1937-07-26 — Page 22

10

THE

WOMAN

The Simplest Way Out • Was to Marry Her

THE HONGKONG TELEGRAPH. MONDAY, JULY 26, 1937.

BEHIND

BERNARD

"She Carried Me Off

FINDS ROMANCE

AT

40

To the Country

TO-DAY, Bernard Shaw is 81. Frank Harris, his intimate friend, here reveals the story of the woman who is behind Shaw, who sits in the background, never interviewed, rarely photo- graphed.

By FRANK HARRIS

THIS is the story of Shaw's marriage. It is, perhaps, the most neglected incident in his whole career.

I do not think any passage in his plays is as humorous as his description of how he finally was brought from green pastures to the harness-room of life's stable.

There are many versions of this. I recently ran into a French one recounted by Maurice Verne.

According to Verne, Shaw was in aunt introduced her to Mrs. Sidney Florence in the middle nineties, Webb. The Webls were at that travelling with some friends. He moment trying to establish the Lun-

"You Are Lost !"

the

money.

a

SHAW

• "We Married Neither for Love Nor Money"

G.B.S.

IS 81 TO-DAY

BOILER-SUIT

OR

BLACK-COAT?

HAVE worked in a factory and in an office. I have worked konk business men as a commercial_tra- veller. I ain 11 graduate of one University and a student of another, Experience gained jostling with men of all classes prompts me to add to thoughts of thure who have con- tributed to these columns on the question of whether our sons should seek a trade or join the ranks of business and professional men.

The dilemma in many minds seems to be this business spells insecurity, and a trade, to some, spells a lower- anding of social status. The questions to which answers ure sought Which of these is the lesser evil? Which is the better start for my boy?

wearing a jacket which, he swears, this crutches had worn to rags in the

armpits.

Mrs. Shaw has a proprietary alr about Shaw the **ITTS husband" complex, when 11c Isn't "Üle Geniu:"but Sho has not his appetite for put- Helty.

fell ill, and his friends had to go on, don School of Economics (as it after and the irresistible force only a man, registrar, still Q11 crutches

with an inadequate but one of them refused to leave him. wards breume)

som bequeathed to Webb by an had had to find a way out.

"Go out and buy a ring and eccentric town clerk.

within the licence," he said. And Miss Townshend reinforced

week Shaw was a married man, that the This fried nursed him thatrath bequest to such purpose

I. In my innocence, believed that takte No. 10, the illness and, by the time law Webbs were able to

provisional People married either for love or could eit and take police, the Adelphi-terrace, as

Shaw would not allow that precivit home for the school. the lady easinghe bad married for either. situation had berome KO that he grew alarmed,

the situation further by making

"We married," he said. "because "Ileavens,

two top floors her residential flat. you

Through the friendly relations we had become indispensable to one

with the Webbs, the plain truth,

another." And that appears to be Their country plaer la Ayot St. thus established

Lawrence, Hertfordshire, where they Townshend was invited to

who He won silvery when they are well liked as gentlefolk spend the autumn holiday with them were married by the West Strand contribute to the Church. contnued, at a rectory taken for the purpose Stratford St. Andrews, near "Nobody would believe that you did this, simply out of disinterested Saxmundhum in Suffolk. devotion. In the eyes of the world

There she met Shaw. you are lost

what have

done he exclaimed

amateur nurse.

tes

She looked at him, surprised.

"Do you realise what your friends

wil

think

Show

The lady wanted to know whet they had better do about it; possibly

pursue, the safest course to thought, would be to reinait the rest

she

of her fe in Italy; but Shaw, know-

Ing how easily the canons

UT TRE-

M

at

.

The result was fairly inevi able. We But Shaw Soon writing to Ellen Terry that he

love. thought he would fall in with Miss F. T. He was at this time man of 40.

Seventy-Five Years Of Saving

are.

ان

The dilemia exists partly because We have

that excellent forgotten principle that there is dignity In labour. How often have we heard a fond middle-class parent say with a righ, "Of course, Jolin's just in

But If a Ind has trade."

be forced, for aptitude, unless it business, or

or if he has no burning desire for a profession, he is much better "put to a

(rade" In the creation of useful things, be they well-trimmed ditches or mighty machines, he will find a satisfaction that the office stool or the polished shop counter cannot give him.

THE Post Omee Savings Bank has A scheme for a nation-wide Post

But that reward of a trade can been celebrating the 75th an Office Savings Bank had been pro come only to those who put away For 75 posed by one Whitbread, as far back all unhealthy notions of a trade At all events when Shaw returned niversary of its foundation. pectability can be satisfied, decided to Fitzroy-square, he began spending years it is served the public, and a 1806, but dropped us unpracticable. being low-grade socially, who can

though it is now somewhat over- But young Sikes had energy and that the simplest way out would be his disengaged evenings

shadower

by municipal saving banks purpose, and we next hear of him the world in the face and be

lieve that their labour, however Verns, correspondence shows, she was tak and by the large Ju-stuck banks, in 1058, reading a paper on the sub-humble, is just as full of value to i

ing part in his work as a volunteer with their small savings accounts, ject to the Social Science Congress humanity as that of the black-coated

to marry

al Miss

Townshend's flat; and, as the Terry

Thus Shaw, according to saved the honour of a lady.

SVIN us secretary. What really occurred respectable and prosaie as everything * would-be that happens revolutionist Shaw.

to

But to understand it, it is neece- ary to hark back to Shaw'a domesit- cation with his mother.

This extraordinary pair, though in

A New Problem

It is well to remember that the Post at Bradford. Ofter was in the felt before mest of

brother.

Another fact should be considered by the parent with qualins abou: putting his Ind to a trade. The trades nerd good middle-class youth: to the works and the factories.

He worked out detalls and then its competitors thought small depoxi approached the Secretary of the Pos Dignity of Life tors worth encouraging, and it still inflec, Sir Rowland Hill, world- maby arcus untouched by famous for his Introduction of the After second autumn holiday covers

then.

penny post and the real father of the with the Webbs in Monmouth, the

Credit for its inception is given to modern Post Office. He was great Wehbs went off for a voyage round

absence thoughtful bank eierk employed enough to consider the views of a such complete accord that no un- Shaw's health suddenly broke down. by the Huddersfield Banking Co., unknown bank clerk, and with his for the dignity of life they can bring

the world. During their

by name (an un- far-sighted mind saw the immense Ar an luvalid, Shaw presented a Charles Sikes kind word ever passed between them,

Townshend. expected name to be connected with possibilities of the scheme, both for never had a meal together, never new problem to

the front door of a savings bank) bringing in money to the Post Office discussed anything with one another. She had for the first time to visit He in the course of his daily toit and for helping the modest saver,

They lived their own lives and him in Fitzroy-square.

looked around him and sw the The mother-and-son menage went their own ways without a no-

the Dorer Gladstone's Approval horrified her. Mrs. Show seemed to difficulties that faced ment's friction.

tuke almost no account of her son's people when they tried to save.

Enter Miss Townshend When Beatrice Poller became Mrs. Sidney Webb she found herself load- ed up with Sidney's friend Shaw.

She tried him during one holidays and apart from his

tarianlam he was no trouble.

Jiness.

to Miss

Miss Townshend took prompt

shape of measures in the house on Hindhead in

Surrey, which salubrious eir Alic

CAITY proposed immediately to

to

of his veze-

The experiment was a success

off Shaw. His mother had not the smallest objection.

and thenceforth Shaw spent his without the conventional

autumn holidays with the Webbs.

the WILS

Buch

domesticity into

pre-marital

which Char-

lotte Payne Townshend burst.

serve and

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I have vivid memories of appren-Hong Bank Bldg.

but

tice lads degraded in many ways to make a forenoon or lunch hour sport for plder men. Some come out of it coarsened, their lives and decency He turned it over to his depart- broken. They submit because it hus The Insecure Stocking ment for polishing up, and presented always been done. Decent youllis it to the Chancellor of the Ex- from decent homes ean end it all. True, trustee savings banks had chequer, at that time Mr. Gladstone. If they take dignity of life to the been established In

some of the He also saw that it was good, gave trades, decency they have learned more enterprising towns, but they it his backing, and in 1801 it re- from their childhood, if they can were very few. Large townships celved Royal assent. It came into stand up and speak up against do- and whole counties had nothing to operation on September 17; before gradation of youth, they add thereby But Miss Townshend reckoned encourage the small saver, the big December 31 of that year facilities big quota to the life of their city

side of banks looked down on all such; they were in use at 1029 offices.

and to citizenship. no time to be bothered with.

branches Shaw. He had always scrupulously had

To-day 15,550

To write thus does not imply that 10,000,000 customers, avolded doing anything that could people who wanted to pay in just about

a shiling or two. compromise her.

nearly a million home safes are scat- offices are havens of purity, or Uni- M.as Townshend would have) Even the savings banks were not tered over the country, Humble versities temples of holiness.

the trades especially need the dignity very convenient, only open a few savers are encouraged to secure more She, too, was a revoltee, having none of this nonsense. Come social compunctions and religious Hindhead he must, and be properly hours on certain days, and the poor permanent investments by buying and decency which these youths can

been and bring who have people had to resort to the traditional National Savings Certificates, acepticisms and general intellectual nursed and fed and taken care of. Interests which finally led her The irresistible force had met un stocking-foot. But even if put by eves to join the capitalist ranks by manly honour.

was all investing in Government securities business or profession, he ought to the the in a safe place, 115 Immovable obstacle; and Inquire into Socialism.

woman

του She consulted an aunt; and the immovable obstacle was a

vasily spent again; losses by fire through its agency. and theft were frequent, and old age

been The idea or Sikes bas

be ungrudgingly aided to realise that the white- with no savings and no pension was realised. Every little clachan and desire. In these days

collar job does not mean security: dismal prospect.

village which has à Post Office trans- This banic clerk had an ideal of acting money order business has but neither does a trade guarantee giving saving facilities to every per- provision for the humblest depositor. that. In difficult times both must sen in the land, and looked for some The Post Office still preserves the suffer, in prosperity both sides of means of carrying it out. He saw curliest ledger, and at the head of the life stand to gain. Business and pro- the Post Office, energetic, expanding, first account is the name of Charles fessions are not altogether a "risk" already with a network of offices Sikes, the man who thought for the for youth. in towns and villages, as the ma- poor. chinery to carry through his plan.

to

MY WORD! AN ACTOR!~That widely known Irish dramatist, George Bernard Shaw, has agreed to take part in John Drink- water'a now screen play, "The King's People," now in preparation in London, which shows British celebrities of the day. Here is Mr.. Shaw adjusting, his 'glasses before the cameras click off a special reel in which he appears,

to

A

money

HONOLUL

BY EMPRESS

G. V. G.

TO

CANADA. U.S.A., & EUROPE

EMPRESS OF JAPAN

EMPRESS OF ASIA

EMPRESS OF CANADA

EMPRESS OF JAPAN

,at Noon Aug. 6th

...at Noon Aug. 17th

at Noon Sept. 3rd

...at Noon Oct. 1st

Air-conditioned equipment carried on Trans-Continental Trains. Frequent Canadian Paelfio Allantlo mailings from Montreal and Quebeo, down the smooth 'St, Lawrence Seaway, to Europe.

>77M

Telephone 20752.

Canadian Pacific

trained to

But if a lad acts his heart on

Waiting for A Chance

To prove that "education is a while elephant." a writer stated in a recent article that "we have University undergrads 08 for

conductors." Maybe so. But an undergrad in such a case must be one who has falled to graduate. He should be glad to be n car conductor. True, for the graduate there is sometimes a period of walling, but the same holds true of many and desiring to be an apprentice.

Aguin, the samo writer would scare us from putting our sons into business by stating that the black- coated brigade pay the terrible price to dropping out of the National Health and Pensions Scheme and of losing the right to unemployment benent when annual salary exceeds day? C250. What of the ruiny What of it? When salary exceeds £230 the worker may continue the anfeguards of the Health and Pen-

Agents.

13 18

Telephone 28021.

OUR BRITISH CROSSWORDS

ACROSS

1 You probably know this bird.

It is always after some seed. 4 Thought. 0 Concerning,

The sailors for transports" 18 Recess 11 Part of a night? in 14 down beheaded.

16 Bone that sounds ns if it might

come into sword drill,

17 "Farthing ogres" (anag.). 20 This bit of clothing is n bit of

a blow.

21 Epithet for biting could doubt-

less.

alons scheine by becoming volunt-22 Early O.T. character.

this singularly In-

uty contributor. Unemployment, 25, 1f his man is up-set he is still too, can be guarded against. For moderate

non-State premium the department of any good Friendly Sacley will look after the needs of the rainy day,

1

in shape.

20. Pluralise

correct word game.

The solution of Die dilemma of to- day for our sons is this:-Danish peialism. Let aptitude for trade or business, and Inclination and desire of the developing lad decide the choice. There is no Ruaranice of security for either boller-kult black-coat. But give to your con such a training in chnracter that he will bring to his job dignity, honour, and decency. Arm him with these,. and, you have given bim, the best start, the

J..C..Bi.

or

to muke

a boya'

27 Mythical. 28 Order of architecture.

DOWN The one man in the courts to make the quarrel clear.

2 Our puls may become danger-

ous.

3 One of the shark family.

Game for the children's party (two words).

• Not the sort of journey to take

to set one up,

A mlid gamble.

7 Dull, in colour.

16

D Might be a theatre or a wig

(two words).

13 This raid sounds rather as if it

is ternal.

14 One might have bits of this

wood by one.

10 Epithet for the boxer who wouldn't come into the ring.

13 This feature of a cannon is not

dishonest.

19 A false report....

20 R resin.

23 Material or lassfo.

24 This Aslatic sounds

might make cheese.

as if he

Saturday's Soiztion

(WOODCRAFT ΤΟ |_P__U_ER COCHET HONEYMOON SA

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DRS BEYIGA RAILWAY ELEANOR

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BALINE MOMANER} r:TE

BEPROBATE