GIPSY SMITH AND THE USHER

Dominion, Volume 20, Issue 57, 1 December 1926, Page 14

GIPSY SMITH AND THE USHER

FIVE SHILLINGS FOR DEAD MAN’S FAMILY .Dominion Special. Dunedin, November 30. -Regarding Gipsy Smith’s denial that he was aware that the man who died recently, and towards the relief' of whose family he gave a tramwayman 55., was an usher at his meetings, several new facts have come to light., Whether or not the tramway servant told the Gipsy that the man was an usher, it seems that he must haveknown. The Rev. H. E. Bellhouse,who was with the Gipsy when he saw... the man in a collapsed state, said this' morning that Gipsy Smith was told afterwards that the man had died and that he had been an usher at the mis-y sion.

As soon as I mentioned my purpose in calling on him,” said the tramway-.-man when spoken to on the matter today, “the Gipsy said, ‘this was the. man who died suddenly. He was one' of my ushers wasn’t he?’ “He said he. knew all about it,” added the tramwav servant, “and,any way, I went oil to 'tell him about the position of the man’s family, and about the subscription I was taking up. I would be pre-, pared to tell what I told you in the, presence of the Gipsy or anywhere else. He actually praised me for the ’ attitude I had taken up. I was with him about a quarter of an hour at Balmoral House, where he was staying. ’ The Rev. H. E. Bellhouse, who was with Gipsy Smith on the night of the usher’s collapse, said that the latter undoubtedly knew that the man was an usher at his meetings.. In fact he had an idea he had told him so himself.