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Oamaru Mail, Volume XXXI, Issue 8835, 15 July 1905, Page 3 (Supplement)

We have had of late boy-orators, boylinguists, boy-travellers, boy-journalists, boy-preachers" and, of course, boymuscians. Only the stage seemed unable to produce its useful wonder. And he has at length appeared—as Romeo, to the Juliet of an actress as young and talented as himself. No one, however, is likely to go wild over his performance, admirable as it was. Enthusiasm for the boy-actor seems never to have revived since the infant Roscius quitted the stage. His was indeed a triumph. Ireland, of which he was a native, first set the seal of approval upon his acting when he was 11 years of age. Glasgow followed, and Edinburgh, from the dignitaries of its Church and University and its Lords of Sessions downwards, went wild over the child. London was not less enthusiastic. When he anpeared at Covent Garden many people were injured in the struggle for admittance, and the military had to be called out. He realised a great fortune before he was 17. In after-life he declared that the enthusiastic admirers of his boyhood's acting wholly over-estimated him.