SIR HARRY LAUDER HONORED
“ THIS BEATS THAT " SU- Harry Lauder has just been mad© a freeman of his native city of Edinburgh. In his speech when the honor was bestowed on him, he said; “ From my heart I thank you for the great honor yon have conferred on me this day. No son of Scotland could receive the freedom of this venerable city without being deeply moved. To have one’s name enrolled among the illustrious names which represent Scotland’s finest heritage is an honor oi which lam humbly proud. lam proud of Edinburgh, proud of your city because it is my city. And it is a wonderful thing, a signal honor to be honored in your own city. “The honor is greater because it was my father’s city, my grandfather’s city the city of romance, Edinburgh. Over its cobble ‘ causeyed ’ streets the feet of the wild clansmen have hurried; up its shaded closes their slogans have rung. Hound its grim rock wars have raged, and alike in its palaces and towers, and under its humblest room poets have dreamed and lovers have sung. History has been made in its Parliaments. From its barracks men have marched to make the word freedom great and holy by the shedding of their blood. Through all its grim conflicts there has ever been the urge of some great liberty, feo Edinburgh all down its history has been the centre and symbol of things that cannot die. “1 am proud that my name should be linked thus to-day in this great city. From our Scottish hillsides and glens young feet have borne off those who felt the thirst for knowledge, is there aland beneath the sun that can boast such glorious clusters of names distinguished in the field of science, medicine, law, and letters? Men from the ha’, the but, and the ben, living stuff that made great scholars, writers, preachers, teachers, doctors, lawyers, and statesmen, too, of their age. “Your very streets are historic Irom the tread of men who were the world’s pioneers. Your great schools of medicine, your institutions of healing, that very cluster of memories and illustrious names have laid all lands under an enormous debt. When I gather at your monuments 1 remember their sacredness by the impress they have made on the world’s progress. “When 1 look back on the years, folks, and tlicii look on my situation there to-day,-it gives me great thought. This situation to-day, my Lord Provost, drives my memory away back to the days when 1 worked in the mills and the mine, first as a half-timer in Arbroath. “ Later I went from the mill to the mines in Hamilton. Ah 1 yes, my hands are very soft now, but 1 can remember the day when they were harder than hal'd leather. And down from 6 in the morning to 6 at night. But then I was a willing horse. My sympathy goes out to the willing worker who cannot get a job. “I know how depressing and distressing it is to search for work tor a week or more, and be unsuccessful, but I suppose we get these little things to come along sometimes to try our stamina. These are the things that take a hold of us and give us a new view of things, give us a new vision, open up another channel, and away we go on to the road of success. I hope if there are any of my audiences to-day in that situation that they will get a new vision, and go ahead right on to the cud of the road.
“ My Lord Provost, this is the greatest hour of my life. I have never been so enthralled in my life. I have met many an audience. I have been ushered into many situations, but I have never found myself in a situation like this. I have been honored by many cities at home and abroad, but this is the grand finale. Even when His Majesty said ‘Sir Harry Lauder’—this beats that.”
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Evening Star, Issue 19783, 6 February 1928, Page 11
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673SIR HARRY LAUDER HONORED Evening Star, Issue 19783, 6 February 1928, Page 11
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