Business as Usual, Says Mrs. Meyrick

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 951, 19 April 1930, Page 18

Business as Usual, Says Mrs. Meyrick

Night-Club Queen Refuses to Abdicate . . . Emerges From Holloway Gaol Brighter Than Ever ... Was in Charge of Prison Creche. During her sojourn in Holloway Gaol Mrs. Kate Meyrick , the "Sight Club tjueen," was given the job of looking after the prison babies—a task, which gave her much happiness. Among the interesting people she met fn the gaol was • Colonel ” Barker , whose exploits as a man-woman caused such a sensation some time ago. ' Mrs. Meyrick, whose gave an intervew on her release. £E Forty-Three Club is going on. and there will be business as usual,” declared Mrs. Meyrick after what "as little less than a triumphal procession from the gates of Holloway Gaol to her house in Regent’s Park. The eyes of this vivacious woman—who will go down as London’s Night Club Queen, and who is by no means ashamed of the title —were sparkling with life and merriment for she was surrounded by the children for whom she has worked so hard to give them the best of education, and the best that life can provide. ’’Yes,” she went on. "the old FortyThree is going as strong as ever, thanks to the work put in by my children, who, while I have been in Holloway, have been carrying it on. It will still be what it has always been, the meeting place of the real demo- . racy, for in this club duke mixes with business girl, and prince with commoner. There are no class distinctions, and everyone is out to have a merry time.” We were standing in the drawingroom which was a bower of fragant bloom. Only an hour before this llightly-built little woman had emerged trom the gates of Holloway Gaol, clad in the squirrel coat which she worej during her trial at the Old Bailey. As the gates opened there arose a roar from the crowd which had ns-. (embled outside the prison. They had j come down in their dainty evening ; frocks and dress clothes, straight from the Forty-Three Club, where they had been holding high revel in view of the roming release of their popular hostess. iT he dancing girls were there and, fu addition to this tribute, they had sent Mrs. Meyrick a wonderful basket of choicest blooms as a token of their n Section. But the most affecting sight was the reunion of mother, son 3, ciul daughters outside the gaol. There were tears in the eyes of Mrs. Meyrick i ns she clasped first one and then the other and kissed them fondly. ' Speech! speech!" roared the crowd, nnrt Mrs. Meyrick paused for a brief moment or two to say a few words of thanks for their greeting, and promise them that the old Forty-Three Club would go on as before. And tnen—away to her home, where there were fresh greetings from her old prize-fighter butler. He foughtin the old bare-knuckle days. and there is no greater admirer of Mrs. Meyrick than her butler, whose knarled knuckles show ample traces of the gruelling times he had so many years ago, when there were more knocks and less money in the game than there are today. For breakfast—though she could not eat anything—there was a variety of viands cooked specially by the chef at the Forty-Three Club in honour of ;he occasion, and such is the amazing popularity of this woman that even the taxi-driver who drove me back to have breakfast with her, remarked on his departure: "And you can tell her from me that if she don't have a headacke till the taxi-drivers wish her one she won’t know what it is. Mrs. Meyrick laughingly said that she found quite a few friends among the other prisoners there —people who had been in with her on a previous occasion, when the law decided that it. wus wrong to sell drink after eleven o’clock at night. “It is just a year since I entered the gaol—a year to the day—and I ! might have been out a few days l earlier but for my desire to get just ; n glimpse of what w as happening in j the outside world. That is the great-, est punishment of all —not to know ! what is happening except for brief i snatches that one gets from other j prisoners as they come in. One day a j newspaper was smuggled into the j prison to another inmate, and in due j course it was passed round. Every j word of that paper was read, believe i me. and the only unfortunate thing]

was that it was discovered in my possession, with the result that I got live days’ remission stopped, and was confined to my cell for two days Love For Babies "For the last six months I have been in hospital, but before that I was working in the workshops for a lime. It is all very interesting, but 1 was ill when I came back from abroad to face my trial, and the shock of my heavy sentence naturally did not make me any better. I steadily got worse, and it was thought that if I could be more in the open air my condition would improve, so I was given the job of looking after the babies in the prison. “Nothing could have delighted me more. I simply love babies—l had a tairly large family myself—and these

were such darling little things, and all kept so beautifully clean and spotless in prison. They were born there, and that to me was such a tragedy for the unfortunate mites, that I felt I could have done anything for them. They spend each night with their mothers in the cells, and have breakfast with them. But after breakfast, they are taken away, while the mothers have to perform whatever tasks they may have been allotted. ‘There were nine of them in all, the most cuddlesome things one could ever see, and I simply loved to see them sprawling around on the patch of grass in the grounds during the summer months. This little piece of grass was especially reserved for them, and there was an awning over it. I think that was really my happiest time in prison, for these delightful little visitors claimed so much attention that one was able to forget the unpleasant surroundings in which one happened to be. “One of the babies to which I took a great fancy was a dark-skinned little creature, the child of a gipsy who was serving a short term, and who will be

released in the near future. We became quite friends, this girl and I, and she used to tell me about her life. When she comes out I am going to meet her at the gaol gates and see her safely on her way with her precious baby. “But in spite of the open-air labours which I had to do, I got steadily worse, and eventually I found myself in hospital. It was while I was there that I met a very interesting girl, who occupied the next cell to me. She is one of the most beautiful and intelligent girls I have ever seen. I heard all about her pitiful story, and I could not help but feel whai a terrible thing it was that this young girl, who had stolen in the ordinary sense of the word—for gain—but simply to gratify a strange, irresistible desire to have pretty thin,:-; should have been cast into prison. "I found her a most engaging girl, and became very friendly—or at least as friendly as prison conditions will allow—with her, and I hope that I shall meet her again, and wish her all good luck in the new venture which she is taking up. It is a ghastly thing to be .plunged into gaol among ‘hardened’ criminals. To a sensitive girl it can do great harm, and I feel very strougly that something should be done to prevent the possibility of first offenders of this kind having to go through such an ordeal. "Yet another interesting person whom I met ‘inside’ was Mrs. Smith —who created such a sensation as ‘Colonel Barker.” She. too, was a most charming woman, and it was very difficult to realise how she even succeeded in carrying out such a stupendous deception as she did in making people think that she was a man. “Actually, she is a most feminine type of woman, and there is nothing to suggest anything masculine in her, unless it be, perhaps, one or two gestures which she has probably acquired during her long years of masquerade. I liked her very much indeed, and there again, I know she must have suffered terribly during her period of imprisonment, for she is extremely sensitive. “Of course, there was great curiosity in the prison when it was heard that she was coming. She told me that at one time she was engaged to play the juvenile lead to Dolores in a sketch which was being produced for the famous model, and spoke of how they had rehearsed for some weeks together. During the whole of the time, Dolores had no idea that her handsome juvenile lead was other than a dashing young man. “I found things much different in Holloway this time. For example, instead of the dry bread which one had with one’s ‘morning tea.’ one now had some margarine. And there was meat every day for dinner, -whereas once upon a time one had meat one day and suet pudding another. As for the prison staff, they were all of them extremely kind to me. And now I must hurry off to the hairdressers —they have no marcel waving in Holloway you know!"