sea as officer m "The Haribour Lights" for over 500 nights. His real career as a middy lasted about a fortnight. His people saw him off at Graves-end. When the ship anchored at Plymouth young William Lewin felt that he had had enough of the merchant service. He got a boatman: to put him ashore one dark night, .and he went home. .■■:■! Then he/went to Chittagorig and j tried tea-planting;. . He didn't like it, and. sailed for Calcutta. He came back to England, and vcias for a short time ; with a firmof engineers. But m 1867 he found his real "calling.*'' Making the acquaintance of Mr James; Rcdgers, he obtained an engagement at the Prince of Wales', Theatre, Birmingham, and his first part was that of CHOUSER IN "THE FLYING SCUD." Hjs salary was 18 : shillings, a week. Soon afterwards he came to London and got an. engagement at the Prince of Wales' Theatre with the Bancrofts. But, still unstable, he dropped his stage career for a time and sailed with his. young wife for the Falkland 'Islands to try sheep farming. , . , , . More Adelphi melodrama occurred on the voyage, They landed at Monte Video during a revolution, and had a narrow escape of being killed. They .left Monte Video intending to continue their journey, and were nearly ship-wrecked before they reached the Falkland Islands. The , sheep farm ins: did not last lonr. and young Terriss tried horse breeding, and did the Buffalo Bill business with the lasso, making, we may be sure, a highly picturesque figure. «, , : It was at Stanley, m the Falkland Islands, that Ellalrae Terriss, our own "Blue Bell," was born. The' Adelphi hero came back tp Enpland again, scored a t Drury Lane; m, the early seventies, when I firsts met him. and f then once... more,, tdjt, $alun > £- the' tfoards j'went' .to l^xiaigF ton, Kentucky, and tried nofse-breed-in" again. There he baeame stranded and penniless, but meeting a friend who advanced him some money, he returned to England with his wife and; babv«irl, travelling steerage In 1873 he appeared at the Strand as Dorincourt m "The Belle'.s Stratagem," and from that time his sucoess was rapid and assured. It was m 1885' that I received the. following letter :— „ "27 Great ; Queen-street, 15-6-'Bs,— Mr. dear Sims,— lt may possibly interest you to know that Ihave concluded an engagement of a somewhat lengthened period wi*th the Messrs Gatti— opening m th& autumn . with your' new play. If at any time you would care to see me with referenceto the play or part 1 shall sustain, it is scarcely neoessary for tne to say I shall always be glad to attend your summons.— Very faithfully, William Terriss,' Lyceum Theatre." This letter had reference to "The Harbour Lights '," written by Henry Pettitt and myself. . The play, was not then quite' finish-ed.--There is a story attached to the naval companion of "In the Ranks',' which has not, I fancy, been told, v The fiprst idea was that I should write it with Walter Besant, who had long been a friend of mine, had ex- ' pressed a desire to collaborate . with me m a drama, and when I told the Messrs Gatti they were delighted with the idea, as I need, hardly say I was myself . For WALTER BESANT AS A NOVEL-' - IST I had the greatest admiration, and toeing interested m the East End work which he was so enthusiastically carrying out, we became fast friends, and discussed many schemes, together. Besant was my companion on many trips about town, and on one-mem-orable occasion he took me to Portsntfflthyand showed me the great naval port as I had never seen it before. He loved Portsmouth, and had an inner lmowledge of Portsmouth life ond Portsmouth folk which few ■writers, of fiction possessed. But ver~ soon after we set to work, 'Besant discovered that his forte was not Adelphi melodrama, and he frankly said so. Although it was quite understood that the Messrs Gatti would produce a play by Besant and myself, he had no hesitation m abandoning a contract which might have been a very valuable one. He did so directly he came to the conclusion that he could not quite fulfil the conditions of a .successful collaborator m the style of drama the public at that time looked for at the popular house. The Q-attis were getting a little anxious when they discovered that I was not quite so enthusiastic as to the prospects of the play as I ought to, have been, and remembering how successful the collaboration m "In the Ranks" had been, Agostino Gatti said one day to me, "It is perhaps a pity we did not have Pettitt with you again." I was anxious to write with Pettitt toc&ufle we both thoroughly under-

stood each other's methods, ami were able to work bur "scenes" together, acting some of the strong scenes as we "spoke" them. And, moreover, we were free to travel about together and write where we chose. Walter Besant, having work which kept him m town, was not able to po off on the. spur of the moment to Manchester or Monte Carlo, Brighton or Biarritz, as Pettitt and I were, and that was again a drawback to the collaboration. The difficulty was quickly settled by Besant who. grasping tlw situation, generously solved it by sending me a letter m which -he withdrew from the Adelphi contract, and wished me every success with a collaborator who, he felt sure, would suit the circumstances better. THE ABANDONMENT OF OUR PARTNERSHIP m no (Way, interrupted my friendly rer lations with Walter Besant. He often came m to see me on his way from his Hampstead home to the West, and chatted over one or two of his schemes for the improvement of East End conditions. And he told me many an interesting story of his literary partnership with James Rice,' with whom he had once had a great idea, of doinir dramatic work. Their original essay m this i■,■ i. o a version 'of "Ready-Money Mortiboy," was not a financial success. I think m my case that Besant, who was a brilliant writer, felt that anxious as he was to give his talents to the theatre, strong melodrama was the last vehicle he ought to choose for the expression of the gifts which had won him his fame m every part of the English-speaking world. ' " . ■> So Pettitt and I came together again, and we wrote "The Harbpur Lights" m London, Liverpool, Brighton, Portsmouth, Malv. n. ad Glasgow, and on December 23, 1885, it was produced at the Adelphi, with William Terriss and Miss Jessie Millward as the hero and heroine, and Mr Beveridge^ Mr Percy Lyndal, Mr John Maclean', Mr E. Dagnall, • Miss Mary Rorke, Miss Maud Brennan and Mrs John Carter m the t As David Kingsley, R.N., William. Terriss took London by storm. The critics were unanimous : m his nraise. "Even those who have seen Mr T. P. Cooke," wrote one, 'twill hardly assert that the freshness the salt sea lives was ever better suggested than by Mr Terriss." ' ' Terriss 's portrait m uniform appeared m every shop winrtn His nhotograph as Lieutenant David Kinpsley was- one of the tnr--< .popular ,di'ristmas cards of 1886— the play had then been running twelve months— and the Adelphi was packed, night after' night for over a year and 1 a half: with an audience that never ifailed to, -fill the .theatre • ■ \ MTH IBANTIC EXPRESSIONS : at* itfa^p^ip^^^^Wth the^tentt * pfc the jcutt/yctf? Harbour Lights" my cbmioc^j.o^i the Adeli;h» lemporarily, oease^, and it was two or three, years before I, returned to it agaia' with. Henry Pettitt still as my ;collafcorjitor. ■' W« produced "The Silver Falls," m. which Te'rriss played the hero. He th>fcn went to America and returned t 0 England to play at the Adelphi at intervals.. He was m America m 1894, and wrote me the following characteristic letter :— - "Hotel Vendome, New York, 1-1-94. "Good morning, George !— How time flies— old friends and companions dropping off one by one— leaving us older and I trust better men. But Fan! sending you these few lines across the Atlantic to wish you m '94 all health and continued prosperity, and a. drink to ourselves and absent friends.— Will Terriss." He returned to England, apain and reappeared at the Adelphi. In ,1896 I had written a »>Lv which was intended for the Princess. Terriss wrote* me to let him read it before production, with a view to doing it m America. -I replied thai < was sorry I could not entertain his kind offer, as all rights ' for this world liad been disposed of. Here is Terriss's reply .— "Adelphi Theatre. "Dear George,— Sorry you have sold all rights for this world. What price the next ?— Will." Terriss was playing the hero m "Secret Service", at the Adelphi m 1897, when he met his death at the hands of. the man Archer— or Prince —who had so frenuently played small parts or come on with the crowd m the Terriss melodramas. Archer had been out of. an engagement for some time. . Having had anything but a successful career m the provinces, he found himself m London, disappointed, hard up, and undoubtedly affected m his mind. He had conceived the idea, , that Terriss was "■"""' "KEEPING HIM OUT OF A SHOP." It was quite untrue, for Terriss had tried to get him help from the Actors' Benevolent Fund. At 7.30 on the nigh*, of December 16, 1897, Terriss. accompanied by an old friend, Mr Graves, came along Maiden-lane, and put his key m the private stage door of the Adelphi. At that moment a strange-looking man, wearing an Inverness cane and slouch hat, and looking exactly like a Spanish conspiraic; of comic opera rushed across the road, and struck Terriss two violent blows m the back with a knife. , Terriss turned with a cry, and the madman stabbed him again. The man was instantly seized and poor Terriss was carried into the. passage ( of the theatre, and there m a few minutes he died. On the night of the murder I was sitting at my desk m 'the library at Clarence-terrace, writing a play for • the Adelphi— the play which was afterwards produced under the title of "The Gipsy Earl." I knew that Terriss was leaving the Adelphi, and would not play the parti hut as I wrote a scene that

evening I thought how well it would have suited him, and I fancied I could hear him speak the lines. .The. bell of the telephone which stood by my side rang, and I put the receiver to my ear. "Hullo !" I said ; "what is it ?" • Then came the most horrifying message I have ever received over the telephone— "William Terriss has just been stabbed outside the. Adelphi. He is dying." I knew the voice. It was that of my friend Mr W. H. Sprague, who had offices close to the theatre. But I couldn't believe that the horror was true. I thought it was some wild rumor that had been put about, and that Sprague was repeating it to tell me later on that there. -vas nothing m •But. when I had questioned him, he insisted that it was a fact. He had seen a man who had WITNESSED THE FATAL BLOW GIVEN. There was no more work for 'me that night. I got -up and went. out. I wanted to go. to tho; theatre, but I felt that I could, not. . j As , I • made my way to the West" I ' heard poor Terriss 's name dozens of times. The news had i.spread over the metropolis with lightening rapidity. There was nothing as yet m; the evening papers,' but the story had been carried' m every direction by 'bus drivers, cabmen, etc. I went to Verrey's,.-. m Regent- • street, arid there. a message from thcf editor of the "Evening News" followed me" from home. Would I write j an appreciation of Terriss at ones ? I was terribly upset, : but I didn't like to refuse; for I had known the dead man intimately for years, and I wanted to pay my tribute, to his memory , V I went back home, wrote an ''appreciation" of , poor "WiH" ; and took it to the newspaper office/myself at 4 ; o'clock m the morning. . Then I walked about the streets till daylight. The tragedy had unnerved me— l felt that I didn't want to go to bed and lie awake and think about it. .-.■•". The wretched man who committed the awful deed was undoubtedly insane. Though public opinion was fierce ' against him, as was only natural m the 1 shocking circumstances, though he was hissed m court and would, m the first outbreak of indignation and horror, have been lynched by the .mob if /lie bad been left to them, it was evident that the murderer, had no proper appreciation of the heinousness of his crime. "Guilty with provocation" was his firs>t plea, and though at the request of his legal advisers' he altered it, there is not the slightest doubt that Richard Arthur Prince thought himself a hero of melodrama m the court, or that m, Broadmoor he still looks upon himself as having done a melodramatic deed justified by his '"wrongs." • ' . These were imaginary so . far as Terriss was concerned, thoueh. doubtless m the -unhang lunatic's mind they were very real. Among the souvenirs of the fate of the' most popular .melodramatic actoir of -our time, I have a mimber of letters which were forwarded to me ' ■„■■■ ... . ■• ' ':'■ ..-■'■ ' ." • ■ ■ WHEN THE, TRAGEDY W' . ff f; ENGAGING THE PUBLIC MIND. One of them is' a mysterious communication m a' feminine handWxit* her jat» St. , Paneras Station m order thai) 1 might tell tier what course she ought to pursue, .as she knew "the woman who provided the means for poor William Terriss to be killed." . • A deed of this kind widely discussed always acts as a stress upon ' ill— balanced minds. The. letter I have quoted and others which were sent by the relatives' were written b^ 7 people whose brains had been affected by the tragedy With William Terriss the palmy days of Adelphi melodrama may be said to have ended. _There \v'"V" successes at the Adelphi afterwardsgreat successes— l had two m- collaboration with Robert Buchanan— but there was no "hero" found who could appeal so powerfully alike to the heart and the imagination of . the Adelphi playgoers as William Terriss had never failed to do. . "I haven't seen, Davis for. some days," said Isaacs. ' "Didn't you hear ? He was run over by; a butcher's cart on Friday," replied Levi: Gosh! He's got all the' luck!" commented Ike. "£IOO for damages, I suppose ? .