RICH MAN’S ROMANCE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21649, 20 May 1932, Page 10

RICH MAN’S ROMANCE

GIRL THAT LIPTON LOVED - SWEETHEART TELLS STORY WHY THEY NEVER. MARRIED. The story is , told by the Daily Express of a romance in the life of the late Sir Thomas Lipton, a millionaire who died a bachelor, without a single relative, at the-age of 81. The story is one he would never tell, but kept in his heart, though its truth he frequently acknowledged by the,admission that he fell in love only once. He remained ever faithful to that love. It was the only thing his millions could not give. .’Some 50 years ago young,Thomas Liptonhad saved . enough by dint of hard' work and industry to open a little shop in Glasgow, where he, lived with his mother. Everybody now knows of the fame of. Sir Thomas Lipton, the friend of kings and emperors, ‘ of his princely generosity to the poor, of bis great sportsmanship. But few, know of the Scottish girl who, in those days long ago,' 90 often passed young Liptoh’s shop, rushing by lest he should pull , her pigtail, as he was wont to do. . She was his love, but. young Lipton was then only a poor shopkeeper struggling to keep a, home for himself and his mother and dreaming of the day when he could buy her a carriage “to ride in like a great lady.” END OF A GREAT LOVE. , ; Time went on, and the. pigtail frolics developed to. a great love, but here was one of the few instances where young Lipton failed. To-day,-in the lumbering city of Duluth, Minnesota, United 'States, his sweetheart is a grandmother, aged 67. *. ' . ’ . This is the story of Mrs, Catherine Stewdrt,' of whom Sir Thomas Lipton said, “ She is the 1 only woman I' ever loved beside my mother.” It was told as she sat in a rocking chair in her modest home, a grey-haired, sweet-faced woman, who was. the girl with the pigtail. - • - ;r. “ I wonder ,if • lo am doing .right,”- Mrs Stewart mused, as though she were betraying som'e sacred secret. She waved aside the early pigtail incidents and continued: “ I knew, Tommy back, in tjie days when he ran a modest business in Glasgow. He hadn’t many shillings then,” she added, thinking probably of the millions that he eventually earned. “ my First real sweetheart.” i ; ‘‘ The first-time .1 met him was at a party. A few days later he asked me to go riding. - He was a handsome boy 29, with dark eyes and black hair. He gave me a picture of himself, and I still have it. When he proposed to. me I talked it over with my parents. They advised me to wait, because I was so young! Tommy was my first real sweetheart, Not long afterwards he, went to England and then to India.,: I heard from friends that he said that he would never marry anyone if he could not marry me.” Some time later Catherine married Mr Robert Stewart, also of Glasgow, and together they emigrated to the United States. They have lived in Duluth; for 35 years. Her married life has been most happy, she said, but she has always watched with interest the progress of “ Tommy ” and was keenly interested in his yacht contests for the America Cup. “I always bought Lipton’s tea,” she smilingly added. ■