BOOKS OF THE DAY

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 3059, 21 April 1917, Page 13

BOOKS OF THE DAY

WHictoner's Memories. ' . ' In "My Life: Sisty Years' Jkcollccof rß.ohemiau London". (Eveleifch periWWtcombe and Tombs), Mr. woi-Ro 11. Sims, 'the well-known Erigilish journalist and playwright, has proMuced an exceptionally readable autoPiograph.y, in which many Jiew and Intorestittg side-lights are- thrown upon fhe _ theatrical, and' Bo»«nian of Londoh,' from the 'sixties ■to the 'nineties _of tho last' century: ahe book is dedicated to the memory jof the late John Tliomson,-who;, when- £ mem , ber of. the literary staff of the Dispatch," 'gave Mr. Sims ,*is hrst htt up tho iouraalistio ladder ;&.v handing over to him his duties as a theatrical critic s Siins's first experiences of London ]jf e wcre i n a, busiBess house in.-tha City, in hie father's Office. Ho was determined to-benorab «• jounialist and playtrnght, but wisely remembering,, no doubt,-Dr. Johnson's > jpronouncemgjifc that a literary career ■Is a very nice walking-stick, but a very poor crutch, remained at his desk in fthe City-.until he had got himself fair«.T established as a journalist.: It ■■•;■■*•« through hii early journalistic t?fend Thomson that Mr. Sims made Jthe acquaintance of Henry Sanipsou, gho for so many years wrote the.-'.'Pen-dragon sporting articles in "Tho HeSereo, : . tho popular Sunday .newspaper Mo which Mr. Sims still, I believe, contributes a. rage of .gossip entitled ptaro; and Cress," and signed !'Dag'onet. Sampson was then tho 'nghtJhancl mairof the late Toni Hood (the #ounger_ Hood v of ..course): -on "Fsun and good-naturedly gave the ambitious ..jyoungnian a. chance to write for the |Penny comic weekly whioh had dared Ao rival the well-established "Punch." ;dhe pay was i; a pound a column, the pashier measuring up the contributioriE, •in whatever part Kof the paper they s sSir j Y, il \ eTt hisJamous"Bab in which >iir be-found tho bis librettos for the yet more famous operas. irt his -"Fun"' Pareer youn E Sims wrote a satirical arhclei drawnig attention to the num-:!faLP-a7S Q ? d at the Lyceum theatre in which Henry Irving had .gdwed .the part of= a murderer IrvKu» i TpT"" , a clmr ' m Yan kee, ?nd su d .. Fun .,, for dm _ ■QSss.. Irving, hbwevcr, stepped' in jvhon the trial h'ad l aste 'd B daf and I & a to °b aP ° I?ET ™fe the vn, e00I?Ule *,i V«T-Rood friend jo the J oung journalist. Later on in

• ■ •' S . S t.es and wdlWintorihe k,in l?ere = Vas a . tune :; when two black ■ -feimil, H WJ T , a - youDg Guardsman V& n^&^to companioll ' ,-tical manner. Dukes do not want to , their coronets over a broken now, would find two ■ v «.Tf 7 fi,- b tes L 1 -W« B .' mcoriTeuient extras. B.ut .the.: black-eje was. a quite common resultoova.f v a. "night out" in those''times ■lit was.so , general;.indeed, that in a side ■:*fawt>»; the;llaymarket ari artist had iSng.of.blact-eyes,- arid if.was open-from-eight in thocTening until four o'olock in,the.morning;: The songs of the'"lion;?Sbl v °i the ,-;Th e "Champame Home in fhe Bforamg Boys'? were types of the nigjj't!Jite of London.- •■•■'■■..., • • . :

rhe author, himself confesses to HavJng had a black-eye, which he'Jed his mother "to believe was the result of an accidental ..collision with a lamp-post" tout, he adds,, fas a-matter of-fact I got it in a.free fight.at.the Alhambya one Oxford and .Cambridge boat 'race ■Might. .■-.-Oh;-'.those boat race "nights! ,1 wonder what London would .think of ithem now?- , .-•'-■■ •

J, The Lights "or London." ' ' . Mr. 'Sims made his big hit as a playwright, with the melodrama, "The ■Lights of London," which, had an enormous vogue for several years He ■had.-'.previously.-, written a comedy, £Wch and Toothpick," a satire on MO dudes of■ tho day, originally produced at the Royalty. "The Lights of iLondoii"^was first produced at the old Priiicoss.'Theatre/ Oxford Street.' That was an September, 1881, and Mr. Sims ■fells us the "piece has been played somewhere in the world ever since." .Only.last) year ho received fees\for its performance'in Danish at Copenhagen, .and it was.Wbe played at Stockholm and Christiania. Wilson Barrett Jiiight havo boughtthe rights-right out 1 for. £1000, but .he made a royalty sigreement with tho author, who must have made quite n, respectable fortune out of this ono play alone. iWilson Barrett. v Mr. Sjms tells us that Barrett, who put into tho Princess Theatre the money she 'had made at Leeds and other provincial towns, made a fortune during the first years of his tenancy, his principal productions boing "The Lights of London, ' "Tho Romany Rye," "The Silver King", (all by Sims), and "ClaudJan. Unfortunately, he entrusted •the bulk of the money to a friend to invest for him, and .lost every penny. Me called his creditors together, and promised to pay orerybody in full and eventually did so, though for years ho mas seriously crippled. Eventually, Jiowever, he wrote and produced' "Tho' Sign of the Cross. ,, Fortuno smiled egam. He paid all his debts, nnd died comparatively wealthy. Just before Barrett's death (after an operation for an' internal complaint) the actormanager had booked a tour. The week have started out his case had become so serious that ho was told that only an operation ,could save bim. j

'■You will hftT* to bo opened tomorrow," said tho surgeon. "Oh," replied the sick man, "and I .was to Kayo opened myself on Monday." Hack the Ripper. ~, The chapter ia which the author reviews some of the.wore mysterious or sensational crimes occurring in London Huring his journalistic career is specially interesting, in the many now and curiious lights it throws upon many famous tarnnrnn,rcases. Xs a iourna'liot, Mr. Bime-followed the Jack the Ripper .(crimes at cloße quarters, He hs>d a

—James Thomson.

certain personal interest in the matrfi i T ms]y cno "gli his portrait, which had appearca on the cover of a sixpenny edition of his book. "The iS'fi fftodoMope," "as actually identified bv a coffee-stallkeeiwr as tho TTkciioss of the muclusought-aftcr assassin. Hays; Mr.Sims:— tm? tl}e ?i' sht of thß douWo murder, or rather in the email hours of the morning, "stnTl ,1 "-MM? d 7m a OUP Of ccffeo at th ° i J w j ■eM'keeper noticed, that ho had blood on his shirt-cuffs. The coffee merchant, looking at him keenly, said 'nHrt" "- lpper ' s about > Perhaps, ,to---.'"Y6s," replied the man, "ho is pretty lively just now, isn't he? You may hear of two murdere in the morning.-" Then Jio walked away. At dawn tho bodies of two:women murdered by the Kipper were found. ."'.■■■ ' Passing a newsvendor's shop that afternoon the caffee-stallkeeper saw my likeness outside the book. '. ! "That's the man," he said, and bought tho book. He took it ( first to Dr. Forbes Winslow, who was writing letters to tlie papers on the 'Kipper and crimes at tho time.' Forbes Winslow, who knew me, told "him it was absurd, hut the. man'went off with the book to Scotland Yard, and Forbes Winslow wroto to me, and told mo of the interview and the coffoc-stall-kecper's mistake. But it was quito a pardonable mistake, for tho redoubtable Ripper was not unlike me as I was at that time. . '

- According to Mr. Sims, the Ripper r was undoubtedly a doctor who had been - in a hinatio asylum, andtiad developed • nomicidal niania of a special kind. • After committing the last of. his nmr- - ders, the most maniacial of them all, > he drowneci Kmself, his body being found, in the Thames, after it had been i in tho river nearly a month, i As a journalist, playwright, and BoI. Ijemifth, Mr. , Sims has met ' in his day many celebrities, i literary, ■■- journalistic, and theatrical, anil his chapters are packed with. interesting anecdotes. As a journalist he has had a share in investii gating many social abuses. His articles . entitled "How the Poor Live" i undoubtedly, did groat good in direct--1 ing public attention to , the awful squalor and shocking poverty which are tho lot of so many thousands of Londoners. Ho writes in » very genial way of his experiences,' with never an ill-natured word, and his book makes, uncommonly gopd reading. Thevolutne contains several interesting portraits. (N.Z. price 757 6d.)