PASSING OF A POPULAR NOVELIST

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 274, 15 August 1919, Page 8

PASSING OF A POPULAR NOVELIST

THEI LATE NAT GOULD. Though properly speaking, Nat Gould was not an Australian, yet as the stirrings of that genius for telling racy stories of the turf camo to him in that country—indeed, some of his fiction first saw the light in Australian newspapers with which he was connected as a journalist—the. news of his death is of mare than passing interest (says the Sydney "Daily Telegraph"). » Bom in Jlauchester in 185/, the lata Nat Gould was for a quarter of a century a journalist in Australia and England. He was a great traveller while in this country, and at various times was in this State, and in Queensland, Victoria and Tasmania. A prolific novelist, he produced 130 works, all enjoying a large measure of popularity amon»st those interested in the wiles of the turf. And in Australia that designation includes a big proportion of the community. In addition, _he produced scores of short stories published in.various journals and periodicals.' ~ Apart from the tact that he was great among turf writers, the late novelist was an exceedingly popular figure in tho turf world. One who was associated with him while on the Brisbane IcieTaph," where he wrote under the noni 3e plume of "Verax," tells of how on race days he would come to the office in tall hat and frock coat, immaculately', groomed, and how the crowd of tnrl followers would crowd around him as on a large blackboard outsido the h llding he wrote his tips for the da}. Amongst the newspaper men of the north, as elsewhere, he was exceedingly pop lar It » notable, too, that this retailer of the humorous and shady side of the turf, as well as tho good should have been he author of many charming Chriehnas stories Several b these we re contributed to the k > a l« ntulo run bv tho Brisbano "Telegraph. "The*gentleman who recall the picture of Nat Gould in Brisbano also tells of hs wit. Gould, it may be remarked, was by way of being a humorous moralS The man of twlay, then an office, t collided with Nat fen ff?. staff of the "Battmrst T.me= in uV stock. Gould, by the ke^nden t «K»rtLgofanaufrom 1881 to 1895.1* Au D utt rf S.»^F§&augtS S* Se^^^^^iu":