SIR HARRY LAUDER.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXIX, Issue 5354, 21 November 1928, Page 4

SIR HARRY LAUDER.

HELPEB HIS WTHBR TO CBTr

POVERTY! IN CHILDHOOD. Boyfliood ilAys are; recalled by Sir, Harry Lauder, the comedian, on the occasion of a presentation at Arbroath, Forfarshire, of a model of the half-time school he attended there when worJkinK at mill, where he earned % M a week. “The clothes I wore in those days,” said Sir Harry, “werq not made to measure?* He described hbw he and this mother added to tbie household income by teasing ropes. “I used to go to a warejhbuse . for a hundredweight of ropes,” he -said, “ami carry them on my back. ; My mother and) I Would sit 'from ebglif; at night until twelve at night, And we got thirough two hundredweight of rope a week. By that ■means tht; exchequer was augmented by tjiiree shillings. “My mother got 6s al week f<om the parish, a shilling a week for each ot the children not working. I wap the omly one working. "That was my beginning. How «an any man ever put on aide or airs when within hijs own soul is that experience, one that he can never forget? There things made one very, humble.” '

There vzag a catch in Sir Harry’s voice at he recalled his father’s death. .

“I sat at the fire ahd ihejlpeff mother to greet j(cry),” he said l in ,a low voice. “I .have done all my greeting, in Arbno'ltih, apd greeting is a tiding you never ihrget. I think that if Wd keep that jsometliing that is sad in our souls, then we have a very quid k

grasp of sympathy for our fellow men.”