HARRY LAUDER

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 2121, 13 April 1914, Page 8

HARRY LAUDER

HIS SONGS AND HIMSELF. Harry Lawfer, tho inimitable) Bcotu comedian and song writer, who has niacin n world •otaokto over such songs as "Stop Ycr TicHUn , , Jsck," ."I Love a Lassie," "JVni the Noo," is at present cultivating now audiences nightly o,t Melbourne. In a recent rn-torviow secured just before he left Amorien, Lftuder be«aiive a littlo moro intimate aboti-t feimsslf than is his woiit. B» said that ho had started life as a poor will laddto in Arbroath, and his first song ia public iviis one ho cotfld fee]:—

Though poverty doily looks itt at ray door. Though i'm hungry and footsore end HI--1 can look the whole world in tho face and can say: "Though poor, I'm a gentleman still." Ho -won a match for singing tliat, and his workmates were so ifap-fossed with his talent- that Olio of then) said: "Harry, Pis thinking ye'li iia'o £5 a week before ye dee!" It was a vision of what then appeared wealth beyond tho dreams of avarice. f "My first ■engagement," said the -man who is now about tho highest-paid vaudeville artist in the world, "was four* teen Weeks at 355.:* week. After it was over I went tack to the mine., but still applied for concert engagements* and after a bjt A Glivsg&w manager offered mo £3 lor ten performances, I accepted almost before the words were out of his nimitili," "It's no' ait ea.sy -thing to Bet good aang for the stage. 1 found thai from tho very first, and most of ifty ssngs I made up myssJ.f out of sotnethisg or othct I'd seen β-r heard, "the Sano'st 0 , the Family' arose out of a foolishkiolimjj led I noticed wandering down the jtroot. The idea 'of the 'Grocer's ; Errand LaMo' camo-from a- boy- 1 saw; "dressed iii a kilt j>edalling slowly along' with his grocer's basket on a bicycte. j 1. exaggerated the' character a bit, and j wrote up the sang for my Simple Sonny Shaw in tfro Glasgow pantomime. "I found it difficult to get a turn in London, but one day a performer did not not turn, up, and 1 was sent on in his plaee. the manager paid he didnathink I«mdoiiors would understand wy fiangs, and he wiana far Wrang, judging by ii little bit of talk I heard whan I loft the hall. As, I passed the front door t*o costers were cowing out. •Wot d'ye think o , that Scotch bloTjo? , Silo of them asked. 'Blow me, if I kiiowcfl 'alf 'ft said' , the other ati&wered: 'but, lor ! lummy, aiti't 'e funity V ''That reminds nio.-nf afltftlief story. I onco sang The Lass o' Killiedrankie' and some ether sangs to the inmates of b, lunatie asylum. They seemed to liko them, hut after the singing was dene one of them ca.mo up to me asitice as you lik&, and whispered: 'For pity's sake, Mr. Lander,' dinna* mak' thao funny fatos, er tlicj'll keep yo hero!' "One of tliO' sanpts 1 like best mysel' fs 'I Love a Lassie,' because it was' Bttgeested to im? by a tethr I got from lay wife- oftce when I was up in Aberdeen. As I was leaving the hall ©no night tho doorkeeper handed me the letter. ''' 'It's a lady's handwriting, , ho said, with a Isurli; "I suppose v&'ro a gey kd wi' the lassies? , "'I like them a , , 1 1 answered) Tecognising tho handwriting, 'hut. I only love this yin.' "Walkvnfi throu.s»h the quiet street on ray way ltgmo I began to String to* getlier the wotds of 'I Love a LaSsio,' ami before I got to my bed I lvnd it- Hear finished,"