SIR THOMAS LIPTON. (M.A.P.)

Otago Witness, Issue 2504, 19 March 1902, Page 65

SIR THOMAS LIPTON. (M.A.P.)

The very timely life of !Sir Thomas Lipton, just issued by Messrs Ohph.int. Anderson, and Ferrier, is a striking example of the publishing enterprise of that firm: I take a few extracts from the bock, winch may give my readers some insight into the "Man of the Hour"*:— "Mr Lipton's father was an Irish tenant-farmer, renting a small farm at Clones, County Tyrone ; but, times being bad, lie and his wife, like so mauy others, removed to Scotland, and took a small provision business in Glasgow — the prosperous go-ahead Scotch cify. Even here, however, their prospects did not improve. Both parents had to maintain a constant struggle to provide the home with even a humb'.e degree of comfort. They were both industrious, hard-working folk. The father was a quiet, broad-shouldered man, with a homely whiskered face, and the mother was a busy, practical womar , whose native wit brightened their poverty " It was to this home that Thomas Lipton arrived in 1850. Speaking of the circumstances, he himself has told the author (Mr Charles T. Bateman) : ' Yes, I commenced at the bottom of the ladder, for my parents were very pool people.' At, the boy grew up. a lean, tall lad, the position of home atiairs weighed heavily upon him With a filial devotion far beyond his years, he ceased his schooling entirely on his own initiative when nine years old, to take up an errand boy's p!ace at 2s 6d per werk, so that he could relieve the burden at home. It happened in this wgy. He was going to school one morning when the familiar legend. ' Boy wanted,' not only ai rested his attention, but struck his imagination. He entered the shop, engaged with the proprietor, and at tha,t early age commenced his business career, -wbe^i mosb youiiq^Leri are .struggling- vritli subtraction and the ludiments "of reading und writing. He, however, attended evening classes for somo ve^.rs afterwards.

" Tliir ( ty-iive years ago au ambitious youth, poor and" unknown^, made his way across the Atlantic in an old.stetx'^ge- Jinlk, to seek fame and fortune in America." Today his passage over to Sandy Hook is heialded by Ihe press, of the two great continents of* the English-speaking race, and if he were a monarch no progress could be more royally anticipated. Sir Thomas has himself pictured his first visit. 'Whep I came over this time,' he said in 1896 U his friends at a public dinner in Chicago, "I was offered the best quartet s for my mil' and secietary. The best on the ship wa.s at my command. It made me think of my first jouiney over in the .steerage. It was so different." Do you know, I nevei come to Xew York but J go to look at the hotel wheie I was lodged, the roam in which I slept, and ta-'.k witb the proprietoi.' "Some yeai.s ago, Sii Thomas Lipton di«covered a pleasant house at Southgate, which he calls Osidge. It is a roomy, white-walled dwelling, with French windows. Venetian blinds, and veranda, built at the beginning of the last century. Surlounding it aie pleasant well-wooded giouiuN, tLe pnde of the owner, from which, on bright days, the dome of St. PaulN may be seen above the sni'-ke of th city. A featuie in the gardens is the sum me'i lioii'.- erected amongst the branches o. a fine oak tree, and in warm weather one

of the favourite resorts of Sir Thomas and bis guests. "Inside, the house has two characteristics . — its many corridors and its low ceilings. It is full of treasures, such as bronzes from "Japan, carvings from India, and horns from South Africa, collected by Sir Thomas in the coui\->e of his numerous foreign journeys. His keen-eyed, clever Cingalese valet and •the autograph portrait of Arabi Pasha are also further reminders of his travels."