THE LIFE OF 
 SIR GEORGE NEWNES, BART. 
 
Photo by\ 
 
 {George Neivnes, Ltd, 
 
 SIR GEORGE NEVVNES, BART. 
 
THE LIFE OF 
 SIR GEORGE NEWNES 
 
 BART. 
 
 BY 
 
 HULDA FRIEDERICHS 
 
 AUTHOR OF 
 
 : MR. GLADSTONE IN THE EVENING OF HIS DAYS," "THE ROMANCE OF THE 
 SALVATION ARMY," ETC., ETC. 
 
 HODDER AND STOUGHTON 
 
 LONDON NEW YORK TORONTO 
 t I <f 1 1* 
 
-ffl 
 
 Printed in 1911. 
 
PREFACE 
 
 A FEW years before his death Sir George 
 Newnes went one autumn for a holiday to the 
 beautiful district in the Eastern States of North 
 America which lies between the Hudson and 
 the St. Lawrence rivers. One day, after lunch- 
 ing at Lake Placid Club, the largest and prob- 
 ably the most luxurious establishment of its 
 kind in the length and breadth of the Adiron- 
 dacks, he sat with a friend in the cool shade at 
 the edge of the lake. A letter had reached 
 him that morning from a man in England 
 whom he had not seen for more than twenty 
 years. It must have been a pleasant letter, 
 for the memories it recalled induced in Sir 
 George one of the rare moods when he put off 
 his usual reserve and became an extraordinarily 
 genial and fascinating talker. 
 
 Sitting there by the island-studded, forest- 
 
vi PREFACE 
 
 fringed lake, he talked for an hour and a half, 
 at the end of which, still under the spell of the 
 quiet voice that had conjured up scene after 
 scene, and episode upon episode, from a life 
 crowded with the high adventure and romance 
 so often hidden behind a seemingly uneventful 
 business career, the listener exclaimed : " Well, 
 I do not think I have ever in all my days heard 
 anything more interesting." 
 
 On the way back to his hotel, the thought 
 came for the first time to Sir George Newnes 
 that the things which had so interested this 
 Englishman might interest others too, and 
 gradually the idea took shape that some future 
 day, when he would have more leisure, he 
 would try to write the story of his life. When 
 putting the idea into words, he said, with a 
 merry twinkle : " I do not say, like the Irish- 
 man, ' If you follow me you shall see some of 
 the quarest things you have ever heard in 
 your life,' but I think I can promise that it 
 shall not be dull." 
 
 Presently, when rusticating at his Lynton 
 home, he began to dictate the beginning of his 
 autobiography. So cheerfully he began, so 
 energetically, with such sure tact and quick 
 understanding as to what would interest the 
 
PREFACE vii 
 
 public, that there seemed every prospect of 
 the story of his own career being added to the 
 many romantic stories of real life which he has 
 published. But before he had been able to 
 do more than sketch the outline of the work, 
 and to describe here and there an event or 
 incident, the disease which had been stealing 
 gradually upon him, and against which he had 
 made such brave, heroic struggles, held him 
 in its clutch. The exhausted brain could no 
 longer obey the strong will; the crowded 
 working day was over ; the night had come. 
 
 When the gods give to a mortal the gift of 
 seeing himself as he really is, a gift infinitely 
 more rare and precious than that of seeing 
 himself as others see him, the autobiography 
 of that man, if he writes it with the sincere 
 desire to present a true likeness of himself, 
 should be as the best work of the portrait 
 photographer. A biography, on the other 
 hand, must needs remain a more or less success- 
 ful impressionist picture, and more than this 
 the present volume does not pretend to be. 
 But my personal impressions, gathered in the 
 course of many years, have been supplemented 
 by those of others, and in this respect I am 
 greatly indebted to members of Sir George 
 
viii PREFACE 
 
 and Lady Newnes's families, especially to Sir 
 George's brother, Mr. William Newnes, and his 
 brother-in-law, Mr. James Hillyard; to Mr. 
 W. T. Stead, Mr. L. R. S. Tomalin, Mr. Green- 
 hough-Smith, Mr. W. Plank and Mr. T. Rees, 
 to whom I offer my sincerest thanks. 
 
 H. F. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 PAGE 
 
 PARENTS AND SON 1 
 
 CHAPTER II 
 THE BOY 10 
 
 CHAPTER III 
 THE YOUTH . .29 
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 " TIT-BITS " : THE INCEPTION 48 
 
 CHAPTER V 
 " TIT-BITS " : THE START 67 
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 
 THE GENTLE ART OF ADVERTISING .... 82 
 
 ix 
 
x CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 
 PAGE 
 
 THE "REVIEW OF REVIEWS" AND THE "STRAND" . 104 
 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 MORE MAGAZINES 125 
 
 CHAPTER IX 
 THE SECRET OF SUCCESS 139 
 
 CHAPTER X 
 M.P. FOR NEWMARKET 149 
 
 CHAPTER XI 
 M.P. FOR SWANSEA 164 
 
 CHAPTER XII 
 PRIVATE INTERESTS AND OCCUPATIONS . . . 186 
 
 CHAPTER XIII 
 A. SERVICE TO SCIENCE 205 
 
 CHAPTER XIV 
 
 " THE WESTMINSTER GAZETTE " 219 
 
CONTENTS xi 
 
 CHAPTER XV 
 
 PAGE 
 
 HOME LIFE 242 
 
 CHAPTER XVI 
 LYNTON 272 
 
 CHAPTER XVII 
 
 THE MAN 298 
 
CHAPTER I 
 
 PARENTS AND SON 
 
 IN the dining-room at Wildcroft, Sir George 
 Newnes's home on Putney Heath, there hung 
 for many years two family portraits which 
 often attracted the notice of strangers. They 
 represented an elderly couple, dressed in the 
 fashion of the early Victorian era. The lady 
 wore a gown of silk that looked as if it would 
 " stand by itself," the usual long gold chain, 
 fine lace collar and elaborate cap tied with 
 wide silk ribbons under the chin, which together 
 made up the attire of a gentlewoman of that 
 day. The fact that in her picture she also wore 
 glasses, good large old-fashioned spectacles, 
 set in a gold frame, and that she wore them 
 sufficiently low on her nose to enable her to 
 look out upon the world from above them, 
 suggested that probably she was a lady of 
 strong and independent opinion, who was not 
 going to allow the artist to present her other 
 than she was in ordinary daily life. The 
 gentleman sitting in front of an old carved 
 gate-leg table, in an easy attitude and with a 
 
2 LIFE OF SIR GEORGE NEWNES 
 
 book in his hand and more books and an ink- 
 stand beside him, wore broadcloth and the 
 particular white tie which betokened the Non- 
 conformist minister. 
 
 You might not have looked twice at the 
 clothes, except as one looks at something 
 belonging to, and characteristic of, past years, 
 or in order to make comparisons between the 
 simple attire of those two representatives of 
 the early Victorian era and the costumes worn 
 by the men and women whose portraits hang 
 every year from May till August on the walls 
 of Burlington House. But the faces in both 
 pictures were arresting, alive, unusually 
 interesting. The limpidity of the lady's eyes 
 contradicted her white hair, the lines which 
 life had graven into her beautiful face, and the 
 somewhat sad expression of the mouth. And 
 out of her husband's face there laughed and 
 danced eyes as young as hers, but far merrier, 
 and with the merriment there mingled a some- 
 thing which, ever so faintly, suggested a firm- 
 ness that might under adverse circumstances 
 develop into a tenacity awkward for an 
 opponent. The square, protruding chin con- 
 firmed this suggestion, while a frame of white 
 hair, cut none too short, and brushed right back 
 from the forehead, did its best to soften it. 
 Keenly intelligent too he seemed, this young 
 old gentleman, as he looked straight at you 
 with those alert and eager eyes. And the 
 
PARENTS AND SON 3 
 
 artist over and above indicating his sitters' 
 temperament in face and attitude, had suc- 
 ceeded in enveloping both in an atmosphere 
 of old-world calm and quiet which gave the 
 portraits a value far above that of the come- 
 liness of the faces. 
 
 If a Rembrandt or a Velasquez had painted 
 them, and they had been hanging in a famous 
 gallery where every one could see them, they 
 might have been numbered among the portraits 
 with which, according to an interesting plebis- 
 cite taken a few years ago, you could " live," 
 without ever getting tired of them. 
 
 The portraits represented the Rev. Thomas 
 Mold Newnes, a Shropshire man born when 
 the nineteenth century was very young, and 
 Mrs. Newnes, his wife, " as fine a Scotswoman 
 as ever lived," in the opinion of her youngest 
 son. Mr. Newnes as a boy was so distressfully 
 fond of mere books and bookish things that his 
 parents did not even attempt to make a business 
 man of him, but destined him for the Congre- 
 gational ministry, and sent him to be educated 
 at what is now the Lancashire Independent 
 College. In 1840 he married Miss Urquhart, 
 a lady possessed of both beauty and a modest 
 fortune. She had been brought up in England, 
 and in her voice there was not a trace of the 
 accent which her native town of Dundee should 
 have bestowed upon her ; but for all the lack of 
 outward signs and tokens of her nationality 
 
 B2 
 
4 LIFE OF SIR GEORGE NEWNES 
 
 she remained enthusiastically Scottish; and 
 among her children's dearest recollections of 
 their early days are the stories of Scotland and 
 Dundee which she knew how to adorn with 
 the charm and mystery of fairyland. 
 
 Mr. and Mrs. Newnes had six children, three 
 sons and three daughters, and when their 
 youngest son, George, was born, the minister 
 was stationed at Glenorchy, Matlock Bath, 
 where for thirteen years he laboured with 
 enthusiasm and great success, the fervour of 
 his faith burning so hot within him that, 
 together with his work among his own flock, 
 he often undertook pastoral duties in the 
 neighbourhood. Then, as if the long morning 
 and evening services at his own chapel were 
 not enough to satisfy or tire any man, he walked 
 over on Sunday afternoons to Matlock Green 
 to preach in an " upper room " of a private 
 house, thereby laying the foundations of the 
 Congregational cause at Matlock Bank. 
 
 Mr. Newnes belonged to a generation of Free 
 Church pastors who brought to their work a 
 deep sense of responsibility, which is rarer to- 
 day. To him the command of the Master 
 whom he served so faithfully all the days of 
 his life, " Feed My lambs," meant far more 
 than the punctual fulfilment of the ordinary 
 duties of his office. As he interpreted it, it 
 meant whole-hearted, incessant devotion to 
 the people given into his charge, and included, 
 
PARENTS AND SON 5 
 
 besides a perfect passion for the saving of souls 
 and the furthering of the Kingdom of God upon 
 earth, a sincere interest in the temporal affairs 
 of each individual member of his congregation. 
 He helped and advised, he shared their joys 
 and sorrows, and in turn was helped and 
 (occasionally) advised by them. In fact, his 
 was a case of 
 
 " The law of Christ, and His Apostles twelve, 
 He taught, but first he followed it himself." 
 
 To brighten and lighten his deep piety, which 
 in those days, and in the branch of the Church 
 militant to which he belonged, was apt to be 
 far more sternly Puritanical than it is to-day, 
 he had an unquenchable sense of humour which 
 now and then became so exuberant that his 
 Scottish wife grew positively anxious concerning 
 the state of his soul, and besought him, in the 
 midst of his merriment, to remember his latter 
 end. It was especially while playing with those 
 six high-spirited sons and daughters of his, 
 and with their playmates, that the Rev. T. M. 
 Newnes was apt momentarily to forget how 
 solemn an affair this life on earth is bound to 
 be, and how ill it becomes a pastor to romp with 
 those that romp. The sense of his iniquity 
 would burst upon him suddenly even while the 
 fun was at its highest, when he would check 
 himself without delay in his mad career, and 
 with the same absolute sincerity which even 
 
6 LIFE OF SIR GEORGE NEWNES 
 
 now had caused him to lead in the games and 
 gambols of a band of boys and girls, he would 
 bid the gay tumult cease, that there and then 
 they might engage in prayer. Nor did any 
 children's party at the Manse ever break up 
 without a closing prayer. 
 
 In politics Mr. Newnes was as staunch and 
 ardent a Liberal as it behoved a Congregational 
 minister to be, and in his easy eloquence as a 
 platform speaker he showed himself to be as 
 well informed an historian as in his sermons he 
 was the profound and scholarly Bible student. 
 
 A curious little document, written thirty 
 years ago, when the minister's son George had 
 first entered Parliament, points to the fact 
 that Mr. Newnes's learning was recognized 
 even in his young days. It is a note written in 
 April 1880 by Lady Crossley, the widow of Sir 
 Francis Crossley, and addressed from Somer- 
 leyton, Lowestoft, to the new member for New- 
 market. " Lady Crossley," it runs, " presents 
 her kind regards to Mr. G. Newnes, and is so 
 pleased to find that he is the son of her old 
 friend at Warley, whose remarkable knowledge 
 of European History and politics she so much 
 appreciated would very heartily congratulate 
 his son on his parliamentary honours and 
 hopeful future." The Warley mentioned is 
 the place near Halifax where the Rev. T. M. 
 Newnes was minister after leaving Matlock 
 Bath. 
 
REV. T r M t NEWNES, 
 
PARENTS AND SON 7 
 
 Mrs. Newnes found it the more easy to con- 
 done her husband's occasional whimsicalities 
 because she herself by no means belonged to 
 the average conventional type of woman ; and 
 if she was inclined to take life more seriously, 
 and to concern herself more with her children's 
 mental and spiritual welfare than with their 
 games and pranks, she tolerated without 
 impatience any peculiarities of taste and 
 temperament they began to develop. 
 
 One reason for this broad tolerance was 
 unquestionably the fact that she herself, in 
 her very quiet and reserved way, was entirely 
 independent of social conventions when they 
 happened to interfere with her purposes. 
 Thus, her great love of the sea, which two of 
 her sons inherited, and which sent the eldest 
 to an early grave, drew this exemplary wife 
 and mother every now and then irresistibly 
 away from home. No one but her husband 
 knew where she had gone, and her own children 
 learnt only later in life that on these occasions, 
 when suddenly she disappeared for a few days, 
 she was taking short sea voyages from which 
 she returned refreshed and rejuvenated, to 
 take up her busy family life again, the manage- 
 ment of that healthy, boisterous young family, 
 that keen-witted, eccentric, scholarly husband 
 of hers, and to work among the poor to whom 
 she was so good and kind a friend. 
 
 Every now and then the husband and wife 
 
8 LIFE OF SIR GEORGE NEWNES 
 
 went away together for a short holiday, in the 
 far-off days before an annual holiday away 
 from home had come to be considered an abso- 
 lute necessity of life. In 1851, for instance, a 
 journey to London, to the Great Exhibition, 
 was the event of the summer. Mr. Newnes, 
 alert and public-spirited as he was, had taken 
 much trouble in helping to make the Exhibition 
 representative, and a framed certificate, with 
 a medal in the centre, and bearing the following 
 inscription was awarded to him 
 
 " Exhibition of the Works of Industry of 
 All Nations, 1851. I hereby certify that Her 
 Majesty's Commissioners have awarded a medal 
 to T. M. Newnes for services rendered to the 
 Exhibition." 
 
 The document is signed, " Albert, President 
 of the Commission," and is dated from the 
 " Exhibition, Hyde Park, London, October 15, 
 1851." 
 
 On this triumphal journey to London they 
 took with them their three-months-old son 
 George, and that is how the man who was to 
 spend so important a part of his life in London, 
 was first introduced to the Metropolis. 
 
 George Newnes was born in March 1851 at the 
 old Manse of Matlock Bath, Glenorchy House, 
 built by Lady Glenorchy in the eighteenth 
 century. Set into an old and shady garden 
 
PARENTS AND SON 9 
 
 sloping down to the rapid Derwent, and 
 surrounded by the beautiful hill scenery of 
 the Peak District Glenorchy House, large, 
 dignified and ivy-mantled, was, and is, an 
 ideal country residence, a place which was 
 bound to give to the children the love of green 
 places and the open air for which later on, 
 during his apprenticeship in London, George 
 Newnes hungered and thirsted so often and 
 so passionately. 
 
 Petted and adored by his elder sisters, to 
 whom the child's fair, delicate prettiness and 
 winning ways made strong appeal, and by the 
 two brothers in whom the mischievous imp's 
 baby pranks awakened all the protective love 
 of the consciously strong and powerful, life 
 opened pleasantly and happily enough for the 
 youngest member of the Glenorchy Manse 
 family ; and there are no epoch-making events 
 to be recorded in the life of George Newnes till 
 the day came when, at the age of nine years, 
 he started upon the real, solemn business of life, 
 by being enrolled among the students of a 
 boarding-school. 
 
CHAPTER II 
 
 THE BOY 
 
 IT is more than probable that the little boy 
 who was sent at an unusually early age to a 
 boarding-school for older boys, was somewhat 
 of a " pickle " at home; probable also that his 
 good Scottish mother, for all her apparent 
 gravity and disapproval of indulgences, had 
 let that youngest child of hers have his own 
 way rather more than was altogether good for 
 him. There was every excuse for her falling 
 into this maternal error, for the boy had win- 
 ning ways, his blue eyes flashed and laughed 
 out of a little, delicately moulded face, the crop 
 of fair curls round which he did his best to 
 straighten out by a liberal application of 
 water, as soon as he was old enough to be 
 ashamed of curls. 
 
 It may also be that Mr. and Mrs. Newnes, 
 having destined George for the ministry, con- 
 sidered that the training for his profession could 
 not be begun too soon. At any rate, he was 
 sent to Silcoates, the well-known boarding- 
 school near Wakefield for the sons of Congre- 
 
 10 
 
Photo} 
 
 MRS ? T. URQUHART NEWNES, 
 
THE BOY 11 
 
 gational ministers, at an age when most boys of 
 his class were still taught at the nursery table, 
 if they were taught at all. The eldest of Mr. 
 and Mrs. Newnes's three sons, Edward, who had 
 been at the school for some time, would look 
 after his brother, they thought ; and the little 
 one, nothing loath, went off in high spirits, 
 eagerly looking forward to the fun and excite- 
 ment of living with a houseful of big boys. 
 
 Ted, as the elder brother was called by every- 
 body, was a sort of hero at school, a fine and 
 restless spirit, who later on ran off to sea, and 
 was drowned in a shipwreck off the Breton 
 coast. In his small brother's eyes, during the 
 Silcoates days, he was the model of all that a big 
 boy should be, and long after Ted was sleeping 
 the last sleep at the bottom of the sea, his 
 brother, recalling his early school-days, wrote 
 of him : " Ted belonged to the finest type of 
 physically developed youths, not unlike Jan 
 Ridd, in Blackmore's Lorna Doone. He re- 
 quired no parental injunction to look after me 
 at school; and for his own love of me he was 
 the greatest friend I ever had." 
 
 The Silcoates of the 'sixties of the nineteenth 
 century was not outwardly the Silcoates of to- 
 day. The house has been rebuilt after a fire 
 which consumed the old premises, and with 
 them the fine organ which Mr. Newnes later 
 on gave to his school ; all the modern conve- 
 niences have been introduced without which 
 
12 LIFE OF SIR GEORGE NEWNES 
 
 no self-respecting boarding-school could exist 
 to-day, but which at that time would have been 
 considered luxuries and therefore undesirable. 
 The mental and moral atmosphere of the older 
 Silcoates, the spirit of broad liberalism in all 
 things, have remained the same, and the 
 school still takes the same honoured and 
 honourable place among educational establish- 
 ments of its kind. 
 
 It must have been an ideal school for boys 
 at the time when George Newnes became a 
 pupil. At its head was Dr. J. Bewglass, of 
 Trinity College, Dublin, a man in whom all 
 the most lovable and admirable qualities of 
 the Irishman were united: a sort of Noncon- 
 formist Arnold of Rugby, adored, trusted and 
 respected by the fifty lively lads over whom he 
 was set to rule. Mr. W. T. Stead who was 
 Edward and George Newnes's contemporary, 
 and who came from a singularly happy and 
 united home-circle owns without hesitation 
 that the happiest years of his boyhood were 
 those he spent at Silcoates, when Dr. Bewglass 
 was head master, ruling by love, and not by 
 the rod, although that instrument of drastic 
 discipline was not altogether unknown, since 
 some of the old boys can remember as one of 
 the events of their school-life the single flogging 
 administered in the course of several years. 
 
 The principal's wise method was to show the 
 boys that he had absolute confidence in them ; 
 
THE BOY 13 
 
 that he believed they would do nothing dis- 
 honourable or discreditable either at school 
 or at play; that he was their friend as well as 
 their master, and that their interests, their 
 troubles and difficulties were his, to be shared 
 under all circumstances. The method an- 
 swered, since the Silcoates boys, happy at all 
 times at their school, were happiest when in 
 the company of their head master. 
 
 In politics Dr. Bewglass was as staunch a 
 Liberal as in religion he was a good, democratic 
 Congregationalist, and as, in his profession, 
 he was one of the wisest and most far-seeing 
 educationalists of the time. When there was 
 an election at Wakefield, masters and boys 
 alike took part in the excitement ; if they wished 
 to do so, the pupils might attend the meetings. 
 Coming from Nonconformist manses, and there- 
 fore good Liberals in the bud, the majority 
 went gaily to the fray, cheering their candidate, 
 howling down the Tories, and adding consider- 
 ably to the hilarity of the meetings ; but never 
 discrediting their school or its principal, their 
 love for the latter alone, if nothing else, restrain- 
 ing them. 
 
 They were fine cricketers too, in that famous 
 cricketing district, and the great event of the 
 summer term was always the match between 
 the sons of ministers and the sons of laymen, 
 a few of the latter, living in the neighbourhood, 
 being admitted as day-boarders. 
 
14 LIFE OF SIR GEORGE NEWNES 
 
 On the two weekly half-holidays, Wednesday 
 and Saturday, all the boys were allowed to go 
 into Wakefield, spending their time as they 
 pleased, it being understood that no Silcoates 
 boy would spend it in a manner not compatible 
 with the tenets of the school. They might 
 take whatever book they wanted from the 
 school library; indeed, they might even read 
 at meal times at this Liberty Hall of half a 
 century ago, where a Spartan mode of living 
 went merrily hand in hand with a thoroughly 
 sound modern education. The contrast be- 
 tween the Silcoates routine at the time when 
 George Newnes was the youngest of the 
 boarders, and the average modern boarding- 
 school for the sons of refined and educated 
 parents is curiously suggestive and interesting, 
 recalling some of the quaint and merry episodes 
 in the lives of the immortal school-boys of the 
 Dickens stories. 
 
 Year in, year out, the school-bell rang at 
 six a.m., rousing the lads from sleep. No 
 bathrooms then, into which to rush, except 
 once a week, when everybody was scrubbed 
 from top to toe. Instead, they were trotted 
 off to the room where some twenty not too 
 luxuriously appointed hand-washstands were 
 at the disposal of the fifty who took their 
 ablutions in turn. When the first batch had 
 emptied the water- jugs, the remaining un- 
 washed, ran down in the scantiest attire, to 
 
THE BOY 15 
 
 replenish them outside at the pump. In the 
 depth of winter this expedition was quite 
 sufficient to banish the last vestige of sleep. 
 At twenty minutes to seven prayers were 
 read, and punctually at seven an hour's lesson 
 in a branch of arithmetic, that most terrible of 
 the exact sciences, was begun. Is it a wonder 
 that now and then a pupil should under this 
 regime develop, as George Newnes developed, 
 into a lightning calculator; while others for 
 the rest of their lives were so fully convinced 
 of having done all that could be required of 
 them by way of solution of arithmetical prob- 
 lems, that they left these things as far as 
 possible to others ? 
 
 Breakfast, which came at eight, must have 
 had a particular savour at the end of that hour 
 of figures. There was one feature connected 
 with the rites of the early meal which, at this 
 distance, seems delightful, but which possibly 
 at the time added an occasional pang to a hun- 
 gry scholar hankering after a larger portion of 
 things good to eat than fell to his lawful share. 
 The pieces de resistance were rounds of bread- 
 and-butter, right substantial ones, to match 
 the appetites of those who had worked at 
 " slate things " of the arithmetical, mathe- 
 matical, or algebraic kind, for an hour on end, 
 and on an empty, hungry stomach. Now the 
 sons of laymen paid twice as much per year in 
 fees as the sons of ministers, for whose benefit 
 
16 LIFE OF SIR GEORGE NEWNES 
 
 the school had been established, and who 
 for the sum of 15 received a year's excellent 
 education, board and lodging included. And 
 because the young laymen paid 30 per annum, 
 these spoiled darlings of the gods were allowed 
 a second slice of bread-and-butter at break- 
 fast. If even this was not sufficient to stay 
 the pangs of hunger they might do as did their 
 less privileged companions and eat dry bread 
 till they were satisfied. 
 
 From eight-thirty to nine the boys played 
 in the grounds around the unpretentious red 
 brick school-house, and at nine a three-hours' 
 course began with a Scripture lesson. Then 
 came another hour's play, and after that the 
 dinner, at which the pudding was served first 
 and the meat course afterwards. And if there 
 seemed to hang something indefinitely severe 
 about the rice or " resurrection " puddings 
 which were most frequently representative of 
 the first course, there was, on the other hand, a 
 something positively romantic, almost medi- 
 aeval, about the roast beef of the Sabbath noon- 
 day banquet, for it was done in the good old 
 way, on the spit, suspended in front of the fire, 
 and those who ate have never yet (in the 
 opinion of at least one of them) eaten the like, 
 for absolute perfection, unto the spit-baked 
 Sunday roast of the Silcoates of fifty years 
 ago. 
 
 The midday meal lasted thirty minutes, and 
 
THE BOY 17 
 
 was followed immediately by cricket, foot- 
 ball or some other seasonable game, till at three 
 the school reassembled for two hours more, 
 followed by tea at five. The half-hour's 
 interval after tea, originally set apart for 
 recreation, was at that time spent by many of 
 the boys at the prayer-meetings instituted as 
 the outcome of a great religious Revival that 
 had lately swept over the country, and had 
 touched a large number of schools, leaving a 
 deep and lasting impression on the lives of 
 a number of young people. As will be seen 
 presently, George Newnes had a double reason 
 for remembering those gatherings which the 
 boys had organized entirely of their own 
 accord, the masters taking no part in them. 
 Mr. Stead, in his preface to a pamphlet entitled 
 The Revival in the West, written in 1905, in 
 connexion with the Welsh Revival of that date, 
 gives a vivid sketch of these strange school- 
 boy prayer- meetings. The following passage is 
 taken from this pamphlet 
 
 " In July 1861 I was sent to a boarding- 
 school for Congregational ministers' sons, to 
 which some sons of laymen were also admitted, 
 at Silcoates Hall, near Wakefield. There were 
 about fifty of us boys, from ten years old to 
 sixteen or seventeen. The tradition of the 
 school in the 'fifties and in 1860 had not been 
 distinctly religious. All of us came from 
 
18 LIFE OF SIR GEORGE NEWNES 
 
 Christian homes, but as a school it was very 
 much like other schools. About a month after 
 I entered Silcoates some of the lads started a 
 prayer-meeting of their own in a summer- 
 house in the garden. They asked me to join, 
 and I went more out of curiosity, and to oblige 
 my chum, than for any other motive. There 
 were about half-a-dozen of us, perhaps more, 
 none of us over fourteen. We read a chapter 
 in the Bible, and we prayed. No master was 
 present, nor was there any attempt made on 
 the part of the masters to encourage the prayer- 
 meetings. One master, indeed, was frankly 
 contemptuous. The majority of the boys had 
 nothing to with ' the prayer-meeting fellows.' 
 . . . Suddenly, one day, after the prayer-meet- 
 ing had been going on for a week or two, there 
 seemed to be a sudden change in the atmo- 
 sphere. How it came about no one ever knew. 
 All that we did know was that there seemed to 
 have descended from the sky, with the sudden- 
 ness of a drenching thunder-shower, a spirit 
 of intense earnest seeking after God for the 
 forgiveness of sins and the consecration to 
 His service. The summer-house was crowded 
 with boys. A deputation waited upon the 
 principal, and told him what was happening. 
 He was very sympathetic and helpful. Pre- 
 paration class was dispensed with that night; 
 all the evening the prayer-meeting was kept 
 going. How well I remember the solemn hush 
 
THE BOY 19 
 
 of that memorable day and night . . . Only 
 half a dozen out of the whole school, and these 
 exclusively of the oldest boys, held aloof from 
 the movement." 
 
 The boys who did not attend the meetings 
 were free to play till at six o'clock they all 
 assembled once more, to prepare their tasks for 
 the next day. At half-past seven a frugal 
 bread-and-milk supper and an interval for play 
 concluded the programme, and at nine they 
 were all in bed. It sounds rather dreary and 
 monotonous on paper, but when you listen to 
 a Silcoates boy of 1860 telling of these things, 
 and watch his eyes catch light at the recollec- 
 tion of those early days, you may end by 
 envying where you had begun to pity. 
 
 The task of looking after " little George " 
 cannot have been a difficult or irksome one 
 to brother Ted, for the young man showed 
 very soon that he was quite able to take care 
 of himself, even though he was the youngest 
 boy at the school by three or four years, and 
 that, in fact, there was as much of the true 
 British fighting- spirit in him as in any other 
 of the half-dozen heroes of Silcoates. Of the 
 prowess of Edward Newnes and his stalwart 
 contemporaries not even Silcoates itself, but 
 the whole neighbourhood of the school, was 
 proud at the time; and one event impressed 
 itself so deeply upon George that, though he 
 
 C2 
 
 r 
 
20 LIFE OF SIR GEORGE NEWNES 
 
 was too young to take an active part in it, he 
 remembered it all his life. 
 
 On Sunday the Silcoates boys went in a body 
 to a chapel at Halifax, where the Rev. Enoch 
 Miller was pastor. Something in their appear- 
 ance seemed to arouse the wrath of the town 
 lads, and as the school-boys tramped along in 
 good " crocodile " fashion those of Halifax 
 covertly jeered at and jostled them. For the 
 time being there was no redress, no outlet for 
 the burning indignation of the insulted; their 
 masters' eyes were upon them, and it would 
 have been the lowest depth of depravity, in 
 the days when deportment was a very fine 
 art at schools for young gentlemen as well as 
 at those for young ladies, to descend to the 
 level of the j ostlers and jeerers on the pave- 
 ment, and pay them back in their own coin. 
 
 After a time, however, these insults became 
 more than Ted Newnes's proud spirit could 
 bear, and as he and his school-mates were going 
 home one Sunday evening after chapel, he 
 found an opportunity for inquiring of one of 
 the tormentors : " Will six of you fellows fight 
 six of ours, when we get the chance of meet- 
 ing you ? ?: The challenge was accepted, and 
 there and then it was arranged that six chosen 
 men from Silcoates should meet six from 
 Halifax at eleven o'clock the next night. 
 
 The excitement in the dormitories may be 
 imagined first when "our six" were selected, 
 
THE BOY 21 
 
 and after that tremendous question was settled, 
 as ways and means had to be found for getting 
 the army out of the school-house when the 
 great moment was at hand. Ted Newnes was, 
 of course, the leader of the six, but though he 
 burned for the fight, his excitement was as 
 nothing compared to the wild enthusiasm of the 
 baby of Silcoates School, whose quick brain 
 promptly invented all manner of means for de- 
 spatching the warriors to the battle-field down 
 in the town. He and others of the younger boys 
 promised to procure ropes and let them down 
 from the upper windows after everybody had 
 gone to bed, and haul them up again when 
 they came home triumphant. 
 
 It goes without saying that the heads of the 
 school were supposed to know nothing of this 
 upheaval, but there was a rumour afterwards 
 that they had learned what was going on, 
 though, like the wise men they were, they said 
 nothing, and let the boys work off their indig- 
 nation at the unprovoked insults in the way 
 that seemed most satisfactory to themselves. 
 And when on the great day the pupils were one 
 and all distressingly inattentive at school no 
 punishments were dealt out. 
 
 To the intense annoyance of the conspira- 
 tors, the moon shone brightly upon Silcoates 
 as the hour for the departure of their army 
 arrived, but by that time the excitement was 
 such that nothing mattered. The ropes, 
 
22 LIFE OF SIR GEORGE NEWNES 
 
 supplied by a gardener who had been caught 
 up in the general enthusiasm, were ready, and 
 ten lads were lowered into the garden, six to 
 fight and four to see fairplay. They stole 
 unseen, unheard through the plantation and 
 down to the appointed place, chosen with a view 
 of being away from the beat of the police. The 
 Halifax lads fought fairly and pluckily, but those 
 from Silcoates fought better, and remained 
 victors. " You know what we have been fight- 
 ing for," Ted Newnes said as he shook hands 
 with the conquered; " in future you will have 
 to leave us alone." And from that day forth no 
 procession of Silcoates boys was molested in 
 the streets of Halifax. 
 
 Meanwhile, there was far more excitement 
 inside the school-house than on the actual field 
 of glory, and George Newnes was the most 
 wildly happy member of the little band waiting 
 silently, breathlessly, through the moonlit night, 
 up in the dormitories with the empty beds. 
 In order to do the thing quite correctly, they 
 sent out scouts to meet the returning force, and 
 when the victors came in sight the watchers 
 lost self-control and cheered and shouted, and 
 answering cheers proclaimed that all was well. 
 And only next morning the boys began to 
 wonder how it was that the midnight jubi- 
 lations had not disturbed the slumbers of a 
 single master. 
 
 George Newnes had not been long at school 
 
THE BOY 23 
 
 before he had the chance of showing that the 
 family share of pluck and tenacity had not all 
 been vested in big brother Ted. The chance 
 came in a curious way. The prayer-meetings 
 in the garden-house were approaching the 
 revival stage to which reference has been made, 
 and it is not surprising that George Newnes 
 was attracted, since he came from a home 
 pervaded by the simple spirit of Christianity 
 that knows nor doubt nor fear, and into which 
 no higher criticism had ever entered to trouble 
 its perfect faith and peace. It may also be 
 that he was prompted by the curiosity which 
 draws younger children irresistibly towards 
 the doings of those older than themselves, but 
 not old enough to belong to the incomprehen- 
 sible and uninteresting class of grown-ups. 
 But there is no doubt that before long the 
 impressionable child's heart was moved and 
 stirred by the mystery of the things lying dim 
 and awe-inspiring far beyond the easy, regular 
 matter-of-fact life of the healthy school-boy. 
 
 For a time he became a regular attendant at 
 the meetings, sitting quietly in his corner, 
 content to listen unobserved. But soon there 
 came an evening when suddenly he was roused 
 from his inactivity, and in answer to the request 
 of the leader that some one should offer up a 
 prayer, the child rose, to his own bewilderment, 
 as if at some stern command, and began to 
 pray as never boy had prayed in that place, 
 
24 LIFE OF SIR GEORGE NEWNES 
 
 pouring out the fire and the passion, the longing 
 and the aspiration, the hopes and fears and 
 terrors of a little child before the throne of the 
 God to whom he had been taught from his 
 earliest days to look up as to a Father who 
 knew and understood and heard and answered 
 the prayers of all His children. For some 
 reason, to be looked for in his own tempera- 
 ment, the boy never felt altogether at home and 
 at ease at Silcoates or any other school, though 
 he made no complaint and was popular alike 
 with his masters and school-fellows. This sense 
 of loneliness may have given wings to his words, 
 at the end of a day when he longed more f han 
 usual for home, and felt that no comforter was 
 near. After the meeting the boys crowded 
 round him, thanking him for the prayer, which 
 obviously had expressed their feelings as well 
 as his own. 
 
 The sequel is in striking contrast to the epi- 
 sode. Some of the school-boys, contemptuous 
 of the religious meetings, often attempted to 
 interrupt or disturb. With the bitter hostil- 
 ity of the aggressively irreligious, which causes 
 them to regard the most innocent and simple 
 act of devotion with active malevolence, and 
 blinds them to the fact that by persecution 
 their kind has strengthened and purified the 
 cause of Christ all down the ages, these boys 
 were trying with might and main to prevent 
 the gatherings in the garden-house. And now 
 
THE BOY 25 
 
 here was this small boy, this lively imp, 
 who by rights ought still to have been tied 
 to his nurse's apron-strings, not only joining 
 the hated groups but actually stirring them 
 to fresh fervour by the resistless eloquence of 
 his prayer. It was not to be endured, and 
 when the boy, after the meeting, wandered 
 off alone into the plantation, the leader of the 
 gang went after him, touched him on the 
 shoulder, and, pointing to a side path, said 
 abruptly : " Will you walk down there with 
 me ? ' " What do you mean by taking part 
 in this nonsense ? " he went on when the two 
 had walked a few steps. 
 
 The rest of the story is quoted in Sir George 
 Newnes's own words as he recorded it towards 
 the end of his life 
 
 " If ever the Spirit of God was imparted to 
 a little boy, it was in me then, and I said, ' I 
 have done it, and I am going to do it again.' 
 ' Oh yes/ he said, ' you'll go to Ted.' I felt 
 that this was a slur upon my courage. I said, 
 c I will not go to Ted ; I will tell him nothing 
 about it.' And then he said, 6 1 will give you 
 the soundest thrashing you have ever had in 
 your life.' I replied, ' Well, I suppose as 
 there is no one about you can kill me if you 
 like, because you are twice as big as I am, but 
 I will fight you,' and I took off my coat. The 
 coward went for me. I had more than my 
 
26 LIFE OF SIR GEORGE NEWNES 
 
 physical strength, and was able to get in some 
 blows which he never expected. But of course 
 the contest was too unequal. He knocked me 
 down three times. I got up again, full of the 
 fury of impotent passion, but his strength 
 was too great, and he knocked me down 
 again and left me lying unconscious on the 
 path. 
 
 " Frightened, I suppose, at what he had done 
 he slunk away to the school-house. After a 
 while I came to, got up, and staggered rather 
 than walked to the house. Some one helped 
 me kindly to my dormitory and there one of 
 the servant-maids came to me. The blood 
 was streaming down my face. She bathed my 
 wounds, and then I knew no more. For 
 twenty-four hours I slept, and for some time 
 they did not know whether I was alive or dead, 
 so I was told afterwards. The doctor, who was 
 called and came repeatedly, advised that I 
 should be allowed to sleep as long as I could. 
 They also told me that Ted had walked the 
 corridor nearly the whole time. He perhaps 
 better than any one knew what must have 
 happened. When I awoke I felt all right, and 
 asked for Ted. He came to my bedside and I 
 do not think any human being has ever since 
 the world began rejoiced more than I did when 
 I took his hand. But when he asked me what 
 it was all about, I could, of course, tell him 
 nothing, and when I said I had promised not 
 
THE BOY 27 
 
 to tell, he said no more. And so I gradually 
 got better." 
 
 In the ordinary sense of the word George 
 Newnes was never a " prize boy " at school, 
 and the orthodox forms of instruction were 
 apt to weary him very soon except where, as 
 in arithmetic, he had special gifts, or in Bible 
 or secular history, where he was attracted by 
 " stories." But even while a child he was 
 drawn to certain philosophers as if by magic, 
 and at the age of ten was observed by his 
 astonished friends to stand listening with 
 absorbed interest when passages from Locke's 
 Logic or from Stuart Mill were read and 
 discussed. 
 
 From Silcoates George Newnes was sent to 
 Shireland Hall School, near Birmingham, where 
 a new experience awaited him. Here the boys 
 were all younger than he, and soon he had the 
 novel satisfaction of finding himself at the head 
 of the school. As such he did his appointed tasks, 
 since such was the will of the inscrutable autho- 
 rities, who seemed to think proficiency in the 
 three R's and other bookish things so important, 
 while they took but a slender interest in games 
 and sports, and none whatever in the thrilling 
 prize-fights held immediately outside the gates, 
 to the wild delight of the boys. The effect 
 of these tussles on George Newnes was only 
 momentary, for though he soon became a fine 
 
28 LIFE OF SIR GEORGE NEWNES 
 
 cricketer, whose batting secured for him the 
 nickname of "Not-out Newnes," he turned 
 with something like loathing from every form 
 of sport entailing suffering to man or beast. 
 
 The next change of scene brought the boy, 
 at the age of nearly fifteen, to London, where, 
 at the City of London School, Mr. Asquith, the 
 present Prime Minister, was one of his con- 
 temporaries, preparing for the brilliant Oxford 
 career of a few years later. Without the 
 student's love for books or enthusiasm for 
 learning, young Newnes rose to no eminence 
 at his last school : his gifts, dormant as yet, 
 lying in quite another direction. But one 
 occurrence, unimportant in itself, seems in 
 retrospect almost like the shadow which events 
 are said to cast before them. A prize was 
 offered for the telling of the best story, and 
 both the future Prime Minister and the future 
 founder of one of the largest London publishing 
 firms of the end of the nineteenth century were 
 competitors. The prize was a book, and George 
 Newnes carried off that prize on the eve of 
 his first steps in the world of workers, where 
 in due course he was to take a prominent and 
 distinguished place. 
 
CHAPTER III 
 
 THE YOUTH 
 
 THE Rev. T. M. Newnes, as has been said, 
 was a minister of the old school, a man whose 
 scholarly tastes and habits were not allowed 
 to interfere in any way with the conscientious 
 discharge of his duties to the congregation 
 committed to his care. But gifted though he 
 was with many admirable qualities, he lacked 
 those of the practical man of affairs, except in 
 the raising of funds for a new chapel, or for 
 other good works connected with his pastorate. 
 In ordinary daily life, surrounded by his flock of 
 quiet country-people who had neither the imagi- 
 nation to expect great things of life, nor the 
 energy to reach out for them, this want of 
 business capacity was of little consequence. 
 But when it came to choosing careers for his 
 sons, the case was different, and with the best 
 will in the world he made grievous mistakes. 
 Being himself without worldly ambitions, he 
 had no thought of placing his sons, or of urging 
 them to go, where they would be most likely 
 to make their way to positions which practical, 
 matter-of-fact people deem advantageous and 
 
 29 
 
30 LIFE OF SIR GEORGE NEWNES 
 
 desirable. His sons, he argued, would have 
 to make their own way to a modest position, 
 and it was his duty to place them where they 
 could earn an honourable livelihood earn 
 it cheerfully, industriously and in the fear of 
 God. 
 
 Hence, when he began to consider where it 
 would be best to place his youngest son, 
 George, and when he and his wife had sadly 
 and reluctantly given up the idea of his being 
 trained for the ministry, the religious fervour 
 of the Revival meetings at Silcoates having 
 spent itself long ago, it seemed that the boy 
 was best fitted for a mercantile career. He 
 was shrewd, practical, quick, extraordinarily 
 tenacious and industrious, and eager for work : 
 wherefore, argued the good, unworldly father, 
 it would be wisest to give him the training of 
 a practical business man. This training, the 
 argument proceeded, could nowhere be better 
 than in London. The City, from the point 
 of view of the Manse on the green hill-slope 
 above Matlock, was the place where a youth 
 had the best imaginable chance of learning all 
 that could be taught of the business ways of 
 which the Rev. T. M. Newnes was consciously 
 so sadly ignorant, and which to the mere 
 student appeared so complicated, so difficult 
 to acquire and to understand. 
 
 When, therefore, he heard of an opening in 
 the City which he thought would be suitable, 
 
THE YOUTH 31 
 
 he journeyed up to town, called on the heads 
 of the firm, and there and then made what 
 he considered a splendid arrangement, though 
 his son afterwards regarded it as "a very bad 
 bargain." The arrangement was an appren- 
 ticeship for five years, with no other pay- 
 ment than free board and lodging. In the 
 'sixties this form of apprenticeship was still 
 quite usual, and not unpopular, and had 
 doubtless some advantages over the present- 
 day system of introducing a lad to the business 
 life of a large town. 
 
 George Newnes himself, eager to win his 
 spurs in the busy world of affairs, went into 
 harness with the high hopes with which youths 
 of his type have always put their foot on the 
 first rung of the ladder leading, for a few, up to 
 rare heights of fortune, and threw himself with 
 characteristic energy into his work. Not that 
 it was inspiring work, on the face of it, to the 
 lad accustomed to the freedom of wide, breezy 
 spaces, and passionately fond of open-air pur- 
 suits. One imagines that sometimes in the 
 underground basement Entering Room of the 
 firm of fancy goods merchants, into which no 
 ray of sunlight ever entered, and where he sat 
 from early morning till often late at night, he 
 must have felt like a bird trapped and taken 
 from boundless liberty into a narrow cage. 
 His task was to assist in recording all the 
 sales which took place in the large building 
 
32 LIFE OF SIR GEORGE NEWNES 
 
 overhead. Next to him sat another lad, mak- 
 ing out invoices. Many years later, when Sir 
 George Newnes was often present at Court 
 functions, he discovered that this invoice- 
 making companion of the City basement had 
 blossomed out into an important Court func- 
 tionary, stationed close to the throne, and 
 attracting all eyes by the splendour of his 
 clothes. 
 
 Whether the sun shone, or the fog crept in, 
 or the rain dashed down the basement windows, 
 the room was always equally dark, and on the 
 brightest summer day it was all day long arti- 
 ficially lighted. There the young apprentice 
 sat, taking down dictation from the head of 
 the department, who was seated at a desk 
 above him, or recording figures in a large 
 ledger, while the future Court official made 
 out the bills which were to be sent out to 
 customers. In this manner the record of every 
 one of the firm's transactions passed day by 
 day through the lads' hands. On the face of 
 it, the work was unmitigated drudgery, but 
 there is little doubt that as discipline it was 
 invaluable, and that the habits of neatness, 
 method and accuracy, which enabled the adult 
 man to accomplish an altogether gigantic 
 amount of work, were acquired during the 
 days of his apprenticeship, while he was toiling 
 over the Entering Books. 
 
 He had not been long at work before it 
 
THE YOUTH 38 
 
 was discovered that he possessed an unusual 
 talent. There is no record of a member of 
 either the Newnes or Urquhart family ever 
 before having been distinguished for arith- 
 metical prowess, but this youngster, who had 
 so far been supremely indifferent to figures, 
 unless they were connected with cricket scores 
 or pocket-money, began to handle figures with 
 astonishing ease. The talent soon attracted 
 the attention of those in authority. To add 
 up three columns of s. d. figures at a time, 
 and to add them with the certainty of ab- 
 solute correctness, took him less time than it 
 takes the average toiler to sum up a single 
 column. Well may those who have no endow- 
 ment of this kind be excused a gasp of admira- 
 tion at the contemplation of this feat, the leap- 
 ing up, as it were, of a steep stairway, taking 
 three steps at a bound, while others are working 
 their way laboriously upward, carefully taking 
 step by step, and doubtful when they reach 
 the top whether they have not dropped half 
 their figures on the way. 
 
 This facility for handling figures was one of 
 the first outward and visible signs of the clear- 
 headedness which was to give George Newnes 
 a distinguished place among chess-players, and 
 which, it goes without saying, stood him in 
 splendid stead during the whole of his business 
 career when often, at a moment's notice, he had 
 
 to think and calculate in scores of thousands, 
 D 
 
34 LIFE OF SIR GEORGE NEWNES 
 
 if not in the proverbial millions. When 
 recalling these acrobatic feats in arithmetic, 
 he never looked upon them as in any way 
 remarkable. They were just an instance of the 
 truth that practice makes perfect, he would 
 say. 
 
 He was a cheerful, genial youth to work 
 with, his companions thought, and before he 
 had been among them many weeks he had 
 become the most popular member of the base- 
 ment staff. Perhaps it was the rare mingling 
 of youthful spirit and energy with a sort of 
 underlying gentleness of disposition, and eager 
 appreciation of the good qualities in others, 
 which helped him to his popularity and made 
 friends for him of the boys of his own age as 
 well as of the aspirants just above him, who 
 felt themselves grave and experienced men as 
 compared with the new apprentice ; and of the 
 heads of the department, old enough, on the 
 wrong side of thirty, to begin to feel young 
 again. 
 
 This friendly, collegiate spirit lightened the 
 burden of existence in the grim and ugly sur- 
 roundings, and though he longed with all his 
 heart and soul, and sometimes with angry 
 despair, for the open air, for sunlight and wide 
 skies, he did his task promptly and satisfac- 
 torily, working on with now and then a groan 
 and a grumble, but mostly with laughter in his 
 eyes and, when he was seized by a talkative 
 
THE YOUTH 35 
 
 mood, with quick-witted chaff on his lips, and 
 jokes which amused but did not offend. 
 
 In later years he would tell amusing stories 
 of his experiences in London during these days 
 of his youth. Thrown, largely on his own 
 resources and guidance, into the vortex of 
 City life, he soon became familiar with many 
 of its more strange and less generally known 
 features. Little odd debating-societies and 
 lecture-halls, open-air preachers and spouters 
 all attracted his amused attention. At times 
 he would take part in argument with some 
 voluble would-be instructor of his fellow-men, 
 and the lad's keen wit and humour would 
 often secure the suffrage of the crowd, to the 
 discomfiture of his opponent. This practice 
 in ready repartee and impromptu was of much 
 service to him in after-days on political plat- 
 forms, where no heckler could succeed in 
 disconcerting him. 
 
 During the years of his apprenticeship, 
 George Newnes had two favourite recreations. 
 One was to stroll about the London streets 
 during the few hours when he was free to amuse 
 himself, and to stand at the newsvendors' 
 stalls or the booksellers' windows, eagerly 
 scanning their wares. Of this occupation more 
 will have to be said later on, when the story takes 
 the reader to where fate brought the young man 
 to a sudden turning-point in his career. 
 
 The other recreation was cricket. The found- 
 
 D 2 
 
36 LIFE OF SIR GEORGE NEWNES 
 
 ations to this favourite pastime had been laid 
 at Silcoates, where cricket was held in high 
 esteem ; and on the Saturday afternoons spent 
 in London cricket-fields he forgot the drudgery 
 of indoor work, the dust-laden atmosphere of 
 the underground room, with its artificial light, 
 and its hopeless lack of sun and good air. In 
 time he gathered local fame and honours as a 
 cricketer, and especially as a batsman, and long 
 before he left London for more congenial sur- 
 roundings he was captain of a dashing team 
 which measured strength with some of the 
 crack elevens of London. 
 
 So the years of his apprenticeship went by, 
 but he was still a long way off the end of the 
 fifth year, when a day came which gave him 
 the chance of putting his accountant's talent 
 to the test, and at the same time of shortening 
 the term of bondage imposed upon him by his 
 unworldly father with such touching faith that 
 he was doing the best for his boy. 
 
 The yearly stock-taking, that terrible and 
 necessary upheaval, was over, and there re- 
 mained only the checking of the mountain of 
 figures accumulated in the process. Young 
 Newnes's fame as an arithmetician had by this 
 time been recognized in every department of 
 the firm, and out of a houseful of capable 
 clerks he was selected to check the figures. 
 No wonder he was delighted, and probably 
 more than a little flattered, for it was no mean 
 
THE YOUTH 37 
 
 compliment that the boy in his teens should 
 be entrusted with so important a task. 
 
 It had taken the united personnel of the 
 firm ten days to collect and range the accounts, 
 and when the managers of the various depart- 
 ments had the endless rows of figures before 
 their eyes, they wondered greatly how the 
 young man in the Entering Room would ac- 
 quit himself, how long it would take him to 
 check the stubborn things. Whereupon one 
 of them, perhaps the first of all the City 
 men who later on were quite ready to stake 
 a good deal on the business capacity of the 
 founder of George Newnes Limited, made a 
 wager with a colleague for five pounds that 
 twelve hours would suffice George Newnes to 
 check and prove all the stock-taking figures. 
 
 The dull and solemn warehouse hummed with 
 a new excitement on the day when the tem- 
 porary accountant was told of the wager and 
 asked whether he thought he could do the 
 work in twelve hours. His answer, given 
 coolly and confidently, was that he thought 
 he could do it in six hours and a half. At 
 nine, next morning, he set to work among those 
 reams of foolscap covered with rows of figures. 
 As usual, he added up the s. d. in his three- 
 columns-at-a-time manner; but, in order to 
 make assurance doubly sure, he also went care- 
 fully over them afterwards in the ordinary 
 manner of taking each column separately, 
 
38 LIFE OF SIR GEORGE NEWNES 
 
 pence first, shillings next, pounds last. Six 
 hours later the lad of eighteen looked up and 
 announced that he had finished, and that there 
 was no flaw in the figures. The ovation follow- 
 ing that early and thrice well-deserved triumph 
 provided him with at least one crowded hour 
 of glorious life at the unlovely City warehouse. 
 It also gave him a new, rather exhilarating 
 sense of his own value, which added a fresh 
 sting to the reflection that he was bound hand 
 and foot for such long years, earning never a 
 penny over and above what it cost the firm to 
 house and feed him not too luxuriously in the 
 apprentice quarters. But his chance was at 
 hand. 
 
 The morning after the feat and the wager 
 the principal proprietor of the firm descended 
 into the basement and came straight to where 
 George Newnes was busy among his papers. 
 He came with the pleasurable consciousness 
 of being about to bestow a favour, and after 
 graciously alluding to the work accomplished 
 on the day before, he went on: " Now I am 
 going to make you Entering man, and give 
 you charge over all this department " the 
 interpretation of which noble speech was that 
 upon the lad's young shoulders would be 
 laid the sole responsibility for from twenty to 
 twenty-five men, packers, clerks and others, 
 working under him. But if the great man 
 of the firm had imagined that this sudden 
 
THE YOUTH 39 
 
 promotion would overwhelm the apprentice 
 with delight he must have experienced a 
 painful disappointment, for the latter only 
 looked up with amused, if friendly, eyes and 
 pointed out, with absolute composure, that 
 though he was deeply conscious of the compli- 
 ment implied by the offered change in his 
 position, he felt that he was not very greatly 
 the gainer by it, since it would mean nothing 
 more substantial to him than an increase of 
 responsibilities. 
 
 This unexpected and from the principal's 
 point of view, quite uncalled-for argument 
 drew nothing but the dry observation that the 
 Rev. T. M. Newnes had bound his son to the 
 firm for five years, without salary ; and it must 
 be owned that, looking at the matter from the 
 dry business point of view, and from that of 
 the strangely vague and elastic so-called City 
 conscience, there is nothing to blame in the 
 principal's attitude. At the same time, who 
 will blame the apprentice if he also had a 
 business point of view, and had realized the 
 fact that as his gift was exceptional, and made 
 him of more than 'prentice value to the firm, 
 so the conditions of his, or rather his father's, 
 agreement with the firm should be modified ? 
 
 The next move was the young man's, who 
 the day before had begun to feel his feet, and 
 was now standing quite firmly upon them as 
 he shot another awkward question at the head 
 
40 LIFE OF SIR GEORGE NEWNES 
 
 of the firm. Might he ask what was to become 
 of the Entering man whose place he was to 
 take ? The reluctant answer being, that man 
 was going, George Newnes went on to in- 
 quire, with utmost friendliness and cordiality, 
 whether it was quite fair that he should, with- 
 out salary, do the work of a man who had 
 received 100 a year. And once more the 
 answer was that the apprentice had been 
 bound by his father for five years. There 
 seemed nothing more to be done but for the 
 said apprentice to express his sincere gratitude 
 for the confidence the firm was showing him 
 by the offer of a place worth 100 a year, but 
 that he could not see his way to accepting the 
 position unless the salary went with it. He 
 also ventured to mention, in passing, that he 
 could not, in any case, take much pleasure in 
 supplanting a man discharged under the pre- 
 sent circumstances. But the head of the firm 
 remained unmoved, and explained that the 
 other man was going anyhow, and that George 
 Newnes must take his place without salary, 
 since " you are bound, legally bound, for five 
 years." 
 
 There was a moment's pause, during which 
 young Newnes thought fast and furiously; 
 then he said, still in that rather slow and quiet 
 way of his, which was far more impressive 
 than a tumultuous outburst could have been : 
 " The agreement with my father was made in 
 
THE YOUTH 41 
 
 such a way that it has now become absolutely 
 unfair; if you insist on adhering to it you will 
 find one morning that I am here no longer." 
 This was bewildering and unexpected news 
 to the chief. " But what will you do ? " he 
 gasped in breathless consternation. He would 
 go away, said the young man, with a guileless- 
 ness which surely must have been begotten 
 by the unexpected turn the conversation had 
 taken; and when pressed for further details 
 of his prospective disappearance, the longing 
 in his heart burst forth for a moment, and 
 his voice gave utterance to the hungering of 
 his soul for green fields, sunlight and open air, 
 while he spent his days from eight in the morn- 
 ing till eight or even ten at night, in the op- 
 pressive atmosphere of the artificially lighted 
 underground room. 
 
 Perhaps a spark of understanding for, and 
 sympathy with, the cravings of a country- 
 bred youth for the kind of sweetness and light 
 not to be found in cities, and least of all in 
 City warehouses, was kindled or re-kindled 
 in the business man's heart. Or perhaps his 
 sense of fairplay was returning under the 
 youngster's quiet insistence of treatment on 
 the principle of a fair day's wage for a fair 
 day's work. At any rate, it was arranged 
 that George Newnes should remain in the City 
 for another year, at a salary of one hundred 
 pounds, and that at the end of that term he 
 
42 LIFE OF SIR GEORGE NEWNES 
 
 should be sent into the country to open up 
 business for the firm. The programme was 
 carried out to the letter. George Newnes 
 had won his spurs as a man of affairs. The 
 prospect was brightening, the perspective 
 widening. Henceforth he would no longer be 
 what he called a prisoner of business; and 
 though he paid for the ceaseless strain on his 
 too active brain with a severe attack of brain- 
 fever, he was soon at his post again, and all 
 went well. 
 
 The firm which in so far " pandered "' to 
 the young man's longing for work among coun- 
 try scenes as to send him into the provinces 
 to start new branches of their business, found 
 that they were not the losers by this act of 
 indulgence. Before long the new venture 
 proved so successful that other London firms 
 began to watch Mr. Newnes's movements with 
 intelligent and appreciative eyes, and presently 
 one of these rival firms approached him, with 
 a view to his going into their service at the 
 termination of his agreement with his present 
 employers. 
 
 By this time his apprenticeship was over, 
 and he was free to make what engagement 
 he liked, should he be inclined to change his 
 position. He was doing well where he was. 
 But he might be doing better still, he thought, 
 and he must not throw away his chances. 
 Therefore, when he was asked to go and see 
 
THE YOUTH 43 
 
 the City firm who desired his services, he con- 
 sented to spend a free Saturday afternoon in 
 calling on them. He was still very young 
 hardly of age; and though wilful enough, and 
 shrewd with the shrewdness of the keen-eyed 
 man of affairs, he was at heart as simple as 
 a child, with no sterling innate quality blunted 
 by contact with a world where money-making 
 is the first and almost only object. There- 
 fore his sense of honour and loyalty to his 
 own firm made him squirm, and feel almost 
 guilty, as he walked along the London streets 
 on his way to present himself to another firm 
 without the knowledge of his employers. What 
 would happen, he wondered, if any one who 
 knew him saw him in the City on a day when 
 he was supposed to be hundreds of miles away ? 
 Was his action quite as straightforward as 
 he wished to be ? mused this unsophisticated 
 youth, as the example and precepts of those 
 good parents of his with their high, if somewhat 
 narrow, standard of conduct came to mind. 
 But his common sense came to the aid of his 
 ambition and he went on. 
 
 Over and above this rightful ambition to 
 forge ahead, and so put what talents he had 
 into the open market to be used by those who 
 were willing to pay the best price for them, 
 Mr. Newnes had at that time a new and very 
 special reason for desiring to get on in the world. 
 When he was a little lad of seven he was 
 
44 LIFE OF SIR GEORGE NEWNES 
 
 occasionally taken to the house of a friend of 
 his father's, the Rev. J. Hillyard, of Leicester, 
 where he made friends with a tiny girl, fair- 
 haired, with the bluest of blue eyes, and merry 
 and playful as a kitten. Later on, the two 
 lost sight of one another, and only when George 
 Newnes was eighteen years old did they meet 
 again, renewed the friendship of their infant 
 days, and before long became engaged to be 
 married. Not just yet though, for over and 
 above the extreme youth of both there was 
 the other sound and solid reason for delaying 
 the marriage that the prospective husband was 
 not able to make a home for his bride such as 
 he wished to give her when they should start 
 together on the road of life. 
 
 Then came the offer from the London firm 
 of a position which would enable Mr. Newnes 
 to marry at once. The Saturday afternoon 
 interview proved in every way satisfactory, 
 and it was arranged that, on the expiration 
 of his engagement with his present employers, 
 he should take a position with the new firm, 
 representing it at Manchester and Liverpool, 
 and " pushing " the business in the surrounding 
 districts. 
 
 One feature of the work upon which Mr. 
 Newnes then entered, as seen from the present- 
 day point of view, seems to belong to very 
 olden times, though it is less than forty years 
 when it constituted part of his ordinary duties. 
 
THE YOUTH 45 
 
 The great trunk railways had been running 
 for years across the length and breadth of 
 England. But of branch lines there were as 
 yet not many, and the traveller who had to 
 visit small towns and villages in outlying 
 districts was obliged to go in his own gig. 
 To many a man this would have been an irk- 
 some duty; to Mr. Newnes it was one of the 
 delights of his days. His love of the open 
 road, and his still greater love of horses, made 
 the longest drives short, and gave him, more- 
 over, time for thinking quietly of things which 
 later on were turned to good account. In this 
 manner he drove thousands of miles in the 
 Midlands and the North of England, and 
 became one of the best whips on the road, 
 while he knew certain districts better than 
 most men know them, his quick eye noting 
 every feature, every peculiarity of the country 
 through which he passed. 
 
 The evening of the day when he had entered 
 into the new business engagement probably 
 gave Mr. Newnes a few of the rare moments 
 of pure and unalloyed happiness which fall 
 to the share of mortal man. The future had 
 never looked so hopeful, so sunny. At last, 
 after years spent among strangers, a home of 
 his own was in sight, a place to which he, the 
 home-lover, might return at the end of every 
 day; where he might throw off the cares and 
 frets of work in the cheerful presence of his 
 
46 LIFE OF SIR GEORGE NEWNES 
 
 family and friends, and where he might in- 
 dulge without let or hindrance in the harm- 
 less pastimes which can only be fully enjoyed 
 at home. 
 
 The vision of this home was realized as 
 soon as Mr. Newnes had his new work well in 
 hand, and in 1875, when he was twenty-five. 
 Miss Priscilla J. Hillyard became Mrs. George 
 Newnes, and the two settled happily and mer- 
 rily into the pretty home. They were both 
 satisfied with small things; both energetic, 
 resourceful, practical, and endowed with the 
 priceless gifts of imperturbable hopefulness 
 and courage ; their young eyes saw the laughter 
 rather than the tears which both lie hidden at 
 the heart of things; they envied no one, and 
 made their home a pleasant place not only 
 for themselves but also for the friends readily 
 made and steadily kept. They were hospitable 
 with the fine northern hospitality, sharing their 
 small means as generously as in later years 
 they always shared with their friends the good 
 things which fortune poured so lavishly upon 
 them ; and so life in the small Manchester house 
 was a good and pleasant thing. 
 
 One of the visitors made welcome there 
 was Mr. Newnes's new chief, the head of the 
 London firm who had invited him to enter 
 into his employment. He came to Manchester 
 to see how the new branch of the business 
 was flourishing, and Mr. Newnes asked him 
 
THE YOUTH 4T 
 
 to spend an evening with him at his home. 
 Now this City man was an enthusiastic chess- 
 player, agreeably conscious of being no mean 
 hand at the game. Mr. Newnes, as if he had 
 not enough irons in the fire, had also managed 
 to find time for mastering the chess-board 
 problems with the thoroughness he brought 
 to all his undertakings, whether they were 
 work or play, indoors or in the open. When 
 pressed by the chief, who was as genial a man 
 as his young traveller, and who often afterwards 
 told the story as a good joke against himself, 
 Mr. Newnes owned that he did play a little, and 
 in the course of the evening the two indulged 
 in a quiet game of chess. To the guest's 
 astonishment he, the careful and experienced 
 player, was "beaten, hopelessly beaten, and by 
 that young whipper-snapper who said so little, 
 kept so perfectly cool, and played so devilishly 
 good a game ! " 
 
CHAPTER IV 
 
 " TIT-BITS " : THE INCEPTION 
 
 IT would be interesting to know how often, 
 and with how many variations, the story of 
 the inception of Tit-Bits has been told in 
 magazines and newspapers all over the world. 
 As a rule, it makes an anecdote in a nutshell, 
 a tit-bit, in fact, of half a dozen lines, which 
 can be conveniently expanded or contracted 
 so as to fit neatly into the space required for 
 what newspaper people call a " fill." The 
 true history of the paper which was destined 
 to have so phenomenal a success, and to 
 become the pioneer of an enormous new 
 branch of periodical literature, is, however, 
 not told quite as quickly, nor did its inception 
 and realization follow each other in quite as 
 pleasingly rapid a succession as in the popular 
 paragraph. But it is a story well worth telling, 
 and I am going to tell it once again, since, 
 after all, even in its skeleton or lightning form, 
 it is only hackneyed for the same reason which 
 makes the best of the good old stories hack- 
 neyed : the reason that it is interesting to 
 those who have not heard it, and worth being 
 
 48 
 
1 TIT-BITS ' : THE INCEPTION 49 
 
 recalled to mind by those who have heard it 
 before and have forgotten it. Perhaps the 
 present version may also claim a little special 
 interest because the main facts are taken from 
 notes written in Sir George Newnes's own clear 
 hand, to form part of the autobiography he 
 contemplated writing in those more leisured 
 days to which he began to look forward, but 
 which he was not destined to see. 
 
 When did the idea of publishing Tit-Bits 
 first occur to him ? Not suddenly, as the old 
 story has it, when shortly after his marriage 
 he read an amusing anecdote to Mrs. Newnes, 
 and pronounced it a tit-bit. That was only 
 the moment when, as it were, " the bird began 
 to sing." The germ which developed into the 
 first of the popular penny weeklies began to 
 show the first timid signs of life many years 
 before, when George Newnes heard the first 
 nursery stories, and began to hunger and thirst 
 for the things which big people read out of 
 books the things that make children laugh and 
 cry in turn, the best being those that make 
 them laugh and wonder and admire, although 
 the others that send a delicious shiver down 
 their backs are also well worth hearing, or 
 reading when they are big enough to spell. 
 
 He loved good stories right from the begin- 
 ing. At Silcoates he was the raconteur of his 
 time, who swayed the hearts of a crowd of 
 little boys at will; who made them laugh 
 
50 LIFE OF SIR GEORGE NEWNES 
 
 and cry and tremble as he chose, and who was 
 himself as thrilled by the creatures of his 
 imagination as was the audience hanging upon 
 his lips. Later on he became as great a reader 
 as he had been an inventor of good stories, 
 and when he left the City of London School, 
 taking away with him the prize for the best- 
 told story, he had a very definite idea as to 
 the sort of literature he should like to be able 
 to buy, if he had the means for indulging his 
 taste. 
 
 One of his amusements during the rare free 
 moments of his apprenticeship in London had 
 been to haunt the newsagents' shops, and to 
 wander from one bookstall to the other, looking 
 out for the kind of literary ware which appeals 
 to young readers of his type who are, almost 
 instinctively, longing for amusement and in- 
 struction which is pleasantly imparted, and 
 can be quickly and easily assimilated. They 
 desire to follow the events and happenings of 
 the day, but unless these are put before them in 
 compressed and simple form they have neither 
 the time nor the taste to acquaint themselves 
 with what is going on in the world. They also 
 crave for things that cheer and make them 
 laugh, and lead them momentarily away from 
 their own more or less drab lives, into an 
 atmosphere of fun and merriment. 
 
 In the late 'sixties and the early 'seventies 
 of last century, when George Newnes was 
 
'TIT-BITS': THE INCEPTION 51 
 
 drawn to the bookstalls, there was not much 
 upon them to excite or fascinate the class of 
 readers he represented, and the extraordinary 
 number and variety of papers offered to-day 
 was not yet thought of. There was one widely 
 popular weekly, a so-called family paper, in 
 its own way excellently conducted, with a view 
 to attracting the enormous class of women 
 and young people with an unquenchable thirst 
 for the harmless, simpering sentimentalities of 
 the mid- Victorian era. This class is always 
 with us, and probably will be while the world 
 stands, even though women, obtaining political 
 rights and powers, " emancipate themselves " 
 from nearly every conventionality with the idea 
 of making themselves mentally the exact copies 
 of men, and of specializing on equal terms with 
 them in every field of work. For this kind of 
 literature appeals to a something innate in 
 human and especially in feminine nature. 
 It may be modified, or obscured, in accordance 
 with the tendencies of the time, but it will no 
 more be eradicated than the elemental cravings 
 for food and finery, for activity and rest, for 
 shade in summer and warmth in cold weather. 
 It is the outcome of the irresistible desire to 
 mingle high romance of some kind with the 
 dull prose of everyday life. If it cannot be 
 obtained at first hand and, fortunately or un- 
 fortunately, it cannot as a rule, in the average 
 
 workaday existence it must be obtained at 
 
 E 2 
 
52 LIFE OF SIR GEORGE NEWNES 
 
 second hand, that is to say through books and 
 papers. Hence the popularity of sentimental 
 and highly coloured fiction with the large 
 section of the public which has neither the 
 wealth to buy luxuries, pomps, pageants and 
 excitements, nor the artistic or poetic tempera- 
 ment which creates them out of shadows, and 
 plays with them as if they were realities. 
 
 A good deal may be said in criticism of the 
 namby-pamby stories upon which a vast public 
 fed with such satisfaction thirty or forty years 
 ago, but in one respect at all events they were 
 superior to much of the same class of reading 
 offered to the public to-day. At that time, 
 there were stories pandering to low and vicious 
 instincts, but they were rare, and circulated 
 secretly and rather shamefacedly, instead of 
 being brazenly flaunted before the public. 
 The mass of readers were ignorant of their 
 existence, browsing with great content upon 
 the sugary sentimentalities provided for them 
 mainly by the one family paper which would 
 have had every right to boast of the largest 
 circulation had that form of advertisement 
 then been in fashion. 
 
 But a danger was looming ahead. There 
 was no corresponding paper catering for the 
 entertainment of men, and so it happened that 
 quick brains set to work to supply the want. 
 They were unscrupulous as well as clever, and 
 by making their appeal to the gambling 
 
' TIT-BITS " : THE INCEPTION 53 
 
 instincts which lie dormant in the majority 
 of men, these keen-eyed purveyors of news 
 and amusement sought only too successfully 
 to attract a clientele. Their columns were 
 filled with turf news and racing tips, and 
 everywhere in odd corners were interspersed 
 anecdotes and stories with a double entendre 
 which perhaps might raise a blush here and 
 there, but which were certain to be warmly 
 welcomed and appreciated in many quarters. 
 
 The demand for cheap, light literature was 
 at that time steadily and rapidly increasing. 
 The Compulsory Education Act of 1870 had 
 been in force some ten years. There were no 
 illiterates among the growing generation; a 
 whole nation of young men and women were 
 clamouring for things good to read. They had 
 been well grounded in the subjects taught at 
 elementary schools, and they had, moreover, 
 been trained to take an interest in far more 
 subjects than their parents had even heard of. 
 At the same time the standard of the compara- 
 tively few thoughtfully written and carefully 
 edited nagazines then in existence was too high 
 to meet their requirements. Nor had they 
 the means to pay for these periodicals. Thus 
 their choice lay between the mawkish serial 
 story " for the home circle " and the sporting 
 publications with their pernicious influence. 
 The young woman chose the former, the young 
 man the latter. 
 
54 LIFE OF SIR GEORGE NEWNES 
 
 Such was the state of things when the young 
 man from the Peak District, with his inquisitive 
 brain, his clean mind, and his voracious appetite 
 for reading, stood gazing into the newsvendors' 
 windows, first in London, and later on in the 
 busy, densely populated northern towns, where 
 the passion for reading was then, as it is now, 
 even greater than in the more flippant south. 
 
 Heaven knows when the thought first struck 
 George Newnes that this was not as it should 
 be. He himself, though he never forgot the 
 moment when the thought first took definite 
 shape, could not tell how long the idea had been 
 simmering in his mind that something should 
 be done to counteract on the one hand the 
 temptation to gambling and the sort of " smart- 
 ness " which caused the prurient to laugh, 
 and on the other hand the vapid nonsense 
 of the " family " paper. But in the end he 
 worked it out, this idea of a paper " as clean 
 as a new pin, with stories as witty and humor- 
 ous and brilliant as those the unclean minds 
 could invent," which were even then blighting 
 the morals of the people. 
 
 A few years after his marriage Mr. Newnes 
 came home one day from work, and settled 
 with his young wife to a quiet evening. As 
 usual, he had brought with him a Manchester 
 evening paper, from which every now and then 
 he read out a paragraph or article. That day's 
 issue struck him as unusually dull and devoid 
 
4 TIT-BITS ' : THE INCEPTION 55 
 
 of news, except for one paragraph, describing 
 how the two children of a station- master had 
 climbed into a wagon to which a locomotive 
 was attached. By some mistake the engine 
 was started and ran down the line uncontrolled. 
 Discovering that his children were in the run- 
 away train the frantic station-master made 
 all kinds of desperate efforts to prevent an 
 accident, and somebody jumping on the foot- 
 plate and stopping the engine, presently brought 
 the adventure to a happy ending. 
 
 The story was told vividly and dramatically, 
 and when Mr. Newnes had come to the end of 
 it he said : " Now this is what I call a tit-bit. 
 Why does not somebody bring out a paper 
 containing nothing but tit-bits like this ? " 
 Before he fell asleep that night, the suggestion 
 had taken root : since no one else had done 
 this thing, why not attempt it himself ? 
 
 It was the thought of a man possessed not 
 only of more than an average share of shrewd- 
 ness and business capacity, but also of an 
 amazing amount of courage and perseverance; 
 and, of course, of the intuition, amounting 
 to genius, which knows without a doubt 
 what thing is wanted at a given moment, and 
 knows also how to give form and shape to this 
 thing. 
 
 At the age of thirty Mr. Newnes was a man 
 with a wealth of ideas, but with hardly any 
 capital. The sum for financing the little paper 
 
56 LIFE OF SIR GEORGE NEWNES 
 
 which he hoped to give to the public would 
 have to be found, but the first thing of all to 
 be done was to make a collection of what he 
 considered tit-bits from books, periodicals and 
 newspapers, working away day after day till 
 there were sufficient paragraphs and short arti- 
 cles to make up a specimen paper a dummy 
 by means of which an enterprising capitalist 
 might be won over to the conviction that what- 
 ever money he put into the venture would not 
 be lost. So he set to work assiduously, un- 
 weariedly, after he came home from his office 
 or his country rounds, reading, marking, snip- 
 ping out, and neatly pasting into his dummy 
 paper the material collected. Professor Henry 
 Drummond spoke of the Review of Reviews, 
 as " boiled magazine " : here was a pot-pourri 
 of boiled book, magazine and paper, years before 
 Mr. Newnes helped his friend and former school- 
 fellow, Mr. W. T. Stead, to bring out the first 
 number of the " boiled 5: monthly. Had it 
 not been that Mr. Newnes, perhaps during the 
 years in the City, had acquired the habit of 
 method and order in all things, it would hardly 
 have been possible for him to add the pre- 
 liminary work connected with the publica- 
 tion of his paper to all his other activities. As 
 it was he did it all easily, and remained as 
 good a cricketer and as keen a chess-player 
 as before. 
 
 At last the dummy paper was ready, and 
 
4 TIT-BITS ' : THE INCEPTION 57 
 
 behind it there was already a mass of material 
 for second and third and fourth numbers, 
 should all go well with the first. 
 
 The time had now come when he must look 
 for a capitalist to help him in the venture. 
 There was then living at Manchester an 
 opulent, successful merchant, who knew some- 
 thing of Mr. Newnes, and had shown that he 
 had confidence in him. He lived in a beauti- 
 ful house in the suburbs, and there the would-be 
 publisher called upon him one day, and un- 
 folded this scheme of his with an enthusiasm 
 which the event showed to have been more 
 than justified. If the rich man would find the 
 necessary capital, half the profits which might 
 ensue were to flow into his pocket. But the 
 cautious man of business, walking to and fro 
 in his fine library, only shook his head and 
 declined. 
 
 That was a bitter hour to George Newnes, 
 and as he walked back in the dark, towards the 
 little home from which he had set out full of 
 such high hopes and expectations, he felt as 
 if everything were lost. His eye had been 
 on the bookstalls, and he had mingled with the 
 people for whom there was no reading of the 
 kind they wanted to fill the few leisure hours 
 of their monotonous lives; he knew by intui- 
 tion what they were waiting for, even though 
 they themselves were only vaguely conscious 
 of their want in this connection ; he also knew 
 
58 LIFE OF SIR GEORGE NEWNES 
 
 that he could supply it, if only some one would 
 give him the small capital required at the 
 outset. The castle he had built so grandly 
 and so high up into the sky lay at his feet in 
 ruins; and now, as he walked home in the 
 dark, a thicker darkness than that of the 
 night fell upon his spirit, as he remembered 
 his dreams, and recognized how passionately 
 he had hoped to realize them. 
 
 He had looked forward to work so hard and 
 so well, to put all his heart and mind into 
 this thing, to succeed by sheer perseverance, 
 energy and enterprise, and to work on and on, 
 till he himself should be a rich man, giving 
 employment to crowds of workers to whom he 
 would be a friend as well as an employer. And 
 then his wealth should not only procure ease and 
 pleasure for himself and his own, but he would 
 help those who needed help, and the sight of 
 whose wants had often caused his heart to ache 
 and burn. He did all this, and more, in time, 
 but on that night of failure there seemed 
 nothing more to be hoped for. 
 
 Lost in deep, gloomy thought, he stumbled 
 over a stone on the way home, fell and lay 
 there, half -unconscious and unable to rise. 
 It did not matter ; since all was lost, let the 
 world slip from him, he dimly thought, before 
 he fainted with the pain of the fall. After a 
 while a policeman passing with his bull's-eye 
 lantern, stooped down, shook him, arid told 
 
' TIT-BITS ' : THE INCEPTION 59 
 
 him he was drunk. " No," said a tired voice, 
 " I am not drunk. Help me to my feet ; I 
 have had a fall." The constable seeing that 
 he had made a mistake, helped him up and 
 guided him to a cottage close by, where an old 
 man and his wife took him in, nursed him 
 kindly and gently, and only let him go when he 
 had been rested and restored. They did not 
 think of any reward when they took in the 
 stranger ; they only thought of alleviating 
 suffering by whatever means they possessed, 
 these simple-hearted old people ; but when, not 
 long after, their guest had put his project into 
 action, and was beginning to reap his golden 
 harvest, he showed them that the gratitude 
 he had expressed on leaving them had been 
 real enough, and it was his delight to make 
 their old age happy with more than the neces- 
 saries of life. 
 
 After a night's rest had restored him, the 
 mood of the previous night which had cast him 
 into such abysmal gloom, had gone. He faced 
 the situation. The rebuff was disappointing, 
 there was no doubt of that. But because one 
 shrewd man of affairs did not see his way to 
 financing it, this beautiful scheme was not to 
 be abandoned ; its originator, no longer under 
 the effect of the sudden disappointment, be- 
 lieved in it as much as ever. There were no 
 other men to whom he could or would turn for 
 help ; the first experience had been depressing 
 
60 LIFE OF SIR GEORGE NEWNES 
 
 and humiliating enough. Now, what was to 
 be done next ? 
 
 For the sake of the idea, of the value of which 
 he was so firmly convinced, he made one other 
 effort. He was a man of a proud and inde- 
 pendent spirit, to whom it was no easy thing 
 to go, cap in hand, begging humbly for a favour. 
 He would have preferred to break stones by 
 the roadside, if thereby he could put to the test 
 his theory that a vast public was waiting for 
 a paper such as he was prepared to bring out. 
 But breaking stones is not the sort of occupa- 
 tion by which sufficient capital can speedily 
 be raised for bringing out even a small and 
 inexpensive paper. Therefore, the capitalist 
 having failed him, Mr. Newnes approached 
 a Manchester publishing firm, endeavouring 
 to persuade them to trust him to the extent 
 of 500, and publish the first few numbers 
 of his paper. Not they ! But six weeks 
 after the first number of Tit-Bits took Man- 
 chester by storm the same firm offered Mr. 
 Newnes 16,000 for the publication, which 
 offer, it need hardly be said, was politely re- 
 fused. In six months' time a London publisher 
 declared his willingness to purchase the paper 
 for the trifling sum of 30,000. But the pro- 
 prietor of Tit-Bits knew better, even though 
 the day had not yet come when a large firm 
 of advertising agents offered him many 
 thousands a year for the use of the front page 
 
c TIT-BITS ' : THE INCEPTION 61 
 
 of this same paper for which he had not been 
 able to find a publisher, and which was so soon 
 to become one of the most valuable newspaper 
 properties in the country. 
 
 The day after the second rebuff Mr. Newnes 
 went to his daily work as usual, once more 
 with hopes laid low, as again and again at 
 odd moments the thought rushed back into his 
 mind that he had now tried all he knew, to 
 obtain outside help, and that in this direction 
 nothing more was to be done. But again he 
 braced himself for the fight, squared his shoulders 
 and looked ahead, determining that he would 
 succeed even yet, and that somehow, by his 
 own efforts alone, he would obtain the capital 
 required for the start. 
 
 There were at that time in Manchester a num- 
 ber of popular vegetarian restaurants, at one of 
 which Mr. Newnes occasionally took his midday 
 meal. As he sat at this restaurant, on the day 
 when he had come to the conclusion that, since 
 no one else would help him to carry out his 
 project, he must now find means to help him- 
 self, he noticed that crowds of hungry people 
 came into the place, and that everything 
 around declared its prosperity, notwithstand- 
 ing certain defects, which, if remedied, would 
 probably draw even larger crowds. And sud- 
 denly the idea rose in his mind : " Why not 
 start a vegetarian restaurant myself, make it 
 more attractive than any other establishment 
 
62 LIFE OF SIR GEORGE NEWNES 
 
 of the kind in Manchester, and in this manner 
 raise the capital required for bringing out the 
 paper ? ' : 
 
 The story of what followed is best told 
 in the autobiographical notes written nearly 
 thirty years later 
 
 " I set to work and found a disused cellar, 
 close to the most important street in Man- 
 chester, transformed it from a mere receptacle 
 of debris into an attractive room, and made 
 arrangements for perfectly lighting it. The 
 landlord was only too delighted to see his dis- 
 used cellar made into a rent-earning property ; 
 in a month I had started there what I called 
 ' The Vegetarian Company's Saloon.' I ad- 
 vertised it as if it were some new institution 
 coming out in Manchester, and amongst other 
 things announced that there would be ' No 
 opening ceremony on Tuesday at 12 o'clock.' 
 It became the talk of the town, and at 12 
 o'clock on the Tuesday the ' Vegetarian Com- 
 pany's Saloon ' was opened. At 12.30 it 
 was closed, and I sent a wire to my wife : 
 ' Eaten up in half-an-hour.' Some people may 
 remember this opening day. The next day, 
 although we had a much larger supply, we 
 had many more customers, and were eaten 
 up in an hour." 
 
 So attractive had the place been made by 
 
4 TIT-BITS ' : THE INCEPTION 63 
 
 this new-fledged vegetarian restaurant-keeper, 
 who, without a vestige of professional know- 
 ledge, had that which is far better, since he 
 possessed the imagination which enabled him to 
 put himself into the place of all the hungry 
 folk who, after toiling all the morning, crave 
 not only for food but also for the cheerful 
 surroundings which give a savour to the sim- 
 plest fare, and without which the daintiest 
 food is but poor stuff. 
 
 The dishes were made to look inviting and 
 appetizing ; they were prepared with care and 
 skill ; the room was airy, light and pretty ; all 
 the appurtenances were spotlessly clean, and 
 twenty bright and pretty waitresses, dressed 
 in neat uniforms, were in attendance. In- 
 fected by the spirit of the head of this " com- 
 pany " the employees did their level best to 
 help it to success, and to make the disused 
 cellar the most cheerful and least expensive 
 eating-house in Manchester. 
 
 Mr. Newnes's brother-in-law, Mr. J. Hill- 
 yard, keenly interested in all his restless re- 
 lative's early undertakings, tells a delightful 
 story in connection with this experiment. One 
 day, when the restaurant was in full swing, he 
 came to it in search of its owner. No, Mr. 
 Newnes was not there he had gone out a short 
 time ago. The matter on which Mr. Hilly ard 
 wished to consult Mr. Newnes being urgent, 
 he went to this place and that, where the truant 
 
64 LIFE OF SIR GEORGE NEWNES 
 
 was likely to be found, but there was not a 
 trace of him anywhere. At last he went into 
 an hotel which had nothing to do with vege- 
 tarianism in any shape or form, to order his 
 own luncheon. And who should be sitting 
 there, doing justice to a large beefsteak, but 
 the owner of the Vegetarian Company's Saloon, 
 who chuckled as he encountered the astonished 
 eye of his brother-in-law, and said quietly, and 
 with the ghost of a wink, " Every one to his 
 fancy"! ' 
 
 In a few weeks' time the flourishing business 
 in the cellar was sold for a sufficient sum to 
 enable Mr. Newnes to realize the one object 
 he had in view when he entered upon this 
 venture. Without putting himself under obli- 
 gations to any one, and without the possibility 
 of losing money not belonging to him, he was 
 now in a position to go full steam ahead, and 
 to put to the test his theory that a large public 
 was waiting for an inexpensive periodical such 
 as he would be able to supply. 
 
 That he had made other attempts at earning 
 some extra money, and that he was not without 
 aspirations to literary honours even during that 
 period of extraordinary activity, is shown in 
 a high-spirited letter which Mr. Newnes wrote 
 to his parents on a memorandum sheet from 
 " The Vegetarian Company's Saloon, 2 Pall 
 Mall and Warren Street, Manchester," on 
 March 13, 1881. He tells them merrily about 
 
4 TIT-BITS ' : THE INCEPTION 65 
 
 the success of his " saloon," and goes on 
 to say 
 
 " With regard to the doggerel which you 
 seem to insist shall be fathered on me it was 
 simply done with the idea that if I could get 
 five guineas for an hour's work, why should 
 not I ? It did not get the prize, but I received 
 a letter asking permission to publish it. I 
 wrote back that I had no wish to have my 
 verses in the paper, but if he liked to pay me 
 for them they were his; and by return there 
 came a cheque which I am keeping as a 
 memento of the first payment I ever received 
 for literary (?) work. I thought if I sneaked 
 behind an alias I should be safe. So for a 
 time it proved. It was reserved for you to 
 drag the culprit from his lair and mercilessly 
 hold him up to scorn and (Dinner's 
 ready, so this last sentence must come to an 
 untimely end.) 
 
 " Love to all. We are glad you seem to 
 keep pretty well. Bairns are well. I am your 
 undutiful son 
 
 "GEO. NEWNES." 
 
 The writing of vers cT occasion was at that 
 time a form in which Mr. Newnes's ebullient 
 spirits not unfrequently sought and found an 
 outlet, and there is an " Odious Ode to an 
 
 Odd Object " in " very short metre " which 
 F 
 
66 LIFE OF SIR GEORGE NEWNES 
 
 he wrote in the joy of his heart after the birth 
 of his niece Jessie Hillyard (Mrs. Neville 
 Foster), and which, together with the music 
 from the lute of other poets of the family, 
 has been preserved in printed form. The 
 metre may be short, but the Ode is long, and 
 tells the story of the day when 
 
 " The rain came on, the wind blew high, 
 
 No sun was overhead ; 
 But though no sun came on that day, 
 A daughter came instead " ; 
 
 and ends with an exhortation to " bachelor ic 
 
 cousins " 
 
 " In matrimonial joys enlist, 
 
 Your single life have done ; 
 Think of the joys that now exist 
 At Number Fifty-one!" 
 
CHAPTER V 
 
 " TIT-BITS " I THE START 
 
 Two hours after the first number of Tit-Bits 
 came from the printing press, on October 30, 
 1881, five thousand copies had been sold in 
 Manchester alone, and this notwithstanding 
 what threatened to be a very serious drawback 
 to the success of the paper. This drawback 
 was its name. The Manchester newsboys were 
 not the only representatives of the public who 
 had pricked up their ears on hearing that a 
 new penny paper would appear at the end of 
 the month, and that the name of Tit- Bits had 
 been chosen for it. To Mr. Newnes, unac- 
 quainted with the slang then in fashion among 
 the class of men and boys who are for ever 
 on the look-out for indecencies and obscenities, 
 the term tit-bit suggested nothing that was not 
 " as clean as a new pin " ; and he never dreamed 
 that it might be taken in the perverted sense 
 as indicating a story more or less subtly 
 seasoned with the very things he was most 
 anxious to avoid ; the things, namely, which 
 would " cause the prurient to laugh." 
 
 It was one of the ironies of fate in little 
 
 F2 67 
 
68 LIFE OF SIR GEORGE NEWNES 
 
 things, that he should have been confronted 
 with this difficulty, for the name had seemed 
 to him so admirably suitable to, and expressive 
 of, the character of the paper which was to 
 bring harmless entertainment, useful infor- 
 mation, and wholesome food for the mind to 
 the enormous public ready and eager for this 
 branch of literature. 
 
 And now, in view of the sinister rumours 
 that numbers of people would not " touch " 
 the new paper, because they thought its title 
 indicated what they considered evil things, it 
 seemed almost ridiculous that he should have 
 been so anxious to keep the name a secret, 
 and to register it at the first possible opportu- 
 nity, lest it should fall into the hands of others 
 and be adopted before he had been able to 
 raise the small initial capital required. Verily 
 the rumour came as a bolt from the blue ! 
 
 But it depressed him only for a moment. 
 After all, he thought, as he squared his shoulders 
 once again for battle, five thousand copies 
 had taken wing easily and immediately. Wher- 
 ever they had gone, they would tell their own 
 tale, and even if half of them had fallen into 
 the hands of those to whom the term tit-bit 
 stood for an anecdote of doubtful character, 
 the other two thousand five hundred had gone 
 to the public for whom he had intended Tit- 
 Bits, and they would see to it that the paper 
 was recommended to others with tastes like 
 
'TIT-BITS': THE START 69 
 
 theirs. And meanwhile the jubilant newsboys, 
 having sold out the first edition, came back in 
 battalions to the doors of the publishing office, 
 clamouring for a fresh supply ; and the editor 
 in his room forgot all else in the delight of 
 the first success. He was working day and 
 night, inspiring every one around him with his 
 own enthusiasm and happy, tireless industry. 
 Those were the happiest days of all, the labori- 
 ous days when, after long and patient waiting, 
 there came the first great triumph, immediate, 
 complete, and well deserved. 
 
 One day, many years later, on a summer 
 afternoon, up in a cool shady corner of the 
 Wildcroft grounds, when the conversation 
 happened to turn to the publication of the 
 first few numbers of Tit-Bits or T.-B., as the 
 paper was generally spoken of Sir George 
 Newnes gave a sketch of the tumult and the 
 stress of the Manchester days. He began in 
 his usual, deliberate manner of speaking, but 
 as he went on there came a sudden note of 
 excitement into his voice : " Man alive," he 
 said, " what days those were, and how we 
 worked ! Looking back it seems as if we had 
 never left off for days and weeks together. 
 But though life was almost too full, and we 
 had to face any number of difficulties and 
 obstacles, and to invent and launch something 
 fresh almost every week, I do not remember 
 any other time of my life that has been quite 
 
70 LIFE OF SIR GEORGE NEWNES 
 
 as interesting and enjoyable as when T.-B. 
 first was started. And this went on for years." 
 Then he fell into a silent mood, and presently 
 walked thoughtfully away, as if even in the 
 midst of his full life, at the height of his 
 success and prosperity, looking backward he 
 was beginning to " pine for what is not." 
 
 For a few weeks the sale of T.-B. was almost 
 entirely confined to Manchester and the sur- 
 rounding districts, but this was not to Mr. 
 Newnes's fancy ; having justified the existence 
 of the paper, and his conception of it, it now 
 devolved upon him to put further into practice 
 some of his theories with regard to judicious 
 advertising. At the very outset, on the day 
 of publication, he had already startled Man- 
 chester into curiosity and smiles by the manner 
 in which, heralding his paper, he enlivened 
 the streets. The members of the Boys' Bri- 
 gade, instead of following the daily round of 
 taking messages about, were seen marching 
 up and down Market Street, a hundred of them 
 fifty on this side of the street, fifty on that. 
 Round their caps they wore wide bands with 
 Tit-Bits bursting from them in fat type, and 
 under their arms they bore bundles of the 
 paper itself. The editor was there to direct 
 the march, and when the top of the street was 
 reached he commanded that the forces should 
 join, and the talk of the town was the Tit-Bits 
 brigade. 
 
' TIT-BITS ' : THE START 71 
 
 There was nothing connected with his paper 
 that Mr. Newnes did not think worth his own 
 attention. The night before this parade in the 
 streets, after he had seen the paper through 
 the press a task the strain and labours of 
 which only those can fully realize to whose lot 
 it has fallen to bring out the first number of 
 any paper he had chartered a four-wheeled 
 cab, and taken a supply of T.-B. round to the 
 various wholesale agents who had agreed to 
 distribute it. He had also sent a parcel of 
 forty dozen copies to an important London 
 firm of newspaper distributors, together with 
 a letter requesting that the new weekly might 
 be sent out to the firm's bookstalls, on the sale 
 or return principle. 
 
 Having seen that the Boys' Brigade was 
 satisfactorily patronized by Manchester lovers 
 of light reading, Mr. Newnes returned to head- 
 quarters to find that the London parcel had 
 been returned with the message that the firm 
 in question had a sufficient supply of papers 
 on their stalls, and could not take the new 
 weekly. In the mail train that night the 
 editor of the rejected paper travelled up to 
 town with a copy of Tit-Bits in his pocket, 
 and next morning he had an interview with the 
 managing director of the unwilling firm, the 
 result of which was that the week following 
 the new paper was on the firm's stalls, and 
 has remained there ever since, together with 
 
72 LIFE OF SIR GEORGE NEWNES 
 
 a number of other publications from the same 
 source. 
 
 There were the usual endless number and 
 variety of petty troubles and difficulties which 
 are associated with the launching of a paper, 
 but they were as nothing when considered 
 together with the phenomenal success of the 
 undertaking. Only once or twice Mr. Newnes 
 had to face really serious difficulties, and though 
 they served mainly to show what sort of stuff 
 the young man was made of who had lived so 
 quietly and contentedly behind the scenes, 
 and had now so suddenly come to the front and 
 into public notice, these early anxieties brought 
 with them an occasional very bad quarter of 
 an hour. 
 
 There was, for instance, the day when an 
 attempt was made to seize the paper. The 
 dramatic way in which this was dealt with 
 was remembered by the chief actor with keen 
 appreciation. It happened while T.-B. was 
 still printed at Manchester, and is recorded 
 in the autobiographical notes as follows 
 
 " Tit- Bits was going up in circulation by leaps 
 and bounds, and the printer saw that a valu- 
 able property was being created. One night I 
 went down to the printing-house as usual to 
 get my papers. The place was closed to me. 
 I said : ' What does this mean ? ' and they 
 said : ' We have received instructions from our 
 
' TIT-BITS': THE START 73 
 
 proprietor that inasmuch as last week's bill 
 has not been paid no papers must be sent out 
 from this office.' They were all printed, all 
 ready to be sent out, but they were withheld ; 
 and I myself was locked out. * Where is the 
 proprietor ? ' I asked. ' Is he here ? ' No, 
 he had gone away. ' Well, where is he ? I 
 must find him.' I was told he had either 
 gone home or to a certain club in Manchester. 
 I went to his club, was told he was there, but 
 would not see me. I sent him up a letter, 
 saying I would bring an action for damages 
 against him if he kept my papers back that 
 night, as it would be the most serious injury 
 to my property. With the letter I sent him a 
 cheque for his last week's bill, the amount 
 of which was under dispute, and demanded an 
 order to his staff to let me have possession 
 of the week's issue. He came down to see 
 me, and he saw a man who had gone through 
 enormous effort, and even emotion, to carry 
 out a project which apparently was now going 
 to be ruined. If one week's paper were to be 
 kept back, all the success which was being 
 achieved would be, if not destroyed, at any rate 
 mutilated, and possibly the copyright might 
 have been lost. He gave me the order. And 
 if I were to be asked what was the most excit- 
 ing evening in my life this would be the one 
 I should choose. I got the papers and super- 
 intended the distribution. But the man who 
 
74 LIFE OF SIR GEORGE NEWNES 
 
 had given me that experience never printed 
 another copy of Tit-Bits." 
 
 On the whole, however, the trials and 
 tribulations of the start were of a kind the 
 overcoming of which supplied the editorial 
 staff with a good deal of entertainment. For 
 instance, the paper was gaining ground very 
 rapidly in all directions, especially in the 
 northern towns. But, strange to say, New- 
 castle -on-Tyne, which had a reputation as a 
 centre of much reading, and should have wel- 
 comed the merry little weekly with open arms, 
 stood aloof and would not buy Tit-Bits. After 
 watching and waiting patiently for some 
 months, Mr. Newnes and his brother-in-law, 
 Mr. J. Hillyard, travelled up to see what a 
 little attractive advertising would do. They 
 went to a newsagent, who showed them bundle 
 upon bundle of back numbers. No, the man 
 said, it was no use sending the paper. It 
 would not go. People objected to the title. 
 Looking at the thousands of waste copies, a 
 plan of campaign suggested itself by which 
 these very copies, despised and scorned as they 
 had been, should be used for the successful 
 introduction of T.-B. into Newcastle. 
 
 An army of sandwichmen was engaged, 
 the first of whom displayed the name Tit-Bits in 
 gigantic letters on the board towering high 
 
4 TIT-BITS ' : THE START 75 
 
 above him. The name and nothing more. The 
 second, in the same manner, paraded the 
 phrase " I like it " ; the third " My wife likes 
 it " ; the fourth " My daughter likes it " ; the 
 fifth " My mother likes it," and so on, through 
 the whole of what must have appeared a family 
 numerically blessed beyond the average. On 
 the last board was blazoned forth the assertion 
 "So do I." As long as the men walked in 
 the sequence which gave continuity to the 
 tale of Tit-Bits admirers, all was well, but 
 one of the comic incidents happened when the 
 man who went about advertising "So do I " 
 fell behind, and was seen solemnly marching 
 along with this device on his board. A rumour 
 became current in the parts of Newcastle 
 which had not been privileged to see the 
 advertisement in its entirety, that a lunatic 
 had escaped from Bedlam and was now at 
 large, indulging in the curious occupation of 
 carrying a sandwich board with a mad 
 inscription. 
 
 But the procession was only part of the plan. 
 Bringing up the rear there was to be a van, 
 packed with back numbers, and decorated 
 with banners and scrolls displaying devices in 
 loud and enthusiastic praise of Tit-Bits, Then 
 an unexpected difficulty was sprung upon the 
 high-spirited advertisers. The date was the 
 last day of April, and on May 1 every self- 
 
76 LIFE OF SIR GEORGE NEWNES 
 
 respecting cart-horse and donkey was going in 
 the May Day Procession, then newly instituted 
 by some pitying friend of the army of " dumb 
 things " who toil and labour so patiently, 
 and are, or were then, so often over-worked 
 and underfed, driven to work when lame, or 
 wounded or sick, more often probably from 
 thoughtlessness than from brutality. Now 
 prizes were offered to the best kept working 
 horse or donkey, and the May Day procession 
 was so gay and popular an event at Newcastle- 
 on-Tyne that it looked as if there was neither 
 van nor cart-horse to be had for love or money. 
 But seeing that on this gala-day the streets 
 would be crowded, and the crowd in holiday 
 spirits, it was all the more important that Tit- 
 Bits should add to the gaiety of the occasion; 
 and after hunting high and low and half the 
 night, the van and horse were found, and the 
 T.-B. procession was as cordially welcomed as 
 the legitimate May Day one. The back numbers 
 from the van were distributed to right and 
 left, and the Tyneside success of the paper 
 was assured. 
 
 But still one newsvendor stood out, the 
 most important of all. She was an old woman 
 who had in the course of years accumulated a 
 large connexion. Her customers read what she 
 recommended, they rejected what she did not 
 approve. No, she was not going to stock a paper 
 
6 TIT-BITS ' : THE START 77 
 
 with such a name. It was not decent. She 
 had never countenanced that sort of thing, 
 and she was not going to do so now. She 
 seemed a lady of character. Therefore Mr. 
 Hillyard, carrying a copy of Tit-Bits, called 
 upon her. She looked him up and down, and 
 grew friendly enough, after a while, but would 
 not be persuaded, and explained that she could 
 not think the man who published a paper with 
 such a name could be a nice man. " His wife 
 is my sister," the amateur advertiser explained. 
 " Do you think my sister would have let him 
 bring out a paper of the sort you seem to think 
 Tit-Bits ? No, she wouldn't." And raising 
 his voice, and shaking a threatening finger 
 before the old dame's face, he ended with a 
 grand finale " She'd give it him ! She'd give it 
 him, I can tell you ! " She must have been 
 a humorist, or on incipient suffragette, that 
 old Tyneside woman ; or her visitor must 
 have ingratiated himself greatly with her, for 
 she capitulated with a laugh, and the last 
 hostile stronghold in Newcastle was won for 
 Tit-Bits. 
 
 " I thought I was a good advertiser," said 
 Mr. Newnes when his brother-in-law rejoined 
 him, " but in this case you've beaten my head 
 off." 
 
 Meanwhile, he was not often " beaten " in 
 this branch of his profession, and he scored a 
 
78 LIFE OF SIR GEORGE NEWNES 
 
 success in the south at that time, as great as that 
 which in the north had crowned the labours 
 of the two master-advertisers. It was the 
 time for that great annual festivity, the Brigh- 
 ton Review, which in the early 'eighties still 
 drew enormous crowds to London-super-Mare. 
 They spent their short spring holiday there, 
 ending up with the great Volunteer review on 
 the Downs, or they came down on purpose on 
 Bank Holiday, to gather what enjoyment and 
 inspiration they could from the sight of the 
 uniforms and the crash of regimental music. 
 It was one of the most popular entertainments 
 of the year, with the first picnic of the spring 
 in the open, with side-shows manifold and 
 with the sparkling sea for a background. 
 
 Mr. Newnes was staying at Brighton on a 
 short holiday, and as he watched the incoming 
 multitude to which every day added thousands, 
 and every train a fresh contingent, he wondered 
 what advertisement he could devise, on the 
 spur of the moment, to bring his Tit-Bits to 
 the notice of all this happy, merry-making 
 humanity. A very large percentage of the 
 crowd of mostly small people were just of the 
 class to appreciate the paper ; they came down, 
 young fathers and mothers with their bairns, 
 elderly people with their stalwart sons and fair 
 young daughters; lovers with their lasses, 
 and all the rest, to fill an idle day with 
 
'TIT-BITS': THE START 79 
 
 innocent gaiety, and go home well satisfied with 
 all they had seen. If he could only think of 
 some way of giving them all a good laugh, of 
 adding another to the pleasurable impressions, 
 to the things of which they would talk after- 
 wards, and which they would like to remember. 
 But whatever was done must be done at once, 
 without delay. 
 
 The usual bands of patient donkeys, gaily 
 decorated and ready to take holiday makers for 
 "tuppenny" rides at a moment's notice, stood 
 here and there on the edge of the crowd. To 
 the naked eye of the average person, they are 
 not an inspiriting sight, looked at from any and 
 every point of view. But the inspiration for 
 one .of the best advertisements by which the 
 young Tits-Bits had as yet increased its popu- 
 larity came from them. Two of the best and 
 prettiest of the cavalcade were engaged for 
 the day; in an incredibly short time gorgeous 
 cloaks had been prepared for them, hiding 
 the little grey coats which Nature had bestowed 
 upon them and which much hard labour had 
 long made threadbare and shabby in places; 
 and now here they were parading to and fro, 
 up and down, wherever the crowd was thickest. 
 And nowhere did they go but shouts of laughter 
 and delight received and followed them, for 
 down their sides there streamed the long gay 
 cloaks, and the inscription upon them, in 
 
80 LIFE OF SIR GEORGE NEWNES 
 
 gigantic letters, told all the world " We don't 
 read Tit-Bits" Rejected by asses, was this 
 little paper that was offered so politely in the 
 neighbourhood of the two richly caparisoned 
 beasties ? Well, then let us see that we are 
 not counted in with them, and let us buy Tit- 
 Bits and learn what it is the donkeys refuse 
 to read ! The sale that week was phenomenal, 
 and when it remained at its height the week 
 following, and rose even higher as the weeks 
 went on, it became clear that advertising by 
 asses had not been a bad idea. 
 
 In this wise, by dint of inexhaustible energy 
 and resourcefulness in advertising, and by 
 constant care that each successive number of 
 the paper should be at least as good as the best 
 that had gone before, and if possible still better, 
 the little paper conquered first the provinces, 
 and then London, while Scotland and Ireland 
 were also gradually becoming increasingly 
 strong adherents. 
 
 The world of printers and publishers stood 
 and gazed on with amazement as Tit-Bits 
 forged ahead, running its race towards fame 
 and fortune so lightly and merrily ; and 
 presently the first imitator was in the field. 
 In six months there were twelve ; within a 
 year there were twenty-two. The earthly pil- 
 grimage of most of these was short and far from 
 glorious, and none of the survivors interfered 
 
'TIT-BITS': THE START 81 
 
 with the continued success of the paper on 
 which they had modelled themselves more or 
 less, though never one of them all could catch 
 the elusive something which drew the masses 
 to T.-B. and made them loyal followers, not- 
 withstanding the allurements of all the other 
 would-be charmers. 
 
CHAPTER VI 
 
 THE GENTLE ART OF ADVERTISING 
 
 VERY soon after Tit-Bits was launched it 
 became clear that its editor and proprietor 
 could not continue his work as the represen- 
 tative of a London mercantile firm, together 
 with superintending and editing his paper. 
 He therefore freed himself from his former 
 duties and cast in his lot with the profes- 
 sional journalist, being fortunately able to 
 combine with his work the very lucrative 
 position of proprietor of a paper which had 
 positively rushed to an unprecedented circu- 
 lation and, consequently, had become a great 
 financial success. 
 
 For three years Manchester, the scene of its 
 first remarkable appearance, remained the 
 home of the paper; then its headquarters 
 were moved to London, first to Farringdon 
 Street, then to much larger premises in Bur- 
 leigh Street, and finally to the group of buildings 
 in Southampton Street, the dignified front of 
 which gives no idea of the hum and buzz of 
 concentrated energy and activity within, on 
 
 82 
 
GENTLE ART OF ADVERTISING 83 
 
 every floor, and in all the labyrinthine passages ; 
 or of the marvels of the underground rooms 
 where, with rhythmic click and whir, monstrous 
 machines which seem like sentient beings so 
 marvellous is the work they do, and so unlike 
 the usual automatic action of machinery re- 
 ceive endless rolls of white paper and give up at 
 the other end the green Tit-Bits, stitched in its 
 cover, and ready to be put on the bookstalls. 
 
 You may watch them scores of times, and 
 you may have all the intricacies explained to 
 you by the most matter-of-fact keeper of these 
 giants, but unless yours is the engineering 
 mind, you will never turn away from them 
 without the impression that somewhere about 
 their iron frames they have eyes to see, and 
 brains to understand the tasks they are 
 performing, and that in their innermost being 
 there is an insatiable greed for blank paper, 
 leagues upon leagues of it, which they must 
 swallow and presently disgorge again, all deco- 
 rated with the tiny hieroglyphics whereby the 
 race of pigmies called mankind is amused. 
 
 Besides making the paper itself its own best 
 advertiser, and by inventing advertisements 
 which were effective for a day or an hour, and 
 designed to impress crowds, Mr. Newnes was 
 always bent on the discovery of fresh methods 
 of advertisement which should occupy the pub- 
 lic for longer periods of time ; and the slightest 
 incidents and occurrences often suggested new 
 
 G 2 
 
84 LIFE OF SIR GEORGE NEWNES 
 
 means to this end. Thus, he had inaugu- 
 rated a system by which every person who 
 took in T.-B. 9 for a certain period, received 
 100. This period was necessarily long, and 
 the scheme was for this reason less attractive 
 than it might have been. Then one morn- 
 ing there was in the almost bottomless editorial 
 post-bag a letter from a poor woman who 
 explained that her husband had regularly 
 taken the paper for a long time, though not 
 long enough to entitle him to the 100. Now 
 he had been killed in a railway accident, and 
 when his body was extricated from under 
 the ruined train a copy of Tit-Bits was found 
 upon him. She was left penniless ; might she, 
 under the circumstances, not be privileged to 
 receive part of the 100 ? 
 
 The poor woman did not plead in vain, but 
 the matter did not end when she had been 
 relieved. For as he thought the incident over, 
 it flashed upon the editor that here was a 
 chance of improving on the first insurance 
 scheme. The idea was carefully worked out, 
 and henceforth each number of Tit-Bits carried 
 (and still carries) a valuable policy of insurance 
 against railway accidents, securing for the 
 friends of any one killed in such an accident 
 the sum of 100. This was the feature which 
 more than any other at the time sent up the 
 circulation of the paper. Between twenty and 
 thirty sums of 100 have so far been paid 
 
GENTLE ART OF ADVERTISING 85 
 
 out to the public as the result of this insurance 
 scheme. 
 
 It was thoroughly well advertised ; a great 
 many papers made fun of it, and every joke, 
 whether it raised the laugh for or against the 
 scheme, was highly appreciated and approved 
 by the editor, who by this time had learnt the 
 great lesson which every journalist knows, that 
 in his profession it matters little whether 
 criticism is favourable or, on occasion, adverse ; 
 the only thing to be guarded against at all costs 
 being the silence of the dear public and the 
 still dearer contemporaries. 
 
 When this system of insurance by newspaper 
 became once fully understood and appreciated 
 by the public, the circulation of Tit-Bits went 
 up to the great height of seven hundred 
 thousand. In the autobiographical notes the 
 following paragraph is added to an outline of 
 the insurance scheme and its effect on the 
 circulation : " One's ambition naturally set 
 up the standard of a million. So I offered to 
 give 10,000 to the hospitals of this country 
 if the readers of Tit-Bits would send its circula- 
 tion up to a million. This had some influence, 
 but we only got up to eight hundred and fifty 
 thousand per week. However, something like 
 5000 was paid to the hospitals." Only 
 850,000 ! Think of it, all ye who boast of a 
 largest circulation ! 
 
 But prizes to which no such gruesome 
 
86 LIFE OF SIR GEORGE NEWNES 
 
 conditions attach as death by railway disaster, 
 have done much in spreading the popularity of 
 Tit-Bits, giving at the same time ever-fresh 
 entertainment to a large public. 
 
 Two years after its first appearance the paper 
 had a steady weekly circulation of two hundred 
 thousand. So far there had never been a week 
 when more copies had not been sold than the 
 week before. The editor, from feeling some 
 natural elation, had become accustomed to the 
 increase, and, indeed, had begun to expect it. 
 Why should the circulation stop short of a 
 million ? Why even there ? since the world 
 was full of people, and most of them obviously 
 approved of Tit-Bits, once they had become 
 acquainted with it. 
 
 And then, at two hundred thousand, the in- 
 crease suddenly stopped. It was large enough, 
 in all conscience ; large enough to satisfy am- 
 bition. But the editor wondered what was 
 the reason. Had the moment come when all 
 had been done that could be done ? Had 
 they exhausted their resources for attracting 
 a still wider public ? To think such a thought 
 was to reject it. Something else must be 
 invented ; something to attract the enterpris- 
 ing, and to give cause for mirth to those who 
 prefer to be onlookers only, when bolder spirits 
 step into the arena. What was it to be ? 
 
 One Bank Holiday morning Mr Newnes, the 
 lover of the open road, had so far put aside his 
 
GENTLE ART OF ADVERTISING 87 
 
 work as to indulge in a country walk with a 
 friend. As they strolled along the talk turned, 
 as usual, quite naturally to the paper, and 
 the editor's thoughts to the fillip which might 
 be given by means of an interesting competi- 
 tion. He had often of late turned the matter 
 over in his mind, but as yet he had not found 
 what he wanted. Looking up, his eye fell 
 upon a house close by, which was "To be let 
 or sold." A man, who turned out to be the 
 owner, stood at the door. A minute later 
 Mr. Newnes asked him : " What is the price of 
 this house ? " " 400," was the answer. " I'll 
 buy it," said Mr. Newnes, and the bargain was 
 made. Then they resumed their placid walk, 
 and nothing was said till Mr. Newnes turned 
 to his friend. " I've got it ! " he announced. 
 " Well," said the other, with a laugh. " What 
 have you got ? ' 
 
 Next week the details of a new compe- 
 tition were printed in T.-B.; a seven-roomed 
 freehold house was offered for the best short 
 story, the only condition being that the winner 
 should call it " Tit-Bits Villa." For one half of 
 the population of the British Islands the com- 
 petition formed the event not of the day and 
 the week, but of many weeks, and again the 
 circulation rose like a balloon coming into a 
 fresh air current. 
 
 There was a sequel to the venture. The 
 winner was a soldier who had sent in a story 
 
88 LIFE OF SIR GEORGE NEWNES 
 
 which he thought the best, an opinion shared 
 by the judges of the competition, who awarded 
 the prize to him. Then it appeared that he 
 had copied it, in all good faith, not under- 
 standing that the competition was for original 
 work only. The story happened to be non- 
 copyrighted. When the true state of things 
 appeared the editor wrote to the author 
 suggesting that, since the story had originally 
 been his, he also should receive some sort of 
 payment. This suggestion brought the reply 
 that as the man who had sent in what was 
 only a copy had received a villa, at least a 
 street was due to the author. He did not, 
 however, wish to be unreasonable and would 
 be perfectly satisfied with Pall Mall or Picca- 
 dilly ! These little cabbage patches not happen- 
 ing to be in the market just then, the point 
 was settled in some other way agreeable to 
 all concerned. 
 
 It was shortly after the competition for 
 the seven-roomed house that the Manchester 
 premises became too narrow to hold Tit-Bits, 
 and the move to London was made. In its 
 new home the paper became even more 
 sprightly, more frolicsome, than before. The 
 prize of house property, for a short story, had 
 brought to it so large a stream of new readers, 
 so great a mass of MSS., that another 
 and a greater effort in the same direction 
 seemed advisable. This time the more serious^ 
 
GENTLE ART OF ADVERTISING 89 
 
 professional writers of fiction were to have a 
 chance, although the competition was open 
 to all aspirants to literary honours. A prize 
 of 1000 was offered for the best serial story. 
 Tit-Bits, having begun with " snippets " and 
 " boiled " copy in its lowly and exuberant 
 youth, was growing up, adding new dignities 
 and graces to its charms ; it was now feeling 
 its way along a road as yet almost untrodden 
 in this country by purveyors of popular litera- 
 ture ; it was for the first time putting to the 
 test its readers' willingness to accept a story 
 running from week to week. 
 
 The mid- Victorian family paper had suc- 
 ceeded well enough with this feature, but, then, 
 it was a meek and gentle publication, read week 
 after week by a docile generation that found 
 no difficulty in curbing its curiosity as to the 
 romantic heroes' and heroines' next move, to 
 be set forth in a week's time. But it was more 
 than questionable whether this new reading 
 public which Mr. Newnes himself had taught 
 and trained to expect good stories galore in a 
 concentrated form, and in a paper which every 
 week should be complete in itself so far as its 
 reading matter was concerned, would accept 
 stories dealt out at the rate of a chapter or 
 two week by week; in spoonfuls, so to speak. 
 It was all very well to have the weeks linked 
 together by prize competitions that was un- 
 avoidable; but would the restless and eager 
 
90 LIFE OF SIR GEORGE NEWNES 
 
 public of the day patiently suffer the cutting 
 in half of a blood-curdling adventure or an 
 episode of high romance, the first slice being 
 served up this week, the second a week hence ? 
 Apart, therefore, from any consideration of 
 immediate gain or loss, it was an interesting 
 experiment, that of the 1000 prize story, and 
 its reception, as a serial, by the public. The 
 first of the many curious facts the competition 
 brought to light was, that there was an enormous 
 crowd of literary aspirants who had obviously 
 only been waiting for the moment when a wise 
 man should present such an offer as that now 
 made by T.-B., to send forth the works of 
 art they had prepared with such skill and 
 talent, and many of which had already suffered 
 such undeserved rejection by purblind pub- 
 lishers. For no sooner had the terms of the 
 competition been made known than the MSS. 
 began to pour in, in hundreds, in thousands, 
 in tens of thousands, till the multitude thereof, 
 which at first had been welcomed with such 
 pleasure, began to pall ; and those whose duty 
 it was to read and judge these outpourings of 
 the full heart of men and women inspired with 
 the craving for communicating their lyric and 
 epic emotions, had nightmares, and walked 
 about with frowning brows and something worse 
 than groans in their throats. Over twenty 
 thousand MSS. volumes lay stacked at the 
 office of T.-B. on the date when the com- 
 
GENTLE ART OF ADVERTISING 91 
 
 petition closed; and if a fire had broken out 
 and made a holocaust of them, one can imagine 
 that with the tears of the bereaved authors, 
 most of whom had probably not been wise 
 enough to keep a copy of their work, there 
 might have mingled at least a few sighs of 
 relief, coming from the depths of wicked 
 hearts in the secret places of the editorial 
 department. Such a calamity, however, did 
 not befall. 
 
 The editor of T.-B. was a little scornful as 
 to the merits of the bulk of these works, when 
 remembering them afterwards. " They were a 
 poor lot, on the whole," he said, and judging 
 by the way he spoke, he pitied himself in 
 retrospect for having been obliged to wade 
 through the section from which he was obliged 
 to make a choice, after the absolutely impossible 
 had been weeded out. The final choice, how- 
 ever, was not very difficult, for among the 
 writers of real skill and talent who had com- 
 peted was Mr. Grant Allen, and his story 
 " What's Bred in the Bone " had that in it 
 which made it an easy first. It was successful 
 in every way, for it pleased the public from 
 beginning to end; it made the serial story 
 acceptable ; it sent up the circulation, and had 
 a magnificent sale when afterwards it appeared 
 in volume form. 
 
 There were not wanting superior persons 
 who scoffed and sneered because a man of 
 
92 LIFE OF SIR GEORGE NEWNES 
 
 Grant Allen's position in the world of letters 
 should " mix with that crowd," but he himself 
 never regretted it, quite apart from the fact 
 that the fee of 1000 came as a godsend in his 
 struggle against a disease which obliged him 
 to spend the winter in Egypt. Brave, patient 
 spirit ! I see him now, sitting in the tiny 
 waiting-room of the old Pall Mall Gazette in 
 Northumberland Street, looking very frail and 
 thin in his rough tweed clothes, and with the 
 sad smile on his face ; and I hear the pleasant, 
 cultured voice that came rather as a surprise 
 to those who saw him for the first time and 
 noted that his bronzed face looked more like 
 that of a farmer than a literary and scientific 
 man. " Why not ? " he said. " What is the 
 matter with Tit-Bits, that I should be ashamed 
 of having gained a prize in its literary com- 
 petitions ? I wish all the papers for which I 
 have written pot-boilers were as interesting, 
 and if some had paid me half as well I should 
 not be where I am." 
 
 The sensation, however, which the 1000 
 prize story had created paled and faded before 
 another of which it is no exaggeration to say 
 that it threw half the nation into a fever of 
 excitement, and gave the other half the material 
 for any amount of amusement and animated 
 conversation. The form of this competition 
 was suggested by Mr. Greenhough- Smith at one 
 of the luncheons at the Hotel Cecil, where 
 
GENTLE ART OF ADVERTISING 93 
 
 many a new idea connected with Mr. Newnes's 
 papers first saw the light. 
 
 Most people well remember the autumn 
 when suddenly all other events of the day were 
 momentarily obscured by the rumour that the 
 editor of Tit-Bits had caused tubes containing 
 five hundred sovereigns to be buried in the 
 earth; that in a story about to be published 
 in Tit-Bits the place where the gold was hidden 
 would be indicated, and that whoever, in 
 reading the story, could discover the clue to 
 the place and find the money, was free to dig 
 up the treasure and keep it. 
 
 At first it was proposed to hide the money 
 somewhere in the heart of London, where 
 the stream of humanity is strongest, most 
 turbulent, and unintermittent, except for an 
 hour or two in the dead of night. Charing 
 Cross seemed an ideal spot ; and could heart of 
 author, dealing with the hiding-place, conceive 
 a more perfect keeper of the precious coin than 
 say, the Landseer lions, grimly grand and 
 indomitably strong ? One would have liked 
 to sit among the plotters as the scheme was 
 being worked out, for those who were present 
 cannot even now speak of that time without a 
 ring of remembered rapture stealing into the 
 voice, a gleam of fun into the eye. But the 
 idea of making Charing Cross the region of 
 buried treasure was found impracticable, and 
 it was finally decided that it was best to drive 
 
94 LIFE OF SIR GEORGE NEWNES 
 
 the sovereigns actually into the earth in some 
 place to which the public could always easily 
 gain access. 
 
 To work this competition satisfactorily was 
 by no means an easy matter. On the one 
 hand, it was necessary that the money should 
 be discovered ; on the other it was absolutely 
 essential to make a very careful choice of the 
 hiding-place, in order that the prize should not 
 be found too easily, and thereby cause the 
 whole affair to degenerate into a farce. 
 
 The task of writing the story fell to Mr. Arthur 
 Morrison, and he, together with Mr. Newnes's 
 son, set out one day to find the place which 
 should at the same time be easy and difficult 
 to describe and to discover. The excursion is 
 thus described in the autobiographical notes 
 
 " They went by motor-car a few miles out 
 of London, and there they found a spot where 
 there was a good chance. You know how 
 many places there are in country roads which 
 you have passed over and over again, with 
 perhaps a sort of grass island where four roads 
 meet. A man who was driving a flock of sheep 
 came along, and out of curiosity, or laziness, or 
 for some other reason, sat down just as my son 
 was about to drive in the five tubes of a hundred 
 sovereigns each. It was a very lonely spot, and 
 if it had not been for that man,the business could 
 have been done in ten minutes. But he was in 
 
GENTLE ART OF ADVERTISING 95 
 
 no hurry. The slowness with which he filled his 
 pipe, the carefulness with which he put in the 
 little tobacco leaves were absolutely exasperat- 
 ing. If he would only move away. . . . But 
 there he sat for a long time, enjoying the 
 scenery, and watching the operations under 
 the motor car, which were only undertaken to 
 allay any suspicion that might be aroused. 
 At last he got tired ; either his pipe had gone 
 out, or his keenness for further mechanical 
 knowledge had subsided ; in any case, to the 
 great relief of the money-hiders, he moved away. 
 In a few minutes the tubes were driven into 
 the earth, and Mr. Morrison took his measure- 
 ments from a certain tree to which attention 
 had been drawn in the story. So we had done 
 our part to fulfil the conditions. The day 
 after the next issue a cyclist came over from 
 Birmingham all the way to Hatfield, walked 
 straight to the place, and dug up 500." 
 
 The very reading of such doings awakens 
 a thrill, even after the years that have passed 
 since the episode of the hidden gold. It is not 
 difficult to imagine how every sportsman's and 
 detective's instinct of those immediately con- 
 cerned must have been strained while they 
 watched and waited from week to week, giving 
 one clue after the other. 
 
 Afterwards 2500 were hidden in a similar 
 manner in different places. It was Mr. 
 
96 LIFE OF SIR GEORGE NEWNES 
 
 Newnes's particular wish that one hiding-place 
 should be in the supposed centre of England, 
 which happens to be his native place. In the 
 story it was called Meridian, and it is curious 
 that the readers of Tit-Bits who were by that 
 time trained to almost detective-like keenness 
 of perception took longer in finding this spot 
 than any other. Not one of them seemed to 
 connect the term Meridian with the heights of 
 Matlock, although, without making use of the 
 actual word middle or centre, attention was 
 again and again drawn to the meaning which 
 might be given to the term Meridian. Yet 
 the money must be found, or the competition 
 would fall flat. In order to prevent this, the 
 public had in this and one other case practically 
 to be told where to walk straight to the 500 
 and dig them out of the ground. 
 
 At Glasgow the author of the story, in giving 
 the clues, had guided the public to within a 
 hundred yards of the hiding-place, and the crowd 
 which invaded the street was so great that the 
 like of it has never since been seen. They turned 
 out a builder's yard until the builder threatened 
 all manner of things if he were further incon- 
 venienced; and though he was invited to join 
 in the search and secure the 500 if no one else 
 could, it was not he who secured that prize. 
 
 There have been, and still are, many other 
 competitions in Tit-Bits which stirred and stir 
 the public, but nothing has ever occasioned 
 
GENTLE ART OF ADVERTISING 97 
 
 such passionate endeavour as this search for 
 gold, perhaps because it appeals to one of the 
 most deep-seated elemental cravings in the 
 human heart. 
 
 One other incident connected with this 
 scheme is interesting. There was at the time 
 a terrible slump on the Stock Exchange. 
 Everything was going wrong. Shares were 
 going down " like sticks." At the entrance 
 hall of a West End mansion where an import- 
 ant political reception was being held, one guest 
 met another, the latter a well-known member 
 of the Stock Exchange. " How are things 
 going ? " said the politician. " Pretty bad all 
 round, I hear." " I should think they are," 
 said the pessimist financier. " There is only 
 500 of good money left in the world, and 
 Tit-Bits has gone and buried it." The only 
 comment which the originator of this ex- 
 hilarating sport allowed himself on the subject 
 was this : " Oh, you may call it cheap journal- 
 ism; you may say it combined lottery with 
 literature, but I will tell you this, that it has 
 guided an enormous class of superficial readers, 
 who craved for light reading, and would have 
 read so-called sporting papers if they had 
 not read Tit-Bits, into a wholesome vein 
 which may have led them to higher forms of 
 literature." 
 
 Nor was this the empty talk of an interested 
 editor, for, although he was a keen and practical 
 
98 LIFE OF SIR GEORGE NEWNES 
 
 man of business, Mr. Newnes never allowed 
 his publications to sink, by a hair's-breadth, 
 below the standard of perfectly pure and whole- 
 some reading ; and when the occasion arose he 
 was ready and willing to make greater financial 
 sacrifices for the cause he had taken up than 
 many men would have cared to make. 
 
 There are romantic and adventurous epi- 
 sodes in the history of every modern newspaper. 
 Probably the more modern it is, the more 
 sensational is its career. But was there ever 
 one with quite as thrilling and exciting a 
 record as this little pioneer ancestor of all the 
 penny periodicals now jostling one another on 
 the bookstalls ? So frolicsome it was, so pugna- 
 cious and daring, in its golden youth, that even 
 as you read of its high-spirited capers, in your 
 arm-chair by the fire, you participate in the joie 
 de vivre which sent it careering along, for ever 
 on the onward path, and you reflect with a 
 doubled sense of pleasure that though it was so 
 gay, so reckless and adventurous, it remained 
 spotlessly clean. 
 
 The prize competitions were for years the 
 only form of advertisement the editor would 
 tolerate in the paper itself. It had been one 
 of Mr. Newnes's first principles that the reader 
 must not be distracted from the enjoyment of 
 the letterpress, nor have his pleasure curtailed, 
 by any space being given to other than editorial 
 matter. But as the circulation went from 
 
GENTLE ART OF ADVERTISING 99 
 
 four figures into five, from five into six, the 
 advertising agent, who so far had vainly tried 
 to lure the editor of Tit-Bits into his snare, 
 could no longer be resisted. It was more than 
 human flesh and blood could stand, to con- 
 tinue the refusal of offers which became 
 more and more tempting; and when a firm 
 offered a yearly sum which can only be de- 
 scribed as a large fortune, Mr. Newnes " fell," 
 to use his own expression, and agreed that a 
 four-page cover should be added to the paper 
 and devoted to advertisements. 
 
 The man responsible for printing machinery 
 so complex as that in Burleigh Street had now 
 become is much tried, and may be forgiven if 
 he is occasionally more of an autocrat than is 
 quite agreeable or convenient from the merely 
 editorial point of view, or quite compatible 
 with the easy introduction of innovations. 
 Hence, when Mr. Newnes sent for this engineer, 
 explaining that he had arranged to give a col- 
 oured wrapper to Tit-Bits, and asking whether 
 this could be done, the answer was prompt 
 and decided. It generally is, from printers' 
 engineers invited to make changes. No, it could 
 not be done. At least, it could only be done 
 if the wrapper t were left white like the rest 
 of the paper. Now, the fact that the actual 
 paper was to be left exactly as it had been from 
 the beginning, the advertisement sheets form- 
 ing a supplement as it were, represented an idea 
 
 H 2 
 
100 LIFE OF SIR GEORGE NEWNES 
 
 wherewith Mr. Newnes, opposed as he was 
 to the introduction of advertisements, tried 
 to salve his conscience. And then he was 
 told it could not be done. 
 
 He had a way, when wishing to concentrate 
 his thoughts, and to come rapidly to a decision, 
 of getting up from his desk, walking to the 
 window and looking out into the street for a 
 minute or two. " Spy," in the Vanity Fair 
 portrait, has caught the attitude to the life. 
 When the engineer crossed his plans that day, 
 Mr. Newnes, after a moment's reflection by 
 the window, accompanied him down into the 
 room where the machines were clicking and 
 humming. " Now," he asked, " instead of all 
 that great roll of paper running right through 
 the machine, cannot you stop it at a certain 
 part, put in a roll of green paper, and let the 
 two work together ? " The engineer was doubt- 
 ful, but promised to " think what could be 
 done." In three months' time he came back. 
 He had found the way. In three months 
 more the new machine was ready. Thus the 
 editor, without any knowledge of engineer- 
 ing, or of the mechanism required for printing- 
 machines, had suggested the idea which led to 
 the construction of a new machine now in use all 
 over the world. It was the largest of its kind, 
 cost over 6000, and prints off seven copies 
 of Tit-Bits in a second, or twenty-four thousand 
 copies an hour. 
 
GENTLE ART OF ADVERTISING -i(H 
 
 So entirely satisfactory were these new 
 giants in the basement, that when their career 
 of usefulness was at one moment seriously 
 threatened with being suddenly and ingloriously 
 cut short, the head of the firm had need of 
 all his fortitude to remain unmoved. But in 
 this matter also he was the one who laughed 
 last. 
 
 The trouble began almost as soon as the 
 machinery had been put down. The neigh- 
 bours complained of the noise. Since South- 
 ampton Street is close to the Strand, one might 
 have imagined that the unintermittent roar 
 of traffic from that quarter would make even 
 nervous folk impervious to any other noise, 
 and that it would swallow up all other sounds 
 the district can produce. The neighbours, 
 however, were of opinion that the machinery 
 was so disturbing as to interfere with the 
 successful conduct of their business. It was 
 an awkward position for the owner of the said 
 machinery, for though he himself was firmly 
 convinced that the neighbours were mistaken, 
 he recognized the difficulty of convincing 
 them. But when the crisis became acute, 
 necessity, the resourceful mother of invention, 
 came to his aid, and he hit upon a plan by which 
 this point would be settled once and for all. 
 The plan succeeded so well that ever after, 
 while keenly appreciating the joke and 
 the success, he felt apologetic towards the 
 
102 LIFE OF SIR GEORGE NEWNES 
 
 neighbours against whom he had " plotted so 
 disreputably." 
 
 A certain firm, on the opposite side 
 of Southampton Street, having repeatedly 
 threatened an action on account of the dis- 
 turbance, Mr. Newnes asked two police- 
 officers to come to him at a certain hour. 
 Having explained the situation to both, he 
 took one of the two across the street to the 
 premises from which the complaints had come, 
 the other constable remaining on the Tit-Bits 
 premises, where the foreman had received in- 
 structions to shut off every bit of machinery 
 as soon as Mr. Newnes and his companion 
 were seen to enter the house opposite, where 
 the following polite conversation took place : 
 " Well, sir," said Mr. Newnes, gravely polite, 
 " what is your grievance ? What noise are 
 you complaining of ? " The reply was not 
 lacking in emphasis : " Can't you hear it 
 yourself ? Just listen ! It goes on like that 
 all day long. Can't you hear it, constable ? ' 
 Oh yes, the constable could. There was no 
 doubt about the noise. It was shocking. 
 And so they stood and listened for some 
 minutes, and all agreed that the noise was 
 very grievous, very disturbing. Presently Mr. 
 Newnes, turning to the police-officer, said 
 quietly : " Now, constable, will you walk 
 across the road, please, and listen to the 
 machinery there ? ' 
 
GENTLE ART OF ADVERTISING 103 
 
 Few men would wish to be put in the unen- 
 viable place of the gentleman who had brought 
 the complaint, when presently the constable 
 came back, having gathered a few facts on the 
 spot from his brother officer and from the heads 
 of the machine-department. He explained that 
 " the noise you hear cannot be from the ma- 
 chinery opposite, for it has not been running 
 since we came into this house. It must be 
 the noise of the Strand." And further com- 
 plaints there were none, even though before 
 long the activity of the Tit-Bits machines was 
 enormously increased. 
 
CHAPTER VII 
 
 THE " REVIEW OF REVIEWS " AND THE 
 " STRAND " 
 
 THE prize competitions which brought such 
 a harvest of gold and amusement to an enor- 
 mous public, while they put the inventive 
 power of the T.-B. staff to a constant test 
 and incited to ever fresh endeavours as the 
 cheers and the laughter of the crowd of readers 
 re-echoed through the office, had also other, 
 unlooked-for effects. Among the first of these 
 was the addition to the staff of a youth 
 destined in the years to come to play a pro- 
 minent part in the inner history of London 
 journalism. 
 
 The particular competition which gave Mr. 
 Cyril Arthur Pearson his opportunity was a 
 continuous one, connected with a feature of 
 the paper known as the " Enquiry Column." 
 In this column some dozen questions, either 
 sent in by readers or supplied from the office, 
 were asked, prizes being given to the com- 
 petitor who supplied answers in the most 
 satisfactory and interesting manner. In order 
 to draw additional attention to this part of 
 
 104 
 
THE 'REVIEW OF REVIEWS' 105 
 
 the paper a special prize had been offered of 
 a position at the office, with a salary com- 
 mencing at 100 year (the same sum as that 
 which Mr. Newnes himself had received for his 
 first salary) to the competitor whose answers 
 during three consecutive months should be 
 best. At the end of this period a careful 
 examination of the papers sent in revealed 
 the fact that Mr. Pearson's replies had won 
 the prize. This was communicated to him, 
 and he was asked to present himself at 
 the office. He appeared upon the scene a 
 youth in his teens, without any journalistic 
 training, but with excellent natural aptitude, 
 and with the firm determination to succeed, 
 two gifts which in time helped him to rise 
 to an important and responsible position in 
 Mr. Newnes's business, culminating in that of 
 commercial manager. Mr. Pearson remained 
 a valued and valuable member of the T.-B. 
 staff, was indefatigable during the period 
 of stress and labour preceding the appear- 
 ance of the Review of Reviews which, as will 
 presently be seen, was on the bookstalls 
 a month after the date on which Mr. Stead 
 first put the idea of such a paper before 
 Mr. Newnes and did not leave Tit- Bits till 
 he was about to start Pearson's Weekly, 
 modelled on the paper to which he owed his 
 introduction to journalism. It may be re- 
 membered that some years ago he purchased 
 
106 LIFE OF SIR GEORGE NEWNES 
 
 several important London dailies, including 
 The Times which, however, soon changed 
 hands again. 
 
 The present Lord Northcliffe, then Mr. Alfred 
 Harmsworth, also used Tit-Bits as the first 
 rung of the ladder to wealth and prominence ; 
 for though he never actually joined the staff 
 he was, as quite a young man, one of the most 
 regular contributors. As events have shown 
 he was, at the same time, a close and intelli- 
 gent observer, who studied the various features 
 of the paper to excellent effect. One of the 
 most popular of these at the time was a page 
 of " Answers to Correspondents," known at 
 the office as " corres." For this page the 
 editor had a special affection, together with 
 very definite ideas as to the manner in which 
 it should be conducted. He held that, first 
 and foremost, all answers should be given in a 
 manner which would make each correspondent 
 feel that he was treated with special con- 
 sideration; that here, behind this newspaper 
 page, there was somebody to whom the 
 inquirer's affairs were of real, human interest ; 
 who sympathized, and tried to give his advice 
 a practical turn. Secondly, Mr. Newnes held 
 that the answers should be couched in such 
 terms, whenever this was possible, as to make 
 them interesting to the general reader as well as 
 to the individual correspondent. Nor was this 
 merely the opinion of the practical editor 
 
THE 'REVIEW OF REVIEWS' 107 
 
 who, for very good financial reasons, sought to 
 make his paper popular ; for his vivid imagina- 
 tion, his innate good sense, his ready wit, and 
 above all his unfailing social tact, made Mr. 
 Newnes an ideal conductor of this part of his 
 paper. He could put himself into another 
 man's place; he saw the care and trouble 
 which had driven this and that correspondent 
 to apply for advice to an unprejudiced stranger ; 
 he understood the careless merriment and high- 
 spirited daring which prompted others to ask 
 puzzling and perplexing questions ; the distress 
 which drove people in financial or other busi- 
 ness difficulties to apply to him; he could 
 be patient and tolerant with the intolerant 
 and the impatient; with cranks and faddists, 
 and meet them half way, advising, suggesting, 
 humoring, encouraging, out of the fullness of 
 his own large, kindly heart, aided and abetted 
 by his clear, level head. For years he took 
 these letters, in bundles twelve inches high, 
 and higher, went carefully through each, and 
 answered them so fully, so wisely and well, 
 that in course of time people belonging to 
 every social class sought help and advice 
 through " corres." Nor was there any part 
 of his work which the editor found more 
 interesting and stimulating. 
 
 In order to avoid at least on alternate days 
 the incessant interruptions which made edito- 
 rial writing at the office almost impossible, 
 
108 LIFE OF SIR GEORGE NEWNES 
 
 Mr. Newnes worked three days a week at 
 Wildcroft, his home on Putney Heath. There 
 in the quiet room looking out into what was 
 almost sylvan solitude before the motor began 
 to whiz past with hoot and snort, you might 
 see him bending over his long day's work, 
 with his faithful private secretary, Mr. W. 
 Plank, in attendance, and with his pet dog at 
 his feet. Sometimes he looked grave and pre- 
 occupied, or even a little irritable on those 
 days which all men know, when everything is 
 apt to go as wrong as if some mischievous, 
 invisible imp were at the head of affairs ; but 
 mostly he was serene and well-content, and 
 never happier than when occupied with great 
 piles of " corres." Now and then he would 
 get up, walk into the adjoining library, in 
 search of information from reference books ; or 
 stand musing by the window in the attitude of 
 the clever " Spy " cartoon ; then back again to 
 the writing-table, or to the armchair near the 
 fireplace, which was a favourite place even 
 when the summer sun shone in at the open 
 windows and the grate held flowers instead 
 of fire, writing answers to unknown corre- 
 spondents, whole sheets of them, in the clear, 
 firm hand at which no compositor had ever 
 reason to grumble. 
 
 The columns on which so much affectionate 
 care was bestowed became in time one of the 
 most popular parts of the paper, as the editor 
 
THE 'REVIEW OF REVIEWS' 109 
 
 was assured in thousands of letters, and as also 
 appeared by the votes in a prize competition. 
 Not that his special interest in this feature 
 caused him to slacken his constant and care- 
 ful superintendence of every part of Tit- 
 Bits. For many years not a line was published 
 which he had not read and approved. No 
 detail was too slight to receive his personal 
 attention, and at short intervals he made 
 thorough inquiries as to his readers' opinion on 
 this or that page or column, substituting new 
 features for those which had obviously ceased 
 to interest, and always inventing and adopting 
 fresh ideas. By this means he kept Tit-Bits 
 first, by a long way, among the crop of imitators 
 which were for ever springing up. 
 
 One day there appeared yet another pub- 
 lication which paid T.-B. the compliment 
 which is supposed to be the sincerest form 
 of flattery. Its name was Answers to Cor- 
 respondents. Mr. Newnes, turning over the 
 pages of the first number, noted that it was 
 edited with great intelligence and aptitude, 
 and said, with a sigh half of regret and half of 
 admiration, as he put it aside : " This is the 
 first real opposition to T.-B." The editor of 
 this new penny weekly was Mr. Alfred Harms- 
 worth, who, having recognized that the 
 " corres " of the little paper to which he 
 was so steady and successful a contributor, 
 had an extraordinary hold on a large public, 
 
110 LIFE OF SIR GEORGE NEWNES 
 
 had turned his observations to practical 
 account, and was now, in his first journal- 
 istic venture, making an intelligent bid for the 
 patronage of the wide public accustomed to 
 look to a correspondence page for both good 
 advice and excellent entertainment. 
 
 As all the world knows, the stimulus to 
 individual effort received by Mr. Pearson and 
 Lord Northcliffe through their contributions 
 to Tit-Bits has borne marvellous and manifold 
 fruit ; and the founder of the particular branch 
 of the new journalism to which they owe their 
 wealth and power was always ready to acknow- 
 ledge their industry and capabilities. 
 
 Years ago the Caxton Magazine, in an article 
 on Sir George Newnes, which appeared in the 
 series of " Men of Mark," alluding to the fact 
 that these two young men had followed where 
 the editor of Tit-Bits had led, summed up its 
 remarks in this piece of philosophy : " If there 
 had been no Tit-Bits, it is tolerably certain 
 that there would have been no Answers and 
 no Pearson's Weekly. That means that there 
 would have been no Daily Mail and no Daily 
 Express ! Ye gods, there would have been no 
 Alfred Harmsworth and no Cyril Arthur 
 Pearson ! ' : 
 
 But while rivals and imitators were many, 
 the prosperous years went on, and an idea 
 was maturing with which Mr. Newnes had for 
 years been more or less vaguely occupied 
 
THE 'REVIEW OF REVIEWS' 111 
 
 during the odd moments he could spare from 
 the work actually on hand. He had now for 
 some years been a member of the House of 
 Commons, and to his former occupations 
 had been added not only regular attendance 
 at Westminster, but all the various activities 
 outside the House which are expected of the 
 Member of Parliament by his constituents and 
 also, if he be as ready to help as was Mr. Newnes, 
 by other members of his party, when speeches 
 have to be made at the approach of a general 
 or by-election. 
 
 At that time Harper's, Scribner's, and other 
 American magazines had large circulations in 
 Great Britain, one important reason obviously 
 being that the American publishers took great 
 pride in, and trouble with, the illustrations 
 accompanying the letterpress. Mr. Newnes, as 
 he was once described in a character-sketch 
 published in one of the papers modelled on 
 his first venture, was " a veritable literary 
 physician " who " feels his public's pulse and 
 knows exactly what is wanted." He was as 
 sure, in his own mind, of the success of a 
 magazine which should have a picture at every 
 opening, as he had been of the success of Tit- 
 Bits at the time when he could not persuade 
 any one to advance him the sum of 500 re- 
 quired for bringing out the first number. He 
 thought that surely some one on this side, 
 knowing the requirements of the English people. 
 
112 LIFE OF SIR GEORGE NEWNES 
 
 should be able to supply a magazine that would 
 equal in interest any periodical edited three 
 thousand miles away. Meanwhile, he could not 
 find the time for fully developing this idea. 
 
 Presently an unforeseen occurrence hastened 
 events. At that time Mr. Stead was editing 
 the Pall Mall Gazette in the heyday of its 
 political importance as an organ of the Liberal 
 party. He also had for some time past been 
 busy with the idea of a sixpenny monthly 
 magazine, only, while Mr. Newnes was mainly 
 concerned with giving the public a chance of 
 filling their leisure hours with pleasant enter- 
 tainment, Mr. Stead was bent on supplying 
 information of a more solid kind to the mass of 
 busy mortals eager enough for knowledge and 
 keenly interested in the topics of the day, 
 but unable to find time for reading long review 
 articles. It did not take Mr. Stead long to make 
 a definite plan as to what this new monthly 
 should be and do, which he hoped to publish 
 in connection with the Pall Mall. In its first 
 half were to be reprinted some of the important 
 interviews and " middle articles " from the 
 daily Pall Mall, together with a summary of 
 events of the month, specially written by the 
 editor. When it is remembered that in those 
 days Mr. Stead thought nothing of interview- 
 ing the Pope, an Emperor and a dozen other 
 potentates and notabilities in the course of 
 one of his lightning tours across Europe, it 
 
THE 'REVIEW OF REVIEWS' 113 
 
 will be seen that this part of the new monthly 
 was bound to be lively and interesting enough 
 to please the most news-hungry reader. The 
 second part was to be filled with summaries 
 of all the most interesting articles in the grave 
 monthlies which supplied the leisured and the 
 cultured with plenty of solid mental food, but 
 which the large public did not buy, partly 
 because they could not afford to pay for them, 
 and partly because they had not the time for 
 reading through the mass of printed matter. 
 The projected magazine would present them 
 with an epitome of the best things in the 
 reviews, over and above that vivid, tingling 
 first part. 
 
 But Mr. Stead, tearing about the world in 
 connection with the crusade against immorality 
 which had been the sensation of the year, had 
 also been obliged to put his plan of the monthly 
 aside. When he could take it up again the 
 proprietor of the Pall Mall was abroad and 
 could not be consulted, whereupon his editor, 
 with characteristic eagerness and impatience 
 to set to work as soon as he had made up 
 his mind that the moment for action had 
 come, decided that since there was no 
 immediate chance of bringing out the 
 magazine under the protecting wing of his 
 own paper, he must find another way of 
 launching it. 
 
 Mr. Newnes had then a winter residence at 
 
114 LIFE OF SIR GEORGE NEWNES 
 
 Torquay, where he was spending a holiday, 
 when one morning he received a letter from 
 his old schoolfellow at Silcoates, in which three 
 different journalistic projects were put forward 
 with a view of Mr. Newnes carrying them out 
 conjointly with Mr. Stead. Among them was 
 the outline of the monthly review as Mr. Stead 
 had conceived it. This appealed at once to 
 Mr. Newnes as "distinctly good." 
 
 In many respects the two schoolmates of 
 long ago differed as widely as two men can 
 differ in character and temperament, but 
 they were at one in this, that they were 
 quick to decide, prompt to act, willing to 
 take infinite pains in whatever task they 
 might undertake, and above all, determined 
 to succeed. In the present case the fact 
 that both were equally convinced of the time 
 being ripe for the publication of this par- 
 ticular magazine, gave additional zest to 
 their work, and a more than common interest 
 to their collaboration. Mr. Newnes, who was 
 nothing if not methodical in business matters, 
 wrote back by return of post, proposing a 
 definite arrangement and suggesting that, if 
 Mr. Stead approved of the terms proposed, a 
 telegram would bring him to town next day, 
 and the magazine should be out in a month. 
 The telegram came, Mr. Newnes went up to 
 town, the plans were matured next day in the 
 Wildcroft library, and four weeks later the 
 
THE c REVIEW OF REVIEWS ' 115 
 
 Review of Reviews sprang into being, a verita- 
 ble triumph of journalistic skill and industry. 
 Mr. Newnes was the publisher, Mr. Stead the 
 editor, and Mr. Pearson, then still in Mr. 
 Newnes's employ, the business manager. On 
 the first day sixty thousand copies of the new 
 magazine were sold. Mr. Newnes's remark, 
 after looking at the first draft of it on that 
 winter morning at Torquay, was justified. It 
 was " distinctly good." Not, however, from 
 the point of view of the proprietor of the Pall 
 Mall Gazette, who, perhaps not unreasonably, 
 declined to " share " his editor with another 
 man, and thereby caused Mr. Stead to sever 
 his connection with the Pall Mall and devote 
 himself entirely to his new paper. 
 
 Those who knew the two partners in this 
 enterprise were not surprised when before long 
 there began to be little rifts within the lute 
 that had been so finely attuned at the outset, 
 and had made and was making such golden 
 music, and that presently there were matters 
 of utmost importance in which they could not 
 see eye to eye. And both being men of very 
 decided opinions of their own, the partnership 
 was brought to an end before the Review of 
 Reviews was six months old, Mr. Newnes at his 
 own request being bought out. The partners 
 separated by mutual consent, and remained 
 good friends. And thinking of these matters, 
 there comes back to my mind the recollection 
 
 I 2 
 
116 LIFE OF SIR GEORGE NEWNES 
 
 of the little speeches these two partners made 
 as they took leave of one another. So typical 
 they were of the two men ; so frankly given, so 
 cheerfully accepted. Both were repeated to 
 me at first hand, and whether it was Sir George 
 Newnes who imitated Mr. Stead's rapid and 
 dramatic utterance, or whether it was Mr. 
 Stead employing deep chest-notes in reproduc- 
 ing Sir George's deliberate manner of speak- 
 ing, it was equally difficult, listening to these 
 sermonettes, to suppress a smile or chuckle. 
 Mr. Stead, in his words of farewell, generously 
 acknowledged his partner's great business 
 ability, and said he felt quite sure he would 
 have made more money by the Review of 
 Reviews with a half share in the profits if he 
 had remained with his first partner, than he 
 would now make while owning the whole 
 property. Mr. Newnes, on the other hand, 
 preached a short homily on the subject of two 
 kinds of journalism as observed by the practical 
 man of affairs. " There is one kind of journal- 
 ism," he said, " which directs the affairs of 
 nations ; it makes and unmakes Cabinets ; it up- 
 sets governments, builds up Navies and does 
 many other great things. It is magnificent. 
 This is your journalism. There is another 
 kind of journalism which has no such great 
 ambitions. It is content to plod on, year after 
 year, giving wholesome and harmless enter- 
 tainment to crowds of hard-working people, 
 
THE 'REVIEW OF REVIEWS' 117 
 
 craving for a little fun and amusement. It is 
 quite humble and unpretentious. That is my 
 journalism." And so they parted, without 
 regret, seeing the impossibility of working 
 smoothly together, but without enmity, re- 
 garding one another with the amused tolerance 
 of people who have agreed to differ. 
 
 The publication of the Review of Reviews 
 from Mr. Newnes's office had an important 
 sequel. A large additional staff had been 
 engaged for the work, and when after a few 
 months the new magazine was published else- 
 where, Mr. Newnes, instead of discharging the 
 new employees, determined to put his own 
 long-cherished project of a sixpenny illustrated 
 monthly to the test. With his talent for 
 selecting the right man for the right place, he 
 asked Mr. Greenhough^Smith, who had been 
 connected for many years with Temple Bar, to 
 assist him in editing the new periodical, gave 
 the art department into the charge of Mr. 
 W. H. J. Boot, and set to work. After twenty 
 years' excellent service the art editor was 
 obliged to retire for reasons of health, while 
 Mr. Greenhough- Smith is still at his post, the 
 editorship of the Strand having passed into 
 his hands years ago when the head of the firm 
 found he could no longer spare the time for 
 taking part in the actual editing. 
 
 The success of the magazine was again imme- 
 diate, magnificent, proving once more that 
 
118 LIFE OF SIR GEORGE NEWNES 
 
 Mr. Newnes had in a rare degree the gift of know- 
 ing exactly what is required by the large public 
 who will have none of the so-called problem 
 stories in any shape or form, and eschew 
 everything savouring of decadent or material- 
 istic fiction, but are always ready to give a 
 warm welcome to tales dealing in a natural way 
 with healthy human emotions, adventures and 
 experiences. By this time Mr. Newnes had 
 good reason for confidently thinking in scores 
 of thousands where the circulation of his 
 periodicals was concerned, and when presently 
 the young Strand Magazine went out into the 
 highways and byways of the world over half 
 a million strong, this seemed only as it ought 
 to be. It made itself at home easily and imme- 
 diately wherever it went, and the United States, 
 as if to show their appreciation of the flatter- 
 ing reception England had hitherto given to 
 American periodicals, took up the Strand with 
 special warmth and fervour, while the Colonies 
 followed suit. In fact, soon the sun no more 
 set upon the new magazine than it sets upon 
 the British Empire. 
 
 In the Strand, as in the rest of his publica- 
 tions, Mr. Newnes made it a rule to change 
 individual features as soon as there were 
 signs that the public tired of them. Constant 
 watchfulness for such signs, together with un- 
 wearied effort to substitute only what was at 
 
THE 'REVIEW OF REVIEWS' 119 
 
 least as good as, and if possible even better than, 
 that which had to be replaced, was the plan 
 on which the paper was conducted. An ex- 
 cellent plan it was, if not an easy one to carry 
 out. But the men in charge were undaunted, 
 and the fertile brain of the founder of the 
 Strand was responsible for some of the most 
 popular features during those early years. 
 Thus, while on a visit to Sir Richard Webster's 
 old home, he casually opened an album con- 
 taining a number of photographs of his host, 
 from the time when he was a child till the 
 present day. No sooner had he set his eyes on 
 them than the thought flashed through his mind 
 that these photographs would interest a wide 
 public in the same manner as they interested 
 him. A month later the famous and very 
 interesting series of illustrations of " Celebrities 
 at Different Ages " was begun. 
 
 Together with this talent for turning the 
 slightest suggestion to account, Mr. Newnes 
 possessed the capacity for taking infinite pains 
 which, unfortunately, has led crowds of obsti- 
 nately persevering dullards to regard them- 
 selves as misunderstood geniuses, since Carlyle 
 invented his famous phrase and with it the 
 entirely false doctrine that, if you have but 
 perseverance, you are entitled to consider 
 yourself a genius. Genius, like beauty, takes 
 many forms, and Mr. Newnes had one form of 
 
120 LIFE OF SIR GEORGE NEWNES 
 
 genius, without a doubt, but it rested on many 
 other claims besides that of his willingness and 
 capability to take infinite pains. 
 
 An instance of his determination never to 
 rest till he had obtained the exact object he 
 had in mind occurred while the first number 
 of the Strand was in preparation. The offices 
 were then in Burleigh Street, a side street off the 
 Strand. When the name of the monthly was 
 discussed, nothing better or more appropriate 
 could at first be thought of than either Burleigh 
 Street Magazine or the New Magazine. These 
 titles were not what Mr. Newnes wanted, 
 although he had no better suggestion to make. 
 On the usual Sunday morning walk on Wimble- 
 don Common he could think and talk of nothing 
 but the name which seemed to be somewhere 
 though it eluded him in a most tiresome manner. 
 His friend and neighbour, Mr. L. R. S. Tomalin, 
 who took the deepest interest in every enter- 
 prise embarked upon by Mr. Newnes, and who 
 later on was for years one of the directors of 
 George Newnes Limited, was as keen as the 
 editor on finding a satisfactory solution of 
 the problem. They talked of the fascination 
 of Fleet Street and the Strand, of the history, 
 the picturesqueness, the romance of the great 
 London highway. " Why not call it the 
 Strand Magazine ? " suggested Mr. Tomalin. 
 " Yes, that's it," Mr. Newnes replied, and when 
 Mr. Greenhough-Smith met the two, the 
 
THE 'REVIEW OF REVIEWS' 121 
 
 inventor of the title was introduced as the 
 godfather of the new magazine. 
 
 Next came the question of an illustration 
 for the cover. Of course it must be a view of 
 the Strand; equally of course it must be the 
 best of its kind that could be produced. Mr. 
 G. Haite, who was asked to make the drawing, 
 sent in a score of sketches, all excellent, all 
 attractive, but, in the editor's opinion, without 
 a certain something which should be there, 
 but of which he could not give the artist a 
 definite idea. Then one morning before leaving 
 home his eye fell upon a large oil painting 
 representing a street in Liverpool, full of the 
 whirling life and energy of a popular thorough- 
 fare in a busy city. Yes, here it was, this 
 something he had vainly tried to explain to 
 the artist as being required for the cover of the 
 magazine. The heavy picture was taken off 
 the wall, put into the brougham, and taken up 
 to Burleigh Street without delay. It gave 
 Mr. Haite his clue. " In time to come," said 
 Mr. Newnes, as the two discussed the matter 
 once more, " I should like the cover of the 
 Strand to become as familiar to the mind of 
 the public as is the cover of Punch." A glance 
 at the wrapper of the magazine shows how 
 well the artist has succeeded in giving a life- 
 like representation of one of the busiest and 
 most fascinating streets in London. Except 
 for the arrival of the motor-car, the scene is 
 
122 LIFE OF SIR GEORGE NEWNES 
 
 still the same, with the human tides flowing 
 East and West, year in, year out, in the 
 selfsame way. 
 
 The name of Sherlock Holmes was at one 
 time almost synonymous with that of the 
 Strand. It was in its pages where the prince 
 of detectives appeared one day out of nowhere, 
 it might be said, since, so far, he had not attained 
 the world-wide celebrity in store for him. The 
 Strand had leapt into popularity with its first 
 number; with the arrival of Sherlock Holmes 
 it entered upon the period when it had to be 
 sent to press a month before the date of publica- 
 tion, keeping the machines working till the day 
 it was put upon the bookstalls. The circulation 
 then rose to well above half a million. 
 
 In this connection another, and a most impor- 
 tant one, of the characteristics which brought 
 success to Mr. Newnes came into play. He 
 had always been a great reader, but not of 
 fiction. Real life, as he lived it and saw it 
 lived every day, presented itself to him so 
 dramatically that the average tale that is told 
 in print seemed dull by comparison. At least, 
 so he felt at that time, for later on, when his 
 failing health obliged him occasionally to stay 
 at home and abstain from work, he read a great 
 many novels, and I have often sent or taken 
 him batches of books which he either devoured 
 in a day, or, if the opening chapter did not 
 please him, put promptly aside with a little 
 
THE 'REVIEW OF REVIEWS' 123 
 
 good-natured grumble at people who wanted 
 him to read through such " stuff." 
 
 But when it came to reading stories sent in 
 to him as editor, he considered it his duty to 
 read them himself, and went to work, perhaps 
 with set teeth, but also with dogged persever- 
 ance, reading through piles of MSS., to come 
 perchance only once in a blue moon upon a real 
 pearl of price, while every day hours were lost 
 over the task of considering the work of the 
 unfit, the incapable. How often he groaned, 
 but how steadily he went on with it, knowing 
 full well from an experience gathered when 
 once in a way he ventured to delegate the work 
 to another, that his conscience would give him 
 no peace unless he acquainted himself with 
 every article that went into the paper, and 
 missed no chance of securing only the best. 
 Discoveries, however, of men like the author of 
 Sherlock Holmes made up for much weariness 
 and perturbation of spirit occasioned by the 
 wading through many MSS. 
 
 After reading the first ba,tch of detective 
 stories sent in by Dr. Conan Doyle, Mr. Newnes 
 bought not only every one of these, but hav- 
 ing ascertained where the detective's former 
 adventures had been published strange to 
 say, without exciting exceptional interest he 
 bought up all the stories on the market and 
 began to publish them in the Strand. They 
 were now for the first time advertised with all 
 
124 LIFE OF SIR GEORGE NEWNES 
 
 the skill of the practised hand, with the result 
 that Sherlock Holmes became the lion of the 
 day, the hero, worshipped and adored, of a 
 multitude counting by the million, and when, 
 later on, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle killed him 
 ruthlessly in the Swiss mountains, the outcry 
 against this calamity was such that the author 
 must needs effect a resurrection which, as 
 Mr. Newnes explained to him, should not be 
 very difficult, since Sir Arthur was a medical 
 man even before he became an author. And so 
 the boom went on afresh, and who knows but 
 that there may be yet another addition to the 
 records of the deeds of Sherlock Holmes, since 
 he has not officially been numbered a second 
 time among the dead ? 
 
CHAPTER VIII 
 
 MORE MAGAZINES 
 
 IT is said that 
 
 " The web of things on every side 
 Is joined by links we cannot see." 
 
 Mr. Newnes's career is an exception to this rule, 
 or theory. As you follow the path leading to 
 his place in the history of English literature 
 you see that every step is connected with the 
 one preceding it ; as one link in the long chain 
 of his successes was finished, the next link was 
 being forged, and joined adroitly and quite 
 simply to the rest. As the Strand Magazine 
 was the outcome of the publication of the 
 Review of Reviews, so the Wide World Magazine 
 followed the Strand in the natural order of 
 things. 
 
 It was brought about in this way. Among 
 the contributions sent in from far and near 
 to the new monthly magazine, a considerable 
 number came from strange, far-off corners of 
 the world, where lonely folk had read and re- 
 read the Strand stories till they knew them by 
 heart, and pondering over them as they went 
 about their silent ways, bethought themselves 
 
 125 
 
126 LIFE OF SIR GEORGE NEWNES 
 
 that they also, in their checkered lives, had been 
 made acquainted with strange things, and had 
 played their parts in curious happenings. They 
 need not draw on their imagination for the inven- 
 tion of fantastic and sensational plots ; they had 
 only to dip into their own remembered past to 
 produce stories equal to any tale of adventure 
 they had read. So here and there a man or 
 woman began to beguile an empty hour with 
 the fascinating task of fixing a stirring episode 
 of his or her experiences on paper; the story 
 was sent across seas and continents to the 
 editor of the Strand, explaining that the MSS. 
 contained only f acts,though they might read like 
 fiction. First they came singly, these curiously 
 interesting stories of real life, but when they 
 began to arrive in battalions they soon gave 
 rise to the idea of yet another periodical, with 
 the inevitable reminder that " Truth is stranger 
 than fiction," for its motto. This magazine 
 was sent out into the world with the excellent, 
 comprehensive title The Wide World Magazine, 
 and was taken up with positive avidity on both 
 sides of the Atlantic. 
 
 No sooner was the Wide World launched than 
 it seemed as if every venturesome Britisher 
 round the world, and not a few adventurers of 
 other nations, were bent on adding an account of 
 their doings to the contents of the new magazine. 
 Writers whose names had never been heard 
 of, and authors with reputations to lose, were 
 
MORE MAGAZINES 127 
 
 equally anxious to contribute, and artists young 
 and old delighted in illustrating the blood-curd- 
 ling episodes. There was, of course, the possi- 
 bility that here and there a writer, gifted with 
 more imagination than actual experience, would 
 invent adventures and offer them as facts, but 
 every possible precaution against this kind 
 of imposition was taken, and for a time all 
 went well, proofs in some form or other being 
 sent or brought by nearly all contributors, 
 to show that the occurrences described had 
 actually taken place. These proofs in many 
 cases consisted of photographs, which were 
 reproduced in the magazine. 
 
 Not infrequently an author, happening to 
 be in London, would call in person, offering his 
 experiences for publication in the Wide World, 
 and stranger things were at that time told at 
 the Southampton Street offices than the philo- 
 sophy of most of us will ever dream of. The 
 tellers of these stories were subjected to every 
 possible test; they were cross-examined by 
 acute observers and geographical experts ; they 
 had to produce whatever evidence they could, 
 and when a story was published there remained 
 little doubt as to its being substantially true. 
 Hence, things went as well with the latest 
 addition to Mr. Newnes's publications as with 
 all the former, which were still " booming 
 along." But as yet there had been no special 
 sensation in connection with the magazine 
 
128 LIFE OF SIR GEORGE NEWNES 
 
 composed of sensational true stories. No 
 modern Defoe had arisen to fire his generation 
 with the tale of another Robinson Crusoe. 
 
 Then one day there walked into the offices a 
 thin, sunburnt, \veather-beaten individual, a 
 man of middle age, with restless, piercing eyes, 
 and a quiet manner that seemed to cover a 
 high-strung, nervous temperament. He ex- 
 plained that he had called on the advice of Mr. 
 Henniker-Heaton, upon whom he had waited 
 at the House of Commons in the hope of enlist- 
 ing the distinguished Australian's sympathy, 
 for after spending many years in Australia fate 
 had landed him in London and he had fallen 
 upon evil days. Mr. Henniker-Heaton, after 
 listening to some of the man's tales, had sug- 
 gested that he should go and pour samples of his 
 adventures into the ears of the editor of the 
 Wide World, and now here he was, acting upon 
 that advice. The editor, by this time well 
 seasoned to outpourings of the kind, was not 
 at first too sanguine. But it was impossible 
 to persevere long in an attitude of critical 
 reserve, for the man had a sort of rugged elo- 
 quence, a manner of telling his story which 
 made his listeners follow him, willy-nilly, into 
 the mysterious places, the great silent solitudes 
 haunted by the spirit of adventure in its most 
 weird and fascinating form ; the outposts where 
 he had spent many years of his life, and to 
 which he hoped and longed to return as soon 
 
MORE MAGAZINES 129 
 
 as might be, out of this arid desert of London, 
 this noisy whirlpool of the centre of civilization. 
 
 He was of French extraction, Louis de 
 Rougemont by name ; he would like to tell his 
 adventures for the benefit of the readers of 
 the Wide World Magazine, and he was quite 
 willing to submit to whatever test the editor 
 might wish to apply in order to prove the truth 
 of his tales. Nor did he fail to satisfy either 
 the Southampton Street authorities, or that 
 august body, the Royal Geographical Society, 
 before whom he appeared twice by invitation, 
 to be subjected for hours together to the ques- 
 tioning of experts; or even that still more 
 solemn institution, the British Association, 
 which did him the honour of inviting him to 
 read a paper at its annual meeting. 
 
 When the story of his enthralling adventures 
 and escapades began to be published, Louis de 
 Rougemont became the man of the moment, 
 not only to adventure-loving youth, but to 
 staid and stolid citizens ; in the drawing-room 
 and the library, as well as in the servants' 
 hall and in the workshop, at the West End 
 club and in the village pot-house, he came first, 
 and all other subjects a long way after. He 
 had caught the ear, the imagination, of the 
 whole community. The excitement lasted for 
 months; the Wide World circulation leapt up 
 to giddy heights as the stories became more and 
 more marvellous. So far no one had a word 
 
 K 
 
130 LIFE OF SIR GEORGE NEWNES 
 
 of criticism, though travellers and wanderers 
 in Australian wildernesses able to verify many 
 details as to localities and the tribes inhabiting 
 them, were as eager to read as the general 
 public which is bound to take the author at 
 his word. 
 
 Then there came an adventure in which the 
 hero de Rougemont described himself as going 
 far out to sea on board a strange vessel. Hav- 
 ing no boat to take him on the voyage, he 
 simply went aboard a live turtle, the back of 
 a well-seasoned member of that gentle amphi- 
 bious tribe being quite strong and broad enough 
 to carry a thin, lithe, athletic passenger of the 
 de Rougemont type, as every one may see who 
 goes gazing at the venerable patriarchs of the 
 Turtle House in Regents Park. But those who 
 had made a closer study of the habits and cus- 
 toms as well as of the proportion of the Aus- 
 tralian turtle shook their heads and smiled some- 
 what cynically when next the talk at the club 
 turned on the great adventures. After this it 
 was not long before a voice arose; perhaps it 
 is hardly necessary to say that it was the voice 
 of a press-organ which cast a doubt not only 
 on de Rougemont's prowess as the captain in 
 command of a sea-going turtle's back, but on 
 the truth of his stories in general, on the ground 
 that he had been seen at Melbourne in the 
 course of the thirty years he claimed to have 
 spent in the wilderness of Northern Australia 
 
MORE MAGAZINES 131 
 
 among monsters and savages. Also, some lynx- 
 eyed frequenter of the reading-room at the 
 British Museum had noticed de Rougemont 
 diligently reading up books on Australia, which 
 proceeding, though it might appear quite 
 natural to an unprejudiced person, led the 
 suspicious to the conclusion that the man 
 was a clever impostor, who had succeeded in 
 foisting wild imaginings as solid facts upon the 
 public. 
 
 A long newspaper correspondence ensued, as 
 thrilling, in its own way, as the adventures 
 themselves had been, and from that moment 
 anything de Rougemont wrote or said was dis- 
 credited. Those, however, who had come 
 most closely and frequently into contact with 
 him during his stay in London, remained 
 firmly convinced that, although he had been 
 inaccurate in his dates, and in the fervour of 
 his autobiographic reminiscences had some- 
 times drawn upon his imagination instead of 
 rigidly adhering to facts, he was a man who had 
 lived as strange and adventurous a life as is 
 still possible in a world which is so nearly tamed 
 and conquered by civilized man. Mr. Newnes, 
 though de Rougemont had, first and last, 
 caused him a great deal of annoyance and loss, 
 always retained a sort of unwilling admiration 
 for the man, holding that as a writer of fiction 
 founded on fact he could produce work that 
 would rank with the best of our time. 
 
 K 2 
 
132 LIFE OF SIR GEORGE NEWNES 
 
 The Wide World, meanwhile, was but one of 
 many new periodicals issued from Southampton 
 Street. Among them are such fine productions 
 as Country Life and the Ladies' Field, two 
 illustrated weeklies to be found in almost every 
 country house in the United Kingdom ; the Cap- 
 tain, catering chiefly for " boys and old boys " ; 
 the Grand, Woman's Life, the Garden, Newnes's 
 Playtime Series, Newnes's Musical Library, the 
 Strand Musical Portfolio and Copyright Songs 
 and Music, the Garden and a host of others too 
 great for individual mention. The majority 
 succeeded, and, like the above, are still widely 
 popular ; others, as was inevitable, died sooner 
 or later, being choked by the mighty army of 
 imitators which continued to spring up all 
 around. 
 
 But whatever the tendency of a new publica- 
 tion might be, Mr. Newnes always threw his 
 whole interest and energy into it. No detail 
 was too small or tedious to engage his careful 
 attention. There was, for instance, the Million, 
 a paper intended to be a kind of British equi- 
 valent to a French paper with an enormous 
 circulation. It was a penny weekly of the 
 magazine type, with stories, household and 
 gardening hints and advice, a few amusing 
 illustrated incidents, odds and ends of light 
 verse, a page for young people, and so forth. 
 But its special feature was to be its coloured 
 illustrations. This was before the days when 
 
MORE MAGAZINES 133 
 
 rapid colour-printing, as required for reproduc- 
 tion in magazines, became a fine art, and to 
 the impartial eye, glancing at the Parisian print, 
 it was a little difficult to see why the French 
 public should be so enamoured of the illustra- 
 tions which were like spirited thumb-nail 
 sketches to which a child, out of its penny box 
 of water-colours, had given a thin coat of 
 pale pink, green or blue paint. 
 
 However, so it was ; the circulation in France 
 was as large as that of the Petit Journal, where- 
 fore the temptation to create a similar paper for 
 admirers of coloured pictures and light litera- 
 ture in this country was irresistible. " We'll 
 do it better than they," Mr. Newnes said, when 
 explaining the scheme to me one day. " We'll 
 have better work both for the illustrations and 
 the letterpress, and we'll be able to print better ; 
 it will be an entirely new, and a very cheerful 
 and entertaining paper." 
 
 He toiled and moiled so happily over it, took 
 such infinite trouble about the tints, the size, 
 the subjects of the illustrations, and hoped 
 so cheerfully for another great success. But 
 the Million was not destined to live long ; it 
 flourished for a while, and then died, though 
 whether it was that the colour-printing was 
 not as successful as it had promised to be, or 
 whether the whole paper was too French in 
 its " get up " to suit English taste, it would 
 be difficult to say. In any case, it was a 
 
134 LIFE OF SIR GEORGE NEWNES 
 
 disappointment,and therefore it had todisappear, 
 for though Mr. Newnes was the most tenacious 
 of men once he had decided on a course of 
 action, he was too good a man of business to 
 go on when he saw that an article he had put 
 into the market was not required. In such 
 cases his rule was to cut his losses short, and 
 frankly to acknowledge a mistake, a proceeding 
 which could have nothing humiliating, in the 
 face of the magnificent successes he had scored, 
 showing only that he was human and therefore 
 likely to err. 
 
 All this time the business had continued to 
 grow and flourish greatly, and in 1891 it was 
 floated as a company with a nominal capital of 
 400,000, under the sole directorship of its 
 founder, who guaranteed for the next five years 
 an annual dividend of ten per cent., which was 
 duly earned, he never being called upon to make 
 good his guarantee. In 1897 the company was 
 reconstructed in order to obtain further capital 
 for the increasing business, with a nominal 
 capital of 1,000,000, of which 900,000 shares 
 were issued. Two new directors were added, 
 and shortly after Sir George Newnes's only son, 
 Mr. Frank Newnes, having finished his studies 
 at Cambridge and qualified as a member oi 
 the Bar, joined the Board, Sir George being 
 governing director for life. As a caterer for 
 the wide public which he had in mind when 
 contemplating the publication of Tit-Bite, 
 
MORE MAGAZINES 135 
 
 Mr. Newnes had now reached the height of 
 his career. 
 
 Many commercial enterprises were added to 
 his own successful business during the later 
 years of his life, and in a number of these he 
 was again guided by the extraordinary instinct 
 which enabled him to foresee success. Thus, 
 his habit of occasionally standing for some 
 minutes at the window in his room at South- 
 ampton Street, when engaged in thinking out 
 some business scheme or problem, led to one 
 of his most successful transactions. As he 
 stood there, absorbed in thought, he began to 
 notice, at first quite unconsciously, but gradu- 
 ally with increasing interest, that at the house 
 opposite a very brisk business was carried on. 
 This business was owned by the private firm of 
 Messrs. Weldon. The continual stir and activity 
 in front of the house, as the great rolls and bales 
 of paper went in and the batches of printed 
 papers came out, aroused all the business man's 
 keen instincts. It fascinated him, and now 
 he often stood of set purpose at his window, 
 observing the cheerful bustle and drawing his 
 own conclusions. 
 
 One day he could resist the inward prompting 
 no longer, and on a sudden resolution put on 
 his hat, walked across the street, asked for Mr. 
 Weldon, explained who he was and inquired 
 at what price the firm would sell the business 
 to him. Mr. Weldon, altogether taken by 
 
136 LIFE OF SIR GEORGE NEWNES 
 
 surprise, could only say they had not considered 
 the idea of selling their business, but agreed 
 to think the proposal over and let Sir George 
 know their decision in a few days' time. On the 
 appointed day word was sent that the heads of 
 the firm had made up their minds to sell the 
 business at a stated price, which was at once 
 agreed to. Soon after, Sir George Newnes 
 floated the company known as Weldons 
 Limited, which ever since has paid a steady 
 dividend of ten per cent. 
 
 Again, there is the story of the Darracq com- 
 pany. One day a stranger called at South- 
 ampton Street, asking to see the head of the 
 firm of George Newnes Limited, on important 
 business. Sir George Newnes made a point 
 of never refusing to see a stranger who claimed 
 that he came on a mission of importance, 
 because, as he used to say : " You never know 
 whether there may not be something in it." 
 So the visitor was admitted, and explained that 
 he was the representative of a syndicate who 
 had some months previously deposited the sum 
 of 10,000 with Mr. A. Darracq, of Suresnes, 
 for the option of purchasing his business as 
 manufacturer of motor-cars, with the intention 
 of floating a company in England. The syndi- 
 cate had so far failed to carry out their object, 
 and stood in peril of losing the 10,000 in 
 about a month's time, that being the final date 
 of option. There was no hope of the period 
 
MORE MAGAZINES 137 
 
 being extended, as during the interval, since 
 the option was given, the Darracq business 
 had considerably improved, and its value was 
 greater than the price originally fixed. 
 
 Now the syndicate had sent their representa- 
 tive to see whether Sir George Newnes would 
 help them to find the purchase money. He 
 was not inclined to do this, but declared 
 himself willing to run over to France, look at 
 the works and see the representative of the 
 syndicate again on his return. The result of the 
 visit to Suresnes was that he offered the syn- 
 dicate to pay to them the 10,000 deposited, 
 and himself to take over the option. The date 
 on which the option would expire was now 
 drawing so near that the unhappy syndicate 
 felt they had no alternative, if they wished to 
 save their 10,000, but to accept the offer. Sir 
 George accordingly stepped into the shoes of 
 the syndicate ; then, with his habitual energy, set 
 to work during the few days he had left at his 
 disposal before the expiration of the option, to 
 find the necessary subscriptions for the rela- 
 tively big sum which had to be raised, he 
 himself taking a large share. By dint of 
 almost unheard-of efforts the matter was finally 
 signed, sealed and delivered just at the last 
 hour before the expiration of the option. Mr. 
 Darracq was consoled and kept perfectly 
 friendly towards the British company, Sir 
 George enabling him to retain a considerable 
 
138 LIFE OF SIR GEORGE NEWNES 
 
 holding in the new company, of which he also 
 remained managing director. The Darracq 
 company flourished exceedingly and has very 
 amply repaid those who were sufficiently enter- 
 prising to invest in it. 
 
CHAPTER IX 
 
 THE SECRET OF SUCCESS 
 
 A DISTINGUISHED man of letters, recently 
 surveying the developments of English litera- 
 ture during the last thirty years, its rapid 
 growth, and extraordinary changes, assigned to 
 Sir George Newnes a place beside those daunt- 
 less, splendid pioneers, Robert and William 
 Chambers. The work, the critic pointed out, 
 which the brothers Chambers began early in 
 the nineteenth century, and carried on for 
 fifty years, Sir George took up and con- 
 tinued, in his own way, and in accordance with 
 the requirements of his time, but in the same 
 spirit, the first and foremost aim in both cases 
 being to bring good literature within reach 
 of the masses. Sir George Newnes, he went 
 on, was an educator as well as a purveyor of 
 amusement, and he, as they, must be credited 
 with never once swerving from his first pur- 
 pose of supplying only that which is sound 
 and wholesome, refusing to soil his hands with 
 anything of a doubtful nature. Hence, in 
 the history of English literature Sir George 
 Newnes takes his place by the side of the 
 
 139 
 
140 LIFE OF SIR GEORGE NEWNES 
 
 founders of the great Edinburgh firm of 
 publishers. 
 
 How it would have delighted and gladdened 
 the heart of the man who remained so singularly 
 modest as to his own literary merits, that his 
 name should be linked by one of the best 
 judges of the day with the honoured names of 
 the brothers Chambers ! And how he would 
 have tried to appear unmoved by the compli- 
 ment, shaking his head and regretting, with 
 a wry smile, that he was only half a Scotsman, 
 against the two of them ! 
 
 A comparison between the supply of periodi- 
 cal literature in the reign of William IV, when 
 the two Scotch lads began to look cautiously 
 about for a sphere of action, and that which, 
 fifty years later, caused George Newnes to 
 enter upon his first venture, shows the condi- 
 tions to have been almost identical. When 
 Robert Chambers, at the age of sixteen, set 
 out, as a bookseller in Leith Walk, Edinburgh 
 his stock consisting of a dozen odd volumes 
 saved from the wreck of the small family 
 library, together with his own parcel of well- 
 used school books and when his brother 
 William opened business close by, with ten 
 pounds' worth of sample volumes from the 
 stock of a London bookseller's agent, the price 
 of the ordinary newspaper was sevenpence. 
 To meet the then popular demand some cheap 
 and worthless periodicals were published. In 
 
THE SECRET OF SUCCESS 141 
 
 William Chambers's opinion these were " the 
 perversion of what, if rightly conducted, might 
 become a powerful engine of social improve- 
 ment; " and pondering over the waste of good 
 material the astute young Scotsmen began to 
 think of how they might turn to account the 
 growing taste for reading among the masses, 
 by offering something that was good and inex- 
 pensive, instead of that which was dear and 
 mostly bad. 
 
 The grave North, graver by three-quarters 
 of a century than it is to-day, required 
 more solid food than George Newnes sought 
 to provide. For while the Chambers brothers 
 claimed as their purpose " to instruct and 
 elevate independently of mere passing amuse- 
 ment," his chief aim was to provide light and 
 entertaining reading for the enormous public 
 whose lives are filled with work, and who ask 
 for something that will rest and amuse the 
 tired brain, rather than for information and 
 instruction. But when William Chambers said 
 to his brother : " Let us endeavour to give a 
 reputable literary character to what is at present 
 mostly mean and trivial," he gave expression 
 to the selfsame idea which Mr. Newnes, in 
 his time, put into practice so soon as he began 
 to publish, and from which for thirty years, 
 from the beginning to the end, he never 
 departed. 
 
 The outcome of the Chambers brothers' long 
 
142 LIFE OF SIR GEORGE NEWNES 
 
 struggle and patient striving was the appear- 
 ance of Chambers' s Edinburgh Journal in 1832. 
 The story of the reception of its first number by 
 the Scottish public is but the story of Tit-Bits 
 half a century later, except that in 1881, with 
 increased educational facilities, a much larger 
 public was eager to avail itself of the chance of 
 showing its appreciation of the new periodical 
 in a very practical form. 
 
 Once the firm of Chambers brothers in the 
 'thirties, and that of Mr. George Newnes in the 
 'eighties, were successfully launched, the simi- 
 larity in the experiences of the heads of the two 
 firms ceased, and they went their several ways 
 towards success, Mr. Newnes leaping into fame 
 and wealth almost at a bound, while the 
 Chambers climbed the steep ascent slowly, 
 painfully, and with incessant self-denial. 
 
 But the similarities of the early days of the 
 founders of the Edinburgh and London pub- 
 lishing firms are astonishingly close. In fact 
 R. and W. Chambers and George Newnes were 
 made of the same stuff, the stuff that successful 
 men of business are made of in every age, in 
 every part of the civilized world. When such 
 men come to honour the question is always 
 asked, what is the secret of their success? But 
 there is nothing secret about it ; indeed, if all 
 things could be traced as easily as the reasons 
 which make honest men prosperous in business, 
 life would have few unsolved riddles. 
 
THE SECRET OF SUCCESS 143 
 
 George Newnes's childhood was happy, and 
 he knew nothing of the gloom which hung over 
 the home of the Chambers' as they sank from 
 comparative affluence to the verge of absolute 
 penury; but his apprenticeship was as dull as 
 William Chambers's had been when he worked 
 from 7.30 a.m. to 9 p.m. as errand boy, with 
 not even a Saturday afternoon off, to make a 
 break in the " ceaseless drudgery." And Robert 
 Chambers haunted the Edinburgh bookstalls 
 just as George Newnes haunted the London 
 ones, though the former had the secondary 
 object of stealthily consulting the old Latin 
 dictionary which he was too poor to buy. 
 
 When they actually started, they put their 
 trust into exactly the same qualities, and on 
 these, and these only, they founded their 
 success. The first and the last were hard work 
 and steadfast industry. " If the young and 
 the thoughtless could only be made to know 
 this the happiness, the dignity of honest 
 labour conducted in a spirit of self-reliance 
 the significance and probably temporary charac- 
 ter of untoward circumstances while there is 
 youth, along with a willing heart the proud 
 satisfaction of acquiring by persevering in- 
 dustry instead of by compassionate donation- 
 how differently would they act ! " wrote Dr. 
 Chambers towards the end of his honoured 
 life. Sir George Newnes, had he been given 
 to moralizing, would have expressed himself 
 
144 LIFE OF SIR GEORGE NEWNES 
 
 to the same effect. He, too, worked with might 
 and main at whatever task he undertook; he 
 spared neither time nor trouble ; left nothing 
 to chance ; considered no detail too slight to 
 claim his attention; realized that promptness 
 and method are attributes indispensable to 
 the busy worker, and that without constant 
 care and watchfulness permanent success is 
 rarely attained. Courageous, too, he was, and 
 sanguine of success when striking out a new 
 line. Once, when the foolish question was 
 put to him, what he considered the secret of 
 his success, he gave the characteristic answer : 
 " Most people have no idea of doing anything 
 beyond what they may have seen done before, 
 and what they are told to do. They are 
 frightened by originality, lest it might be 
 disastrous. I suppose I have been inclined to 
 do things differently from, rather than in the 
 same way as, other people, and I have always 
 struck while the iron was hot. That, I think, 
 to put it briefly, is the secret of any success 
 which has attended my efforts." 
 
 The day after Sir George Newnes's death the 
 Daily Graphic, in a leading article, referred to 
 what he himself called " doing things differently 
 from other people " in these terms : " Some- 
 thing more than a notable figure in journalism 
 has passed away with the death of Sir George 
 Newnes. An innovator has gone, though he 
 has left his influence behind." And after 
 
THE SECRET OF SUCCESS 145 
 
 giving a summary of the origin and purpose of 
 Tit-Bits, the writer continues : " It has had 
 scores of imitators ; but the method of Tit- 
 Bits was not at an end with that type of 
 journal. Its principle that of finding the 
 kind of things that people are interested in 
 rather than the kind of things they ought to be 
 interested in, and of making a feature of it 
 spread to other periodicals. It invaded the 
 evening papers ; then, at last, it captured the 
 morning papers, and was in truth the basis of 
 the success of the first halfpenny papers. There 
 is now a danger of running the principle to 
 death, and perhaps, in its turn, the ' tit-bits ' 
 paper will be destroyed by some innovator yet 
 unborn. For innovators are born, not made ; 
 and it was the application by Sir George 
 Newnes of innovation to the monthly magazine, 
 to the picture photograph, and to other sub- 
 jects connected with journalism, that turned 
 his enterprises to gold." 
 
 Over and above the more ordinary endow- 
 ments which lie dormant in the majority of 
 men, though in only a few are they so happily 
 combined that by dint of careful fostering and 
 diligent training they bring wealth, or fame, 
 or both, to the possessor, the fates had be- 
 stowed upon George Newnes one great and 
 special gift. They had given him a kind of 
 prescience by which he knew long before the 
 general demand for an article arose, that it 
 
146 LIFE OF SIR GEORGE NEWNES 
 
 would be the " coming thing," to use an 
 expressive slang term. It was this extra- 
 ordinary anticipatory knowledge, this gift 
 almost of prophecy in business matters, to which 
 he owed a great deal of his success. But, it 
 should at once be added, this would have availed 
 him nothing, had he not had the courage to 
 trust to it and the industry and the perse- 
 verance to act upon it. Without these more 
 ordinary qualities, to which must be added 
 honesty, courtesy, concentration of purpose 
 and others far too simple to recommend them- 
 selves to the typical modern who thirsts 
 hotly for a harvest of gold, but is impatient and 
 disdainful of the " slow " and " old-fashioned " 
 virtues, Sir George Newnes would never have 
 founded the great firm that bears his name, nor 
 would he have taken rank with Robert and 
 William Chambers in the honoured place they 
 occupy in the temple of literary fame. 
 
 In yet one other respect the career of one 
 of the Chambers brothers would have coincided 
 with that of Sir George Newnes, had not, in 
 Dr. William Chambers's case, death intervened. 
 In May 1883 " Her Majesty Queen Victoria, 
 through her Prime Minister, Mr. Gladstone, 
 had offered Dr. Chambers the honour of a 
 baronetcy. Two years previously Mr. Glad- 
 stone had made him an offer of a knighthood ; 
 but that offer had been respectfully declined. 
 This later renewal of the honour, however, 
 
THE SECRET OF SUCCESS 147 
 
 in the shape of a baronetcy, Dr. Chambers 
 accepted; but his end came before the title 
 had been formally bestowed." (Memoirs of 
 William and Robert Chambers. W. & R. 
 Chambers.) 
 
 The same compliment was paid to Mr. 
 Newnes in 1894, when he received the following 
 letter from Lord Rosebery, then Liberal Prime 
 Minister 
 
 "Dec. 27, 1894. 
 " 10 Downing Street, Whitehall. 
 
 " MY DEAR MR. NEWNES, 
 
 " I have great satisfaction in being 
 empowered to offer you the distinction of a 
 baronetcy to commemorate not only your 
 political services but the good work that you 
 have done in the cause of healthy popular 
 literature. 
 
 " I trust that this honour will be appreciated 
 by your constituency, which has stood by you 
 so faithfully in the face of hostile influences so 
 potent, and that you yourself will receive it 
 with pleasure. Believe me 
 
 " Yours very truly, 
 " ROSEBERY." 
 
 The baronetcy was among the New Year's 
 Honours of 1895, and was not only widely 
 popular among the general public, but caused 
 even one of his rivals and opponents to admit 
 readily and publicly that " there are few men 
 
 L 2 
 
148 LIFE OF SIR GEORGE NEWNES 
 
 on whom the honour of a baronetcy could have 
 been more fittingly conferred, for Sir George 
 Newnes is an English gentleman who is able in 
 every way to uphold the dignity of his title." 
 
 It was because he had striven so hard, and 
 worked so honestly and steadily that, when 
 success came, and honours manifold, there was 
 no one to look askance with jealousy or envy, 
 and even those who were competitors in the 
 race he ran owned unhesitatingly that he was 
 " one of the most deservedly successful men of 
 the age." He bore his honours very lightly, and 
 no success ever surfeited him or caused him to 
 cease from frankly and fully enjoying the good 
 things which life had given to him. Nor could 
 it take away one atom of the perfect simplicity 
 of manner which, together with great natural 
 dignity and reserve, surrounded him with an 
 atmosphere of interest and charm. 
 
CHAPTER X 
 
 M.P. FOR NEWMARKET 
 
 WHEN Mr. Newnes was just thirty-five years 
 old, and while he was carrying on his ever- 
 increasing business of publisher of periodicals 
 for the family circle, he became a member of 
 the House of Commons. Parliamentary life, 
 as seen from the outside, attracted him as it 
 attracts most young men of ambition, who, in 
 their thirst for fame and glory, are conscious 
 only of the fact that a political career may lead 
 to the highest position in the country. But 
 perhaps more than by the allurements of per- 
 sonal advantages and honours to be gained, 
 he was drawn by the dreams and visions which 
 every enthusiast of George Newnes' s tempera- 
 ment has dreamed, and seen, on entering the 
 House of Commons : the dreams of serving his 
 country and his fellow-men ; of advancing the 
 causes that seem good and great to him the 
 causes of the toilers, the poor and the forgotten ; 
 of freedom and justice and mercy; in short, 
 dreams by the realization of which the world is 
 to be made a better and a happier place. And 
 like all but a few of these countless young 
 
 149 
 
150 LIFE OF SIR GEORGE NEWNES 
 
 optimists, he too was destined to learn in the 
 course of his political career that much of the 
 early enthusiasm is inevitably bound to end in 
 disappointment. 
 
 To quote Mr. Newnes's own words, jotted 
 down after he had, for reasons of health, refused 
 to stand again for Swansea, the constituency 
 he represented from 1900 to 1910 : " The trials 
 of a young man going into Parliament are not 
 easily described. He is fired not only with 
 personal, but with party and national enthu- 
 siasm. He thinks he can put things right in a 
 mere twelvemonth, but he finds that it is 
 difficult to move a yard in a decade. Others 
 like himself are also wanting to forge ahead, 
 but the slowness of it all, the daily wretched 
 grind which appears to produce nothing, brings 
 despair into their hearts; before long their 
 enthusiasm evaporates and they become mere 
 parliamentary machines. How many men, 
 clever, sincere and earnest, could tell the same 
 story of having left the House of Commons for 
 no other than this reason." 
 
 At the same time, every aspect of life with 
 which he came into contact presented itself 
 so picturesquely to Mr. Newnes that un- 
 doubtedly his membership of the House of 
 Commons supplied him with far more interest 
 and enjoyment than it would afford a man not 
 gifted with his vivid imagination and unusually 
 keen sense of humour. It was all so dramatic 
 
M.P. FOR NEWMARKET 151 
 
 from the very beginning when, on a flying visit 
 to London, he was walking across Hyde Park 
 one evening, and suddenly made the announce- 
 ment to his companion that he was going into 
 Parliament. His friend was one of the men 
 who wished him well, and sympathized with 
 his ambitions. But seeing the tremendous 
 weight of business cares already on his 
 shoulders, he suggested mildly that it might 
 be better to wait before Mr. Newnes added 
 the work and responsibilities of a Member of 
 Parliament to his labours. " No," was the 
 prompt reply of this young man in a hurry; 
 " I would give a pound of my flesh to be a 
 member of the House of Commons." And 
 when George Newnes, in those heydays of 
 youth and energy, was strongly bent on realizing 
 an idea or ambition, it took more than a wise 
 and thoughtful friend's gentle remonstrance to 
 turn him from his object. 
 
 Therefore it is not surprising that soon after, 
 when his intention became known, the spokes- 
 man of a Liberal committee in a Scotch con- 
 stituency, happening to be in Manchester, 
 called upon him with a view of acquainting 
 himself with the aspirant's qualifications for re- 
 presenting a Scottish seat. The Scot was very 
 patriotic, a fact which Mr. Newnes grasped at 
 once. "What is your connection with Scot- 
 land ? ' : the deputy asked, and was told 
 promptly and with entire conviction that 
 
152 LIFE OF SIR GEORGE NEWNES 
 
 Mr. Newnes's mother was one of the finest 
 Scotswomen that had ever lived. Deep down 
 in his heart, when uttering this speech, the 
 prospective candidate thought he was making 
 an excellent start. His interlocutor went on 
 stolidly: "What about your father? 51 and 
 when he was informed that the Rev. T. M. 
 Newnes was a native of Shropshire, he hinted 
 delicately that Shropshire was not in Scotland. 
 " Yes," came the reply, " that is true, and 
 one of the greatest regrets of my life at this 
 moment is my physical impossibility of moving 
 it there." To soften the blow of the disap- 
 pointment at finding his parentage geographi- 
 cally unsatisfactory Mr. Newnes added the 
 information that his godfather was provost of 
 one of the principal towns in Scotland, but the 
 fact did not seem to assert itself in any effective 
 way. 
 
 By this time the comic side of the interview 
 presented itself so vividly to Mr. Newnes that, 
 throwing his chances of success away, as he 
 thought, he became recklessly frivolous, ex- 
 patiating volubly concerning his devotion to 
 oatmeal porridge and other treasures supposed 
 to have softening influences upon the true 
 Scottish heart. 
 
 The 1885 General Election was then pending ; 
 candidatures were being rapidly filled up, and 
 before the Scotsman had time to get home 
 and report on his meeting with the intending 
 
M.P. FOR NEWMARKET 153 
 
 candidate who could be so irrepressibly and 
 shockingly flippant, Mr. Newnes was approached 
 by the Liberal Committee of the Newmarket, 
 or Eastern, Division of Cambridgeshire, with a 
 view to being selected as their candidate. On 
 the day when he went to meet this committee 
 he had a foretaste of the ups and downs in 
 store for the political aspirant, upon which, 
 years afterwards, he looked back with a 
 whimsical smile. 
 
 There was another Liberal candidate in the 
 field, and after Mr. Newnes had faced the men 
 upon whose verdict on his political credo his 
 chances depended, he was requested to absent 
 himself for a short time while they deliberated 
 as to his suitability to represent them at 
 Westminster. As he strolled about outside 
 the door of the place where his fate hung in the 
 balance, his surroundings struck him as having 
 an intensely lugubrious aspect (he thought 
 afterwards the grassy place where he paced to 
 and fro must have been a churchyard, but at 
 the time he was too absorbed and anxious to 
 make definite observations), and he sank deeper 
 and deeper into an abyss of gloom and de- 
 pression. Why, oh, why had he put himself 
 into this position ? he mused. Why had he 
 not been satisfied with his life, crowded with 
 interests, crowned with extraordinary success, 
 as it was ? Why court the humiliation, which 
 not improbably awaited him that very hour, of 
 
154 LIFE OF SIR GEORGE NEWNES 
 
 being told that he had been found wanting in 
 the scales in which he was to be at that moment 
 weighed against the other candidate ? 
 
 And who, ever having found himself in a 
 position into which he has been urged or lured 
 by ambition, or enthusiasm, or both, cannot 
 fill in the picture of the man's mental distress 
 as he walked up and down in the green place 
 which grew more depressing with his mood ? 
 Then, when the darkness had become so thick 
 that it could scarcely grow blacker, a messenger 
 came and invited him politely to come and hear 
 the verdict. The Committee met him with out- 
 stretched hands and friendly looks and told 
 him that they would be delighted if he would 
 stand as their candidate at the approaching 
 Election. They pressed round him, cordial, 
 sympathetic, sanguine of success, and in a flash 
 the cloud lifted and all the terrors fled that had 
 lain upon him with such deadly weight, out 
 in the dark place with the graveyard atmo- 
 sphere. And there and then, under the most 
 happy conditions, began Mr. Newnes's long 
 connection with the constituency which re- 
 turned him at three successive Elections, and 
 of which he always spoke with a sense of 
 gratitude and affection. 
 
 Another difficulty which seemed to loom 
 immediately ahead was as easily dispersed as 
 the depression of the day when Mr. Newnes 
 first faced his committee. He had never in 
 
M.P. FOR NEWMARKET 155 
 
 his life been on a race-course, and the propo- 
 sition that he should speak to a Newmarket 
 audience sounded more than difficult. How 
 could he interlard his speech with racing terms, 
 when he was as ignorant of their meaning as 
 he was of the war-cries of the Hottentots ? 
 How make playful and sympathetic allusions 
 to approaching turf events, or to incidents in 
 the history of famous races and winners, when 
 he cared as little for such things as for a display 
 of millinery in a show-window ? But when it 
 was explained to him that only half of New- 
 market was in Cambridgeshire, the other half 
 being in Suffolk; that Ely was the principal 
 centre of population, and that most of the 
 Division was agricultural, he accepted the offer, 
 worked as hard as he could for six months, 
 became immediately popular, and was returned 
 in the Liberal interest by a majority of 973. 
 
 In connection with this, Mr. Newnes's first 
 victory, it should be remembered that before 
 1885 the whole of Cambridgeshire represented 
 one parliamentary division, and was only di- 
 vided into three seats after the Redistribution 
 Bill came into force. The sitting member, a 
 Conservative, had the choice of the three 
 seats, and immediately chose the Newmarket 
 Division, because this was supposed to be the 
 safest corner of the Tory stronghold. The 
 fact that Mr. Newnes defeated him by close 
 upon a thousand votes is eloquent enough of 
 
156 LIFE OF SIR GEORGE NEWNES 
 
 the impression produced by the Liberal candi- 
 date. Of the other two divisions one returned 
 another Liberal by a small majority, the third 
 remained faithful to the Conservative cause. 
 
 And so the young and enthusiastic Liberal 
 entered the House of Commons, full of high 
 hopes and the sincere desire to become of the 
 same use to his fellow-men in politics he was 
 and had been in his profession. 
 
 One of his earliest experiences as a Member 
 of Parliament so impressed Mr. Newnes that 
 it remained to the end of life among his most 
 vivid recollections. It is as far removed from 
 the average House of Commons anecdote as 
 the stars are from the solid earth, and is not 
 without a touch of real pathos. He had not seen 
 his own people since he had become a member, 
 and was looking forward with special pleasure 
 to the day when he would meet his parents 
 and receive their congratulations. After being 
 in the House for a few weeks, news was 
 sent to him that his mother was lying very 
 ill, perhaps at death's door. He hurried off to 
 her at once, anxious but hopeful, as was his 
 wont, and joyfully anticipating her motherly 
 pride in the success of his candidature. But 
 when he had greeted and cheered her, and the 
 talk turned on his new dignity, what was his 
 disappointment when she said, with a sigh of 
 regret, as the cherished vision of seeing him in 
 the Congregational pulpit rose once more before 
 
M.P. FOR NEWMARKET 157 
 
 her inward eye : " Oh, George, I would so much 
 rather you had been a minister." 
 
 Six months later another General Election, 
 the one fought over Mr. Gladstone's Home Rule 
 Bill, was sprung upon the country. There is 
 a short note, written years later, in which Mr. 
 Newnes gives a graphic sketch of the scene 
 during the division on this Bill. " The excite- 
 ment was indescribable," he writes. " Pale 
 men were flushed, and red-faced men turned 
 pale as the fatal moment arrived. Every man 
 was nervously anxious, and very many were 
 visibly trembling. I noticed that many greet- 
 ings were not returned, so absorbed were men 
 in their feelings. When the result of thirty-six 
 against the Bill was made known I went into 
 the Outer Lobby, from where at that time we 
 had to send telegrams. Here I found my own 
 chairman, Mr. Bullock Hall, who had worked 
 hard at the late Election. He was a strong 
 Unionist, a man of some literary fame, and the 
 owner of Six Mile Bottom, one of the finest 
 game preserves in the country. Now, overcome 
 by his excited feelings, he marched up to me 
 in a positively menacing attitude. I saw that 
 it would be useless to argue, so I said : ' Well, 
 Mr. Hall, if you feel like that, you had better 
 oppose me, as there is going to be an Election.' 
 His face became tense and resolute, he looked 
 at me and said : ' By Heaven, I will ! ' and I then 
 went back to the House, where scores of 
 
158 LIFE OF SIR GEORGE NEWNES 
 
 members still remained. They simply could not 
 move away. I little thought that what Bullock 
 Hall had said would come to anything, and he 
 told me afterwards he had never thought of 
 standing till I suggested it to him. This was 
 one of the few cases where a man has put it 
 into the mind of another to oppose him. The 
 Election soon came. The Conservative party 
 selected the Marquis of Carmarthen, now the 
 Duke of Leeds, as their candidate. Mr. 
 Bullock Hall determined, notwithstanding, to 
 fight; but I was again returned." 
 
 In 1892 Mr. Newnes was returned for the 
 third time. " Sometimes afterwards I wished 
 I had not been," he said, when talking of the 
 session following this Election and indeed, 
 of the whole of the 1892-95 Parliament 
 and recalling the incessant march round the 
 division lobbies during those strenuous years. 
 " Well may it be said," he remarked, " that 
 those who have only taken part in a few 
 Marathon races do not know what real pedes- 
 trianism means, unless they were also in that 
 Parliament." 
 
 In the House itself he was generally a silent 
 member, and probably no one seeing him 
 there, cheerful and debonair, if occasionally a 
 little absent-minded, when the pressure of his 
 own work was very great, would have guessed 
 that deep down in his heart he was a saddened 
 and disappointed politician. But so it was. 
 
M.P. FOR NEWMARKET 159 
 
 He had meant to do such good work for the 
 Liberal cause, to which he was so staunch, so 
 loyal an adherent, and for which he had made 
 many and great sacrifices in time, in money and 
 in energy. As the years went by he felt more 
 and more strongly that one man alone, unless 
 he had the combined gifts of the diplomatist, 
 the lawyer, and half-a-dozen others, and could, 
 moreover, devote the whole of his time to 
 politics, could not move the cumbersome 
 parliamentary machine. But though he never 
 made a striking speech, or introduced a political 
 bill or measure, or became in any way con- 
 spicuously successful in the House of Commons, 
 he was and remained a Liberal of the best and 
 staunchest type, loyal and true to his party, 
 and ready and willing to put himself and his 
 means generously and at all times at its 
 service. 
 
 Away from the House of Commons Mr. 
 Newnes was an excellent platform speaker, 
 who almost invariably aroused the enthusiasm 
 of an audience, partly by his winning per- 
 sonality, and partly by the bons mots suggested 
 by his quick mother-wit, which twinkled and 
 sparkled through his speeches, lightening the 
 dullest subject in delightful manner. As an 
 after-dinner and social speaker he was at his 
 best, and whether he spoke at one of the 
 Westminster Gazette annual dinners, when he 
 had the right word of pleasant banter for every 
 
160 LIFE OF SIR GEORGE NEWNES 
 
 one from the office-boys upwards, or when he 
 made a little after-dinner speech at some 
 friendly gathering at his own hospitable 
 table, or eloquently appealed for one of the 
 charities to which Lady Newnes has always 
 given such unwearied work and practical 
 sympathy, he never failed to attract, to inter- 
 est, to please. I remember an occasion not 
 very long ago when the young Princess Alex- 
 ander of Teck took the chair at a meeting held 
 in the beautiful Wildcroft library in con- 
 nexion with the League of Mercy, of which 
 Lady Newnes was a vice-president. Next to 
 me an aristocratic young beauty sat rather 
 listlessly, as one after the other the speakers 
 pleaded the good cause. Presently the master 
 of Wildcroft was asked to say a few words. 
 Unlike those who had addressed the meeting 
 before him, he had no strings of appalling 
 figures to marshal before the audience, neither 
 did he draw heartrending scenes and episodes 
 of the lives of the poor; his words were those 
 of a man simply and sincerely interested in 
 what he believed to be a good cause, in which 
 the rich and the strong and the happy should 
 aid the poor and the weak and the unhappy, 
 and to which, urged by his wife, he was glad to 
 give his support. When he sat down the girl 
 who had so far looked tired and indifferent leaned 
 forward to her mother, and said with shining 
 eyes : " Mother, isn't he a perfect dear ! " 
 
" EAST CAMBRIDGESHIRE." , , ,'> * 
 (From the cartoon by "Spy," by kind permission of " Vanity Fair.'') 
 
M.P. FOR NEWMARKET 161 
 
 But to return to Mr. Newnes's parliamentary 
 life. In his autobiographical notes the graver 
 aspect of this part of his life-work is hardly 
 touched upon. Not that he was not seriously 
 interested in many questions. But the dis- 
 cussion of these he reserved for such occasions 
 as, for instance, the long Sunday morning 
 rambles when he and Mr. Tomalin strolled 
 for hours together over Putney Heath and 
 Wimbledon Common, often so deeply engrossed 
 by their subject that other ramblers meeting 
 them on the beautiful stretch of heath and 
 furze, in the fresh keen air, had to introduce 
 themselves in entirely unconventional fashion 
 to obtain recognition. 
 
 Mr. J. A. Spender, who has for many years 
 conducted the Westminster Gazette, of which 
 Mr. Newnes was the founder and, until two 
 or three years ago, the owner, is surely the best 
 authority as to the Liberalism by which the 
 proprietor of his paper was animated. In the 
 obituary notice of Sir George Newnes which 
 appeared in the Westminster Gazette there 
 occurs the following passage : " From the 
 beginning Sir George encouraged his staff to 
 set a high standard, and faced the difficulties 
 inevitable to the new enterprise with undis- 
 mayed cheerfulness and patience. He recog- 
 nized at once that, if the Westminster Gazette 
 was to succeed, it must be something more than 
 a commercial enterprise, and he never at any 
 
162 LIFE OF SIR GEORGE NEWNES 
 
 time asked himself how a particular line of 
 policy would affect the business prospects of 
 his paper. The present writer vividly recalls 
 the anxious period before and during the Boer 
 War, when panic reigned in many newspaper 
 offices and the staffs of various Liberal journals 
 were suffering rapid changes. Like other news- 
 paper proprietors, Sir George received many 
 remonstrances some from commercial men, 
 others from politicians assuring him that the 
 Westminster, on its then course, was steering 
 straight for ruin; but, if he passed them on 
 to the editor, it was only with an amused 
 indifference and a cheerful admonition not 
 to swerve by an inch breadth from the course 
 he was then pursuing. He was equally cool a 
 year or two later when the Liberal Party was 
 threatened with a serious schism, and when, 
 once more, he found himself assailed by eager 
 politicians urging him to throw the Westminster 
 into their scale. ' You will be doing best,' he 
 wrote to the editor on this occasion, ' when 
 you are most in hot water, and you may rely 
 on me to be well satisfied when that object 
 is achieved.' . . . For a period of ten years the 
 editor lunched with him regularly every fort- 
 night, and on these occasions every detail of 
 the conduct of the paper commercial and 
 political was fully discussed. He was a man 
 of the shrewdest judgment, and the paper 
 benefited greatly by his ideas and his criticisms. 
 
M.P. FOR NEWMARKET 163 
 
 But his face was always steadily set against 
 any cheapening or popularizing which might 
 have damaged the influence of the paper with 
 its more serious readers, and the present writer 
 remembers many occasions on which a tempt- 
 ing-looking scheme was abandoned, after a 
 short discussion, on this ground." 
 
 In 1895, after the defeat of the Rosebery 
 Government, Mr. Newnes having lost his Cam- 
 bridgeshire seat, decided that he " had had 
 enough of politics," and for the next five years 
 gave all his time to the manifold activities 
 connected with the gigantic publishing firm 
 he had built up, and with other commercial 
 enterprises in which he had engaged. 
 
 M 2 
 
CHAPTER XI 
 
 M.P. FOR SWANSEA 
 
 DURING the years of his retirement from 
 political life Sir George Newnes had no less 
 than thirty-three invitations from constituen- 
 cies in various parts of the country to represent 
 them in Parliament. But he remained by 
 his decision till in 1900 an invitation reached 
 him at his country house at Lynton, from the 
 opposite side of the Bristol Channel, to contest 
 Swansea Town in the Liberal interest. At the 
 period preceding this Election Liberalism was 
 at a low ebb, and there seemed no reason why 
 Swansea, which in 1896 had succumbed to 
 repeated assaults of the Conservatives, should 
 return to its former stout Radicalism. For 
 one reason and another the difficulty was 
 extremely great of finding a candidate who 
 would attempt to recapture the seat, and at the 
 dissolution the Swansea Liberals were without 
 a champion. It then occurred to a member 
 of the local association that Sir George Newnes 
 might be prevailed upon to accept nomination, 
 and a deputation was appointed to proceed to 
 Lynton. At first he declined, but the Swansea 
 
 164 
 
M.P. FOR SWANSEA 
 
 165 
 
 Liberals would not take a refusal, and since 
 tenacity in a good cause never failed to appeal 
 to Sir George, he was in the end persuaded to 
 return into the political arena, promising to go 
 to Swansea the very next morning, the election 
 being then only ten days off. 
 
 THE MEMBER FOE SWANSEA 
 
 Westminster Gazette, December 18, 1900 
 (By permission of Sir F. Carruthers Gould) 
 
 Next morning, however, the sea was so rough 
 that the tug which had been chartered to take 
 him across could not put in at Lynmouth, which 
 has no pier, and he was obliged to wire to 
 Swansea, explaining the situation. A reply 
 arrived very promptly, couched in terms so 
 expressive that the candidate, whose spirit, 
 like unto the spirits of his disappointed com- 
 mittee, was up by this time, sent a second 
 
166 LIFE OF SIR GEORGE NEWNES 
 
 message : " Will come to-morrow even if I 
 have to swim." 
 
 Fortunately, two of Sir George's friends, Mr. 
 (now Sir) Brynmor Jones and Mr. A. Thomas, 
 K.C., who were contesting other constituencies, 
 happened to be at Swansea, and spoke for the 
 sea-bound candidate at four lively meetings, 
 at each of which the spirited message from 
 Lynton was read, arousing the enthusiasm 
 it deserved. The next evening Sir George 
 arrived at Swansea on a tug-boat. It was a 
 wild, wet night, and as he stepped ashore with 
 the brim of his slouch hat turned down and 
 the collar of his coat turned up, he looked 
 a pilot to the life. " The weather is foul, 
 gentlemen," he said after the hearty salutations 
 were over, " but I come, I trust, to bring you 
 good political weather." 
 
 Tired as he was, after the rough passage 
 across the Channel, he went at once to the 
 Liberal Club, where the faithful Five Hundred 
 were awaiting him, made a capital speech, 
 outlining broadly the tenets of his Liberal 
 creed, and was enthusiastically adopted as the 
 candidate. Then he was whisked away to a 
 meeting at the Swansea Albert Hall where 
 3000 welcoming voices touched him deeply, 
 and made him lose the last trace of regret at 
 having allowed himself to be lured from his 
 retirement. In the course of the short campaign, 
 Lady Newnes and their son coming upon the 
 
M.P. FOR SWANSEA 167 
 
 scene, and working as hard as the candidate 
 himself, the Cambria Daily Leader soon fore- 
 saw that it might safely entrust its poster 
 with the prophecy " Liberalism wins. Lady 
 Newnes wins hearts, and Sir George gains 
 votes," a prophecy justified by events. 
 
 One of the features of the contest was the 
 encouragement given to the young men on the 
 Liberal side, and in this respect Sir George may 
 be said to have anticipated the work of the 
 National League of Young Liberals. His agent 
 was Mr. W. J. Crocker, an astute organizer, 
 who had been shrewd enough to secure an 
 option upon the chief hall of the town for 
 the two nights before the Election. It was 
 decided that the best night for a rally of the 
 democratic forces would be the Friday the 
 Election having been fixed for Monday 
 and the hall would therefore be free on the 
 Saturday. 
 
 " Why not give it to the young men of the 
 party ? '' asked Sir George. The suggestion 
 was immediately acted upon. Mr. Frank 
 Newnes, the candidate's son, spoke, and spoke 
 well ; his cousin, Mr. Brame Hillyard, delivered 
 another effective address, and six other Liberals, 
 all on the right side of thirty, made up the 
 platform. They were, of course, working on 
 favourable material; the blood of the Welsh 
 had been stirred, but this only partly accounted 
 for the striking success of the meeting, which 
 
168 LIFE OF SIR GEORGE NEWNES 
 
 ended in an enthusiastic procession to the hotel 
 at which the candidate was staying, to serenade 
 him there and then. 
 
 The confidence of the Liberals on Election 
 day was not unmingled with anxiety : the 
 Tory candidate had so many personal friends ; 
 the war-fever was so contagious ; the personality 
 of Mr. Chamberlain so attractively truculent. 
 Shortly before ten at night the counting of the 
 votes was finished, and it was found that Sir 
 George Newnes had not only won, but had won 
 handsomely, turning an adverse majority of 
 474 into a favourable one of 1114. This set 
 the seal upon a relationship with Swansea 
 which lasted ten years. 
 
 Before another Election came, Sir George 
 again thought of retiring from politics, and 
 told the local leaders of the party that he had 
 no desire to continue the representation. His 
 health had begun to fail, his hands were more 
 than full with many business undertakings, 
 and the attractions of Parliament had lost 
 much of their former charm for him. 
 
 They would not hear of his withdrawal, but 
 pressed him hard to fight yet another battle, 
 and when he consented and led the forces in 
 the campaign of 1906 he increased his majority 
 from 1114 to 1414. 
 
 After this Election his constituents did not 
 meet him again, but they will always remember 
 him for his unvarying urbanity and courtesy. 
 
M.P. FOR SWANSEA 169 
 
 Not every member is a hero to his agent, but 
 Sir George was to Mr. Crocker, who applied the 
 sobriquet " Gentleman George " to him in the 
 first days of their relationship, and " Gentleman 
 George " he remained to every one. 
 
 Of the many obligations under which he 
 placed the Liberals of Swansea at least one 
 remains. He saved the town from a Tory 
 press monopoly. The Liberal paper of the 
 district is the Cambria Daily Leader, the pioneer 
 of the Welsh daily press. It had become 
 the property of a limited liability company. 
 Shares sufficient to give their holders a pre- 
 ponderating voice in the management came 
 upon the market, and alert business men on the 
 rival paper, foreseeing a possibility of absorp- 
 tion, eagerly bought them up, the business side 
 of the paper for over a year coming under 
 the supervision of the proprietary of the Post. 
 The sequel was the voluntary winding- up 
 of the Leader Company and an offer to the 
 courts from the Post to purchase at a nominal 
 price. The arrangement seemed likely to 
 receive legal sanction when the matter was 
 brought before Sir George Newnes, who said 
 quite frankly that he did not want to buy the 
 paper, as he did not think it desirable that a 
 Member of Parliament should own the public 
 prints in his own constituency. Moreover, he 
 could not give the necessary supervision to a 
 business at Swansea. 
 
170 LIFE OF SIR GEORGE NEWNES 
 
 But, on second thoughts, he changed his 
 mind. He was too good a party man to let a 
 Liberal organ, for want of what was to him an 
 unimportant sum, fall into the hands of the 
 Conservatives. And once he had decided, the 
 whole transaction was concluded without more 
 ado. When he had obtained possession of 
 the property he installed the paper in new 
 offices, equipped it with splendid machinery, 
 and placed it on a basis from which it started 
 on a career of constantly increasing prosperity. 
 So far from having any anticipation of financial 
 gain by the purchase of the paper, his impulse 
 to buy was the same which had prompted 
 him years ago to found the Westminster. 
 He resented the idea of a Conservative press 
 monopoly and was ready to make sacrifices 
 in order to avert it. 
 
 To a man as richly blessed with the gift of 
 seeing the comic side of things as Mr. Newnes, 
 any amount of entertainment was, of course, 
 provided by incidents connected with his 
 various campaigns. His manner of re-telling 
 the stories and anecdotes added a grace and 
 charm to them which it is impossible to repro- 
 duce in print. He enjoyed them as much in 
 retrospect as when they actually happened, 
 and though, for all I know, he may have 
 repeated them a hundred times, they were 
 always so fresh and new, so natural and so 
 absolutely free from anything unseemly, that 
 
M.P. FOR SWANSEA 171 
 
 I am tempted to repeat one which is typical 
 of all. 
 
 During one of his Cambridgeshire contests 
 he was holding a meeting in a tent near New- 
 market. A few hours before the meeting 
 word was sent that a large gang of the enemy 
 was to be present in the tent, to upset the 
 platform. Now it so happened that this same 
 platform, in the ordinary course of its being, 
 and when not requisitioned for political pur- 
 poses, was a huge farm- wagon, which it would 
 be more easy to upset than the usual plat- 
 form. The prospect was quite enough to 
 rouse every spark of energy and fighting 
 spirit in the Liberal host, and you may depend 
 upon it that the M.P. was not the last of 
 those who began to cast about at once for a 
 way of worthily meeting the onslaught. After 
 a little consultation it was decided that a band 
 of young Liberal stalwarts, who were eager to 
 " look after " the invaders, should be hidden 
 under the wagon, and give battle when the 
 great moment arrived. 
 
 Presently the Newmarket heroes were seen 
 driving gaily along into Cheveley. They 
 looked imposing enough, as they sat in their 
 traps, each Jack with his Jill beside him, the 
 sweethearts having probably been invited by 
 the swains in order that the fair might have 
 the opportunity of admiring the valour of the 
 brave. The presence of the ladies gave a new 
 
172 LIFE OF SIR GEORGE NEWNES 
 
 aspect to the affair, and tactics must accord- 
 ingly be changed to suit the altered situation. 
 One thing was certain; there must be no 
 melee in which the girls might possibly be 
 frightened or hurt. Time was passing; the 
 young Tories were at the gate; what was 
 to be done ? In two minutes the plot was 
 hatched by which the impending tragedy 
 of the storming of the wagon-platform was 
 turned into comedy to such effect that the 
 enemy, having come to disturb, remained to 
 be ridiculed. 
 
 When the gay Newmarket party drove up, 
 they could hardly hide their satisfaction as the 
 conveners of the meeting came out, seemingly 
 in all innocence of heart, and invited them 
 politely to seats close to the platform, where 
 they would be able to hear the speakers well. 
 This was precisely what they wanted. But 
 when, in their great eagerness to be polite to 
 the distinguished guests from Newmarket, 
 their hosts urged the young ladies in an entirely 
 irresistible manner to take the best seats of all, 
 namely those on the platform, and the blushing 
 maidens accepted after a few ineffectual pro- 
 tests, the swains' enjoyment showed signs of 
 abating. With their girls on the platform, 
 how could they upset it ? And there they sat 
 in the front rows, the seats of the mighty, 
 listening with unwilling ears to the political 
 gospel of the day according to those disgustingly 
 
M.P. FOR SWANSEA 173 
 
 cheerful Liberals, while above them, in the 
 midst of the enemy's camp, their sweethearts 
 sat blushing and giggling. And when towards 
 the end of the meeting Mr. Newnes rose and 
 told the whole story, told it with many a 
 word of admiration for the young men who, 
 for the sake of the ladies whom they loved, 
 were now abstaining from deeds of valour, and 
 when in an eloquent peroration he wished all 
 the young Tory couples very happy married 
 lives, the audience nearly sent the tent flying 
 with their shouts of laughter. Whether the 
 incident had any effect on the votes it is 
 impossible to say, but if the Liberal member 
 had been popular before, he was ten times more 
 popular from that day forth, and in any case 
 he was returned with a large majority. 
 
 That he could also on occasion assume the 
 part of the successful proselytizer was shown 
 by an incident which happened when a by- 
 election was coming on in the Stowmarket 
 division of Suffolk, which adjoins Cambridge- 
 shire. Hitherto it had always been considered 
 quite useless, and, indeed, impossible, to hold 
 a Liberal meeting in Newmarket town. 
 Mr. Newnes, discussing the situation one day 
 in the House of Commons with Sir Charles 
 Russell, explained that an attempt had been 
 made to hold such a meeting, but that the 
 speakers had been shouted down. " But," he 
 added, " if you or Lord Hartington, who is a 
 
174 LIFE OF SIR GEORGE NEWNES 
 
 popular sporting man, would come down, I 
 think they would listen to us." 
 
 Sir Charles, who had his hands full enough, 
 hesitated, but the energetic Member for New- 
 market would not be denied. " Come, make 
 up your mind to do it," he urged. " I will 
 take the chair, for though I am no sporting 
 man I know many of the Newmarket sports- 
 men, and I think they will listen to me now. 
 My loud voice will also be of some use. To 
 you they will listen in any case. We will get 
 Baron Stern, the candidate (now Lord Wands- 
 worth) to drive up in his four-in-hand, and then 
 very probably we shall have a good meeting." 
 
 The arrangements were made, everything 
 happened as predicted by Mr. Newnes, and 
 the jockey-boys, who on former occasions had 
 chiefly distinguished themselves by throwing 
 beer bottles on the platform, did nothing worse 
 than call out somewhat disrespectfully, " Go 
 it, Charlie ! 5: when the eminent lawyer was 
 speaking. This was not only a great improve- 
 ment on the beer bottles, but the meeting was 
 also satisfactory in its results, for the election 
 was won for the Liberals. 
 
 In connection with Sir George Newnes's 
 election experiences an interesting incident 
 occurred which was destined to become historic. 
 During his first Swansea Election campaign 
 Colonel Hills- Johnes stated at a Conservative 
 meeting that he had just returned from South 
 
M.P. FOR SWANSEA 175 
 
 Africa, where he had been staying with General 
 Lord Roberts, then at the head of our army 
 in the Boer War. Lord Roberts, the Colonel 
 explained, was very desirous that the Con- 
 servative party should win the Election. The 
 Swansea Liberals may be excused for thinking 
 it hardly fair to bring into the political fight 
 the name of a man who was then the most 
 popular hero in the United Kingdom. Under 
 the circumstances Sir George Newnes thought 
 it would be as well to obtain information at 
 first hand on this statement, and for this 
 purpose he cabled to Lord Roberts explaining 
 that a public statement had been made by a 
 man just returned from South Africa, that the 
 head of the army greatly desired the victory 
 of the Conservative party at the approaching 
 Election. Did Lord Roberts wish his name to 
 be used during an Election contest for party 
 purposes ? 
 
 Lord Roberts was at the time moving about 
 from place to place at the front, and it was 
 doubtful whether the message would reach 
 him in time for his answer to be of use during 
 the campaign. But on the third day the reply 
 came : " Hills- Johnes no right to use my name. 
 I never interfere in politics." 
 
 It goes without saying that the Colonel's 
 remark had by that time been published all 
 over the country, and considering Lord 
 Roberta's wide popularity and influence, Sir 
 
176 LIFE OF SIR GEORGE NEWNES 
 
 George Newnes surely did a great service not 
 only to his cause at Swansea, but to the Liberal 
 party, when he telephoned the message from 
 South Africa at once to the National Liberal 
 Club, where the man at the wheel saw to it 
 that in two or three hours it was published in 
 hundreds of papers in all parts of the country. 
 On a notable occasion during his parlia- 
 mentary life Sir George Newnes showed his 
 tendency to originate ideas and to "do things 
 differently '" from the average person. This 
 was on the occasion when, soon after the 
 opening of the 1906 Parliament, he invited all 
 the fathers and sons who had been returned 
 to the House at the recent Election to dine 
 with him at his temporary town residence in 
 Carlton House Terrace, he and his son consti- 
 tuting one of the families represented by two 
 generations of legislators. Every father and 
 son in the House came, except Mr. Joseph 
 Chamberlain and his son Austen, who, however, 
 wrote to the host that they would have been 
 glad to be present if it had not happened that 
 they would both be abroad on the date of the 
 banquet. The guests present were Sir C. B. B. 
 Maclaren and Mr. H. D. Maclaren ; Mr. Russell 
 Rea and Mr. W. R. Rea ; Mr. C. E. Schwann 
 and Mr. C. D. Schwann, Mr. J. W. Benn and 
 Mr. W. W. Benn, and Mr. J. F. Brunner, whose 
 father was at the last moment unavoidably 
 prevented from taking part. 
 
M.P. FOR SWANSEA 177 
 
 The London papers next morning recorded 
 the fact of the " Complimentary Dinner of 
 Fathers and Sons in Parliament," and the 
 Illustrated London News gave half a page to a 
 clever sketch of the scene, drawn by Mr. A. 
 Forestier ; but the real charm and fun of 
 this curiously interesting gathering were only 
 revealed to those present. They were, so to 
 speak, en famille, especially as they chanced 
 all to represent the same political party, and, 
 as every one knows, few of us are at our best 
 at a social function where only the dear family 
 is represented. But the post-prandial eloquence 
 in this case was as happily high-spirited and 
 sparkling as if the " Fathers " had been 
 holding forth to an assembly of dignitaries, 
 and the " Sons " to an audience including the 
 young ladies of their choice or preference. 
 
 Sir George himself, acting as host and chair- 
 man, set the ball rolling. No one knew better 
 than he how to strike the right note on such 
 occasions, and every guest present fell into 
 the mood suggested by the host, when he ex- 
 plained that in his opinion they might spend 
 a pleasant evening together over " a little 
 playful badinage, and not too much politics." 
 
 There was a touch of the fatherly pride 
 and love for his only son, which inspired some 
 of Sir George's happiest speeches, in the few 
 remarks in which he expressed the Fathers' 
 joy at seeing their Sons beside them in the 
 
178 LIFE OF SIR GEORGE NEWNES 
 
 House of Commons, and wished the young men 
 every success in their political careers. Sir 
 Charles Maclaren, the next speaker, fell at once 
 into the vein, chaffing the host on having 
 found out, from " Debrett " that he, Sir 
 Charles, was the oldest man of the company, 
 and therefore the first to be asked to speak. 
 " We are gathered together," he said, "at an 
 interesting function. I suppose I ought to 
 burst into poetry; an appropriate sentiment 
 for a poem on the present occasion would be, 
 ' Youth at the Prow, and Pleasure at the 
 Helm.' I have one other quality besides my 
 age which helps me to take special interest in 
 this occasion. I am doubly a son. I was in the 
 House of Commons with my father, and his 
 father was in Parliament before him. I don't 
 think any of you can equal that." Next 
 Mr. W. W. Benn, for the Sons, made a brilliant 
 little speech, chaffing the Fathers with all the 
 delightful recklessness and assumed superiority 
 of the younger generation, which is only pos- 
 sible in families where parents and children are 
 quite sure of each other's sympathetic under- 
 standing. He was glad, he said, to find the 
 parents felt the need for co-operation, " and as 
 this is the initiation of some kind of Parents' 
 Protection Association, it is quite in keeping 
 with the fitness of things that the Sons should 
 inaugurate a society on similar lines. But I 
 should like to know where this sort of thing 
 
M.P. FOR SWANSEA 179 
 
 will stop. Supposing women are elected to 
 the House of Commons : the Mothers may start 
 a Protection Society of their own. In that 
 case the parents may combine, and we may 
 have the Mothers' and Fathers' Parliamentary 
 Protection Association ! Where should we be 
 then ? " Benn pere, following, was in his 
 happiest mood. " I am bound to say," he said, 
 with a lugubrious glance at his offspring, " I 
 am beginning to take another view of this 
 Father-and-Son notion. At first I had a sort 
 of idea that it would be very nice to have the 
 dear boy in Parliament; but the thing is not 
 working out quite as I expected. My first 
 shock came in the following way. I went into 
 the cloak-room of the House of Commons, 
 and said * How do you do ? ' to the attendant. 
 He acknowledged my greeting, and said with 
 a smile, c Two pegs now, sir ! ' I said, 
 ' Yes, and I notice one peg is above the 
 other.' He answered with a grin ' Yes, sir, 
 and your son has collared the top one.' : 
 
 " But that is not all. I have been trying to 
 build up a parliamentary reputation, and I 
 thought the Port of London would be a good 
 subject to which to turn my attention. Last 
 year, accordingly, I brought in a Bill upon the 
 Port of London. I intended to build my 
 career on that Bill. Imagine, therefore, if you 
 can, my horror to find that this precious son 
 of mine has sneaked my idea and has asked 
 
 N 2 
 
180 LIFE OF SIR GEORGE NEWNES 
 
 permission to second a Bill upon the very 
 same subject brought in by a member of that 
 wretched London County Council ! I have 
 now nothing left to do but to say ' Hear, hear,' 
 to this impudent offspring. 
 
 " Anticipating that you might expect the 
 Fathers to say a few words, I consulted a friend 
 in the lobby as to the most appropriate thing 
 to say. He said, c What do you want, Benn 
 a text ? ' I said 6 Yes.' Then he gave me 
 this c Instead of the Fathers, shall come up 
 the Sons,' and I heartily ejaculated c No, no ! ' 
 Then I went up to the Library, asked the 
 Librarian if he had a Bible, and looked up that 
 interesting part of the great Book which is 
 specially devoted to the Sons the Book of 
 Proverbs. Well, I did find something com- 
 forting, after all. I found the phrase that the 
 glory of the children is their Fathers, to whom 
 the children were to look for guidance. And I 
 was pleased to discover that there was nothing 
 about the guidance of the Fathers : they were 
 regarded as entirely satisfactory ! " 
 
 Having thus scored splendidly on behalf of 
 the Fathers, Mr. Benn and the other hoary 
 veterans present had a moment's triumph, 
 which however, was promptly cut short when 
 Mr. C. D. Schwann arose and called upon the 
 Sons to make use of this rare, favourable 
 opportunity " for criticizing our parents. I 
 have been with my own parent," he went on, 
 
M.P. FOR SWANSEA 181 
 
 "in the secrecy of our home; and I always 
 found that he used very practical arguments 
 with me." But Mr. Russell Rea concluded a 
 witty speech on the Revolt of the Sons by a 
 charming little domestic anecdote. " As for 
 the third generation idea," he said, " I am 
 going into that competition ! I have a small 
 grandson with distinctly political aspirations; 
 and I discovered him the other morning, with 
 very hesitating fingers, it is true, printing on 
 a card c Vote for Philip Russell Rea ! ' " 
 
 Mr. Frank Newnes, in giving thanks to the 
 fathers, showed in his short speech that he has 
 inherited his father's talent for genial after- 
 dinner speaking. " I may say on behalf of 
 the Sons," he said, " that I think it very nice 
 of our Fathers to have us in the House. In 
 return we will look after them, and see that they 
 vote straight ! Some members of the House, 
 with their own idea of the fitness of things, 
 are inclined to regard us as Devils, for they 
 frequently ask us for whom we are devilling. 
 There may some day be three generations in 
 Parliament, but I don't think Mr. Rea starts 
 fair in a competition of this kind. For some 
 of us are not even married yet, and therefore 
 are very heavily handicapped. I think it but 
 fair to admit that the fact of our Fathers 
 having been in Parliament before us was a 
 great help to us as Sons at the recent General 
 Election. There is little doubt that a 
 
182 LIFE OF SIR GEORGE NEWNES 
 
 constituency was interested to know that the 
 Father was in, and wanted to see the Son in to 
 keep him company. Mr. Rea, meanwhile, had 
 not that advantage, because the Son got in 
 before the Father. But even then the principle 
 worked, for the constituency felt that, as the 
 Son was in Parliament, the Father must be 
 returned in order to look after him. We are, 
 as has been stated, on the same side in politics, 
 and I hope the time will never come when we 
 shall see the Father and Son in different 
 Lobbies." 
 
 And so the ball was kept rolling all the 
 evening, Mr. C. E. Schwann's paternal indis- 
 cretions culminating in the recitation of a 
 " poem " found in the Lobby, and " in the 
 familiar handwriting of an old friend of ours." 
 It is headed " Fathers and Sons," and runs 
 thus 
 
 " Fathers must be very queer 
 Who help to get their Sons in here ! 
 Sons must be a sanguine set 
 Who strive within these walls to get ! 
 Fathers have been striving long 
 To put to rights whatever's wrong 
 Squabbling on in Party fights, 
 Sitting up long summer nights: 
 Arguing, fratching, and deriding, 
 Ever and anon dividing. 
 It does seem, as I said, queer, 
 That anybody should come here ! 
 All you speak of is resented, 
 All you say, misrepresented. 
 What do you think of this, young Newnes ? 
 Do you care to play such tunes ? 
 
M.P. FOR SWANSEA 183 
 
 Don't you think, brave young Maclaren, 
 Such a life as this is barren ? 
 Can you ever be, young Brunner, 
 As your Father, such a stunner ? 
 To glory do you see your way, 
 Young aspiring Russell Rea ? 
 Young cygnet, can you carry on 
 Like your noble parent Schwann ? 
 Young starters, need we further tell 
 How we truly wish you well ? 
 May each rising young M.P. 
 Better than his Father be ! " 
 
 It may not be out of place in connection 
 with this cheerful gathering, which was first 
 and foremost the outcome of the host's well 
 justified pride in the son of whom he could say 
 that he the son had never given him a day's 
 anxiety, to quote a passage from the speech 
 which Sir George Newnes made in connection 
 with his son's candidature during the Election 
 of 1906, when Mr. Frank Newnes was returned 
 to Parliament for the Bassetlaw Division 
 of Nottinghamshire. Speaking to a crowded 
 meeting at Retford Town Hall, Sir George said 
 he had come to say a good word for his son, 
 and he thought no father or mother in the 
 division would blame him for doing so. He 
 thanked all those present for their very hearty 
 greeting, which he could only attribute to the 
 fact that some one had been there before him 
 who had paved the way, and apparently made 
 such a good impression with regard to the 
 son that those present were disposed to look 
 favourably upon the father. " I wonder," 
 
184 LIFE OF SIR GEORGE NEWNES 
 
 Sir George said, " I have not been here before. 
 It has been a little difficult for me to keep away, 
 but I thought I would let the youngster go on 
 his own for a bit. I have known him longer 
 than any man, and am in an excellent position 
 to give evidence as to his character. Well, 
 I can tell you he has never given me a day's, or 
 I may say an hour's, trouble or anxiety in his 
 life." 
 
 Sir George continued that when his son 
 arrived at the age of discretion he became a 
 Liberal, which he (the speaker) considered a 
 perfectly proper and natural sequence of events. 
 He had heard it said his son was too young to 
 be a parliamentary candidate, but he would 
 get over that with keeping. It was averred, 
 too, that his opponent, Sir Frederick Milner 
 of whom he wished to speak with every courtesy 
 and respect, for it was a poor thing if they could 
 not advance their own political opinions and 
 yet be courteous and respectful to those who 
 differed from them was old enough to be the 
 candidate's father, had had much greater 
 experience, and that, therefore, his opinion was 
 of far greater value. Well, he (Sir George) 
 was old enough to be the father of their 
 candidate, and he might be allowed to say he 
 was proud of the fact. He had years' more 
 mature consideration and greater experience 
 just about the same length as Sir Frederick 
 Milner and he was precisely of the same 
 
M.P. FOR SWANSEA 185 
 
 opinion with regard to political matters as 
 the comparatively youthful candidate for the 
 Bassetlaw Division. So that, as far as the last 
 argument was concerned, both parties, to use 
 a golfing phrase, were all square. 
 
 There is no doubt that the happiest day in 
 Sir George Newnes's later life was that when 
 his son gained his parliamentary victory over 
 Sir Frederick Milner, and became a Member 
 of Parliament, as no doubt the hardest blow 
 dealt to him during his illness, and one which 
 hastened his end, was the son's defeat at the 
 January Election of 1910. 
 
CHAPTER XII 
 
 PRIVATE INTERESTS AND OCCUPATIONS 
 
 APART from journalism and politics, which 
 were the main interests of Sir George Newnes's 
 life, to which during the last ten years were 
 added a variety of industrial and commercial 
 affairs, he had a large number of occupations 
 with which to fill his holidays and the odds 
 and ends of time he could spare from work. 
 Until his last illness crept upon him he enjoyed 
 almost perfect health, and such modern com- 
 plaints as nervous breakdowns, brain-fag 
 and other traps in which the eager, restless 
 worker of to-day is too often caught, were 
 unknown to him. Probably his love of 
 open-air pursuits on the one hand, and his 
 ability to put from him at will the cares of 
 the office, and to throw himself with his whole 
 mind from work into play, from the difficulties 
 and perplexities of his business into the fun and 
 frolic of a game, rested the flagging brain and 
 refreshed the tired body in the same way as 
 sleep or absolute repose. 
 
 He was far too active, both mentally and 
 physically, while his health remained normal, 
 
 186 
 
PRIVATE INTERESTS 187 
 
 to take rest during the day; and no sooner 
 had he turned his back upon Southampton 
 Street, or emerged from his study at home, 
 than he was as deep in some other pursuit 
 as he was strenuous when engaged in the 
 more serious business of life. On fine days 
 you might see him come out of his gate at 
 Putney Heath, making his way to the Wimble- 
 don Common golf club, and it is not often that 
 you meet a more fine and picturesque figure 
 than his, even on a golf-course, where the best 
 types of British male physique are not rare. 
 Or he would spend happy half-holidays in 
 his large, covered tennis court, the " gym," 
 where on wet and wintry afternoons good 
 games and cheerful, unconventional social 
 entertainment were to be had. Or he would, 
 together with Lady Newnes or a friend, take 
 one of those long drives into the country 
 which, while they delighted the lover of the 
 open air and rural scenes, were so fruitful of 
 fresh suggestions in connection with his work, 
 some slight object or incident observed often 
 furnishing him with an idea by which another 
 interest might be added to his publications. 
 
 Again, whatever the popular topic of the 
 day might be, it had his interest, and there 
 also he took the standard which, in his pro- 
 fession, had helped him to rise to his eminent 
 position in the journalistic and publishing 
 world. That is to say, he did not look upon 
 
188 LIFE OF SIR GEORGE NEWNES 
 
 himself as one who, endowed with more than 
 average brain power, is able to put himself 
 at will into the place of the average person, 
 and thus understand the point of view, or 
 the needs and requirements, of that person. 
 He had no intellectual vanity, and even among 
 those knowing him well and perhaps not 
 sharing or admiring his points of view, there 
 is no one to accuse him of an undue idea 
 of his own mental endowments. " He never 
 suffered from swelled head," was the judgment 
 of that quick and trained observer of men, 
 Mr. W. T. Stead, who had worked with him 
 during the time when the latter was at the 
 height of his prosperity and success. 
 
 " 1 am the average man," Sir George Newnes 
 would say. " I am not merely putting myself 
 into his place. That is the real reason why I 
 know what he wants." And so he was, in 
 the straightforward simplicity with which he 
 looked out into the world; in the frank enjoy- 
 ment of the things that appeal to the average 
 cheerful human being endowed with a healthy 
 mind in a healthy body ; and also in his loath- 
 ing of all that is mawkish, maudlin and morbid, 
 unclean, coarse and abnormal. At the same 
 time, he was much beyond the average man, 
 with whom he claimed brotherhood so honestly 
 and genially, in the exceptional gifts of indomit- 
 able perseverance and industry; of quick 
 perception and astonishing resourcefulness ; 
 
PRIVATE INTERESTS 189 
 
 in the somewhat deliberate thoughtful manner 
 which gave to all who came into contact with 
 him a sense of a great reserve of strength and 
 power. 
 
 One of his interests in private life, in which 
 probably he was too modest when ranging him- 
 self with the majority of his countrymen, was 
 his keen appreciation of the value of modern 
 scientific discoveries by which the whole com- 
 munity would profit. Always quick to seize 
 upon the practical side of a subject, he saw 
 at a glance when a new chance was offered to 
 the public for saving labour, for lightening 
 the burden of the workers, for adding to the 
 enjoyments and luxuries of the wealthier 
 classes, and to the comfort and conveni- 
 ence of all. Thus while others still stood 
 doubtfully watching developments, he was 
 already enjoying the fruits of a new scientific 
 discovery. 
 
 His house on Putney Heath was lit through- 
 out by electricity long before Putney had 
 made arrangements for supplying the residents 
 with that commodity, and the installation 
 at the offices in Southampton Street was 
 effected soon after in very characteristic man- 
 ner. " We cannot afford to have the disturb- 
 ance of an invasion of working men for more 
 than a day," he said, and sent for a firm of 
 electricians. Could they put the light into the 
 five-storeyed building in twenty-four hours? 
 
190 LIFE OF SIR GEORGE NEWNES 
 
 No, it was an impossibility, they reported, 
 after having inspected the place. But urged 
 on by his impatience, and not unlikely fired 
 by a very creditable desire to show what they 
 could do, they made the attempt, and in forty- 
 eight hours the work was done. 
 
 The motor car also had in Sir George Newnes 
 a whole-hearted convert while as yet this new 
 and expensive toy was regarded as a white 
 elephant, and one with a dangerous temper 
 and an unreliable constitution. There were 
 few cars on the road, and no newspaper had 
 as yet opened its columns to correspondence 
 of the intense kind from infuriated pedestrians 
 and equally angry motorists, on the subject 
 of speed limits, dust-raising, reckless driving, 
 cat-and-dog mangling, and the like, when 
 Sir George ordered his first car. Having 
 fixed his affections upon one of a certain 
 French make, and finding that it could not be 
 obtained in London, his eagerness could not 
 brook the delay of waiting till it arrived in 
 the usual slow way. Hence a chauffeur was 
 despatched to Paris, with minute instructions, 
 to buy the car at headquarters and to bring 
 it back by road. This would not only hasten 
 its arrival, but would at the same time furnish 
 the trial trip during which possible deficiencies 
 would be disclosed. 
 
 Nor did he ever tire of motoring. For 
 years it was his greatest recreation to drive 
 
PRIVATE INTERESTS 191 
 
 with a friend far out into the country, lunching 
 at some country inn or seaside hotel, and 
 returning in the evening, after an enjoyable 
 day on the open road. When his son, an 
 excellent driver, was of the party, and his 
 favourite dog sat next to him, or beside the 
 chauffeur, there was not a more cheerful and 
 contented motorist on the road, and he and 
 his family had motored across England in 
 every direction before many people had realized 
 the possibilities of long distance travel by 
 motor car. 
 
 He was in telephonic communication with 
 his office while yet the telephone, even to the 
 majority of opulent business people, remained 
 a sort of invention which might or might not 
 be sufficiently perfected within the next twenty 
 years to be of any use to them ; and the phono- 
 graph had no sooner opened its mouth for the 
 entertainment of the millions than it was 
 introduced both at Wilder oft and Hollerday 
 House, the summer residence at Lynton. In the 
 latter place its first appearance was as profit- 
 able to a local charity as it was popular. 
 
 Lady Newnes, who showed an active and 
 practical interest in benevolent work wherever 
 she might be, was taking part in a bazaar, 
 and the strange new instrument, out of the 
 brazen mouth of which came forth, with un- 
 canny realism, the sound of the human voice, 
 singing, laughing, declaiming, even threatening 
 
192 LIFE OF SIR GEORGE NEWNES 
 
 and scolding, by request, was carried bodily 
 to the bazaar. At first the young Devonshire 
 sirens who charmed guineas for " button- 
 holes " from the pockets of opulent masculine 
 patrons of the bazaar, were inclined to grudge 
 its popularity to the thing that was so closely 
 related to the classical vox et praeterea nihil; 
 but even they fell a prey to its witchery when 
 presently it began to sing " My Old Dutch " 
 and other equally ravishing songs, or when 
 it imitated to the life a monologue by the most 
 famous comedian of the day, describing how 
 that gentleman had fared on a shopping expe- 
 dition to a West End draper's establishment. 
 And when the day of reckoning came after 
 the bazaar, and the organizers found to what 
 an extent they were indebted to the phono- 
 graph for the financial, as well as the social, 
 success of the undertaking, there was great 
 rejoicing. 
 
 When he was young, his means slender, 
 and his days brimful of work, Mr. Newnes 
 had always time to listen, and money to give, 
 to those who came to him with tales of real 
 distress and difficulties. His sound common 
 sense soon distinguished the true from the 
 false, and though he had less patience than 
 many men with the loafer and the ne'er-do- 
 well, he had more than most human beings 
 of the charity that thinketh no evil. The 
 men with whom his work brought him into 
 
PRIVATE INTERESTS 193 
 
 contact, as he drove about the country, the 
 commercial travellers and small business people, 
 never appealed to his sympathy in vain, and 
 to the end of his life members of that class 
 often came to him for help, and were generously 
 assisted. He himself said nothing about these 
 matters, but some of those whom he had 
 helped upon their feet again, after they had 
 gone under through illness or ill-luck, were 
 not men to forget benefits, and it was they 
 who told the tales of thirty years ago, while 
 some of them can relate similar tales of 
 quite a recent date. For his loyalty to old 
 acquaintance never suffered change, and when 
 in the years of his great prosperity he met one 
 who had been a friend in the olden times, and 
 had remained a clerk or traveller with only a 
 very modest place in the social world, his 
 manner was still the same it had been when 
 both were young, and when Mr. Newnes, with 
 his breezy optimism, his friendliness and urban- 
 ity, was welcomed wherever he went. 
 
 And as he gave freely and gladly when he 
 had but little to give, so he continued to give 
 generously, even lavishly, after he had ac- 
 cumulated the wealth to which the foundation 
 was laid with the success of Tit-Bits. " James," 
 he said one day many years ago to his brother- 
 in-law, " I am going to be a rich man." Very 
 quietly he said it, as if he himself were rather 
 wondering at the change in his fortunes, and 
 
194 LIFE OF SIR GEORGE NEWNES 
 
 there was no undue elation in his tone. It 
 would be a pleasant thing to be a rich man ; 
 it would mean ease and enjoyment to him and 
 his as well as to others. He would share his 
 pleasures with his friends; and to those others 
 into whose lives there came few, far too few, 
 moments of ease and enjoyment he would 
 also give out of his abundance. So, when 
 the time came that he could give largely, he 
 did not forget the promise he had made to 
 himself in the past, witness his great gifts 
 whereby the public, and especially the working 
 classes, could benefit. Among such are the 
 electric tramway at his native place, Matlock; 
 the fine Free Library at Putney; and the 
 Town Hall and Congregational Church at 
 Lynton, after he went to live in the old 
 Devon town. The latter benefactions were 
 quaintly and cleverly recorded in an article 
 which some years ago appeared in a West 
 Country paper, and as the manner of his 
 giving was always the same, some paragraphs 
 from this chronicle may be quoted. It is 
 written in imitation of the style of the old 
 monastic chroniclers, and describes Sir George 
 Newnes's connection with Lynton under the 
 title of " The Story of Sergeorge the Giver/' 
 telling of his delight when, coming to the 
 Land of Lynton, he saw that it was " a goodly 
 and pleasant country " ; how he built himself 
 a lofty pleasure-house high on the hill, and 
 
PRIVATE INTERESTS 195 
 
 how, having " garnished it for himself and his 
 people," it came to pass that " Sergeorge 
 looked forth from his tower, which was on the 
 Hill of Hollerday,* and he saw that many of 
 the people and their horses and cattle toiled 
 slowly and with much travail from the bottom 
 of the hill, which was Lynmouth, to the top of 
 the hill, which was Lynton. 
 
 66 And he said Why do the people toil and 
 strain to mount the hill by this road ? And 
 they answered him Because there is no other 
 way. 
 
 " Then he said Verily this is a sore trial 
 for the weary traveller and for the poor beasts 
 also. I will build them a cliff railway. And 
 he built it. 
 
 66 And the people who were glad spake unto 
 him and thanked him, and they stood before 
 him and blessed his name. 
 
 " And after this it came to pass that Ser- 
 george looked forth from his tower and per- 
 ceived afar off a valley which he had left be- 
 hind. And behold there were many horses 
 toiling up and down the hills that lay to the 
 West, and they strove much to drag their 
 heavy burdens from the city that was Barum 
 to the city that was Lyn. 
 
 " So Sergeorge said unto his people If it 
 seems good unto you I will build a railway 
 
 * Here the Chronicler slightly errs. The Cliff Railway 
 was built before Hollerday House was erected, 
 
 o 2 
 
196 LIFE OF SIR GEORGE NEWNES 
 
 from the city of Barum to the city of Lyn. 
 And he built it. 
 
 " Then the people danced, and sang, and 
 made a sound with trumpets and cymbals, 
 and with much shouting." 
 
 It should, however, be explained that the 
 two railways did not represent actual gifts. 
 They were both entered into on business lines, 
 but it was Sir George Newnes who took the 
 initiative in, and the risks of, the undertak- 
 ings, and who did not engage in them solely 
 for the purpose of making money, but, as the 
 chronicler explains, because it pained him, the 
 lover of animals, to see horses strain and toil 
 painfully along the steep rough uphill roads. 
 The boon conferred upon North Devon by the 
 two lines is one by which the whole community 
 profits. 
 
 The next paragraph in the chronicle, mean- 
 while, deals with actual benefactions bestowed 
 upon Lynton. 
 
 " And when the town which was Lynton 
 waxed big and contented, and many people 
 came to dwell therein, Sergeorge arose and 
 said Lo ! there is no meeting-place where 
 these good people can assemble together and 
 take counsel one with the other. Do I not 
 well to build a meeting-hall ? And they 
 answered him You do well. 
 
 " Then he called his chief architect before 
 him, and he said Build me a Town Hall 
 
PRIVATE INTERESTS 197 
 
 and see well that it is good and becoming to 
 the uses thereof, and pay great heed to the 
 requirement of these people that they com- 
 plain not, neither do they have cause for 
 disappointment. For this I will give much 
 of my treasure to build a suitable meeting- 
 place with many offices for the councillors, 
 and a place where the people may dance, play 
 and make joyful noises. And he gave it. 
 
 " Then Sergeorge looked forth from his 
 tower which was on the hill of Hollerday yet 
 a fourth time, and he saw that in all that fair 
 land there were but few Church steeples where 
 there should have been many. And he took 
 counsel with the people and said What will 
 you give that yet another Church may be 
 built ? 
 
 " And they went up unto him and said 
 We will give a plot of land on which to build 
 a Church, but we have not much money. We 
 pray you help us. 
 
 " Then Sergeorge answered them I will 
 give a plot of land three times as large as you 
 have given, and also much money wherewith 
 to build a Church, also will I give the furnish- 
 ing thereof. And soon they began to lay the 
 foundations of the holy house." 
 
 The chronicle might be carried further still, 
 for "Sergeorge " bestowed upon Lynton many 
 minor benefits minor only as compared with 
 the munificent ones already described, which he 
 
198 LIFE OF SIR GEORGE NEWNES 
 
 and Lady Newnes gave to both individuals and 
 institutions in and around Lynton. These 
 are too many to be enumerated. But it 
 was no mere formality when on the day before 
 the master of Hollerday House, the " Squire 
 of Lynton " as he was often affectionately 
 called by the townspeople, was laid to rest 
 in the little graveyard at the foot of his own 
 hill, the Rev. W. E. Cox, in the course of his 
 Sunday morning sermon, referred with obvious 
 emotion to Sir George as one who for many 
 years had been the best and truest of friends 
 to the townspeople. And when the clergy- 
 man of the Established Church and the 
 ministers of the Free Churches at Lynton 
 took part together in the funeral service, this 
 surely was also a sign of the spirit by which 
 the dead man had been animated. I^e had 
 made friends of all alike, giving to men of all 
 sects without first asking : " Thou seekest God 
 beneath what Christian spire ? ' : 
 
 To the Salvation Army, again, he was a 
 staunch and generous friend, and long ago, 
 when General Booth brought out his " Darkest 
 England and the Way Out of It " scheme, 
 Sir George was one of the first to contribute 
 the sum of 1000 towards that noble and 
 valiant attempt at bettering the condition of 
 the unknown, untold multitude struggling in 
 the black depths of outcast London. 
 
 Even if no scrivener with a taste and talent 
 
PRIVATE INTERESTS 199 
 
 for archaisms had arisen to record some of 
 Sir George's large benefactions they would 
 have remained as a lasting memorial of him, for 
 such things cannot be hidden ; nor should they 
 be, if it were only in order that the example 
 set by one ready and cheerful giver might 
 suggest to others to go and do likewise. But 
 somewhere in the regions from which the angel 
 came when good Abou ben Adhem, " awaking 
 one night from a deep dream of peace," saw 
 him writing in a book of gold, there must be 
 another chronicle of the deeds good men have 
 done in secret, as they went through this world 
 of much dumb pain and hidden suffering. 
 And in that other-world record the name of 
 " Sergeorge the Giver " will stand out in 
 shining letters, for the gifts he gave silently 
 and in secret were the best and the greatest 
 of all. Had it not been that those through 
 whom he gave, or those who received the gifts, 
 had made it known how good and kind he was, 
 no one would ever have heard of them. 
 
 Now it was a poor man upon whom con- 
 sumption had seized, sent to Davos at Sir 
 George's cost, and kept there when it was found 
 that he had come too late to be cured, because 
 in the high Alpine valley he could draw breath 
 more easily than in the lowlands, where the 
 poor lungs laboured with so much pain and 
 difficulty. Then it was the family of one of 
 his employees, who had been discharged and 
 
200 LIFE OF SIR GEORGE NEWNES 
 
 imprisoned for gross dishonesty, whom he 
 kept for years; and again it was a poor clerk 
 whom he had known in the olden days when 
 he himself was only at the beginning, and who, 
 somehow, could not get on in the world, but was 
 for ever struggling for a bare existence; the 
 waiter who had served him now and then; 
 the unpractical man of scholarly tastes; the 
 struggling lad who was the only bread-earner 
 of the family; the tottering crone, past work 
 and past the power of looking after himself; 
 the former servant who had been unfortunate 
 in the investment of his savings. He listened 
 to them all, attentively, kindly; and he gave 
 to all, as long as they had not brought their 
 misfortune upon themselves by reckless waste 
 or vicious living gave gently, pityingly, never 
 de haut en bas, and he gave as if giving were 
 a pleasure : which, indeed it was to him. 
 
 The fact that the best beggars of Manchester, 
 when their profession brought them to London, 
 made Wildcroft, Putney Heath, a favourite 
 place for rendezvous, to which they streamed 
 with a hopeful heart, is suggestive of the reputa- 
 tion for giving which Mr. Newnes had brought 
 with him from the north. This reputation, 
 which nothing could kill, had its foundation 
 probably in the fact that occasionally the man 
 in whom the heads of the " profession " had 
 such touching faith, had made the mistake 
 of giving a sovereign to a particularly tenacious 
 
PRIVATE INTERESTS 201 
 
 intruder, in order to get rid of him, a proceed- 
 ing from which, however, he abstained in later 
 years, when he had learnt that gold so spent 
 profits no one, and least of all the recipient. 
 
 In this respect a very charming beggar, a 
 man with a cultured voice and honeyed tongue, 
 taught him a valuable lesson. He came to 
 Wildcroft with a long tale of woe, this " Cam- 
 bridge man," claiming help from the Member 
 for a Cambridgeshire Division. He was very 
 persistent, this gentleman who looked ill and 
 ragged and, if the truth must be told, rather 
 dissolute ; and he made haste to explain that 
 he had recently come out of a certain hospital 
 at Cambridge; and was only reduced to his 
 present condition because he was not yet 
 strong enough for work. They took him in 
 at Wildcroft, and comforted him with a dainty 
 meal in a pleasant room, and there he revived 
 and was glad, while his host who, somehow, 
 did not quite believe in the story, put him- 
 self into communication with the Cambridge 
 hospital authorities, demanding a few details 
 as to the disease from which the poor young 
 man had been suffering such agonies, all 
 those long weary weeks he had spent at the 
 hospital. A wire came back that they had 
 never heard his name; there had been no case 
 like his at the hospital, and they would not 
 be surprised if the young man turned out to 
 be a fraud. And the exit of the " Cambridge 
 
202 LIFE OF SIR GEORGE NEWNES 
 
 man " from Wildcroft, if it was not less pitiful 
 than his arrival, was even more inglorious. 
 
 But disillusions such as this, though they 
 were not rare, never caused him to turn 
 against private charity; they only made him 
 more careful and perhaps a little distrustful 
 when a sad story became too harassing, as it 
 was told by the voluble sufferer. 
 
 Another not very popular form of assisting 
 good works, which Sir George Newnes was 
 frequently induced to practise, was that of 
 presiding as chairman at one of the annual 
 banquets at which many benevolent institu- 
 tions raise a considerable part of their income, 
 in donations or subscriptions. The chairman's 
 duties in this connection are no sinecure. He 
 is supposed to work hard at obtaining contribu- 
 tions from friends and others interested in the 
 work; to inspire indifferent outsiders with the 
 desire to take part in the banquet and to 
 figure in the chairman's list of subscriptions ; 
 to head that list with his own substantial 
 contribution ; to whip up stewards, and cause 
 them to start other lists of subscriptions; to 
 sit through a long and elaborate dinner; to 
 make the speech of the evening, and to listen 
 to the speeches of many other orators whom 
 nature may, or may not, have destined for 
 post-prandial eloquence. 
 
 The chairmanship of such a banquet is, in 
 fact, an honour for which there is very little 
 
PRIVATE INTERESTS 203 
 
 competition among men of wealth, especially 
 if their days are as crowded as were those of 
 Sir George Newnes. But again and again 
 he took the chair at one of those City Hall or 
 West End hotel festivities, and no one who 
 did not know him very well would have 
 imagined that the man sitting there with such 
 a friendly, kindly, interested face, who made 
 so genial and tactful and appealing an after- 
 dinner speech, had come to the feast worn 
 and tired with the day's work; that he was 
 longing, with an inward groan, for the quiet 
 of his home, and that, in his heart of hearts, 
 he was just the least little bit bored by the 
 lengthiness of the whole affair. " Why can't 
 they give their guineas and eat their dinners 
 at home ? " he said to me one evening, when 
 he was taking the chair at a dinner in aid of 
 the Royal Hospital for Incurables at Putney 
 Heath, the institution to which both Sir George 
 and Lady Newnes were such constant friends. 
 But even while he grumbled he seemed to 
 repent, for he added quickly : " However, they 
 know their own business best, I dare say." 
 And at the end of the evening the general 
 opinion was that he made an ideal chairman, 
 " one who really liked it ! " 
 
 Perhaps the opinion of a rival publisher, 
 who had begun his career in Sir George Newnes's 
 employ, may in conclusion be quoted on this 
 subject. " Many men," said this writer, in 
 
204 LIFE OF SIR GEORGE NEWNES 
 
 an article on Sir George Newnes, " would have 
 been spoilt by the success which has attended 
 his efforts; but to his credit be it said that, 
 as far as character goes, he is the same man 
 to-day that he was when he read out that 
 little c tit-bit ' to his wife, many years ago. 
 A truly admirable trait in his character is 
 that he has never looked askance at the 
 friends of his comparatively humble days. Not 
 seldom, but many times, has he stretched out 
 a helping hand and given substantial assist- 
 ance to former comrades upon whom troublous 
 times and misfortune have come; for by him 
 ' auld acquaintance ' is never for a moment 
 ' forgot.' It would be well, indeed, if other 
 men who have experienced the smiles of 
 Fortune were as ready to relieve and help those 
 who have been favoured only with the frowns 
 of the fickle goddess." 
 
CHAPTER XIII 
 
 A SERVICE TO SCIENCE 
 
 SIR GEORGE NEWNES, as has been shown, 
 was quick to avail himself of any modern 
 scientific discoveries tending to add to the 
 conveniences of daily life. In return, one might 
 say, for the advantages he reaped thereby, 
 he conferred upon one great and romantic 
 branch of science a service which those are 
 best able to estimate at its true value whose 
 knowledge of Polar expeditions is above that 
 of the general public. 
 
 In the summer of 1895, Mr. C. E. Borch- 
 grevink, F.R.G.S., having just returned from 
 his first visit to the Antarctic regions, laid his 
 observations before the Sixth International 
 Geographical Congress, then sitting in London. 
 The Norwegian explorer had sought help for 
 further testing in practice the theories he had 
 formed concerning the Antarctic Continent; 
 but though the importance of the subject 
 was everywhere recognized, and, to quote 
 Mr. Borchgrevink's own words, while " tons of 
 moral support were lavishly presented to me 
 
 205 
 
206 LIFE OF SIR GEORGE NEWNES 
 
 from all sides, the funds for my enterprise did 
 not come before my work acquainted me with 
 one of those rare men whose brains, heart and 
 funds, were only equalled by his spirit of 
 enterprise. 
 
 " In 1896 I first met Sir George Newnes, 
 and laid my plans before him. 
 
 " In 1898 he placed the necessary funds at 
 my disposal for the realization of my Antarctic 
 expedition plans." That same summer the 
 Southern Cross, the steamer designed by Colin 
 Archer, who also designed the Fram, in which 
 Dr. Nansen made his great Arctic expeditions, 
 left St. Katherine's Dock, London, with the 
 Union Jack which the Duke of York, our 
 present king, had presented to the expedition 
 fluttering from the mast. Some idea of the 
 importance of the undertaking may be gained 
 from The Times report of the luncheon which 
 Sir George Newnes gave on board the vessel 
 on the eve of her departure. 
 
 " Within the next three days the Southern 
 Cross will start on her voyage to Hobart Town, 
 and yesterday a numerous company accepted 
 the invitation of Sir George Newnes to luncheon 
 on board, and to give a hearty ' send-off ' to 
 Mr. Borchgrevink and his companions. 
 
 " The preparations are nearly complete. 
 The deck of the barque was crowded with 
 sledges, kayaks, snow-shoes, ice-axes, and 
 
A SERVICE TO SCIENCE 207 
 
 stores and implements of all kinds, a large 
 space being occupied by nearly one hundred 
 Samoyed dogs for sledging purposes. 
 
 "Among the guests were Admiral Sir E. 
 Ommanney, Mr. W. Ridley Richardson, Mr. 
 Borchgrevink, Mrs. Borchgrevink, Sir Guyer 
 Hunter, Captain Tomkins, Captain Brooke- 
 Greville, Mr. Fieldhouse, Mr. E. Hudson, 
 Dr. Mill, Dr. Bowdler-Sharpe and Mr. F. 
 Newnes. 
 
 " After the toasts of ' The Queen ' and ' King 
 Oscar, 5 from whose subjects a large proportion 
 of the crew are engaged : 
 
 " Dr. Mill proposed success to the expedition, 
 which was about to undertake a work of inter- 
 national importance. It was a reproach to 
 human enterprise that there were parts of this 
 ridiculously small earth that civilized man had 
 never reached, and never attempted to reach, 
 and this reproach, in so far as it referred to the 
 Antarctic regions, the munificence of Sir George 
 Newnes, combined with the courage of Mr. 
 Borchgrevink, would, he hoped, remove. Mr. 
 Borchgrevink had already shown that he could 
 do good work as an explorer, and that was 
 recognized three years ago when the Inter- 
 national Geographical Congress passed a reso- 
 lution to the effect that it would be a misfortune 
 if the nineteenth century should close without 
 an effort to explore the Antarctic regions. 
 Alone and unaided, Sir George Newnes had 
 
208 LIFE OF SIR GEORGE NEWNES 
 
 fitted out the present expedition, from which 
 great results might be expected, possibly not 
 results of sensational interest, but of enduring 
 value for geographical science. In the name 
 of the British geographers he wished the 
 expedition God-speed, useful work, and a 
 safe and quick return. (Cheers.) 
 
 " Admiral Sir E. Ommanney expressed his 
 interest in the object, and admiration of the 
 equipment, of the expedition. 
 
 " Mr. Borchgrevink said he was grateful to 
 the man who had helped him in his endeavour 
 to accomplish the object of his ambition. He 
 hoped to be worthy of that confidence, and 
 sailing under a British flag presented by the 
 Duke of York, he would be mindful of the 
 British naval motto ' England expects every 
 man to do his duty.' (Cheers.) 
 
 " Sir George Newnes said it was difficult on 
 the crowded deck, and amid all the dock 
 noise, to prolong the proceedings, and the heat 
 almost induced a wish for Antarctic regions. 
 (Laughter.) He had not intended any public 
 function on the starting of the expedition, 
 remembering that putting on the armour was 
 not the time for boasting, and he would rather 
 have waited until the vessel returned and those 
 on board could say they had done the world 
 some service. He would avoid saying much. 
 No doubt the possibilities of the expedition 
 were enormous, and he reminded them of the 
 
A SERVICE TO SCIENCE 209 
 
 paper read this year before the Royal Society, 
 by Dr. Murray, on ' The Scientific Advantages 
 of an Antarctic Expedition.' Many eminent 
 men declared their opinion that the thing ought 
 to be done, and if the Royal Geographical 
 Society undertook the task, Mr. Borchgrevink 
 would be glad if they followed his excellent 
 example. He took the opportunity to say that 
 Mr. Borchgrevink and himself had received 
 every courtesy at the hands of the Royal 
 Geographical Society. The reason of the ex- 
 pedition he would not go into. The scientific 
 reasons were so obvious, and had been so much 
 discussed, that all who had studied the subject 
 would admit the possibilities were enormous, 
 and there might be a commercial side to them. 
 ('Hear, hear.') At the meeting of the Royal 
 Society the opinion was expressed that a big 
 whaler should be selected and fitted out with 
 the best modern appliances, and that was 
 exactly what had been done, with the best 
 crew experience could select. How long the 
 Southern Cross would be away could not, of 
 course, be foreseen, but he hoped that tidings 
 would reach England in six months, and that 
 in the year 1900 he would welcome Mr. Borch- 
 grevink on his return. It was generally known 
 that a Belgian expedition under Captain Ger- 
 lache had gone out in another direction, and 
 was last heard of at the Falkland Islands. It 
 had been thought possible that the expedition 
 
210 LIFE OF SIR GEORGE NEWNES 
 
 was in trouble, and Sir Clements Markham 
 had suggested that the Southern Cross should 
 go to the Falkland Islands in search of them. 
 After giving the fullest consideration to this 
 he thought that to go to the Falkland Islands 
 would be a mistake. Captain Gerlache had 
 knowledge of the route of the Southern Cross, 
 and would try to meet Mr. Borchgrevink who, 
 of course, acknowledged the first duty to 
 humanity, and would put everything aside to 
 assist Captain Gerlache. He hoped he ex- 
 pressed the feelings of all present, as he felt 
 sure he did of thousands throughout the 
 country, that kind thoughts would follow 
 Mr. Borchgrevink and his gallant companions, 
 in the hope and belief that they would triumph- 
 antly return, having done something the world 
 would call heroic. (Cheers.) 
 
 " Dr. Bowdler-Sharpe said the keenest in- 
 terest and sympathy was felt at the British 
 Museum in the expedition, and he bore testi- 
 mony to the high qualifications of Mr. Nikolai 
 Hanson, one of the zoologists on the staff. 
 
 " Sir Guyer Hunter in proposing the health 
 of Mrs. Borchgrevink, said she might comfort 
 herself with the assurance that all that human 
 foresight and experience could suggest, had 
 been done to secure the success and safe return 
 of the Southern Cross. 
 
 " The proceedings closed with the singing 
 of the National Anthem." 
 
A SERVICE TO SCIENCE 211 
 
 On the afternoon of August 22, 1898, the 
 Southern Cross glided out of the gates of 
 St. Katherine's Dock, and the Westminster 
 Gazette, in an article from which the following 
 extracts are quoted, described how merrily all 
 went forth on the great adventure : 
 
 " Once in the main stream she swept as 
 gracefully as a swan in and out among the busy 
 craft that filled the Thames. In appearance 
 the ship was as gay as a ladybird her black 
 hull shone like a mirror; from deck to mast 
 floated a stream of bunting, whilst from the 
 mainmast flew the Union Jack; the foremost 
 bore the Norwegian flag, and the mizzen-boom 
 that of the pilot. 
 
 " As she passed down the river she was 
 greeted by an orchestra of whistles, some with 
 notes as full of music as those of the nightingale, 
 others with only the croak of a rook, but from 
 the siren of the biggest liner down to that of 
 the oiliest, tiniest barge-tug, all joined in ' Hip, 
 hip, hurrah ! ' 
 
 " And all the time that the down-river 
 voyage lasted, the whistles kept up the excit- 
 ing melody. At Greenwich the waterside was 
 crowded; there were cheers and counter- 
 cheers, and as the Southern Cross passed the 
 boys' training-ships every yard was manned; 
 bands played, and the bugle-cry sounded its 
 greeting from the topmast stay, and, to make 
 
 P 2 
 
212 LIFE OF SIR GEORGE NEWNES 
 
 the harmony quite complete, a good number 
 of the ninety picked Siberian dogs on board 
 took up the chorus. To tempt fair weather 
 always to surround the ship, three of the crew 
 had fixed their chests of clothes up on the 
 cross-trees; and for yesterday afternoon at 
 least, the charm worked, for the sun shone 
 all down the route, till one of the most remark- 
 able sunsets happened that has been seen on 
 the Thames for many a day. The west was 
 a sheet of crimson gold, and the river a sheet 
 of fire. The moon rose pale and silvery, then 
 the stars came out in a crowd; up went the 
 lights, the bright white on the foremast and 
 the red light on the larboard, and the green 
 light on the starboard. The craft on the river 
 lost form ; their lights only were visible a great 
 mysterious crowd of will-o'-the-wisps. Graves- 
 end was approached at 8.15, and it was decided 
 to coal at the hulk. So the Southern Cross 
 took up her station, and black diamonds began 
 to rattle aboard. Three or four boatmen now 
 came alongside, and a few friends who had to 
 go ashore crept down the side of the ship into 
 the boats, and with them some four of the 
 younger men of the expedition, for there is to 
 be a last breaking of bread (at least for some 
 time) in the Mother Country. . . . 
 
 " At 9.50 we rise from the table, and leave 
 those who have mothers and fathers and little 
 sisters to bid an revoir, in quiet corners where 
 
A SERVICE TO SCIENCE 213 
 
 even the stars do not reach. It is only three 
 minutes to the pier. At the gateway the 
 young explorers tread on English soil for the 
 last time for many months to come. We go 
 down to the pier with its pilots lolling there 
 on the seats on the look-out for ships to come 
 and ships to go. One member of the expedition 
 hangs behind the mother has to say good-bye 
 to her only boy in England, and we wait and 
 wait on the landing, and we talk of home, of 
 our hopes, and of home-coming. Every one is 
 as full of spirits as a cricket. 
 
 " The Southern Cross sounds her whistle 
 again and again to tell the ' boys ' to come 
 aboard; at last there is a footfall on the pier. 
 We are all present. ' Now, gentlemen, please,' 
 and down the steps of the landing-stage in file 
 they go. c Shove her off the mud keep her 
 away,' are the words. ' Good luck ! Au 
 revoir ! Bon voyage ! ' we cry. There is a dip 
 of oars, through the reflections of the green, 
 red and white lights of the next landing-stage 
 she passes, and then disappears into the night. 
 The lights of the ships reflect in the Thames 
 like a myriad of floating stars, and away in 
 the distance above, and more brilliant than 
 they all, glows the white light on the foremast 
 of the Southern Cross. 
 
 " Before the morning is here the good ship 
 will have gone down the river, and possibly 
 by to-morrow night will have for the time 
 
214 LIFE OF SIR GEORGE NEWNES 
 
 being had her last glimpse of the white cliffs 
 of Albion. Most cordial wishes go with all 
 on board. May they all reach that goodly 
 age of fourscore years and ten when man 
 would sleep in Abraham's bosom ! ?: 
 
 Far down South they went to live their heroic 
 lives, reaching unnamed, untrodden regions of 
 ice and barren rocks and endless space, taking 
 their observations, recording new geographical, 
 zoological and meteorological facts, with no 
 living beings but the penguins and the seals 
 to look on. One of the bays on the seaward 
 edge of an ice-barrier was named Lady Newnes 
 Bay, and twenty miles westward of Cape 
 Washington a promontory, almost free of ice 
 or snow, was named Newnes Land " after 
 the generous Maecenas of the expedition, Sir 
 George Newnes, Bart." 
 
 Mr. Borchgrevink gives a sketch of this dark 
 land towards the north-west of Cape Washing- 
 ton, which now bears the name of the man 
 through whose munificence the voyage of the 
 Southern Cross to the Antarctic Continent is 
 numbered among the expeditions which have 
 tried to solve the secret lying due south of 
 the great ice barrier forming the seaward 
 boundary of Antarctica discovered by Captain 
 James Cook in 1772. 
 
 " Towards the west," writes the leader of 
 the Newnes expedition, " a low peninsula 
 
A SERVICE TO SCIENCE 215 
 
 descended from some picturesque and wild- 
 looking basaltic rocks, which stood sharply out 
 against the white cover of Mount Melbourne. 
 They towered up into the most fantastic 
 shapes some seven hundred feet high. At 
 places the pinnacles seemed in the very act of 
 falling, and evidently did not want a very great 
 force brought to bear upon them to do so. 
 Through the appearance of these rocks I 
 gathered that they had been there for some 
 time, and it is likely that the gales in this 
 vicinity were considerably more moderate than 
 those prevalent at Cape Adare. Towards the 
 north-western side, and parted from the low 
 peninsula on the western side through a small 
 ridge with numerous passes, a small penguin 
 colony was thriving, and as the young ones 
 were not so far advanced as those few which were 
 still left at Cape Adare when we departed, they 
 did not seem to have any immediate intention 
 of leaving their breeding-place. At all events 
 they were evidently well protected by the 
 cone of Mount Melbourne from the south. 
 Although we had to use considerable care in 
 approaching near this promontory with the 
 Southern Cross, because of the drifting pack, 
 we effected a landing in one of our whale- 
 boats without much difficulty. It was re- 
 markable how the pebbly peninsula on which 
 we landed resembled that at Camp Ridley. 
 On this beach, however, there were no penguins, 
 
216 LIFE OF SIR GEORGE NEWNES 
 
 but a great many skuas with nearly full-grown 
 young ones. It is evident that this low ground 
 from time to time gets swamped by waves 
 started in the small cove to the south, between 
 it and the base of Mount Melbourne, where 
 evidently large blocks of icebergs break off 
 from the ice-sheet and plunge into the cove. 
 Vegetation was found at the place where this 
 peninsula rose towards the east ; here the 
 ground consisted of large and small brimstones, 
 and basalt thrown in the wildest disorder. 
 Wonderful caves, passages and arches were 
 found, and this dark land discovered in the 
 middle of everlasting ice and snow, and sur- 
 rounded by mighty peaks and crevices, con- 
 veyed to our minds an idea of what one 
 of Vulcan's gigantic workshops ought to be 
 like." 
 
 Nearly two years after the Southern Cross 
 had left her moorings in the London dock, 
 the operator of the telegraph office of a small 
 New Zealand town was roused one day at 
 midnight by a stranger who explained that he 
 must send a cable to England. This was the 
 leader of the expedition, who cabled to Sir 
 George Newnes : " Object of expedition carried 
 out. South Magnetic Pole located. Farthest 
 south with sledge record 78 50'. Zoologist 
 Hansen dead. All well on board." 
 
 When speaking of the expedition, on which 
 
A SERVICE TO SCIENCE 217 
 
 he had spent 38,000, Sir George sometimes 
 said, with an assumed air of pious resignation, 
 that his share in the results was a stuffed 
 penguin. This, indeed, stood like an alderman 
 enthroned in the hall at Wildcroft, a magnifi- 
 cent specimen of its kind, with thick, sheeny 
 plumage, abortive wings, enormous feet and 
 eyes that seemed even in death to be on the 
 look-out for the main chance. But there was 
 Erebus, too, the best of the hundred Samoyed 
 dogs which went so gaily and noisily out with 
 the Southern Cross; which quarrelled with such 
 conviction, did such fine service down in the 
 icy south, and died so unwillingly, when food 
 became scarce, and some had to be converted 
 into meat for their brethren. Erebus was not 
 the only survivor, for quite a band of these 
 lively Siberians were put upon an island in 
 the Pacific, by permission of the New Zealand 
 government, but he, the finest and best tempered 
 of all, came back to spend his remaining years 
 in peace and plenty, in a gigantic kennel 
 near the Wildcroft gates. From that green, 
 shady place he ruled as overlord of all 
 the household pets, and after having drawn 
 sleighs and loads through Antarctic wilder- 
 nesses of eternal winter, he ended by being 
 a dauntless, experienced motorist, who was 
 always first on the seat next to the chauffeur, 
 his willing slave, when the car was brought to 
 the door. And Sir George should also have 
 
218 LIFE OF SIR GEORGE NEWNES 
 
 included as his share in the results of the 
 voyage of the Southern Cross, the dark promon- 
 tory that bears his name, far south under the 
 shadow of grim Mount Melbourne. But best 
 of all, there was the generous endeavour to 
 assist in discovering the secrets of the ends of 
 the earth over which the ages have passed 
 like dreams and shadows, and on the barren 
 soil and among the endless snowfields of which 
 the conqueror man is now at last setting his 
 first footsteps. 
 
CHAPTER XIV 
 
 " THE WESTMINSTER GAZETTE " 
 
 IN the autumn of 1892 the placards of the 
 London morning papers were sent out one 
 Saturday morning bearing in more or less 
 sensational type the legend " Sudden Sale of 
 the Pall Mall Gazette." The announcement 
 may conceivably have left the general public 
 quite cool, but to the journalistic world of 
 London, and to those connected with the Pall 
 Mall of that day, it was exciting enough. Those 
 of the members of the editorial staff who had 
 left the dear, tumble-down old office in North- 
 umberland Street on Friday at the usual time, 
 knew nothing of the great event that had 
 meanwhile taken place, and were only informed 
 next morning by those whose duties had kept 
 them late at their post. 
 
 " What does it all mean ? " we asked, with 
 the placard announcement staring us in the 
 face, for, of course, the bill of the morning 
 paper which had used the fattest type, had 
 been secured and was now decorating the wall 
 of the news-room in good journalistic fashion. 
 It seemed so impossible, so like a poor joke, 
 
 219 
 
220 LIFE OF SIR GEORGE NEWNES 
 
 that the Pall Mall, our P. M. G. should, 
 or even could, have been sold, so absolutely 
 and entirely had we felt it to belong to us. 
 We were all young together, the whole of the 
 editorial staff, and one and all worked for it 
 not merely as a matter of duty, but because 
 the paper was our pride and glory, the finest 
 paper in the world, in the service of which there 
 was great j oy and much fun . And behind all the 
 pleasure, the excitement and the fun there was 
 the feeling that while it frolicked with the frolic- 
 some and smiled with those that smile, it was 
 at the same time bent on grave missions 
 and deeply interested in many serious causes, 
 politically and socially, and that its sympathies 
 were as wide as the world. And now it was 
 sold. What did it all mean ? 
 
 " It means," Mr. E. T. Cook, the editor, said 
 gravely and quietly, " that unless something 
 unforeseen happens, in a fortnight's time we 
 take our hats and walk out of the office." 
 
 It was all very mysterious. Late on the 
 Friday afternoon, the proprietor, Mr. Henry 
 Yates Thompson, had come into the office, 
 assembled the few members of the staff who 
 were still at work, and announced that he had 
 sold the paper. The name of the new pro- 
 prietor was not disclosed, but since our agree- 
 ments bound us for some months, no immediate 
 changes were made, except that the editor 
 and his first lieutenant, Mr. J. A. Spender, 
 
'THE WESTMINSTER GAZETTE' 221 
 
 declined to remain at their posts unless they 
 had a safer guarantee that the politics of the 
 Pall Mall would not be changed, than an off- 
 hand verbal assurance to the effect that the 
 paper would be continued on the same lines 
 as before. 
 
 But while outwardly no noticeable alterations 
 were made during the first few weeks after the 
 paper had changed hands, and while the " new 
 people," as we called the (to us) nameless 
 strangers, occasionally came and went mysteri- 
 ously in and out, the spirit of our old Pall Mall 
 was already taking wing. During those last 
 few weeks before the editor and his assistant 
 left, we worked for our Pall Mall as people 
 work for some one near and dear on the eve of 
 a departure after which, humanly speaking, 
 there will be no return, and when every service 
 rendered to the one who is going becomes a 
 token of mingled affection and regret. As 
 the days pass and the end comes nearer, 
 the undercurrent of sadness grows stronger, 
 though every one strives to appear cheerful, 
 in the endeavour to make the parting less of 
 a wrench. Outsiders who had heard of the 
 change, and knew nothing of the turmoil it 
 was occasioning, used to say in those days, 
 that " the new people at the Pall Mall were 
 making the paper even better than it had been," 
 not knowing that the new regime had not yet 
 begun. 
 
222 LIFE OF SIR GEORGE NEWNES 
 
 Presently the truth leaked out that Mr. W. W. 
 Astor, the American millionaire, had bought 
 the paper, and that its politics would revert 
 to those of its beginning, when Mr. Frederick 
 Greenwood was editor. As the Liberal party 
 realized that in losing the Pall Mall it was 
 losing its one strong and powerful champion 
 among the London evening papers, the organ 
 which had been controlled by Mr. John Morley 
 and Mr. Stead, and to which Mr. Alfred Milner, 
 then one of the most brilliant of a bevy of young 
 Oxford Liberals, had been a daily contributor, 
 there was a good deal of consternation and 
 regret at the thought that in future the paper 
 would be added to the forces of the Tory host. 
 To the political interest in the affair was 
 added a touch of human sympathy and admir- 
 ation when it became known that the men 
 at the head of the paper, both at the beginning 
 of their career, had thrown up the important 
 positions they held rather than sell their 
 political principles. " They are not the sort 
 of men who will long be without a post," it- 
 was said ; " somebody will be only too glad 
 to snap them up." But all the time the Pall 
 Mall was turning more brazenly Tory, and 
 there was no Liberal paper to take the place 
 of the old Pall Mall 
 
 Mr. Newnes, then Liberal member for the 
 Newmarket Division of Cambridgeshire, had 
 been talking the event over with his friend on 
 
'THE WESTMINSTER GAZETTE' 223 
 
 the usual Sunday morning walk across Putney 
 Heath, and without a personal thought Mr. 
 Newnes had agreed that here was a chance 
 for a good Liberal to render a great service 
 to his party. " Why don't you do it ? " Mr. 
 Tomalin asked, half jestingly. After just a 
 moment's reflection the answer came, " I think 
 I will." Before the day was over Mr. Newnes 
 had written to the late editor of the Pall Mall 
 Gazette on the subject; in a week's time the 
 plan for a new Liberal paper, to be conducted 
 on the lines of the old Pall Mall, was complete, 
 and three months later, on January 31, 1893, 
 when Parliament met after the Christmas recess, 
 the first number of the re-incarnated Liberal 
 Pall Mall, under the new name of the West- 
 minster Gazette, fluttered gaily through the 
 lobbies, and with its green placards and posters 
 carefully shaded to harmonize with the pale 
 green tint of its pages, added considerably to 
 the colour-scheme of the wintry streets, and 
 to the liveliness of the kerbstone trade. 
 
 The whole transaction had been completed 
 as easily and quietly as if nothing more than 
 the organization of, say, a new cricket or chess 
 club had been in question, instead of the 
 tremendous undertaking of launching and 
 financing an important daily paper. Every- 
 thing had been done with extraordinary rapid- 
 ity. Mr. Newnes having informed himself 
 whether Mr. Cook would accept the editorship 
 
224 LIFE OF SIR GEORGE NEWNES 
 
 of the projected paper, and conduct it on 
 the lines of the Liberal Pall Mall, there 
 seemed nothing more to be said. Quite un- 
 consciously the founder and first proprietor 
 of the Westminster Gazette had a lordly way 
 with him, and when the question of the editorial 
 staff was raised, and Mr. Cook explained that 
 he thought his former staff would be willing 
 to come over and help him with the new ven- 
 ture, he said only, with characteristic deliberate- 
 ness : " Well, bring them all over." Again, 
 when it came to the actual agreement between 
 himself and his editor, and the latter asked 
 that it should contain a clause whereby he had 
 absolute control of the politics of the paper, 
 his one remark was : " Why, you might refuse 
 to support the Government and I should not 
 have the power to stop you." Mr. Cook 
 admitted that this might indeed be the case, 
 but that independent support was often the 
 best service, whereupon the agreement was 
 entered into without more ado. 
 
 Quick decision, prompt action, careful atten- 
 tion to all essentials, including the slightest 
 details by which the success of the undertaking 
 would be heightened, together with a cheerful 
 anticipation of success, these were the lines on 
 which Mr. Newnes worked then as always, 
 and with results with which neither he nor 
 those in his employ had reason to quarrel. He 
 never nagged or haggled, and only interfered 
 
'THE WESTMINSTER GAZETTE' 225 
 
 where proprietorial interference was unavoid- 
 able. 
 
 When it came to the preparations for the 
 actual production of the new paper the pro- 
 prietor was entirely in his element. No suitable 
 premises could be found, so he put up a large 
 building at the corner of Tudor Street; when 
 machinery had to be put down he ordered the 
 best in the market, and when it could not be 
 manufactured in time to print the first issue 
 there was no fuss, no confusion ; arrangements 
 were quietly made with another newspaper 
 firm to print the Westminster Gazette till its 
 own machinery should be ready. Then, when 
 the actual day of the first appearance of the 
 paper drew near, and he could exercise his 
 talent for inventing new and attractive forms 
 of advertisement, he had what he called a 
 thoroughly good time. Nor did he make the 
 mistake of advertising the Westminster in 
 the same manner in which he had advertised 
 former publications. The mode of advertise- 
 ment which made Tit- Bits rise to the height 
 of an 850,000 circulation would not appeal to 
 the public for which the new political paper 
 was intended. At the same time, they also 
 liked a little sensation, and they should have 
 it, and enjoy it, too. It must be amusing, and 
 the sensationalism must not be aggressive. It 
 must be of the subtle kind that lends itself to 
 gentle dinner-table talk, to discussion among 
 Q 
 
226 LIFE OF SIR GEORGE NEWNES 
 
 theorists and cranks and riders of hobby-horses, 
 and it must be of sufficient importance to 
 interest seriously minded people. 
 
 It seemed no easy thing to combine all these 
 high virtues in an advertisement, but he did 
 it with perfect ease and with utmost success, 
 and after it had become the talk of London 
 people wondered, as usual, why in the world 
 no one had thought of it before. It was so 
 simple. 
 
 Instead of printing the Westminster on the 
 ordinary white paper, a pale green tint was 
 chosen, and so far from allowing readers to 
 accept this as a matter of course, as they 
 would have to accept the name, the type in 
 which the paper was printed, and other tech- 
 nical details, special attention was drawn to the 
 colour, and a careful explanation was added 
 to the effect that the green tint was supposed 
 to be less trying to the eyesight than any other. 
 
 The tired City man, who would no doubt 
 wish to have the solace of the Westminster 
 Gazette on going home at the end of the day, 
 and who would read it in the train, had 
 in particular been kept in mind when the 
 colour was being chosen by the paternally con- 
 cerned purveyors of the paper; and since the 
 majority of readers, whether in train, or draw- 
 ing room, or study, would read it without a 
 doubt mostly by artificial light, under which 
 the green tint was particularly beneficent, it 
 
'THE WESTMINSTER GAZETTE' 227 
 
 would save the eyes of all. Perhaps a soupgon 
 of a harmless joke entered into the scheme, 
 but that was so much to the good, and the 
 fact remained that more than one eminent 
 oculist had actually preached the doctrine of 
 the superiority of green paper over white as a 
 background for print. This was, of course, 
 only the latest development of the old theory 
 that it rests and refreshes the eyes to look at 
 green things in nature and green walls in the 
 house, and that the same effect is obtained by 
 shading rooms with green blinds, lamps with 
 green shades, and so on. 
 
 To give this innovation all the importance it 
 was supposed to deserve, readers of the early 
 numbers of the Westminster found that even 
 in the grave and dignified leading article the 
 green tint was lovingly dwelt upon as " the 
 colour of the grass, the trees and the billiard- 
 table," a little stretch of the imagination or 
 the colour-sense which did not bring forth a 
 single protest. 
 
 The editorial recommendation of the green 
 was followed by an invitation to readers to 
 send in their opinion as to the desirability or 
 otherwise of the innovation, so that the fate 
 of the colour of the Westminster might be 
 decided by plebiscite. If the majority of 
 readers voted for the green, green it was to 
 remain; if they voted against it, the usual 
 white paper would be substituted. In good 
 
 Q 2 
 
228 LIFE OF SIR GEORGE NEWNES 
 
 democratic fashion, the will of the people was 
 to prevail. 
 
 Thereupon a veritable hurricane of letters 
 and post cards swept into the temporary 
 office where the infant Westminster Gazette was 
 cradled while its own home was being built 
 over the way. The storm raged for an extra- 
 ordinary number of days and weeks, and the 
 assailants of " the colour of the grass, the 
 trees and the billiard-table " were as impas- 
 sioned in their abuse as its defenders were in 
 its praise. " No Westminster Gazette for me 
 as long as it is printed on that vile, bilious 
 looking paper ; " " You've done your best to 
 kill your paper at the outset ; " "I was waver- 
 ing between sticking to the old Pall Mall 
 or coming over to the new one, but I can't 
 stand your sickly colour, so that settles it." 
 Such were the comments, typical of the com- 
 munications from gentle advocates of pure 
 white. They generally were dashed off on post 
 cards, those favourite missives of infuriated 
 correspondents. 
 
 But those who ranged themselves on the side 
 of the green were just as enthusiastic in their 
 support. " For the first time in my life I can 
 read my evening paper in the train without 
 straining my eyes," was the tenor of their 
 messages; and when the harvest of opinion, 
 including feeble pun and doggerel rhyme, 
 classical quotation and heavy riddle and 
 
'THE WESTMINSTER GAZETTE' 229 
 
 acrostic, was gathered, and eminent oculists 
 and opticians had, on and without invitation, 
 given their opinion, and cranks and theorists 
 had had their say, every one began to wonder 
 on what side the victory would be. In the 
 end, Mr. Gladstone, expressing warm approval, 
 turned the trembling scales definitely in the 
 direction of green, and gradually the storm 
 began to abate. Now, after eighteen years, 
 ninety-nine out of every hundred readers of 
 the Westminster Gazette would probably be 
 inclined to think that a virtue had gone from 
 the paper if it changed its habitual green dress 
 for that of any other colour. At the time of 
 the battle of the green there was not a member 
 of the staff but delighted in the contest, and 
 most of all did the originator of the successful 
 advertisement enjoy the joke. 
 
 It was at the time when the Westminster 
 Gazette was founded that, as a member of 
 Mr. Cook's staff, my own professional relations 
 with Sir George Newnes began. During the 
 first three years these did not amount to much, 
 for the ideal proprietor of a newspaper and 
 Sir George was an ideal proprietor in every 
 way is like the constitutional monarch who 
 reigns but does not rule, unless in a great 
 crisis he is obliged to exercise the prerogative 
 of the Crown. 
 
 Some years before, he had invited me to 
 take charge of a section of a new paper he was 
 
230 LIFE OF SIR GEORGE NEWNES 
 
 about to publish, and this first experience had 
 been such that I looked forward without any 
 trepidation to permanent work on any paper 
 owned by him : the arrangement had been 
 so pleasantly made, with such obvious desire 
 to make the task easy and to show me that he 
 had complete faith in its being performed to 
 the best of my ability. Once he had given the 
 work over to me I was left entirely free to choose 
 my own subjects and to handle them as I 
 thought fit; so that in a very short time he 
 succeeded almost too well in dispelling my 
 fear of editorial thunders. For, instead of 
 always meekly acquiescing in any suggestions 
 he had occasionally to make, I could even some- 
 times find it in my heart positively to rebel, 
 with the sort of rebellion upon which he 
 looked with good-natured tolerance, and which 
 generally ended by his saying : " Well, I suppose 
 there is nothing for me to do but to submit." 
 Once the Westminster was started on its 
 way, and we all had fallen quite naturally into 
 our places which were exactly the same as 
 those we had occupied on the old Pall Mall, 
 there was nothing to bring me into direct 
 contact with the proprietor as such, for it was 
 his rule all through to confer only with the 
 heads of departments, and with these as rarely 
 as possible. He was very careful in choosing 
 those he put into responsible positions, but 
 once he had placed them there he only inter- 
 
'THE WESTMINSTER GAZETTE' 231 
 
 fered when his interference became an absolute 
 necessity. 
 
 At the end of the first three years several 
 important changes took place on the editorial 
 staff of the Westminster. Mr. Cook resigned 
 the editorship for that of the Daily News, and 
 Mr. Spender was appointed editor in his place. 
 
 There is, by the way, an interesting para- 
 graph in Sir George's autobiographical notes, 
 concerning this change of editorship. " When 
 Mr. E. T. Cook took over the editorship of the 
 Daily News there came a very difficult time for 
 me. Whom was I to appoint as his successor ? 
 It would astonish many people if I were to 
 mention by name some of the number of men 
 of high position in the intellectual world who 
 applied for the post. I thought it only right 
 to give the position to Mr. Spender, who had 
 been next in command, and he has ever since 
 occupied it in a manner which I have no hesita- 
 tion in saying has brought high credit to himself 
 and to the paper over which he presides." 
 
 Mr. Charles Morley, the present editor of 
 the Pall Mall Magazine, retired, when Mr. 
 Cook left, from his position as editor of the 
 Westminster Budget the illustrated sixpenny 
 weekly, which, when the Westminster Gazette was 
 started, had also come into existence, standing 
 in the same relation to the latter in which the 
 Pall Mall Budget had stood to the daily Pall 
 Mall. 
 
232 LIFE OF SIR GEORGE NEWNES 
 
 The Westminster Budget had not flourished 
 as it ought to have done under the editorship 
 of the man who had made the Pall Mall Budget 
 widely popular at home, abroad and in the 
 Colonies. The chief reason for this compara- 
 tive non-success was no doubt the fact that the 
 number of sixpenny illustrated weekly papers 
 had enormously increased during the 1880-90 
 decade, when the new journalism in all its 
 branches came into being, and new papers 
 sprang up with a rapidity which was bound to 
 result in over-production, and so bring disaster 
 to some of these competitors for popular favour. 
 
 When Mr. Morley left, Sir George Newnes, 
 accustomed as he was to enormous circulations 
 and large profits, was inclined to discontinue 
 the Budget, and spoke to me about it one day 
 at Wildcroft. I was attached to, and interested 
 in, the weekly, in the editing of which I had 
 some part, and when confronted with the 
 direct question whether I did not agree that 
 it would be best to let it go, I said I thought 
 it a pity to kill a paper which at that time had 
 an extremely interesting, if not a large, circula- 
 tion, as we knew by the number of letters and 
 other communications from all manner of odd 
 nooks and corners of the Empire and the world. 
 
 The idea of editing the paper had never 
 occurred to me, and I had little time and less 
 ambition to take over additional responsi- 
 bilities. Hence, when, in answer to my mild 
 
'THE WESTMINSTER GAZETTE' 233 
 
 objection to the execution of a living paper, 
 the proprietor said : " Well, if you like to play 
 with it for six months, and see what you can 
 make of it, do so by all means," I thought he 
 was jesting, and paid him in what I considered 
 his own coin by declaring that executioners 
 had no right to harrow the feeling of the rela- 
 tions of the condemned. " But I mean it," 
 he said. There remained nothing to be done 
 except to obtain Mr. Spender's sanction to 
 my being released from some of my duties on 
 the Daily. The whole matter was settled in 
 less than five minutes. It was a thoroughly 
 typical instance of Sir George's rapid decisions, 
 and of his method of settling a matter promptly, 
 simply and without pettiness of any sort. 
 
 Equally typical was his attitude during 
 the nine years that I edited the Westminster 
 Budget. He was not a man to express approval 
 in so many words, as he was also slow to chide or 
 to find fault, but you felt as if a greater compli- 
 ment could not be paid to you than when on 
 one of his rare appearances at the office, and 
 after making a suggestion for some change or 
 some new feature which he thought would 
 improve the paper, he would end by saying : 
 " That is what I think you might do. But 
 of course you know best, and you must do as 
 you like." And the very form in which a 
 suggestion was made was always that of the 
 helpful critic, the diffident adviser. "If I 
 
234 LIFE OF SIR GEORGE NEWNES 
 
 were you," he would say, " I think I should 
 make a little change in this, that, or the other 
 feature." The autocrat or the dictator I have 
 never known him to be ; nor have I ever heard 
 him utter a word of harsh or unfair criticism. 
 He would take thought and trouble to help you 
 in your work, and he would trust you abso- 
 lutely, so long as you did not abuse his trust. 
 
 When, some eight or nine years ago, the 
 publication of the present weekly edition of 
 the Westminster Gazette was being planned, Sir 
 George forfeited one of his precious Sunday 
 morning walks to come and explain to me the 
 projected Saturday Westminster, in the editing 
 of which he wished me to assist Mr. Spender. 
 The Golden Age of the new journalism was 
 over by that time ; Sir George had seen the rise 
 and fall of multitudes of papers and perio- 
 dicals, and most newspaper proprietors had 
 begun to think more than twice before launch- 
 ing a new publication of any kind. But he 
 was as firmly convinced that the new idea 
 would " catch on " as he had been twenty-five 
 years before, when he brought out his first 
 small weekly at Manchester, and he lived to 
 see the fine success of this the last of his many 
 successful journalistic ventures. 
 
 On this occasion again his generous con- 
 sideration for others, his unfailing tact and 
 kindliness came into play. His own idea was 
 that since the Budget, though no longer a loss 
 
'THE WESTMINSTER GAZETTE' 235 
 
 to him, was not financially what might be called 
 a good property, it should now be merged into 
 the new penny weekly. ' You cannot both 
 edit the Budget and help Mr. Spender with the 
 Saturday ; it is too much for one person. Now, 
 won't you let the Budget go, and devote your- 
 self entirely to the other ? The terms of your 
 agreement will remain the same, and you will 
 have an easier task," he added, and when I 
 had no immediate answer ready, he added : 
 " Think it over, and let me know. Mr. Spender 
 and I won't do anything definite about the 
 Budget before we know what your wishes are." 
 The kindness of it all was such that it was 
 difficult not to fall in with the course suggested, 
 but I could not give the word which would be 
 the death- sentence of the poor Budget without 
 one other struggle, and proposed to undertake 
 the work on the new paper and continue 
 the Budget on the understanding that if I 
 found the work too heavy, I would let the 
 Budget go. Again he agreed, with only a 
 shake of the head at such perversity ; and not 
 till, several years later, the work on the Satur- 
 day Westminster had increased to a degree 
 which made it a physical impossibility to work 
 the two papers together, was the Budget dis- 
 continued at my own request. Sir George 
 was in Canada at the time when I wrote to 
 him that now, if he agreed, we would let the 
 Budget depart, and the fact that he cabled 
 
236 LIFE OF SIR GEORGE NEWNES 
 
 immediately on receipt of my letter, in order 
 that I might as soon as possible be relieved of 
 the double responsibilities, added to this long 
 story a final touch characteristic of the kind- 
 liest and most considerate of men. 
 
 That my personal experiences are not ex- 
 ceptional will be seen from the following 
 extracts taken from Mr. Spender's tribute to 
 Sir George Newnes which appeared in the 
 Westminster after the death of the latter 
 
 " The serious journalist could not have found 
 a kinder or more forbearing employer than Sir 
 George Newnes during the sixteen years that 
 he was proprietor of the Westminster Gazette. 
 In 1903, when he founded the Westminster, 
 he was at the height of his fame as the pioneer 
 of a new type of popular journalism, and there 
 were not wanting those who predicted that he 
 would either unduly " popularize "' or grow 
 impatient of the time and effort required to 
 establish a serious newspaper. Nothing in the 
 event proved farther from the truth. 
 
 " He was not one of those proprietors who 
 try to do the work of their editor; he realized 
 to the full that there is nothing more paralys- 
 ing to the man who has to do the work day by 
 day and to take quick decisions on which he 
 cannot consult any but his immediate col- 
 leagues than to be constantly harassed with 
 the doubts and displeasures of a proprietor 
 
'THE WESTMINSTER GAZETTE' 237 
 
 who cannot be on the spot when the work is 
 done. His advice to the present editor on his 
 appointment fourteen years ago was : ' Don't 
 ask yourself all the time what I may be think- 
 ing. I had far rather that you took a line 
 with which I personally may disagree than that 
 you should potter and hesitate until you can 
 discover my opinion; ' and in the agreement 
 which he made he yielded full political control 
 subject to the general lines of policy 
 without the slightest reserve. This did not 
 mean that he withdrew from interest in the 
 paper, or failed, when he thought fit, to express 
 his opinion. . . . 
 
 " In dealing with a newspaper staff Sir 
 George Newnes was at all times a model em- 
 ployer. At a time when newspaper offices 
 were subject to many and arbitrary changes, 
 and the position of the working journalist 
 seemed to be growing more and more precarious, 
 it was his special desire that those who served 
 him should enjoy security of tenure. The 
 readiest response met every appeal on behalf 
 of a member of the staff who had fallen ill or 
 needed rest; and on the inevitable occasion 
 when a good journalist makes an honest but 
 expensive mistake he was at pains to console 
 rather than to reproach the offender. For these 
 reasons the Westminster staff remember him 
 gratefully as a kind, straightforward, and 
 warm-hearted man, who made it easy for them 
 
238 LIFE OF SIR GEORGE NEWNES 
 
 to do their best in the service of their news- 
 paper." 
 
 The experiences of the other political paper 
 owned by Sir George Newnes, and saved by 
 him for his party, were precisely the same. 
 Mr. T. Rees, the editor of the Cambria Daily 
 Leader writes in this connection : " During the 
 years Sir George was proprietor of the Leader 
 his relations with the staff were of the kind- 
 liest character. When he was critical, he was 
 always helpfully so, and nowhere is his memory 
 held in greater veneration than in the office of 
 the journal which he owned at Swansea." 
 
 And where they knew him better than we 
 did in Tudor Street, or his staff at Swansea; 
 where indeed they knew him best of all at 
 Southampton Street, that centre of his activi- 
 ties the opinion is still the same. The shirker, 
 the incompetent, the unreliable might stand 
 in wholesome dread of him, and might be 
 aware that it was not well to be caught napping ; 
 but gave him willingly of their best service, 
 and " would do anything for him," knowing 
 full well that the occasional sharp flare up of 
 indignation was but a straw-fire, lasting a 
 moment, and leaving no trace of ill-will behind. 
 He bore no malice, an incident once closed 
 was completely forgotten; and though as a 
 rule he would brook no argument at the moment 
 of irritability, he was even then not deaf to 
 
'THE WESTMINSTER GAZETTE' 239 
 
 a reasonable defence of the accused, and could 
 see the opponent's point of view though he 
 was human enough not to retreat at once from 
 his own position. 
 
 A slight, but thoroughly typical instance 
 of this happened one morning at Wildcroft. 
 The telephone installed in the study was by 
 no means sacred to Sir George and his secretary, 
 the whole household making occasional use of 
 it. It therefore happened that the various 
 reference volumes kept in a cupboard were 
 not always in the apple-pie order in which 
 Sir George, who himself was extremely neat 
 and methodical in his habits, wished all his 
 appointments to be kept. He had obviously 
 discovered the free and easy manner in which 
 the telephone volumes had been deposited in 
 the little cupboard, for one morning while 
 dictating to his private secretary, he came to 
 a sudden halt before it in his walk between the 
 window and the fireplace, and flinging the two 
 doors wide with a gesture of impatience, he said, 
 rather impressively : " That does not look very 
 nice, does it, Mr. Plank ? " 
 
 It took some courage to oppose the chief in 
 the morning mood to which even the most 
 mild and complacent of men are apt to give 
 way when the sky is grey, and work heavy 
 and complicated. But it had to be done. 
 " Well, sir," replied the man at whom the 
 implied complaint was levelled, " seeing that 
 
240 LIFE OF SIR GEORGE NEWNES 
 
 every one in the house can go to that cup- 
 board, how can I keep it tidy? The butler 
 is constantly sending and receiving messages 
 for her ladyship, and her ladyship herself, as 
 well as Mr. Frank. . . ." "That'll do, Mr. 
 Plank, that'll do," said the critic, and resumed 
 his walk. When " her ladyship's " name was 
 brought into the fray, the fray must be ended ; 
 her doings were above criticism; she might 
 do as she liked, she could do no wrong. This 
 was often his way of a retreat from a little 
 tussle in which he had not covered himself 
 with glory, and in which he felt that the 
 victory was not due to him. His pride a 
 very harmless touch of pride, and one to which 
 men of his temperament mostly are prone 
 would not let him make full and generous 
 confession of his mistake at the moment when 
 the straw-fire of irritability was still hissing 
 under the dash of cold water thrown upon it ; 
 but he was not obstinate enough to " hold 
 his own opinion still," and the " that will do " 
 meant surrender and apology, though it might 
 not sound so. 
 
 The story of the Westminster may be con- 
 cluded with another short paragraph from the 
 autobiographical notes. " There are two kinds 
 of political papers ; one which aims at a large 
 circulation and large profits, and another 
 which strives for influence among thoughtful 
 people. The latter is what the Westminster 
 
4 THE WESTMINSTER GAZETTE' 241 
 
 Gazette has always been." There is not one 
 word of the price he paid, in actual coin, for 
 founding and financing through all the uphill 
 years before a large daily paper can possibly 
 be made to pay its way; but those who know 
 of these things will best appreciate the sacrifice 
 in money Sir George Newnes made so gener- 
 ously during the sixteen years at the end of 
 which he sold the paper to a syndicate of 
 wealthy Liberals, who continue it, under Mr. 
 Spender's editorship, on the same lines as 
 those laid down at the beginning. 
 
CHAPTER XV 
 
 HOME LIFE 
 
 FROM the day when Mr. Newnes took his 
 bride to the home at Manchester, to which he 
 had looked forward with such eagerness ever 
 since his business prospects permitted him to 
 think of a home of his own, his marriage was 
 an almost ideally happy one. The home- 
 lover's anticipations were more than fulfilled, 
 for husband and wife were of one accord in all 
 essentials; and both were young enough and 
 wise enough to adapt themselves to one 
 another in the minor matters in which differ- 
 ence of taste and opinion often leads to per- 
 manent estrangement and much domestic 
 discomfort, unless both husband and wife are 
 from the beginning inclined to yield. 
 
 It was but a modest household at first, but 
 it was a very cheerful one, and a large and 
 united circle of relatives and friends shared 
 in all its interests. And so it has remained 
 all through the years. Of the kind of family 
 friction by which so many an eager, ambitious 
 man is hampered and distressed, Mr. Newnes 
 never had any experience; his wife was at all 
 
 242 
 
HOME LIFE 243 
 
 times the best of friends, who made his well- 
 being her first care, and who, with her intelli- 
 gent insight and practical mind could counsel 
 as well as sympathise during the periods of 
 anxiety which no man of affairs can escape; 
 who rejoiced with him and was proud of his 
 successes, and whose loyal love and devotion 
 knew no change. 
 
 After their two boys were born, in the days 
 when as yet the publication of Tit-Bits was 
 only a shadowy idea which might, or might 
 not, take substance some future day, there 
 were probably few homes in Manchester, or 
 anywhere, in which there was more of the 
 quiet, cheerful contentment that is one of the 
 best and rarest possessions alike of millionaire 
 or toiler. Nor was the sunny outlook ever 
 clouded during the years at Manchester, and 
 it was still the same when first they settled in 
 their permanent London home on Putney 
 Heath. 
 
 The parents' delight in their two little lads 
 healthy, intelligent, pretty children gave the 
 crowning touch to the happy years of the first 
 great successes ; and the boys were old enough 
 for the first plans for their future to be made 
 half in jest and half in earnest, when suddenly 
 the younger of the two sickened with brain 
 fever, and in a few days was dead. 
 
 The child had, together with great physical 
 beauty, been endowed with extraordinary 
 
 R 2 
 
244 LIFE OF SIR GEORGE NEWNES 
 
 talents. When he was six years old, he began 
 to play chess, and a year later, when he died 
 he had been engaged in playing a game by 
 post with his uncle, Mr. J. Hillyard. Six 
 moves had been made, and then Arthur 
 Newnes's short playtime was over. They 
 think of him still with a pain which has not 
 quite lost its note of despair. It was all so 
 cruelly sudden, and Artie had been so lovable 
 a child. The chess-board, standing for years 
 in Mr. Hillyard's house, with the figures in 
 the position of the last move of the game to 
 which death had put an end, and Mr. Hill- 
 yard's remark, as he recalls the dark days when 
 the little lad died, that " I felt that the next 
 move would be in Heaven" recall Eugene 
 Field's "Little Boy Blue," the exquisitely 
 pathetic poem on the child who put his toys 
 away at bedtime, and told them to wait where 
 he had placed them, till he should come back. 
 
 " So toddling off to his trundle-bed 
 He dreamed of the pretty toys. 
 
 And as he was dreaming an angel song 
 
 Awakened our Little Boy Blue 
 Oh ! the years are many, the years are long 
 
 But the little toy-friends are true ! 
 
 Aye faithful to Little Boy Blue they stand, 
 
 Each in the same old place 
 Awaiting the touch of a little hand, 
 
 The smile of a little face." 
 
 When Arthur died, his father's fair hair 
 turned grey, though he was only forty years 
 
HOME LIFE 245 
 
 old. The blow was so terrible that for a time 
 it crushed him altogether; it had come out of 
 the cloudlessly blue sky. Only by plunging 
 harder and deeper than ever into work could 
 he fight down the bitter pain. 
 
 Mr. Newnes's devotion to his children had 
 been beautiful to see. It is said that in the 
 upright and honest man the boy never dies. 
 In Mr. Newnes's case the boy not only continued 
 to live, but he easily conquered the reserved 
 and dignified man of the world ; and when he 
 played with his children there was no need 
 that he should " pretend " to be a boy again 
 he simply became one for the time being, as 
 intensely and naturally interested as the boys 
 themselves in their childish games. It was 
 their father who played their first cricket 
 matches with them; who showed them how to 
 dig and delve in the Wildcroft grounds; to 
 play at being builders and gardeners and 
 journeymen; who taught them to ride that 
 wonderful new vehicle, the tricycle, which was 
 just then coming into fashion, and who was 
 not above taking a valiant part in the kind 
 of warfare which is the best entertainment the 
 world can provide for lively little lads. 
 
 There was one occasion in particular 
 when an unforgettable assault was made 
 which not only furnished the excitement of 
 a real conquest of territory, but also left the 
 conquerors in possession of a much desired 
 
246 LIFE OF SIR GEORGE NEWNES 
 
 new realm. The Wildcroft grounds, though 
 situated in the green wilderness of Putney 
 Heath, were not extensive, and if the house 
 should be enlarged they would be altogether 
 inadequate, both as the gardens surrounding 
 a beautiful home, and as a playground for 
 two energetic and enterprising little boys who 
 had inherited their father's great love of the 
 open air. 
 
 For some time nothing could be done, for 
 the Heath itself could not be bought, and the 
 owners of the two estates adjoining Wildcroft 
 did not seem inclined to move, an attitude 
 with which it is not difficult to sympathize, 
 since even now there are not many spots 
 within twenty minutes of the centre of London 
 to be compared to the charm of the high parts 
 of Putney Heath, with its sense of remoteness 
 and wild freedom. Wildcroft still stands 
 amidst bird-haunted copses of birch and chest- 
 nut and elm; and still the pure, strong air 
 blows over from the Surrey Hills and from the 
 sea beyond them. The sunsets over Kingston 
 Vale and Richmond Park, as you can see 
 them from the western windows, are still un- 
 dimmed by the mists and smoke which hang 
 over densely populated places; and the early 
 mornings, when the song of the lark is the only 
 sound coming from the outside, are as dewy, 
 and the late evenings as silent as if they were 
 deep in the country. But the Portsmouth 
 
HOME LIFE 247 
 
 Road and other roads well known and much 
 frequented by motorists, run by, and some- 
 thing of its old charm is gone from the district. 
 This change, however, has only come during 
 the last ten or fifteen years ; before then, Wild- 
 croft would have possessed all the attractions 
 of a delightful country house, had it not been 
 that the grounds consisted of only a sunk 
 lawn just large enough for a tennis-court, a 
 small rose- and rock-garden, a narrow path 
 bordered by shrubs, and the usual space of 
 turf and evergreen- shrubs on either side of the 
 glazed entrance from gate to front door. 
 
 But when he had almost given up the hope 
 that he would ever be able to extend the 
 grounds, Mr. Newnes heard that one of his 
 neighbours intended to sell his house. In 
 fact, it was already in the agent's hands. 
 Ten minutes after this piece of news was 
 brought to him he visited the owner of the 
 quaint old Georgian house, asked the price of 
 it, and agreed there and then to buy, saying 
 only : " Why did you not come straight to me, 
 and save the agent's fee ? ' 
 
 There was wild jubilation in the Wildcroft 
 nursery when the news was brought that now 
 at last the fence would fall between Wildcroft 
 and the neighbour's garden, that the old house 
 would be pulled down and a new lawn made, 
 and a carriage-drive; that trees would be 
 planted, and there would be no end of work 
 
248 LIFE OF SIR GEORGE NEWNES 
 
 for two young men who owned a wheelbarrow 
 and other implements of the gardener, the 
 house-breaker and the forester. Before they 
 undertook to assist in these tasks there would, 
 however, be an occasion for something much 
 more heroic. The father took his boys into 
 a corner and discussed the great plan with 
 them, and from that moment the three 
 waited with equal impatience for the day 
 when the purchase-money should be paid, 
 and the property become theirs to do with as 
 they liked. For the father and his two sons 
 had conspired together to make that day a 
 great and sensational festival, which was to 
 begin as soon as the solicitor telegraphed that 
 the bargain was concluded, the price paid, and 
 the property belonged to Mr. Newnes. 
 
 How they watched and waited for the 
 telegraph boy, those two little lads and their 
 father ! At last he came ; the deed was done. 
 And then and there the three went forth to 
 face their old enemy the boundary fence for 
 the last time, determined not to rest till it had 
 fallen and was finally vanquished. As arranged 
 by the instigator of the whole adventure, 
 the gardener was there, and the groom, and 
 the stable-man, and there were weapons with 
 which to attack the old fence, hammers and 
 pick-axes and poles and spades, and they all 
 set to and never ceased hammering and batter- 
 ing and shaking and pushing, till the fence 
 
HOME LIFE 249 
 
 began to creak and tremble, and finally it 
 swayed and fell with a slow crackling sound, 
 and lay on the ground and could obstruct 
 no more. Then the conquerors rushed through 
 the breach and disported themselves for the 
 first time in what presently became their per- 
 manent and beautiful playground. And it 
 would be difficult to say whether the father 
 or his two small sons more enjoyed the fun 
 and the excitement. 
 
 But before he had put off his winning baby 
 ways, Artie had gone for ever, leaving upon 
 the home a shadow which only lifted very 
 gradually as time began to heal the cruel 
 wound. 
 
 Of social life in the ordinary, conventional 
 way, Sir George Newnes was not fond, and 
 avoided it as much as he could. It often 
 required all his wife's diplomacy and power of 
 persuasion to make him come even to such 
 mild and short entertainments as an afternoon 
 reception or garden-party. " You know you 
 promised to go," she would say, entering his 
 study with a cheerful air of determination, and 
 declaring that it was time to get ready. Some- 
 times he yielded, a little ruefully and plain- 
 tively, but sometimes he would pretend to be 
 stern, and explain that the amount of work 
 that day was overwhelming, and that, if he 
 absented himself even for an hour or two, he 
 would have to work half the night, " and keep 
 
250 LIFE OF SIR GEORGE NEWNES 
 
 poor Mr. Plank at it till he drops." And both 
 knew, all the time, that this terrible and sudden 
 pressure of work covered only his disinclina- 
 tion to go and " amuse himself " in a manner 
 which seems to please crowds of people, but 
 which to him was dreariness itself as compared 
 with the interest which every day of real life 
 brought in such rich abundance. 
 
 " I cannot think why you insist on dragging 
 me there," he would say to his wife half in 
 jest and half in earnest, when now and then, 
 generally for some good and special reason, 
 she had teased and coaxed him into joining 
 her and as they were leaving home he cast a 
 look of appeal for pity at the friends he 
 left behind playing tennis or other games in 
 the covered court which made so admirable 
 a playground for half-holidays. And not un- 
 frequently it happened that half-an-hour later 
 Sir George was at home again, having quietly 
 slipped away from the social gathering so soon 
 as he had greeted his host and hostess. 
 
 The shouts of laughter which greeted him 
 on his return, received an answering, though 
 silent, laugh from the unwilling wanderer as 
 he came in with an air of amusement and 
 immense relief. " I don't know what my wife 
 will say when she finds that I have deserted 
 her," he would say, and shake his head, as if 
 astonished at his own daring in playing the 
 truant; though he knew full well that of all 
 
HOME LIFE 251 
 
 lenient judges she was the most lenient, stand- 
 ing between him and all the petty duties and 
 obligations of social life, giving no thought 
 to self where his happiness and comfort were 
 concerned, and adjusting her life to his with 
 unvarying cheerfulness and readiness. 
 
 But if, as he himself would say, he was but 
 a " bad guest," he was the very best of hosts, 
 who was never happier and more in his element 
 than when his house was full of friends who 
 would fall in with the friendly, easy family 
 life, and make themselves entirely at home and 
 happy. They might not see much of him in 
 the early part of the day, for the morning hours 
 he spent regularly in his study, and it might 
 happen now and then that he was silent 
 and pre-occupied after a long morning spent 
 over proof-sheets and correspondence, business 
 problems and perplexities. The mood, however, 
 never lasted long; though he was not, on 
 the whole, a talkative man, his conversation 
 was never artificial or strained, and he was 
 always interesting because he himself was 
 always interested and perfectly natural. And 
 whenever he threw off his habitual reserve, 
 and either entered upon the discussion of some 
 question of general interest, or drew upon his 
 own experiences, he was a talker whose genial- 
 ity and ready wit would have entitled him to 
 a place among the popular causeurs of the 
 famous salons of old. 
 
252 LIFE OF SIR GEORGE NEWNES 
 
 His social tact, again, never failed him; it 
 was as much tact of the heart as of the head, 
 and of all the qualities which gave him his 
 wide popularity this was the one by which 
 most people were drawn to him. He was at 
 all times careful and anxious to avoid hurting 
 any one by an unkind word or allusion, not 
 only in private life, but in his business rela- 
 tions. I can recall several occasions when, in 
 connection with some wild or unreasonable 
 request or complaint from ignorant readers or 
 fault-finders, I was impatiently inclined to pay 
 them in their own coin, he said serenely : " Don't 
 be rash, and don't offend them; things are 
 always best settled by courtesy. In the long 
 run, although I agree that it is very soothing 
 to relieve one's momentary feelings of indig- 
 nation, it answers best in every way to be 
 polite." And he would no more say an unkind 
 word of an absent man or woman than he 
 would say it to their faces. If he was obliged 
 to criticize or reprove he did so frankly, and 
 without anger or bitterness, and when he had 
 done so, the incident was closed and forgotten. 
 Whenever it lay in his power he would put 
 people at their ease, give them a pleasant sense 
 of their own importance or attraction, by some 
 agreeable remark or attention ; and never was 
 the degree of his interest carefully regulated 
 to suit the social or other importance of the 
 person on whom it was bestowed. 
 
HOME LIFE 253 
 
 A slight but entirely typical instance of this 
 tact of the heart came to my knowledge quite 
 recently, when a lady who has no social im- 
 portance and is very far from claiming such, 
 said to me : "I hear you are writing a biography 
 of Sir George Newnes. I did not know him 
 well at all, but the first time I met him has 
 left on me such an impression that T should 
 like to tell it to you. The whole incident is 
 very slight and unimportant in itself, but it 
 may be of some use to you in showing what 
 sort of a man he was. 
 
 " I was invited to a garden-party at Wild- 
 croft some years ago," she went on. " Not 
 that I was a friend; I had only met Lady 
 Newnes occasionally at the house of a mutual 
 friend, and it was through this friend that the 
 invitation came to me. As far as I know, Sir 
 George had never seen me and was not aware 
 who I was. The friend with whom I had 
 come could not, of course, remain with me all 
 the time, and presently I was left wander- 
 ing about alone, as I did not know any one 
 else. Not that I minded this in the least. 
 The grounds were lovely, there was a crowd 
 of beautifully dressed people and some well- 
 known men and women whom it was interesting 
 to watch. 
 
 " Presently I saw Sir George Newnes coming 
 from the house and walking slowly towards the 
 shady lawn. He must have noticed that I had 
 
254 LIFE OF SIR GEORGE NEWNES 
 
 no one to talk to, though I tried not to appear 
 neglected, for instead of going straight to the 
 people he knew, and who probably interested 
 him, he came to where I was, and began to 
 talk in the kindest way, not for a minute or 
 two, and as if he were discharging an obvious 
 duty as host, but for a long time, and as if he 
 liked it, showing me the old sun-dial on the 
 sunk lawn, the monument where the first 
 telegraph station had been in the grounds, and 
 only leaving me when, in the refreshment tent, 
 he had seen that tea was brought to me, and 
 my friend had come back and joined me." 
 
 All through the summer Sir George lived as 
 much an outdoor life as a busy man, whose 
 work is at his desk, can possibly do, and golf 
 on Wimbledon Common, and motoring all over 
 the country gave to his fine face the healthy 
 outdoor colour which went so well with the 
 clear eyes with the young look in them, and 
 with the prematurely white hair. But I am 
 not sure whether he did not enjoy his home 
 life even more during the winter, when no blue 
 skies and sunny spaces lured him from a game 
 of whist or auction-bridge ; or, best of all, from 
 the chess-board, for chess remained his favourite 
 indoor game ; and the facts that he was the leader 
 of the House of Commons Chess Club, the 
 president of the British Chess Club and the 
 organizer of the Anglo-American chess matches, 
 which were played by cable, and for which he 
 
HOME LIFE 255 
 
 provided the trophy, show that his interest 
 was not confined to a quiet game at home. 
 
 The Field, in its obituary article on the death 
 of Sir George Newnes, wrote 
 
 " An all-round sportsman, Sir George's favour- 
 ite pastime was chess. Joining the Manchester 
 Chess Club, he soon became one of its leading 
 members and hon. secretary, which post he 
 held till late in the 'seventies, when he con- 
 ceived the idea of providing light and whole- 
 some literature for the masses. With his 
 well-known exuberant virility the project was 
 no sooner conceived than it was put into 
 practice in the form of Tit-Bits. During the 
 following ten years Sir George had abandoned 
 the practice but not the love of the game, 
 and as soon as he was established in London 
 he joined the then newly established British 
 Chess Club; he became its president, and it is 
 no secret that through his instrumentality, the 
 splendid house in King Street, Covent Garden, 
 was made available for the club, where the 
 best talent foregathered. The Universities 
 played their annual matches at the club, with 
 due eclat. Many interesting events took place 
 under the auspices of Sir George, the annual 
 visits to the Paris Cercle des Echecs, tourna- 
 ments, correspondence matches with Liverpool 
 and St. Petersburg, and Sir George provided 
 the stakes for a match between Dr. Lasker 
 
256 LIFE OF SIR GEORGE NEWNES 
 
 and Blackburne, Teichmann and Mieses, and 
 other events too numerous to mention. Sir 
 George became the leading spirit of the British 
 Chess Association; he provided the splendid 
 amateur challenge cup now in the custody of 
 the B.C.F., and also the trophy for the Anglo- 
 American cable matches, which were started 
 at the British Chess Club, and are now con- 
 tinued by the City of London Chess Club. 
 Sir George was no mean adept at the game 
 himself, and it was his pride that he never lost 
 a match game, playing regularly for the Man- 
 chester Chess Club in his earlier days He 
 never travelled without a chess-board, and 
 many a good game was fought on his yacht, 
 the Roxana, during the cruises to Norway 
 and the Mediterranean. The last important 
 event with which Sir George's name was 
 pre-eminently connected is the London Inter- 
 national Congress, Sir George having been 
 president of the organizing committee, and it 
 was he who issued the preliminary circular to 
 the chess clubs." 
 
 During his younger years he joined readily 
 in all manner of social indoor games, and I 
 remember a Boxing-night long ago on which 
 I received for the first time the warm hospital- 
 ity of Wildcroft, when we acted charades, in 
 which Sir George, though he took only minor 
 or not very garrulous parts, always managed 
 
Photo'} 
 
 NEWNES, 
 
HOME LIFE 257 
 
 to raise shouts of laughter from the audience, 
 and make it difficult for us other actors to 
 preserve the dignified gravity of stage heroes 
 and heroines. And many years later, not 
 very far from the end, when he had done with 
 amateur acting and nearly all other diversions 
 of his light-hearted youth, he showed one day 
 that the talent was still there, though it was 
 now never exercised. 
 
 Lady Newnes and I had been discussing the 
 Christmas Fund of the Westminster Gazette, 
 which, among other things, provides weekly 
 pensions of half-a-crown for a number of old 
 people. A new pensioner was to be added to 
 the little band, and as we sat by the fire talking 
 about the old man's means, and the luxury with 
 which he would imagine himself surrounded 
 when suddenly his weekly " income " of five 
 shillings received the magnificent addition of 
 two-and-sixpence. " He will think himself a 
 millionaire," said Lady Newnes. Sir George, 
 who had come in and quietly joined the circle, 
 asked now and then a question about the 
 Fund and the old folk whom it benefits, and 
 when we had decided that the new candidate 
 should be admitted as a pensioner he said 
 very solemnly : " Lucky old boy ! It sounds 
 delightful half-a-crown a week, as regular as 
 Saturday comes round, and nothing to be done 
 to earn it. I really think I should like that 
 pension myself. What do you say ? Could 
 
258 LIFE OF SIR GEORGE NEWNES 
 
 you make me one of your pensioners ? 5! " Yes, 
 easily," I said with equal solemnity; "I 
 promise to give it to you regularly once a week 
 as soon as you have given the usual proof that 
 you are over sixty years old, have less than 
 ten shillings a week to cover all your expenses, 
 are now too feeble for work, and without 
 friends who can support you. The only thing 
 you have to do is to come to my door every 
 Saturday morning shall we say at six o'clock ? 
 hold out your hat for me to drop the half- 
 crown in, and to say ' Thank you ' as nicely as 
 you can." Yes, he said, that sounded well, 
 got up and walked out of the room, as we 
 thought, to return to his work, as he often did 
 on quiet evenings. In a few minutes, however, 
 the drawing-room door opened, and in came 
 and hobbled a bent old man, in a slouch hat 
 carefully battered out of shape. Leaning with 
 trembling hands upon a stout cudgel, and with 
 his face hidden by the brim of the hat and by 
 the upturned collar of his overcoat, he limped 
 up to us, coughing an old man's cough, and 
 saying in a wheezy voice that he had come for 
 his " 'arf-crownd," if the lady would kindly 
 give it to him. It was a piece of excellent 
 acting, and since it was by his sanction that 
 the Westminster Gazette Christmas Fund was 
 started, he being ready and willing to let a 
 member of the staff devote three months 
 entirely to this work, and to pay all expenses 
 
HOME LIFE 259 
 
 connected with the Fund, he might well be 
 allowed this little joke, without appearing in 
 any way unfeeling or indifferent to the lot of 
 those who are old and weak and poor. 
 
 In the years of his early manhood, when for 
 the sheer love of tramping, Mr. Newnes spent 
 many a holiday on the open road, he often had 
 quaint opportunities of displaying his histrionic 
 talents with great success. On one occasion 
 he and his brother-in-law, Mr. J. Hillyard, had 
 been overtaken by a shower, and then hap- 
 pened upon a piece of very muddy road. Their 
 boots were sodden, and caked with mud; their 
 clothes spattered, and their general appearance 
 was anything but orthodox. With coat-collars 
 turned up, and the air of gloomy silence about 
 them which falls upon tired and hungry 
 pedestrians when the clouds are gathering and 
 the wind begins to whistle while they are far 
 from shelter, the two might easily be mistaken 
 for tramps by any one inclined to think them 
 such. 
 
 Presently, while they were making a halt 
 on a lonely moor, a specimen of the genuine 
 professional fraternity of tramps hove into 
 sight, and joined them as a matter of course, 
 obviously having ne'er a moment's doubt that 
 they belonged to his order, and hailing them 
 in that belief. Mr. Hillyard said nothing, but 
 with a rapid glance of warning his brother-in- 
 law fell at once into the part attributed to him, 
 
 8 2 
 
260 LIFE OF SIR GEORGE NEWNES 
 
 talked tramp-language to the best of his ability, 
 exchanged experiences with the stranger, and 
 gratefully accepted advice and information as 
 to the houses and farms in the neighbourhood 
 where money and food, and perhaps an article 
 of clothing, would be forthcoming if they 
 would go and ask humbly at the back door. 
 They walked together for a while, and the 
 genuine tramp never suspected that he was 
 the only professional gentleman of the party. 
 When taking leave of them, as their roads 
 divided, he expressed the hope that they might 
 meet again, and continue the good comrade- 
 ship of their first encounter. 
 
 The good pedestrian was also a good dancer, 
 though his last terpsichorean performance took 
 place after he thought he had renounced the 
 pleasure for ever. He and his brother-in-law 
 had been together in the north of England, and 
 now, on their way home, had gone to a country 
 station at which they were to board the Scotch 
 night-express on its way to London. On 
 arriving at the station they were informed 
 that the train, for some reason or other, would 
 be some hours late. It was a dreary outlook. 
 But there was a small inn close by, and to it 
 they went to pass the time over a meal. Still, 
 when they had finished their frugal supper, 
 there was a long hour to wait. 
 
 Then, through the gloom and the silence of 
 the best room of the tavern there came the 
 
HOME LIFE 261 
 
 merry sound of a fiddle. They were both 
 young, fond of music, and easily entertained. 
 Hence they followed the sound, and came to 
 a room where evidently the servants of the 
 establishment and their friends were having 
 a party. The two strangers watching at the 
 open door were soon discovered, and one of 
 the railway porters who had seen the present 
 Duke of Argyll occasionally travelling up and 
 down the line, spread the exciting news that 
 the taller of the two was Lord Lome, to whom 
 Mr. Newnes in his early manhood bore at first 
 sight a striking likeness, and for whom he was 
 often mistaken. 
 
 This was sensational enough, in all con- 
 science, but when the supposed nobleman and 
 his friend, who no doubt was also a member of 
 some august family, asked whether they might 
 join in the fun, and invited some of the belles 
 of the ball to a dance, the villagers began to 
 see their entertainment in the light of a very 
 aristocratic function indeed. Nor would they 
 believe the supposed nobleman when, being 
 addressed as " my lord," he disclaimed his 
 right to any such title. That was only because 
 he wished them to be at their ease, they said, 
 and continued to bask in his smiles till the 
 belated train came in and whisked the dis- 
 tinguished strangers away. 
 
 And if, in the neighbourhood of the north 
 country village a buxom, middle-aged matron 
 
262 LIFE OF SIR GEORGE NEWNES 
 
 still occasionally tells the story of how on a 
 certain winter night thirty years ago, she 
 danced with the duke who married a daughter 
 of Queen Victoria, it is not improbable that 
 she is repeating the tale of the two travellers 
 from the south, and the belated Scotch express. 
 
 After Sir George's only surviving son, Mr. 
 Frank Newnes, had finished his education, and 
 been admitted to the Bar, he entered his 
 father's business, and came to live at home. 
 From that time informal dances, for which 
 the covered tennis-court made an excellent 
 room, were frequent enough at Wildcroft, for 
 both Sir George and Lady Newnes were very 
 fond of the society of young people, asking for 
 no better entertainment than to watch, and in 
 their quiet way to share, the high spirits and 
 merriment of their son and his friends. But 
 Sir George himself no longer joined the dancers, 
 and was well satisfied with playing the part of 
 looker-on. 
 
 A pleasant feature of home-life at Wildcroft 
 was Sir George and Lady Newnes' s love of 
 animals. You could not be long in the house 
 without seeing a graceful Persian beauty its 
 " blue " coat and feathery tail groomed to 
 perfection walk with an air of immense 
 superiority into boudoir or drawing-room, 
 gently observant, choosing its place with calm 
 deliberation and occupying it as if the best 
 were just good enough for it. If you saw the 
 
HOME LIFE 263 
 
 master at his writing-table, a dog was sure to 
 lie at his feet; if you met him in the grounds, 
 the dog was at his heels, and when he drove 
 or motored, the dog sat in the car or carriage. 
 The very proper and commendable rule which 
 all lovers of pet animals frame so piously in 
 theory, and disregard so wickedly in practice, 
 that no pet is to be fed in the dining-room, or 
 receive donations of things good to eat off 
 the luncheon or dinner table, obtained in the 
 present case, and was chiefly honoured in the 
 breach, the exceptions to it coinciding numeri- 
 cally almost exactly with the number of meals 
 served. 
 
 At the beginning of a meal everything looked 
 as if this were indeed the model household, in 
 which the pets had been made to understand 
 that at meal-times they must shine by their 
 absence. Then suddenly a dainty fore-paw 
 would be laid on the mistress's arm, and the 
 Persian beauty, standing straight up and sur- 
 veying the table with greedy, calculating eyes 
 of yellow fire, would make mutely eloquent 
 appeal for something in the nature of a liver- 
 wing, and the wise butler would without a 
 word produce a small dish into which a choice 
 morsel was quietly placed to be dealt with 
 under the table. 
 
 The master would not even pretend to 
 observe the rule, but when the Airedale or Pom 
 or Samoyed sitting by his side began to wag 
 
264 LIFE OF SIR GEORGE NEWNES 
 
 a friendly tail, or utter the sigh of greed or 
 gluttony into which an intelligent dog knows 
 how to put such worlds of longing and weary 
 resignation, he would satisfy the supplicant's 
 highest hopes without delay. " We don't 
 allow them to be fed at table," he would say to 
 a visitor whom he knew to share their love of 
 animals, and with a glance of understanding 
 at Lady Newnes, " but we'll make an exception 
 just to please you." 
 
 In the course of years many pets came and 
 lived and disappeared, migrating with the 
 family when they went to their summer 
 residence at Lynton, and living lives of much 
 freedom, peace and plenty. But the greatest 
 of all was Petz of Hawarden, a black Pome- 
 ranian, and son of the famous Petz who was 
 for many years Mr. Gladstone's daily com- 
 panion. Petz the Great, and his wife, equally 
 well-bred and aristocratic, had been brought 
 over from Germany by Mrs. Harry Drew, 
 Mr. Gladstone's youngest daughter. After they 
 took up their residence at Hawarden, Petz, 
 forsaking all former loves, attached himself at 
 once, and with a passionate attachment, to 
 Mr. Gladstone, and one of the prettiest of the 
 many attractive domestic scenes at Hawarden 
 Castle which I remember, is that of Mr. Glad- 
 stone sitting in his usual place in the window 
 corner of his library, with little Petz at his 
 feet, asleep with the sort of slumber in which 
 
HOME LIFE 265 
 
 both ears and one eye are kept open for the 
 detection of disturbing influence which may be 
 threatening. The old man's magnificent head, 
 bent over his book or manuscript, standing out 
 ivory-white against the window and the green 
 silence beyond it ; the crowd of books all round 
 the room and on the shelves jutting out from 
 the walls; the Beaconsfield bust above him, 
 between the windows, so strangely lifelike with 
 its mysterious smile; the sense of deep, un- 
 ruffled peace pervading the room, and then 
 the small black dog keeping guard over his old 
 master: it was a beautiful, and a touching 
 picture. 
 
 Petz, what time he could spare from his 
 duties as Mr. Gladstone's bodyguard, was an 
 excellent husband and father, and some of his 
 descendants are still great in the land, while 
 he, of course, has long ago gone to sleep some- 
 where in the greenest and quietest parts of 
 Hawarden Park, where the legend of many a 
 Hawarden household pet can be read on moss- 
 grown stones, and where, in May, sheets of 
 wild hyacinths spread their blue shimmer over 
 the little graves. In fact, Petz died soon after 
 Mr. Gladstone left Hawarden for his last 
 winter in the south; and little Dorothy Drew 
 often tripped through the park to put a wreath 
 or posy on the old dog's grave, on the head- 
 stone of which is engraved the inscription 
 " Faithful unto Death/' 
 
266 LIFE OF SIR GEORGE NEWNES 
 
 When Petz I. was in his prime, he had a 
 son who was endowed with nearly all the 
 father's distinguished qualities. But there 
 being many other pets and Petzes at Hawarden 
 Castle, Mrs. Drew decreed that Petz II. must 
 go out into the world, and that he should be 
 sold for the benefit of a certain charitable 
 institution in the parish where Canon and 
 Mrs. Drew were then working. Mrs. Drew had 
 told me this, explaining, however, that the dog 
 would only be sold to friends, or friends of 
 friends, who would be sure to give him a good 
 home. Knowing that Sir George Newnes's 
 admiration for Mr. Gladstone, if nothing else, 
 would incline him towards the offspring of the 
 faithful Petz, and hoping that my account 
 of the ravishing beauty and super-canine wits 
 of Petz II. would do the rest, I told him of the 
 dog. " How much does Mrs. Drew want for 
 him ? " he asked, and a few days later there 
 arrived at Wildcroft a lively, fluffy pup, pitch- 
 black, the image of its famous sire. Sir George 
 was away from home, but the little creature 
 went into his room at once, and settled there, 
 the love of bookish places being perhaps part 
 of his heritage, and made friends forthwith with 
 Mr. Plank, the private secretary. Then Sir 
 George returned, and Petz II. would henceforth 
 love and obey no one else, though he was 
 friendly enough, in an offhand way, with the 
 rest of the household. 
 
HOME LIFE 267 
 
 At first this utmost devotion was charming 
 and pretty; complimentary too, in the highest 
 degree, for, as every animal lover knows, the 
 immediate attachment of a dog to one who is 
 a stranger to him, is far more complimentary 
 than that which is proverbially known as the 
 sincerest form of flattery. When the master 
 came out of his room, in the morning, there 
 stood Petz on the threshold, ready to accom- 
 pany him downstairs; when he sat down to 
 breakfast, Petz also was there; did he go for 
 a stroll on the Heath, Petz's black nose pushed 
 through the side-gate just in time before the 
 gate closed; whenever the carriage was at the 
 door, Petz sat in his seat before any one could 
 say him nay, and it is impossible to say how 
 often he was stolen and brought back for a 
 reward, for if his master went out and left 
 him behind, Petz would somehow manage to 
 get away, and go hunting far and wide, in 
 search of him. 
 
 This was sometimes troublesome, but it was 
 not the worst result of Petz's devotion. There 
 were days when Sir George was in a very rest- 
 less mood, and when he could only think while 
 moving about. At such times he would walk 
 for hours to and fro, from his study into the 
 library, and thence into the hall ; then out into 
 the grounds, across the lawn, all round the 
 paths, pacing in all many miles, till the problem 
 which he had been turning over in his mind, 
 
268 LIFE OF SIR GEORGE NEWNES 
 
 had been solved. And all the time, hour after 
 hour, the little dog was at his master's heel, 
 taking every turn, now into the house, now 
 out again, till he began to pant and droop, and 
 till his tiny feet were tired and sore. 
 
 In his absorption the master might not 
 notice these signals of distress, but when he 
 did, and put the dog indoors, the lamentations 
 bursting from poor Petz were such that his 
 imprisonment became unendurable to others as 
 well as to himself. Then he would be released, 
 rush out and go to heel again, and flag and 
 pant and follow on and on, till the sight was so 
 pitiful that, in order to give the dog a rest, 
 Sir George had to curb his own restlessness, and 
 sit still for an hour or two, while Petz went 
 peacefully to sleep with one eye and both 
 ears open. 
 
 Of his horses too, Sir George was fond. 
 Not in the doubtful way of those people who 
 say so patronizingly : " Oh yes, I am very fond 
 of animals, in their right place"; which, inter- 
 preted, means that the dog is left to the 
 servants or stable-people's care, or is chained 
 up in a dull and dreary place; that the cat is 
 not considered at all when arrangements are 
 made for the household during the absence of 
 the family ; and that the horses, as long as they 
 look " smart " in harness, and give no trouble 
 on the road, receive no further thought. That 
 was not Sir George's way of being fond of 
 
HOME LIFE 269 
 
 animals. He informed himself as to their 
 well-being when they were not under his eye, 
 and woe to any one who abused the power 
 over " dumb things " which is given to a great 
 extent into the hands of human beings. 
 
 Before he entered his brougham, on going 
 to town, his quick eye saw at a glance whether 
 there was anything amiss with horse or harness. 
 If his coachman did not see to it that proper 
 care was taken of the horses in every way, he 
 found that his otherwise easy-going employer 
 would allow no slackness in this matter, and 
 if an animal that had served him well fell ill, 
 nothing was left undone to ease its suffering. 
 
 He had an especially beautiful horse in which 
 he took a particular pride and pleasure. One 
 evening he sent a friend from town home in 
 the carriage, with the spirited and intelligent 
 " Orange," to draw it. The road was being 
 mended part of the way, the horse stumbled, 
 and broke the skin of both knees very badly 
 on the new metal. Everything possible was 
 done, but in a few days' time the veterinary 
 surgeon had to tell Sir George that though 
 the horse would still be capable of working, 
 the scars would be so unsightly that he would 
 not again be fit to draw the carriage, the sug- 
 gestion being that the creature should be sold 
 for hack-work. He looked at poor Orange 
 with the beautiful head, the glossy coat and 
 the injured knees, and then said quietly : 
 
270 LIFE OF SIR GEORGE NEWNES 
 
 " No, if he is no longer fit to draw my carriage, 
 he shall at least not be sold into slavery. 
 Rather than let him come to that I'll have 
 him shot." And so poor Orange's fate was 
 decided; he did not fall upon evil days. 
 
 From the Southampton Street window, 
 through which he observed so many things, he 
 kept a look out on the carts and horses employed 
 in his business. One morning he saw a small 
 van-boy, who was left in charge of a cart, 
 beguile the time with pulling the horse's head 
 this way and that, to the creature's bewilder- 
 ment and obvious discomfort. " Send that 
 boy up to me," he said, and when, ten minutes 
 later, the urchin left the editorial office he 
 knew exactly what his employer's opinion was 
 of boys who take a pleasure in giving pain to 
 helpless creatures. " I'll find you better em- 
 ployment than pulling a horse's head," was 
 the parting injunction; " or we might even be 
 inclined to dispense with your services alto- 
 gether, if we catch you at that game again." 
 
 One of the first cases with which Sir George 
 had to deal after being made a magistrate at 
 Lynton, was that of a poor man whose horse 
 had strayed into the road and helped himself 
 to a mouthful of something inside a fence that 
 " wasn't his'n." When he had listened atten- 
 tively to all the details of the case, he refused 
 to impose a fine. " It would come hard on the 
 poor horse as well as on its owner," he said. 
 
HOME LIFE 271 
 
 All these are trifling things, but they are 
 worth re-telling, perhaps better than more 
 important ones, because such actions are done 
 almost instinctively on the spur of the moment, 
 and go a long way to show how kindly was the 
 heart of the man, and how considerate he 
 was in his dealings with all living creatures, 
 especially with those who, as the world judges, 
 are of no importance. 
 
CHAPTER XVI 
 
 LYNTON 
 
 SIR GEORGE NEWNES sometimes said of 
 himself in all sincerity that he represented 
 the average man. Readers of the story of 
 his life are by this time aware that in many 
 respects this was far too modest an estimate. 
 He had many qualities which set him above 
 the average person, and one in particular 
 which is extremely rare. Great and sudden 
 prosperity came to him in early manhood, and 
 his was the temperament which fully appre- 
 ciates the ease and enjoyment which wealth 
 is able to procure. Without ever overstep- 
 ping the boundaries of good taste or ostenta- 
 tiously displaying his possessions before the 
 world, he made his surroundings as pleasant 
 and luxurious as possible, and crowded his 
 holidays both at home and abroad with as 
 many and various diversions as he filled his 
 working days with serious occupations, sharing 
 whatever he did in the most generous manner 
 with friends. But unlike most who are placed 
 in similar circumstances, he never grew blase or 
 tired of his amusements, and his enjoyment of 
 
 272 
 
LYNTON 273 
 
 the latest holiday or hobby before his health 
 broke down, was as fresh and keen as in those 
 wonderfully happy days when, at the age of 
 thirty, he suddenly found that many of the 
 beautiful things for which he had hoped and 
 longed, though he had never envied them while 
 they were beyond his means, were now within 
 easy reach. 
 
 One of the greatest desires of his life which 
 he could satisfy, thanks to his prosperity, was 
 that of being as often as possible near or on 
 the sea. For to him the sea was not the evil, 
 fearsome thing it is to a few of us, nor the 
 sad dividing line which Matthew Arnold saw 
 in " the unfathomed, salt, estranging sea." 
 He loved the sea with a strong and unchang- 
 ing love, and the last time he was out of 
 doors, a few days before his death, he was 
 carried on to the lawn high up on his Devon- 
 shire hill, on a glorious day in May, to look 
 once more upon the wondrously beautiful 
 view that had given him such pleasure all 
 through the years; the great foreland rising 
 beyond the town of Lynton out of the silvery 
 waters of the Bristol Channel, and beyond 
 the waters the Welsh hills, far away, faint 
 and opalesque, like the hills of dreams. 
 
 Sir George himself held the theory that in 
 most people born inland this love of the sea 
 is far more intense than in those born near 
 the coast, and that their affection increases 
 
274 LIFE OF SIR GEORGE NEWNES 
 
 with the distance of their home from the sea- 
 board. He being born within a few miles of 
 the very centre of England, it followed that 
 he must be counted among the greatest lovers 
 of the sea. To this natural inclination was 
 added an inherited passion, for his mother, 
 as has been told, would every now and then 
 follow a mysterious call of the sea, and flit 
 quietly from her Midland home to indulge in 
 a short sea-trip all by herself, so that she 
 could give herself up wholly and fully to the 
 fascination of the wide waters. 
 
 His elder brother Edward had inherited 
 this same passion to such a degree that, after 
 often and vainly trying to obtain his father's 
 consent to going to sea, he ran away from 
 home, joined a ship, worked his way up, 
 earned his captain's certificate, and soon after 
 lost his life when his ship was wrecked off the 
 dangerous coast of Brest, and when he plunged 
 into a terrific sea trying to rescue a drowning 
 comrade. 
 
 Many years ago, as soon as Sir George found 
 that he could leave his business for some weeks 
 in winter and do a good deal of his work 
 away from town, he took a winter residence 
 in some pleasant sunny place on the coast, 
 and during the last twenty years of his life 
 he and his family usually spent a month or 
 two early in the year, when our English spring 
 is doing its best to rob life of its charm, yacht- 
 
LYNTON 275 
 
 ing in the Mediterranean or the Adriatic, 
 inviting a party of friends to join them, first 
 in a yacht taken for the season, and later in 
 his own beautiful vessel, which for some years 
 was considered the finest private yacht owned 
 by an Englishman. 
 
 Nearer the end of his life he also spent 
 several winters on the Nile, Egypt having 
 a strange fascination for him : the great 
 waterway, up which he often went as far as 
 the Second Cataract, revealed its beauties to 
 him long before it became one of the popular 
 highways on which the well-to-do winter tripper 
 disports himself. But the Nile never drew 
 him like the sea, and one reason for his winter- 
 ing in Egypt was that, after his health began 
 to show signs of giving way, it was considered 
 that life on the quiet river, flowing through 
 a country pervaded by the soothing spirit 
 of a great and immemorial past, would help 
 to restore him. 
 
 He encountered adventures wherever he went, 
 as all men do who go on their travels with an 
 imagination as vivid, a mind as keenly alive 
 as was his to the picturesque, the dramatic, 
 the unusual, and with a natural readiness 
 to be interested and entertained. Indeed, so 
 numerous and various were his experiences 
 that he was beginning to think of writing a 
 volume of yachting stories as soon as those 
 looked-for days of leisure should be at hand 
 
 T 2 
 
276 LIFE OF SIR GEORGE NEWNES 
 
 which he was not destined to see. He jotted 
 down some notes on events and incidents 
 which happened to him at Corsica, at Jaffa, 
 where he was nearly drowned, at Venice, and 
 here and there at places on the French and 
 Italian Riviera, but the notes are too cursory 
 to furnish material for anecdotes or stories. 
 
 One delightful story, however, Sir George 
 told me himself one day at Wildcroft, when 
 he had come to luncheon looking tired and just 
 a little cross. He would not speak at first, 
 and I told him he reminded me of the captain 
 of a certain pleasure yacht who used to come 
 in to luncheon after a long morning on the 
 bridge as grim and unsociable as could be. 
 Then after the first course or two the cloud 
 would lift from his face, he would shake himself, 
 turn to his neighbour and say, with a beaming 
 smile, " Now I feel better," and for the rest 
 of the meal the captain's table would be the 
 merriest in the room. The story turned Sir 
 George's thoughts to the sea, and to his own 
 cruises among the Norwegian fjords. From 
 the way he spoke of these summer holidays 
 I imagine that they had charmed him even 
 more than those down in the south. 
 
 His yacht, the Albion, was anchored for the 
 night at the head of the fjord. It was in 
 June, when the light of the midnight sun, 
 which rises again before it has quite set on 
 the distant horizon, constitutes all the night 
 
LYNTON 277 
 
 that falls upon those scenes of grim gigantic 
 rock and mighty waterfall and gurgling green 
 waters. To those, by the way, who have never 
 spent consecutive weeks between June and 
 August in the land of the midnight sun this 
 condition of things may seem ideally attractive, 
 but in reality it has a few serious drawbacks ; 
 and after the sun has shone for six weeks 
 on end all day and all the night into your 
 white-walled cabin on board, or into your beauti- 
 fully clean, whitewashed bedroom at the village 
 inn, you may well be forgiven if you begin 
 to range yourself on the side of the wicked 
 ones who loved darkness better than light, 
 even though you may not be conscious of your 
 deeds having been as particularly evil as 
 those of the original lovers of darkness appear 
 to have been. 
 
 Late on one of those glowing northern 
 summer evenings Sir George was watching 
 the gorgeous, silent scene from the deck of 
 his yacht. Presently he noticed a small Nor- 
 wegian pleasure boat put off from the landing- 
 place of the village at the fjord head, not at 
 all an unusual sight, since the natives, and 
 especially the summer visitors at the places 
 ashore, reserve the cool twilight for their 
 amusements, and rest during the hot hours 
 of the day. In the boat were two ladies and 
 a gentleman; one of the ladies rowed, the 
 other steered. It often happened that strangers 
 
278 LIFE OF SIR GEORGE NEWNES 
 
 rowed out to see the beautiful yacht that lay 
 like a white sea-bird upon the water, and the 
 owner of which was known to be a kindly, 
 courteous gentleman, who would allow them 
 to come on board and look over the vessel. 
 
 As the boat drew near, the inmates obviously 
 not wishing to intrude at this late hour, Sir 
 George called across, asking whether they 
 would like to come on board, since his own 
 family and friends were still assembled in the 
 drawing-room. Yes, a fresh young voice with 
 a foreign accent called back, they would be 
 delighted to come, if it were not too late. And 
 so they came on board, the Norwegian clergy- 
 man, his wife, and her fair young sister, a 
 tall girl with an aureole of golden hair round 
 her winsome face, and with the peculiar grace 
 and charm which the fairies of the saga-haunted 
 north bestow upon some of their favourites. 
 
 She alone of the three talked English, but 
 Lady Newnes and her niece. Miss Jessie Hill- 
 yard, gave them all so cordial a welcome, 
 and the two girls especially made friends so 
 easily over a common interest in music and 
 song, that in half-an-hour's time the party 
 on the Albion was merrier than before the 
 arrival of the strangers and the fair Ida sang 
 old Norwegian songs to a delighted audience. 
 The impromptu midnight concert ended in 
 an invitation from Lady Newnes to the young 
 girl to join the yacht for a few days, and 
 
LYNTON 279 
 
 be taken to a place farther north where she 
 had never been, and which she would like 
 to see. She would love to come, she said, 
 but could not, because she had promised to 
 be the bridesmaid next morning at the 
 wedding of a rich peasant girl. It was to 
 be a real, old-fashioned country wedding, at 
 which all the ancient customs would be 
 observed, and old national peasant costumes 
 worn; the sort of wedding which Grieg had 
 in mind when he wrote the " Wedding Pro- 
 cession " music. Ida, the town-girl, must 
 not miss the chance of seeing it while she 
 was on a visit to her sister and brother-in- 
 law. But would it not interest the English 
 ladies and gentlemen, she added in her pretty, 
 broken English, to see the old-world function 
 that would take place at her brother-in-law's 
 church ? Norway would soon be too civilized 
 to want such simple ceremonies any longer; 
 they were already of the past in all but the 
 most remote country places. 
 
 The suggestion was received with great 
 approval, and next day one of the prettiest and 
 quaintest ceremonies imaginable was witnessed 
 by the English visitors, who were entertained 
 at the northern manse with simple, gracious 
 hospitality. The first favourable impression 
 having been confirmed on both sides, the Nor- 
 wegian girl, who turned out to be a niece of the 
 famous novelist, Jonas Lie, joined the yacht 
 
280 LIFE OF SIR GEORGE NEWNES 
 
 and became one of the most popular members 
 on board. Nor did the friendship which had 
 begun at midnight, and under such romantic 
 circumstances, end there, for Froken Lie, 
 before her marriage to a Norwegian judge, 
 spent some happy months at Wildcroft, Carlton 
 House Terrace, and Lynton with the friends 
 who had, as Sir George used to say, " picked 
 her up out of the water " and who gave her, 
 in her own words, " the happiest time I have 
 ever had." 
 
 It was his love of the sea which guided Sir 
 George to the place that was to become his 
 favourite residence, and where he was des- 
 tined to spend the last year of his life in com- 
 parative happiness after he was obliged to 
 withdraw from all work. Many years ago he 
 and Sir Thomas Hewitt, K.C., had become 
 acquainted at the British Chess Club, of which 
 Sir George was president and Sir Thomas 
 vice-president. They made friends over the 
 game to which both were devoted, and Sir 
 Thomas occasionally spoke of his Devonshire 
 home, and in return had to listen to a good 
 deal of chaff as to his affection for a place 
 eight hours by train from London. As if 
 there were not plenty of country districts 
 just as pleasant and beautiful as Lynton, 
 which it took a whole day's tiresome train 
 journey to reach ! 
 
 Shortly after Lady Newnes and Lady Hewitt 
 
LYNTON 281 
 
 had also met and become friends, Sir George 
 and his family were invited to spend a few 
 weeks in summer with Sir Thomas and Lady 
 Hewitt at their Devonshire home. This was 
 before the days of motor-cars, and from 
 Barnstaple Lynton could only be reached by 
 coach or private carriage, the journey uphill 
 and down dale being long and not altogether 
 pleasant to any one with a spark of imagination 
 and pity. For the hills were lengthy and very 
 steep, and the sight of the horses toiling pain- 
 fully up, and struggling down with almost equal 
 difficulty, would go a long way to spoil the tra- 
 veller's pleasure in the beauty of the scenery. 
 
 Sir George, who had a perfect horror of cruelty 
 to any living thing, especially to creatures so 
 helpless as an animal in the service of man, 
 was not too favourably impressed with the 
 long drive from Barnstaple to Lynton, although 
 his host had thoughtfully provided two extra 
 horses to draw the carriage up the last steep 
 hill leading to his house. 
 
 At the moment when these horses came in 
 sight the travellers were just watching from 
 their carriage another horse being forced 
 down towards a rushing river by the too heavy 
 load of trippers behind it; and what would 
 have happened to this party had not a thick 
 wall stopped them on their road to ruin, it is 
 not pleasant to contemplate. 
 
 The first sight of Sir Thomas Hewitt's home, 
 
282 LIFE OF SIR GEORGE NEWNES 
 
 which lies remote and beautiful on the hill- 
 slope, in the greenery of fragrant woods and 
 pleasaunces, wrapped in an old-world atmo- 
 sphere of deep repose, with here and there a 
 glorious glimpse of the sea below and far 
 away, drove the thought of the distressful 
 carriage-drive out of Sir George's mind, but 
 no sooner had he and his friend the chance 
 of a quiet talk than he broached the subject. 
 His fertile brain had already worked out 
 a plan for putting a stop to all the torture to 
 animals, all the danger to travellers by 
 road. More than this; the realization of this 
 plan would also bring increased popularity 
 and therefore increased prosperity to Lynton 
 and the entire district. 
 
 " Has it ever occurred to you," he asked 
 his host, " that this river which rolls down 
 like a torrent might be harnessed and made 
 to bring up every ton of coal and every 
 passenger from Lynmouth to Lynton, without 
 any cruelty to the poor, labouring beasts, 
 and any danger to human life ? 5: Yes, said 
 Sir Thomas, the idea had often been considered, 
 but for one reason or another it had never 
 been definitely taken up. He himself was 
 fully persuaded that a cliff railway, worked 
 by water-power, would be an immense boon 
 to the place. " Is there any one in the place 
 who is likely to undertake the construction 
 of such a railway ? " Sir George asked. There 
 
LYNTON 283 
 
 was a certain man who might be inclined to 
 take the matter in hand ; he was asked to call 
 the same night after dinner and " talk about 
 it," Sir George, with habitual eagerness, being 
 anxious to carry out the project without delay. 
 To quote once more from his own notes 
 
 " That night we fixed up a plan by which 
 we could make a cliff railway. I took the 
 rest in hand. In a month the work was begun. 
 In two years the railway was opened, with 
 thirty pressmen down from London to report 
 it. At that time it was the steepest inclined 
 railway in existence. It has since been run- 
 ning for twenty years, and can boast of never 
 having lost a parcel or a passenger. The only 
 mechanical part of it for which I was respon- 
 sible was a provision that the man at the wheel 
 should do something before the car could 
 move. The arrangement is that he has to 
 lift the brake off, and keep it off, in order that 
 the car may proceed. If the brakesman does 
 not do his duty for any reason, the brake acts 
 automatically. Whatever might go wrong 
 the worst that could happen, up or down, 
 would be that the car would stop. 
 
 " We have four or five other automatic 
 brakes, and I remember at the luncheon held 
 at the Valley of Rocks Hotel on the opening 
 day I explained all these provisions for the 
 safe working of the lift in detail. When 
 
284 LIFE OF SIR GEORGE NEWNES 
 
 had finished some one called out ' But what 
 if the yall fail ? ' So I said to him : ' Well, 
 if they all fail, the car can only stop in the 
 middle of the track, as I have explained, but 
 if you wish for more information as to what 
 would follow if everything happened that can 
 not happen, you must try to make a record 
 passage between Lynton and Lynmouth, cause 
 all the brakes to refuse to act and all the 
 other appliances for the safety of passengers to 
 fail, and then notice the result." 
 
 There is a little story in connection with the 
 great opening day of the Lynmouth to Lynton 
 lift as the cliff railway is locally called of 
 which I am reminded by Sir George's obvious 
 satisfaction that the event brought thirty 
 London reporters to Lynton. He says nothing 
 of this incident in his notes, but I am sure I 
 may be pardoned for re-telling the story, since 
 he himself, after a moment's astonishment, 
 was the first to laugh at it right heartily. 
 
 From the Lynmouth-Lynton point of view 
 the opening of the line was, very naturally, a 
 most imposing and important affair, a thing 
 to be taken very seriously indeed. What 
 would life in quiet country towns and villages 
 be, if the inhabitants were not wise enough to 
 make the most of little things ? And this, 
 after all, was not by any means a small thing, 
 since besides being an immense boon to the 
 
LYNTON 285 
 
 natives, it would bring a far larger number of 
 American and other tourists to the most 
 beautiful part of Devonshire, so soon as it 
 became known that it could be reached easily, 
 and without that toilsome, precipitous climb 
 at the end of the long coach-drive. Still, from 
 the unsympathetic, or perhaps scornful, out- 
 sider's point of view the stir and commotion 
 which, for this one day, put local interests 
 first, and possibly caused a slight lack of 
 attention to the wants and wishes of strangers, 
 was much ado about very little. 
 
 After breakfast on the opening day Sir 
 George and his friend Mr. Tomalin were 
 walking in the grounds of the Valley of Rocks 
 Hotel with the pleasant sense that this was a 
 great and important day, and Sir George 
 would not have been the frankly human man 
 he was, if he had pretended not to know 
 that to him would fall the chief honours of the 
 day. The town was all beflagged and gar- 
 landed, the whole population was making 
 holiday; even at this early hour there was 
 the hum and stir of pleasant anticipatory 
 excitement. 
 
 Then out of the hotel door there stepped a 
 stranger, whose apparel as well as his morose 
 face proclaimed that he had no part in the 
 rejoicings. He joined the two friends on the 
 lawn and, after a remark or two, said with a 
 note of utter disgust in his voice : " The whole 
 
286 LIFE OF SIR GEORGE NEWNES 
 
 place is upside down, they are making a lot 
 of fuss about this little shoot. For just a 
 second Sir George and his friend stood dum- 
 founded. Could they believe their ears ? Was 
 this what the epoch-making event looked like, 
 seen through the eyes of an outsider ? Then 
 they both burst into laughter, and laughed 
 and laughed, the innocent offender looking on 
 in amazement, and finally turning away with a 
 shrug : in his view the people that day assem- 
 bled at Lynton were obviously as crazy as 
 the arrangements made for the comfort and 
 convenience of passing tourists. 
 
 The cliff railway was the first link in the 
 chain which bound Sir George permanently to 
 Lynton. Later on it was he who suggested, and 
 found a large part of the capital for, building 
 the narrow-gauge railway line between Lynton 
 and Barnstaple, which runs through some of 
 the most exquisite hill scenery in the length 
 and breadth of England. Then gradually, 
 and for all his former chaff of the man whose 
 chief residence lay one hundred and fifty miles 
 from London where he had his work and most 
 of his interests, he began to occupy himself 
 with the thought of building a country house 
 somewhere near the twin villages lying in the 
 green valley on the borders of Exmoor. It 
 is a vast region of limitless views, strong 
 pure air and a sense of freedom, where the 
 great silence is only interrupted by the dull 
 
LYNTON 287 
 
 thud of the horses' hoofs as the stag hunt 
 sweeps past, or as a party of trippers drive 
 along the red roads, quoting Lorna Doone, 
 while the flocks of sheep graze and chew 
 the cud close by in utter content. In the 
 distance the famous Exmoor ponies disport 
 themselves as if they alone were the lords and 
 rulers of these breezy heights. The Lyn 
 Valley itself, in its serene and luxurious loveli- 
 ness; the Valley of Rocks in its elemental 
 grandeur, and above all, the restless, heaving 
 sea, now in its fury lashing the rugged coast, 
 now rippling playfully shorewards in silvery 
 wavelets, proved irresistible to the lover of 
 the sea and the hills, and soon Sir George 
 Newnes was looking about for a position whence 
 as many as possible of the characteristic features 
 of the district could be enjoyed. And here, 
 as usual, he did not set out in the ordinary 
 conventional way to find the place for a home- 
 stead, but evolved a plan by which he obtained 
 a property which had several peculiarly charm- 
 ing features. 
 
 Just above the town of Lynton, there was a 
 hill, bare and bleak and very steep to climb, 
 which was for sale. It looked unpromising 
 enough, to the ordinary eye, as a place for a 
 large summer residence. There was not a 
 shady tree upon the whole of it, the layer of 
 soil upon the rocks was thin and of the poorest, 
 and of level ground there was none at all. But 
 
288 LIFE OF SIR GEORGE NEWNES 
 
 long before you reached the summit there 
 stretched out before your eyes a scene of 
 such rare grandeur and loveliness that you 
 might have searched far and wide along the 
 whole of the Devon coast-line before you found 
 its like. 
 
 As he looked upon the panorama of sea and 
 rock and moor and woodland, Sir George 
 decided that here, high up on the hill-side, he 
 would build the pleasure-house where he and 
 his family and friends might come when they 
 were tired of the bustling, noisy life of London, 
 and renew their strength in ideally fair sur- 
 roundings. And since, for all his frank en- 
 joyment of unconventional social life, he was 
 a man inclined toward solitude, whose natural 
 tendencies were towards retirement and re- 
 serve, and who was not entirely at ease in 
 daily life unless he felt that he could easily 
 withdraw into complete privacy, he bought 
 the whole of Hollerday Hill, his quick imagin- 
 ation foreseeing what few others could see 
 at the outset, namely that by dint of in- 
 genious planning and careful study of the 
 possibilities of the place this barren hill 
 might be converted into a place of exceptional 
 loveliness. 
 
 The work of bringing order into the chaos 
 was tremendous, and even before the actual 
 building could be commenced a good road 
 had to be constructed in order that the building 
 
Photo} 
 
 QEORGE NEWNES, BART., TOWARDS THE END C?F 'Hj3 llFE,' 
 
LYNTON 289 
 
 materials could be brought up without suffering 
 to the horses; the place where the 'house was 
 to stand had to be levelled out of the face of 
 the granite rocks; a sufficient water-supply 
 had to be arranged for, and many other details 
 which have no existence for those who build 
 on an ordinary site, had to be carefully con- 
 sidered. But so keen was Sir George's interest, 
 so great his delight in this plan, that he curbed 
 his natural impatience, and watched the slow 
 growth of his new domain in calm content, 
 insisting only that nothing should be left out 
 in the construction of the house which would 
 add to the comfort and enjoyment of the occu- 
 pants and to the saving of labour. 
 
 The winding road, cut out of the rock, was 
 planted on either side with a magnificent 
 variety of trees, flowering shrubs and rock- 
 plants, which throve so well in the soft pure air 
 of North Devon that after a few years the 
 approach to Hollerday House became famous 
 far and wide for it wondrous beauty. In May 
 and June, when the shrubs, the wild rock-roses 
 and all the other spring flowers are in bloom, the 
 way from the gates of Hollerday to the summit 
 of the hill is like a road through fairyland, so 
 absolutely lovely, with the added charm of 
 a silence intensified by the soft whisper of the 
 breeze in pine and chestnut and acacia tops. 
 
 Lady Newnes made little flower-gardens 
 
 here, there, and everywhere in sheltered nooks 
 u 
 
290 LIFE OF SIR GEORGE NEWNES 
 
 where the ground could be levelled, and her 
 walled rose and pansy garden, to mention only 
 one of many of her special creations, was " a 
 sight to dream of, not to tell," all through the 
 spring and summer months. It is the charm- 
 ing homeliness of the place which lends to it, 
 above all other things, the peculiar grace that 
 is so often absent from the elaborate domains 
 of the wealthy. 
 
 Playgrounds there are, too, in plenty, for 
 Sir George and his son were equally devoted 
 to outdoor games ; tennis courts and bowling 
 greens are there, and croquet lawns for the 
 less active ; cool shady nests among the ferns, 
 all hidden in pine-scented woods, and giving 
 glimpses of the sea far away, with steamers 
 gliding towards the horizon and the wide 
 Atlantic, or to the Welsh coast rising dimly 
 between the glittering sea and the shining sky. 
 
 And, best of all, there are the " wild " parts 
 near the summit of the hill, where your foot 
 steps on springy turf, all golden in spring and 
 summer with tiny wild flowers; where the 
 rabbits play among the grey boulders; where 
 pine and fir plantations vary with slopes of 
 heather and gorse, and where, when you sit 
 on the short hard grass near the cairn and 
 watch the scene around you, the hours go by 
 unheeded, and the eternities of the past and 
 the future seem to mingle in the glory of the 
 present. The sea lies deep, deep below, almost 
 
LYNTON 291 
 
 all round; the fantastic outlines of the hill- 
 tops above the Valley of Rocks stand out 
 against the wide sky with their suggestion of 
 old monasteries and witchcraft and romantic 
 vanished centuries; and with the sighing of 
 the wind among the rocks there mingles only the 
 sweet, plaintive cry of the circling sea-birds and 
 the drowsy hum of honey- and bumble-bees. 
 
 If it were not that the white highroad winds 
 through the Valley of Rocks, and that here 
 and there you catch sight of a piece of the 
 famous North Walk half way down the hill, 
 on the edge of precipitous cliffs, there would 
 be hardly a sign of human life. At sunset 
 time the summit of Hollerday Hill is like the 
 holiest of holies in the wide temple of Nature, 
 and he must indeed be an unemotional being 
 whose heart does not expand in this magnifi- 
 cently beautiful place. Except on Sundays, 
 the grounds of Hollerday were all day long open 
 to the public, and thousands of visitors, as 
 well as the inhabitants of the district, had the 
 privilege through the years while Sir George 
 lived at Lynton, of sharing in the enjoyment 
 of the scene. 
 
 The spell was never broken which the whole 
 place from the beginning cast over its owner, 
 nor did he ever grow tired of watching from the 
 terrace or lawns in front of the house the loveli- 
 ness around. He was a restless man, who 
 found it increasingly difficult, as his health 
 
 U 2 
 
292 LIFE OF SIR GEORGE NEWNES 
 
 and strength began to give way, to remain 
 long in one place ; but as his eyes fell upon the 
 green valley, the foreland and the sea, his 
 unrest went, and the deep peace which comes 
 unbidden, and which nothing but close com- 
 munion with Nature can give, fell soothingly 
 upon him. At one time he contemplated 
 buying the manor of Lynton, but this idea 
 was not carried out. 
 
 In his beautiful home on the hill he lived 
 whenever he could throw off the burden of 
 work; and crowds of friends enjoyed the gener- 
 ous hospitality of Hollerday House, as they 
 had shared Sir George and Lady Newnes's 
 pleasures at home and abroad. When the 
 symptoms of diabetes, from which Sir George 
 had been suffering for some years, became 
 more serious, and it was occasionally thought 
 necessary that he should take a prolonged rest, 
 it was to Lynton he went. There, leading a 
 very simple, restful, open-air life, he found 
 new strength to battle against the gloom and 
 depression which began to fall upon the man 
 to whom life had always been so great and 
 precious a gift, and who, still in the prime of 
 manhood, could only think of death with the 
 shudder with which all normally constituted 
 human beings shrink from the idea of annihi- 
 lation while yet the years are far off when death 
 must come in the natural course of things. 
 
 It was to Lynton that Sir George and Lady 
 
LYNTON 293 
 
 Newnes went in the summer of 1909 when he 
 had been medically advised to seek retirement 
 for at least the autumn and winter. At 
 first the pleasure of being back in the place 
 which he felt more and more to be his real 
 home had the usual stimulating effect, and 
 again and again, when the disease made another 
 onslaught, he battled against it with all the 
 strength that was left to him. But the spring 
 did not bring the hoped-for improvement, and 
 though he suffered no physical pain, and had 
 to the very end the appearance of a strong man 
 in his prime, with prematurely white hair, life 
 ebbed away more and more rapidly and the tired 
 brain could not regain its activity. The world 
 retreated, and there remained nothing but the 
 loyal love that had been his all through his 
 happy married life, and now stood by him, 
 strong and pure and forgetful of self, his till 
 death and beyond. 
 
 On the whole, the last months of Sir George 
 Newnes's life were not unhappy, for as the end 
 came nearer the thought of death seemed no 
 longer to haunt him. But one strong regret he 
 was yet to experience. This was when his son, 
 who had represented the Bassetlaw Division 
 of Nottinghamshire in the House of Commons 
 on the Liberal side for four years, lost his seat 
 in the January Election of 1910. The father's 
 great love for, and pride in, his only son made 
 this temporary set-back in what promised to 
 
294 LIFE OF SIR GEORGE NEWNES 
 
 be a successful political career a heavy blow, 
 and one he felt to the last. 
 
 It is with Lynton and its gracious influences 
 that the last page of the autobiographical notes 
 deals. He was very near the end when he 
 wrote the final sentence : " The charm of the 
 place has grown on me so much that a short 
 while ago I came here to reside permanently " ; 
 and it was at Hollerday where he died quietly 
 one morning when June threw all its glory 
 upon the enchanting scene. 
 
 As he lay dead in the silent house high up 
 on the hill, every day and almost every hour 
 brought additional proof of the strong hold 
 which Sir George Newnes had on the affection 
 of those who knew him. His winning person- 
 ality had gained him friends wherever he went 
 and whenever he came into personal touch with 
 others. The servants of his own household 
 were devoted to him, and even the two male 
 nurses who had been in attendance for some 
 weeks before the end, and knew him only in 
 the last stages of mortal disease, mourned him 
 as one who had grown dear to them. The 
 occasional labourers on the estate, the men and 
 lads who had seen him about in the village 
 and the district, and to whom he had sometimes 
 said a friendly word in fact, the whole country- 
 side was in mourning for " kind Sir George." 
 As the wonderful floral gifts began to arrive, 
 and overflowed from room to room, they spread 
 
LYNTON 295 
 
 around his simple coffin a living pall of roses 
 and lilies and palm and bay. Glancing at the 
 messages sent with these farewell tokens you 
 felt that there was hardly one but had in it 
 the unmistakable note which only comes with 
 the sense of personal loss. 
 
 The colleagues and co-workers of many years, 
 who were still working on : a little band of 
 men who had served him when he first set out 
 on his strenuous career; a late chauffeur who 
 far off had heard of his death, and sent his 
 wreath of purple iris to " a good and much- 
 loved master " ; a crowd of private friends in 
 every station of life; and many a man and 
 woman whom, in his own quiet way, he had 
 befriended they all put that into the words 
 wherewith they bade him the last good-bye, 
 which shows that the heart is stirred, and 
 which no amount of mere esteem or admiration 
 can ever call forth. 
 
 And you had but to glance at the faces of 
 those who followed the coffin as it was carried 
 by the volunteer bearers down the winding 
 road which he had cut out of the desolate and 
 barren rock, to see that genuine sorrow had 
 brought them out of their busy world to 
 accompany on his last journey the staunch 
 and loyal friend, the man to whom they were 
 drawn by the human bonds which outlast 
 all other ties. It was this which gave the 
 funeral in the hushed and mourning village 
 
296 LIFE OF SIR GEORGE NEWNES 
 
 its unique and touching character, and which, 
 by those who were present, will ever be remem- 
 bered as something finely and tenderly human. 
 It was the best tribute to a man much honoured 
 and esteemed for the services he had done to the 
 public, who, from the beginning to the end of 
 his life, possessed in an extraordinary degree the 
 rare quality of drawing men to him through their 
 affections, and of keeping friends by reason of 
 his own goodness and kindness of heart. 
 
 There was no serious newspaper in London 
 or the provinces but paid its tribute of high 
 esteem to Sir George Newnes on the day after 
 his death, and the North Devon papers in their 
 obituary notices all agreed that with him the 
 county lost one of its best and most generous 
 friends. 
 
 " The news of Sir George's death," wrote 
 one, " caused a profound feeling of regret 
 in Lynton and Lynmouth, where flags were 
 flown at half-mast as a sign of public grief. 
 By all classes he was beloved for his broad- 
 mindedness, generosity, and particularly for 
 his kindly interest in the working people, 
 which was a most noticeable trait in his 
 character. Large as his private benefactions 
 were, his gifts to Lynton were on an almost 
 princely scale." Another, in the course of a 
 long appreciative article, wrote : " From the 
 time Sir George and Lady Newnes took up 
 their residence in North Devon the deceased, 
 
LYNTON 297 
 
 by his generosity and foresight, conferred 
 untold benefits on the two villages of Lynton 
 and Lynmouth benefits in which the vast 
 number of visitors who crowd to the place 
 from all parts of the world have been able to 
 participate." 
 
 To the benefits actually conferred upon the 
 place there must be added one of great im- 
 portance which Sir George intended to confer, 
 and in connection with which he had spent a 
 large amount of thought, time and money. 
 The approach to Lynmouth by sea is of the 
 most primitive character. No steamer can 
 put in, and passengers have to be landed in 
 small rowing boats. Sir George himself had 
 experienced the disadvantages of this state of 
 things when as parliamentary candidate, and 
 later on as Member, for Swansea, he was fre- 
 quently crossing the Bristol Channel. His 
 intention was to build a pier, which would not 
 only have added greatly to the convenience 
 of the inhabitants, but would also have still 
 further increased the prosperity of the twin 
 towns, by bringing shoals of visitors across from 
 the Welsh coast. He introduced a Bill into 
 I: arliament enabling him to construct a pier at 
 Lynmouth, and paid all the expenses connected 
 with the passing of the Bill, but was prevented 
 from carrying out the project, first by pressure 
 of other work, and later on by ill-health, until, 
 unfortunately, his rights had lapsed. 
 
CHAPTER XVII 
 
 THE MAN 
 
 IN the spring of 1911 Sir William White, 
 K.C.B., unveiled at the Newnes Public Library, 
 Putney, a bronze bust of Sir George Newnes, 
 set in a marble niche. It had been placed there 
 at the suggestion of Mr. L. R. S. Tomalin, that 
 most constant and devoted of friends, by public 
 subscription, as a tribute to the memory of " the 
 donor of the magnificent library," as the Mayor 
 of Wandsworth explained. 
 
 Sir William White, in the course of an 
 affectionate and generous tribute to his friend 
 and neighbour on Putney Heath, of whom he 
 spoke as " a man among men, a man who in 
 any company was distinguished by his appear- 
 ance, his manner, and his great natural gifts," 
 said that Mr. Oliver Wheatley, the artist to 
 whom the work of executing the bust had been 
 entrusted, had achieved a triumph in producing 
 so excellent a likeness of Sir George Newnes. 
 
 This was not a mere form of speech, and 
 must in no wise be taken as the customary con- 
 ventional remark which every one expects to 
 hear on occasions of this kind, when speakers 
 
 298 
 
THE MAN 299 
 
 almost invariably labour under the impression 
 that they are bound to pay compliments, and 
 deal out platitudes to the artist, no matter 
 whether a likeness be good or bad. In the 
 present case it was the literal truth ; the artist 
 had achieved a triumph, and this was the more 
 remarkable as he had never met or seen Sir 
 George Newnes, but had been guided only by 
 photographs of Sir George, and by whatever 
 help those actively interested in the execution 
 of the bust were able to give him. 
 
 Of portraits and busts of Sir George there is, 
 fortunately, no scarcity. Several busts had 
 been made of him during his lifetime by order 
 of men or communities desiring to express in 
 some permanent form their gratitude for bene- 
 fits bestowed upon the public, and there are 
 also any number of portraits, by painters and 
 draughtsmen, as well as by amateur photo- 
 graphers, who were easily attracted by his 
 picturesque personality. With his handsome 
 head and regular features he generally " came 
 out well," to use a popular phrase, but those 
 who knew him best felt that what these por- 
 traits and busts showed was only one part of the 
 man, and that somehow the best and most real 
 part of him had been left out. 
 
 Most of the likenesses of Sir George Newnes 
 show all the dignity, the intelligence, and the 
 many other sterling qualities which go to the 
 making of the face of a distinguished, clever, 
 
300 LIFE OF SIR GEORGE NEWNES 
 
 successful man. But they omitted the subtler 
 qualities by which a man makes friends and 
 keeps them; the qualities which attract strangers 
 and inspire crowds with confidence, affection 
 and enthusiasm: in fact, the qualities of the 
 heart and the soul without which a man, though 
 he speak with the wisdom of man and the 
 tongue of an angel, and understand all mysteries 
 and all knowledge, is but as sounding brass or a 
 tinkling cymbal. 
 
 But where most of those had failed who had 
 attempted to paint or draw or photograph, 
 mould in clay or carve in marble, the likeness 
 of the man, Mr. Wheatley had succeeded. 
 He has put that into the face, the eyes, 
 the poise of the head, which re-awakens the 
 sadness which those who knew him well in 
 priv 7 ate and in public life felt when they heard 
 that Sir George Newnes had passed away. 
 
 And the thought that this likeness in the 
 entrance hall of the Putney Free Library 
 reveals the man at his best moment, brought 
 back a recollection of the artist whose work is 
 said to represent a nearer approach to the art 
 of the old Italian painters than that of any 
 other British artist of the past or present. 
 Mr. G. F. Watts once wrote to me I forget in 
 reference to what subject : "In Heaven we 
 shall be always what on earth we were only 
 at our best moments." 
 
 Watching the sunset-light fall softly upon the 
 
THE MAN 301 
 
 bronze face, in the marble niche of the Library 
 which he had given to the people, I wondered 
 where the freed spirit of this man had flown, 
 and was led on to speculate as to his own 
 religious creed, his own idea of " Heaven." 
 Reserved as Sir George was in the discussion 
 of all serious matters perhaps because he was 
 a very serious- minded man, for all his apparent 
 cheerful light-heartedness he was most re- 
 served in giving expression to his religious 
 beliefs. As the son of deeply and truly 
 religious parents he had probably inherited 
 instincts of reverence and faith; his childish 
 prayer in the garden-house at Silcoates School 
 showed that in his early years he was anything 
 but indifferent to spiritual influences, and the 
 open-handed generosity with which, later in 
 life, he helped any religious body the work of 
 which seemed good to him, no matter by what 
 sect it was set afoot, spoke for itself. 
 
 It is true he was no regular attendant at 
 any place of worship for some years before the 
 end came, though he went occasionally to the 
 Thursday noonday services at the City Temple, 
 to listen to an address by his friend the Rev. 
 R. J. Campbell. And he would not be drawn 
 into any discussion on a subject connected with 
 religions and creeds, much less would he himself 
 speak lightly or disparagingly of sacred things, 
 or permit others to do so in his presence. But 
 if the practical Christianity still counts for 
 
302 LIFE OF SIR GEORGE NEWNES 
 
 anything, which, while it is in no way militant, 
 is always ready to help and further the good 
 work of the Churches, and which shows itself 
 in a kindly, honest, helpful and hopeful life, 
 then Sir George Newnes was as good a Christian 
 as most men. 
 
 On the very rare occasions when he was, 
 perhaps in spite of himself, induced to express 
 an opinion on the mysteries lying on the other 
 side of death, he seemed to range himself with 
 the reverent and open-minded agnostic, and 
 he said once, rather wistfully, when some one 
 resented as irreverent the idea of a discussion 
 on the subject of what Heaven would be like : 
 " There is, in my judgment, a curiosity in the 
 soul of man with regard to the great Beyond, 
 which, if it is reverently stimulated, may 
 lead to conceptions that will help men in 
 the struggle for righteousness." He never 
 wavered in his steadfast belief in an all- just 
 and all-merciful Father, nor would he for a 
 moment accept the idea of a God who could 
 or would punish His creatures with everlast- 
 ing punishment. 
 
 Such was the man as I knew him from the 
 time when his two little lads ran out to wait 
 impatiently at the gate of Wildcroft for the 
 return of the father who was also the best of 
 friends and playmates, to the day when the 
 blinds in the great house on Hollerday Hill were 
 drawn, because the master had died, and when 
 
THE MAN 303 
 
 the flags at Lynton flew at half-mast, because 
 the man who had been a friend to one and all 
 in the old town, had disappeared from the 
 
 scene which he loved best on earth. 
 
 ***** 
 
 Looking backward upon the grave-stones 
 along the lengthening road of life, who has not 
 felt that among the sleepers beneath these 
 stones there is one, here or there, of whom it 
 is quite impossible to think as dead ? You 
 may have seen them in their coffins, followed 
 them to the grave, and watched the grass and 
 flowers grow on the mounds above them, but 
 still, whenever you think of them, they are in 
 the midst of life, working, striving, forging 
 ahead; keenly interested in many things 
 and people; happily absorbed in living, and 
 so integral a part of the drama of life that a 
 world without their active presence seems 
 unthinkable. 
 
 Sir George Newnes was one of these vivid, 
 powerful personalities, and even as I finish this 
 impression of his ardent life, and remember the 
 June days when he lay in the silent room from 
 which the floral tributes overflowed in a wide 
 stream of living colours ; or the golden sunshine 
 when we put our last posies of roses, mignon- 
 ette and wild flowers from his own hill 
 under the high pyramid of flowers on his grave, 
 I cannot yet believe that he has disappeared 
 for ever. 
 
304 LIFE OF SIR GEORGE NEWNES 
 
 And sometimes, while writing this Life, and 
 glancing through a chapter with which I was 
 even more dissatisfied than with the rest, it 
 has seemed to me as if he himself had read the 
 book, and were standing by the window where 
 he so often stood, giving his friendly and 
 amused opinion with as much detachment as 
 if my subject were any man but himself. 
 Then, presently, he seemed to turn towards 
 the room, the whimsical smile lighting up his 
 grave face, while he pointed out some error or 
 inaccuracy, saying : "HI were you, I should 
 alter that. But, of course, do as you like." 
 ***** 
 
 He died before he had completed his sixtieth 
 year; humanly speaking, he might have lived 
 and enjoyed life for another twenty years. 
 But there is truth in Rousseau's famous 
 saying : " To live does not mean to breathe, 
 but to act; it means to make use of our 
 organs, senses, faculties ; in short, of every part 
 of our being which helps us to be conscious of 
 our being. Not he has lived most who has 
 attained great age, but he who has been most 
 vividly conscious of living." In this sense Sir 
 George Newnes did indeed reach the utmost 
 limit of the little span of life allotted to 
 mortals. 
 
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