BRUNE, THE BOUNDER.

NZ Truth, Issue 84, 26 January 1907, Page 8

BRUNE, THE BOUNDER.

CLARENCE, HUSBAND OF "MISS" TITTELL, Tours as Theatrical Manager. Comes to Grief m New South Wales. Leaves His Company Sans Salary. A Barnstorming " Yankee Doodle " Diddler.

Mr Clarence Brune is the husband of "Miss" Tittell Brune, the actress who. thanks very much to the skilful engineering of Mr J. C. Williamson, has to-day a berth m the Australian theatrical world that the am-usement-lovers of America, whence she came to Australia, had very little idea of ever finding for her there.. But it isn't with Miss Tittel Ba-une that this article is concerned. In this case it is a matter of the woman making the man rather than the man making the woman— of the husband Becoming "famous" because o£ the wife, rather than the wife be; comins: "famous" because of the husbarfiKraftd rtoferencts is.; r mad€; to. iMiss ' Trttell being * the 'wife \of -MrV ; Clarence merely m. order that the latter may be better located, or . indicated, to those who are to read what is now about to be said of her . husband. Clarence, it seems, is , A BIT OF AN ACTOR HIMSELF —on the stage. His regret is that he can't get Australians to take him at his own valuation, or he would be quite a star m the Australian histrionic firmament. Of the sta-ge— well, that is -quite another thing. If the reports, made to ''Truth" be true—renorts m the shape of signed declarations, which the signatories declare themselves prepared to 'substantiate, if necessary, m a coutt of law—Clarence has been playing his own part, or his, own hand, remarkably well. Indeed, so well has he done this that there are quite, a number of theatrical people m Australia to-day who, fa- the services Clarence has succeadr ed m getting them to render him, have claims against him for different amounts which, so far, they have been unable to collect from him ; : and which, they declare/ there is very little prospect of ever collecting; from him. Clarence can put up at ■-;,■■.■,'.,

THE HOTEL ' AUSTRALIA, it is true. He can also sport one of the lartest and flashest motor-cars, and otherwise pace it with the very best of them, don't-cher-kriow. As a matter of fact, it is his* capers ' m this respect, more than anything else, that have of late been getting on to the nerves of his. lamenting creditors, and have, at last, induced them to anpeal to "Truth" with a view to the bounder— foir that is what they call him— receiving the castigation he so richly deserves. Clarence's pecuniary peccadilloes date as far. back, as Aiwrnst, 1905. In that month he arranged m Sydney foe a company to visit Newcastle, with himself at.' the head of it, of course. Among the members of it were the following :— Messrs Frank Houston, J. D. Henry * M. Nodin, H. Strattan, L. Vane, S. A. Fitzgerald, J". P. West, J. Fairbanks, S.'Farrelir F: ;V O. Ford, C: Mason, and Misses Nellie Fergusson, Gertrude Lyndon, and Edna LeigJv ton. The business manager was Mr J. L. Goodman,

A BROTHER OF THE POPULAR

; "GOODY," of Her Majesty's Theatre. Disaster swift and complete, was the fate of Clarence's combination. In fact, if it were hot that Clarence's confidence m his own drawing powers is something pitiable he must have recognised, from the first, that there could be nothing else m store for his venture, for the reason that he seemed to be setting out practically with nothing, and all that was wanted was a had night or two, atM/he outset, to put thd kybosh on everything. And that was precisely what happened. The, pieces staged at Newcastle were "The Emperor's Double" and "The Duke's Jester." The progranimes contained a block of Clarence's own beauteous self ,' arrayed m most picturesque attire, and, m. expression, representing him as something; more like a. God than the very ordinary human biped he happens to [be. For the performance one night, Clarence, m the hope of bluffing or bull-dozing the Newcastle people,, issued as many as 400 DOUBLE-COMPLIMENTARY TICKETS. Of course there was a good roll up on that occasion; but the < receipts, | naturally, were— nil. Clarence's hope j was that there would be a good house the following night. But m this he was disappointed, there being practically no audience . at all, with the result that instead of going on with the performance the company closed down. The "recital of the troubles of i members of the company at Newcastle, with their appeals to Clarence for monish on the one hand, and the shifts which Clarence, on the other, resorted to m the way of staving them off, would be altogether too

week after arrived off Bogimbah. Here they found a camp' of white "timber getters," who remembered Harry's departure from the island m company with the police. They had walked straight across, and, without a minute's celay, had, gone on board the steamer. This completely upset Bray, so he returned with the ketch to Sydney to report to the "head of the firm" his utter w^nt of success, and the loss of the £500 spent on the expedition. "If we could- only find that young sailor again," said Mr Crowther, as he nervously opened and shut his gold glasses. ■ "'D that young sailor," said Mr Bray, as he dashed his hat down on the office floor, and then kicked it ■through the open window into the street. "I took him for a flat, but he was sharp enough to get to wind'ard of me." , ' "Where <do you suppose he is now?" "Just about m San Francisco by this time. I 'shangbai'd' him aboard it-he Swan, and that cost another 1 £20." ! "Well— well— well," said Mr Crow- ' llier, with a shake of his head, "I I- certainly 1 did think that you had more 'shrewdness, Bray— but ons never Knows." (To be Continued.).

lon"\ and dreary, and sordid to give m. detail. "The long and the short of it is," remarked .one of '"Truth's" informants, ."that Mr West 'vas the only person who ever 'got his money from him, from that day to this. At any rate, of all the company, I was m the best position to hear if, any of the others got their money, and my information is that

NOT ONE OF THEM, beyond Mr West, ever did. Moreover, I might also tell you that it was not to Mr Brune's credit that even Mr West got his money. The fact is that Mr West refused to. go .unless paid "in -advance, and it was .under these ■ c4reum&4^jces-: ; 4hjj^;;; .heucame. ■ftq.^Jg. . paid."- One member of the company subsequently proceeded against Clarence before -a Stipendiary Magistrate m Sydney; but" m this action the member m question failed wholly 'through the advice* of a solicitor he had looking " aftejr the matter for him,' Clarence, m defence, set up a contention which the person, who was proceeding , against • hii» declared to be contrary to all the recognised practices' of tJie profession. Still, the magistrate' upheld the contention, with . the result ; that the plaintiff got ? . vardiot for only half the amount he claimed Clarence, then allied , for a writ of prohibition. The hearing of this case came before Mr Justice Pring, who / ascertained that m THE ACTION AT THE LOWER V ' COURT the "amount claimed did not represent the entire sum the aggrieved party considered Clarence owed him. The summons, it seems, had been taken but only for the amount which such a court was entitled to deal with. In this way Mr Justice Pring came to allow Clarence the writ of prohibition, for the reas O n that the other party had acted wrongly m goin- to the Lower Couib instead of proceeding against Clarence for the full amount before & Court tha* was entitled .to 'deal with it. Under legal advice, the defeated individual decided to carry the matter to the Federal Hin-h Court. But, m the meantime, Brune slipped off to 'America; It is alleged that he returned to' Sydney from Melbourne ■on a Saturday : or Sunday. and left by a boat, that went out the following Monday. So the peraon that was after his scalp could do nothing. "To our astonishment," it is remarked, '"we how find that .

THE' BOUNDER HAS RETURNED to Australia, bringing with him a 90-h.p. motor-car, and is at present living at the Hotel Australia m the .greatest style. At the same time, he .has; not been the man to, approach any of us with regard to the money" which ' we consider he had diddled us put of. He came \o one of us as a brother Mason. As such, he was treated, and his treatment of us m return is precisely as we have described it to* you." Of course, the members of Clarence's ill-fated company recognise that where a, man hasn't the money he can't pay it over. But this they very rightly hold is quite another thing from taking on a venture when he manifestly had not behind him the means to see it through— when he knew that all the chances were against him, or ought to have known that they were all against him, and 'that under the circumstances the mummers he engaged must be the sufferers. .So far from beine: able to excuse him on the score of bad luck, which under other conditions they might have done, they look upon his conduct towards , them as ■ •

A ."PIECE .OF PURE DECEPTION, and m putting on the bally lordly airs he is now assuming, instead of trying, quietly and honestly, to redeem his obligations, they do not hesitate to ask the community to endorse the view they take of him— namely, that he is a blatant, bounding humbug of the first water. "Bogus managers of his calibre," adds one< of his creditors, "should be known, and the poor "pro" protected with regard to them. There are many such managers ; but Clarence heads ! the list for. cool, insufferable snobbery, lying, and the rest of it."