MR G. R. SIMS AND THE LATE W. T. STEAD.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 4, Issue 14, 19 February 1915, Page 1 (Supplement)

MR G. R. SIMS AND THE LATE W. T. STEAD.

In the course of some remarks in the London "Referee" on Miss Edith K. Harper's book "Stead: the Man," "Dagonet" writes:— It bore my memory back to the day when I sat on the Terrace at the Crystal Palace on a sunny afternoon at a little tea-table, and the little party round the table were William Stead, Miss Harper, Mr. and Mrs. George Starr, myself and Minty Lamb. A few days afterwards Mr. Stead sent the child one of his "Books for Bairns," with a charming inscription, and that was the last time I saw him. The Great Imperial Exhibition was then in process of construction in the grounds of the Palace, and Stead was getting together the material for the brochure he was going to write in connection with it. I can see him now crossing yawning chasms on a slender plank, climbing to giddy heights on rough scaffolding, leaning across trenches, dodging cranes, and holding on to ropes, and returning from the great adventure gay but grimy, with the dust of Empire in his eyes and the cement of Imperial brotherhood on his garments. And that is my last memory of him. There is a peculiar grace and charm about Miss Harper's book, the grace of loyal devotion and the charm of unquestioning faith. It is a very real book, though it deals mainly with what to many people will appear an unreality. It is a book about Julia's Bureau, by one who was almost as closely connected with it as its brilliant founder. On almost every page of the book you see William Stead as he was, a great, human, pulsing, red-blooded reality, but you see him communing with the shadows of the borderland, and long before you have finished the book you are impressed with the absolute reality of Julia in the faithful circle of which Stead was the presiding genius. You understand the influence of Stead upon that circle and the influence of Julia upoa Stead.