The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1939-06-29

sAeS "AAASS AAOaSS VASAA sAA~J v~S&sS~
r... our capital
1t0oettsT TooI they m j 6 h
Ours Is Not have been
por,.nu Ncs;on pleasantly as
sured that they
had dropped in on the America
of authentic British tradition and
not parvenu nation without past.
In the California badlands, when
Lawrence Tibbett was years old,
his father, deputy sheriff, cornered
the bandit, wild Jim Mckinney, in
Chinese joss house in Bakersfield.
At that time, Mckinney ranked Billy
the Kid, previously the leading bad
man in those parts. Shooting his way
out, he killed Tibbett. Tibbett's
brother, Bert, then sheriff of Bakers
field, stepped in in time to land a
load of buckshot between the bandits
eyes.
Just the other day, Lawrence
Tibbett's Uncle Bert gave him
the shotgun which had dropped
Mckinney. The boy had hard
scramble, getting an education
and helping support his widowed
mother and, at long last-speak-
ing in the manner of the house
of Windsor-here's another dis
tinctive American touch-Law-
renee Tibet is the first Amer
lean singer to gain fame without
European training.
Betty Lee Tibet, his sister,
taught him his first songs, and how
to play the piano. Joseph Dupuy,
the southern California tenor, was
<r, his first profess
Takes on II sional teacher.
And Luck Does He knew he had
a Ho,ovTur, avoice, but was
determined to
be Shakespearian actor. However,
his fame as singer grew in Los
Angeles, and he began studying with
Frank LaForge in New York. On
January 2, 1925, he stole the show
from Scott, in Verdi's "Falstaff."
The record shows one score for the
numerologists. His luck wasn't so
good until he added another ''t' to
his name-it is properly Tibet.
There's still another touch Of
quaint Americana in MIR. Tib-
belts story. Whenever he has
headache, he walks around on
his hands. He says that sluices
the blood out of his head and
stops the pain. Many time, just
before he was to sing specially
exacting role, members of the
Metropolitan cast have seen him
off stage, running around upside
down. Our reception to the king
and queen was necessarily rOu-
tined, but they would have
learned much of interest If they
could have circulated In dis
guise like good King Alfred who
burned the cakes.
THE Duke of Windsor gave the
L Rev. Robert Anderson Jardine a
pair of cufflinks for marrying him,
and the duchess sent him piece Of
Jardine Had but That was about
Walk On Part on the net return
u;.,o-,,. S.o,e for the little vi
cars defiance
of his clerical superiors. AS the cap
tains and the kings depart, he's
broke in Hollywood, which, some
people say, is worse than being
broke in Death Valley. Those who
liked to think they had ringside
seat at great events projected the
plump, sandy-haired little priest in
to history, along with the parish
priest mixed up in Napoleon's di-
vorce and marriage-an event which
set up the "Black Cardinals" and
set churchly hierophants wrangling
ever after.
Soon forgotten was the Rev.
Mr.. Jardine. His lecture tour in
this country was a failure. He
found engagements mysteri0usly
cancelled. He now says, "Big-
otry and persecution have fol-
lowed us across the sea. My
wife and 1 hardly know where
to turn, but we're fighting on.
found that America thus far is
land of promises, not of prom
ise."
He was a low-church, Evangelical
pastor in Darlington, county of Dur
ham, working in the slums and APP
pealing for better conditions for the
Welsh miners, known as "the poor
mans parson." 1t was King Ed
wards sympathetic reference to the
sad plight of the miners that claimed
his loyalty, even to the extent of
sacrificing his living of $4,000 year.
He had hoped to gain living by
lecturing in this country.
"People seem to shun me-" he
says. 81 can't quite understand
it." He is a rather bewildered,
meager little man. He sent the
duke a cablegram congratulate
ing him on his recent peace
speech, but got no reply. How
ever, he has no regrets. He be-
ieves it was clearly his duty to
perform the wedding ceremony.
eff had to do it all over again,
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