Los Angeles herald., 1906-08-26

III Mr. Chamberlain was born, in hum
R&A.Hl BILE villa down Camberwell way-sev-
E$&EM enty years; and yet, be you admirer
~kkASAS or an opponent of his politics, you
must admit that the amount of work he has
crowded into those years has been little short of
marvellous Beginning life in dame school,
kept by Miss Pace, he was not a great lover
Of books, but, as he grew older and was sent to
business at Nettleold's, at the age of eighteen,
his character rapidly changed He set out to
carve his way. He went to work to make Birm-
ingham, and was for some time the president of
the local debating club, which, without doubt,
brought about many reforms in then none too
prosperous city 1t here he learnt to speak
and his first speech was defense of Oliver Crom-
we'll 1t was in June, 1876, that Mr.. Chamber
lain took his seat in the House of Commons, and
his opening work there was anything but sue
cessful Hes beat" exclaimed Lord Derby,
when Chamberlain finished his first year as an
MP, "but he's not going to stay beat
NEARLY KILLED AT THE THEATRE.
Mr. Chamberlain has had one or two narrow
escapes from death in his time He is and al
ways has been great lover of the theatre, and it
may not be generally known that he has written
play himself, and, what is more, had it pro-
duced. But it was at the theatre that he had
his closest shave. The piece melodrama
The hero worked up with the excitement of a
great scene, had great knife in his hand, and
ran about the stage looking for all the world as
if it would go badly with the first person he met.
As it happened, Mr.. and Mrs. Chamberlain were
sitting in the front row of the stalls. Suddenly
the knife flew from the hero's hand and came
straight for Mr. Chamberlain's head; but it fell
short on his knees, though had the politician
been few yards nearer it must have killed him
HIS LOVE OF CARICATURES.
I suppose there has been no politician so carl
catured as Mr., Chamberlain, and caricatured
without mercy too But it all rolls off his back
like water off ducks in fact he likes it. Mr.
Chamberlain is a great collector of Sir F. c.
Gould's cartoons and whenever the inimitable
F. c. G. has particularly sarcastic picture, rep
resenting the Birmingham politician as a fox OF
some other animal, then it is "Joe" who buys the
original. All these cartoons he has ranged
round his study, dozens of them on end, and they
afford him infinite amusement, No cartoon ever
upsets his temper especially where the orchid il
introduced. The orchids, by the way, are al
grown at his Hghbury residence, and when hi
is staying at Princes Gardens supply is sent W
every day.
THE CHAMBERLAIN CARICATURIST.
Sir f. G. Gould, who is the greatest caricatur
ist of Mr. Chamberlain has been granted it'll
in the birthday honors. 1t was quite late in life
that he took to drawing for living, as he wa
associated with the Stock Exchange for many
wears. But when there he used to carcature al
the leading members, and even when eleven year
of age he had earned reputation for his carica
lures of wellknown people His cartoon take
him three hours every day. Incidentally S
Francis is very fond of cats, and one in particu
lar a black Persian, usually sits on the corner
of his desk while he works.