The Detroit times. [volume] (Detroit, Mich.) 1903-1920, 1911-11-03

The company which has been sup
porting Betiew in "Th Mollusc, to-
day cancelled all its western engage
ments and will return TO New York
Immediately.
Harold Kyrle Bellew, who Is dead
in Salt Lake City, was born in Pres
colt, Eng. March 25, 1855. the son
oil clergyman. His father was a
lri.nd OF Dickens and Thackeray. and
was welLknown as a public reader.
Young Bellew spent the first years
of his childhood in India, where his
father was chaplain at the time OF
the mutiny.
The hill station near Darjeeling,
where they lived at the time, was
attacked by the rebels, but the Brit
ish troops arrived just in time TO save
the English residents who were hard
pressed by the enemy. After their
return to England his father, who had
been appointed TO st. Marks, Hamil-
ton terrace, was made queens chap
lain. He went on an expedition 10
Palestine for the London Morning
Post and later, with two other clergy
men, started a school In st. Johns
Wood in connection with st. Marks.
Ii was at that time that Kyrle Bel
lew first became acquainted with the
stage. Fechter, the great German &C
tor, daily visited the preacher TO take
lessons in elocution, and Bellew often
heard his father drill the actor in
the proper rendition OF Hamlets solil-
oquy. 1t was Fechter who first taught
young Bellew how to fence.
He entered the British navy as
cadet and served seven years, when
he entered a commercial establish
ment, with which he remained but a
short time. Equipped with strong
letter of introduction to Gavan Duffy,
who had offered him a position as
census collector, young Bellew went
to Australia He never became cen
sus collector, but instead became lee
turer in a panoramic show at Mel
bourne. This lasted seven weeks,
and at the expiration OF that time
Bellew made an unsuccessful EFFORT
to obtain a position in the Melbourne
theater.
When the great gold rush came
Bellew followed the crowd to the
g I'D fields. He had good luck and
accumulated quite fortune. but II
did not last long and he was COM
PEELED to make his living as best he
could. His occupations were OF va
ried nature; sometimes working In
the mines, sometimes on station,
at other times tramping, begging,
strengthening, chopping wood or
drawing water. For a while he made
a good living painting tavern signs,
and when the fever broke out he anf
a chum started cemetery, acting as
sections and undertakers and reading
the service over the dead.
After his return to Melbourne,
young Bellew worked for while as
police reporter on a daily newspaper.
But soon he tired Of the work and
returned TO England. working his way
home as third mate. His father had
died in the meantime and he had NO
other near relatives living. BY mere
chance he came across an advertise
ment in the Daily Telegraph in which
man named Charles Darlington
asked for light comedian to act
with Miss Helen Barry in "Clancar-
ty." Bellew had no coat besides the
one belonging to his mates uniform,
but ne cut on the SllI DuIlone anu
replaced them with other less conspic-
uous buttons before he called at the
Adelphi. Curiously, Darlington never
asked him directly whether he had
ever been on the stage. 3ellew made
good impression and was engaged
at salary OF two pounds a week.
He signed the contract under his
Christian names, Harold Kyrle." Ten
days later he played the part Of Lord
Woodstock in "Clancarty."