Pinero was still troubled over the boy Derek Jesson:
You have seen, of course [he wrote], with your keen eye, the importance of the child — an importance which does not lessen as the play proceeds. Iris Hawkins would, I suppose, be the best; but if she is not available, and you know of no one in particular, Boucicault might help us. If we could find a child as clever as little Hawkins, the novelty might be better for us.
I have asked Lowne to write you again.
Would Nigel Playfair do for Dilnott?... A handsome, real French lady would be the ticket for Mlle. Thomé, don’t you agree with me. It would give just the right touch to the thing.
In the end Arthur Bourchier released Iris Hawkins from her engagement to him and she played the boy with just that brutality which the part demanded.
The rehearsals on this occasion were conducted on both sides with a watchful cordiality. The company to interpret the play had been Pinero’s choice and it was above all intelligent. It was quick to take up a suggestion and translate it into action. Irene Vanbrugh, who played the extremely important part of Nina Jesson, knew the author well from other plays and what he wanted. No Pinero play was complete without Lowne, so Lowne was there. Pinero had the French woman whom he had clamoured for, the child, a free hand in the direction — everything. Alexander was nursing him — meek as a lamb. After a rehearsal on a Friday he went home to Pont Street and wrote:
MY DEAR PIN,
Thank you for your kind words to-day, I know I am a disappointment at rehearsal and that you are very patient and sympathetic. I think that you will find that I shall serve you better than you imagine. Talk to me quite freely, and I will do my best to be worthy of your trust. Only don’t lose confidence in me.
Yours ever,
ALEC
Pinero replied in the same strain. The spirit of the millennium brooded above the roof of the St. James’ Theatre:
I am glad to receive your kind note because it gives me the opportunity of saying, more expressly than I have been able to say hitherto, that I have every confidence in your ability to deal successfully, and brilliantly, with your very difficult task. My anxiety that you should do yourself the fullest justice in a part which is a little foreign to your usual methods may show itself too strongly; but you will not blame me in your heart for this. Once more, Alec — I look to you to pull us through, and I feel sure I shall not be disappointed.
No, it is not you, but one or two other things that worry me — unnecessarily, you may think. The tone of our library, in particular, mocks at me in my sleepless hours. This scene was to have been our touch of the picturesque— “the old part of the building” — and Mr Macquoid has given us a bit of brand-new Shoolbred. It is this apartment that was to have conveyed the idea that Annabel’s boudoir was also an old room. How else could the dry-rotten boards of her cupboard have been so easily removable? But perhaps you will tell me I fret about trifles. Do, if you can — for my consolation.
The drawing-room is perfect — just what I imagined, and the hall will be good when finished off. Get an important bit of furniture to face the fireplace, if you can put your hand readily on such a thing.
Again, God bless you and send you luck.
Yours always, P.
It was, indeed, a crucial moment in the fortunes of Pinero, and Alexander had been well inspired when he persuaded him to return to the St. James’.
The play, although not perhaps on the plane of Iris, must stand high in any estimation of its author’s work. There was less sign of effort in the dialogue. There was only one sentence which was discomforting. The comedy never dropped into farce. The story was fresh if not new. It was satire without caricature, and drama without exaggeration. And the play was by far the greatest success which Alexander had in all the twenty-five years of his management, or Pinero in his long life as an author.
His House in Order ran continuously for fifty-seven weeks, from January 31st, 1906, to February 27th, 1907. Four hundred and twenty-seven performances were given and the receipts amounted to £78,189: 12s. The net profit reached £23,443. And at the final audit of the play in 1910, taking in Alexander’s salary as actor, the profits on his own tours and on his provincial companies, it had brought in a total earning of £36,638: 15 14.
CHAPTER X
John Glayde’s Honour — Alexander is elected to the L.C.C. His six years’ service — A possibility of standing for Parliament — Resigns the L.C.C. through ill-health — Knighthood and congratulations
HIS HOUSE IN ORDER was followed by Alfred Sutro’s John Glaydes Honour. And that by a translation of Bernstein’s Le Voleur. The two plays between them, with a six-weeks’ tour of His House in Order, filled up a year and increased the prosperity of the theatre. It is a proof of the sagacity with which the St. James’ was managed that John Glayde s Honour, with no more than a hundred and thirty-eight performances, brought in a net profit of over £4750. The scene was set in Paris, the characters were modish. The play required effective scenery and beautiful clothes. Yet on a run so ordinary so great a benefit could be obtained. The explanation is that Alexander was quick to understand when a play was sagging because of one of those temporary depressions which once or twice or even more often in any year afflict the theatres of London, or whether it was dying. If it was dying he was no less quick to whip it off before its vitality was quite exhausted. It was a characteristic of the Grand Panjandrum that the gunpowder ran out of the heels of his boots. That is nothing to the money which runs out of a theatre when a play is kept on after its popularity has gone. But Alexander had always old plays and their scenery and their dresses, and they could be revived at the shortest notice. Lady Windermere s Fan, for instance, was put on at the end of 1904 when The Garden of Lies had failed, and was continued for twelve weeks to a considerable gain.
Thus life was a smooth, busy, and prosperous affair for the Alexanders. The staff at the theatre was able and devoted. When plays lost money, they lost very little, and when they gained, they gained much. The Alexanders had moved to Pont Street during the run of The Triumph of the Philistines in the spring of 1895. They had room in their present house to entertain their friends. At times, some commodious place like the big reception rooms and terrace of the Royal Automobile Club would be taken for a big party during the season, and summer holidays would be spent in the Scottish Highlands. They both took an active part in the charities of their profession; and in the multifarious duties which distinction entails.
Alexander at the end of 1906 was forty-eight years old and his thoughts and ambitions were taking a new direction. At one time he had it in his mind to put some other actor into the St. James’ as its protagonist and to confine himself to running it as a business. At another he thought of letting it go altogether. His own hopes were beginning to be set on public service.
He was chosen to stand in South St. Paneras for the Moderate Party at the L.C.C. election in March 1907. His fellow candidate was Mr Frank Goldsmith. At the previous election of 1904 the Progressive Socialist candidates had been George Bernard Shaw and Sir William Geary, Baronet — a combination which produced some lighter moments during the contest. George Bernard Shaw sent his portrait to the electors but omitted to enclose a polling-card. Whether the combination or the omission affected the result, the two seats were lost to the Progressive Socialists. At the 1907 election, Major Gastrell retired and George Alexander stood for the seat which he had held. The other Moderate candidate was again Frank Goldsmith.
It will be remembered that at the Parliamentary election in January of that year, the Liberals had swept the field. The Conservative Party received a shattering blow from which it took fifteen years to recover. In the House of Commons it could muster only a section where before it had paraded a battalion. The hopes of the Progressive Socialists that they would retain in the London County Council the power which they had held for the eighteen years of the Council’s existence were naturally confident and high. But other important conditions were being left out
of the reckoning. The Parliamentary election had been fought chiefly upon the outstanding question of Tariff Reform. The secondary contention was the use of Chinese Labour in the gold-fields of South Africa. On this latter problem there is now general agreement that the Liberal objection to it was wise and in a strict harmony with the later traditions of the race. But at the time both these problems were strongly felt and hotly discussed. They cut clean across the ordinary divisions of Conservative and Liberal, and many a staunch Conservative helped to put a Liberal in because first he was a free-
trader, as the phrase went, and secondly because there was still magic in the name of Wilberforce. Clapham and Manchester between them disposed of the Conservative Party for the longer part of a generation.
But these two grave questions were the concern of the Imperial Parliament and of the Imperial Parliament alone. They did not enter into Municipal politics. No conclusion that a similar triumph awaited the Progressive Socialists at the County Council Election in March could prudently be drawn. In fact the Government in Parliament had as a rule worn a different colour from that of the Government in the London County Council. Moreover there were now a great number of young Conservatives with some experience of and still more enthusiasm for public life, who were put out of a job by the election. The General Election was fought in January 1907. The defeated candidates were free in March and the London County Council was their opportunity. The present Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs Samuel Hoare, Frederick Hall, Walter Guinness, Rupert Guinness, Montague Barlow, Felix Cassel, William Peel — they all seem to be knights or baronets or earls nowadays, and a handsome percentage of them has held or is holding the high offices of State — with political barristers and business men and women who wanted nothing more than to serve the county of London, flung themselves into this contest. The hoardings of the town became colourful with the picture of a Progressive Socialist smoking a big cigar and saying “It’s your money we want”. For once the civic conscience of
the Londoner was stirred into activity. He actually went to the poll. Yes, on his way to, or his way home from, work, or in his luncheon hour, he did actually vote. The majority which had lasted through eighteen years was dissolved. The Moderates were for the first time in power.
The opponents of George Alexander and Frank Goldsmith in South St. Paneras were the Rev. Silvester Home, a famous pastor of Whitefield’s Tabernacle in the Tottenham Court Road, and his colleague in the pastorate; but they were beaten by a large majority. Bernard Shaw’s comment was, “They were beaten by the Comedian and the Jew”. Alexander brought to his new duties the studious care which he had given to his theatre. He served on the Highways, Rivers, Public Health, Midwives Act, and Parliamentary Committees during his six-years’ membership of the Council; and during the five years from 1908 to 1912 he was continuously on the Parks and Open Spaces Committee. He became chairman of that body in March 1909 and continued to preside over it until March 1910, and in the opinion of some who served with him proved the most efficient chairman which that Committee had up till then had, in ensuring both the thoroughness of its work and the speed with which it was conducted.
Nor did he spare himself in the general business of the County Council. A suave and polished speaker, he was very useful when passion was rising. He spoke on the feeding of school-children and the care of crippled children, and took an infinity of trouble that what he said should be founded upon knowledge. His notes written in pencil remain, and the manuscripts of speeches written out and corrected and corrected again. Meanwhile he gave his attention and his presence to the needs of South St. Paneras. There were social functions to be attended, philanthropic efforts to be supported, and in all these matters of importance to a constituency his wife lent her tireless help.
Meanwhile he was acting eight times a week and producing plays. His plans for the future disposition of his theatre were still in abeyance. The necessity for a decision was not imminent. He could combine the activities of a member of the County Council with the direction of a theatre, even though from time to time when the curtain fell he must hurry back to Spring Gardens for an all-night sitting.
But he was looking now towards the larger opportunity — a Parliamentary constituency in London. In London it must be, if it was to be at all; for in London he was known as a successful man of affairs as well as an actor. The Central Offices of the Conservative Association, however, were true to the spirit and method of all Political Associations. Show them a likely man and they will waste him if they can. Alexander was invited to contest Battersea against John Burns at the next General Election. There was never a hope, of course, that that seat could be won. John Burns was entrenched in Battersea, had been entrenched there for years; and he had now the added prestige which belongs to a Cabinet Minister. He lived in his constituency. He had justified his appointment to his Office by his command of it. He was a good fighter, he was liked by his opponents as by his supporters, and he had the invaluable backing of a general recognition that his right place was in the House of Commons. The most that an opponent could hope to do would be to keep him busy in his own constituency whilst the election was being fought. It was the task for some young and eager bantam who wanted to establish a claim upon his Party by putting up a fine fight in a hopeless cause, and could afford to wait. For a man who had made his own way to an established prosperity through the chances of a profession as precarious as any that exists in the world, who was proving at South St. Paneras that the courage and judgment which he had shown in the conduct of his private life were at his service too in his public life; for such an one a better chance of success must be the condition on which he stood. He must win a seat, no doubt. A novice, except he possess some knowledge or aptitude at that moment particularly valuable or a great local reputation, must expect no less. But a man over fifty years of age, as Alexander would be when the next General Election came, must fight for a seat which can be won or leave Parliament alone. Whether Alexander would ever have allowed himself to be lured by Percival Hughes into so hopeless an adventure as Battersea, I cannot say. It is unlikely. But he had a warm and shrewd friend in the Duke of Fife; and the Duke of Fife strongly advised him to decline the proposition. During the course of that Parliament, C. A. Whitmore, a most respected and diligent Member of the House of Commons who had long represented the borough of Chelsea, died and Lord Farquhar supported a suggestion that Alexander should take his place. But it came to nothing.
Later on Walworth was proposed, and Alexander went as far as to pay £150 towards the registration expenses which that borough’s Conservative Association urgently demanded as a preliminary to the selection of a prospective candidate. But by that time Alexander’s health was undermined by the malady of diabetes. Insulin was not yet discovered. Alleviations were empirical. There was no cure. Alexander abandoned his project and in 1912 he decided not to stand again for the London County Council. He had represented his constituency for six years and he received, when his determination was known, many expressions of regret. Thus Captain H. M. Jessel (now Lord Jessel), then Member of Parliament for the borough of South St. Paneras, wrote:
I am positive that the news of your intention not to stand again will be received with regret and dismay by all your friends and their number is legion in South St. Paneras. You and Lady Alexander have done so much in every way that you will both leave a void not only in the political but in the social life which it will be almost impossible to fill.
Personally, I am exceedingly sorry, as our relations have always been so pleasant. I, however, quite realise your reasons and, after all, considerations of health are paramount. You have, however, splendidly fulfilled your civic duty and set an example from a busy life to others who are only too prone to forget their duties and too ready to criticise.
Captain Swinton, who then led the Moderate Party in the London County Council, wrote in the same spirit, whilst the Executive Committee of the South St. Paneras Unionist and Conservative Association passed by a
unanimous vote the following cordial resolution:
“That this meeting of the Executive Committee of the South St. Paneras Unionist and Conservative Association learns with profound regret that it is not the intention of Sir George Alexander to offer himself again as a candidate for the London County Council at the forthcoming election. They desire to place on record their high appreciation of the efficient manner in which he has fulfilled his duties as one of the representatives of S. St. Paneras during the past years, and the eminent services he has rendered not only to the division but to the whole of London during that period.
“They desire also to thank Lady Alexander for the kind interest and support she has given to all local matters during that period, and hope that they may both still be seen amongst the ratepayers in the division who cannot afford to lose such excellent friends.”
It is pleasant also to be able to record that, upon his death, the Liberal and Radical Association sent to Lady Alexander a message of the deepest sympathy and a hope that her grief might be assuaged by the knowledge that her husband had been much esteemed by all who knew him in St. Paneras.
§
During the Coronation year of 1911, Alexander received the honour of a knighthood. The telegrams and letters which poured in upon him and Lady Alexander must have taken weeks of solid work to answer. The list of famous names attached to them would fill pages. Old friends, new friends, friends unknown sent their congratulations and bore witness to the pleasure which they felt. I quote only two; one from a young lady of New Malden which is too delicious to need any comment:
When I saw in the paper the other day that you had been made “Sir” Alexander, I nearly went mad in my excitement, for I am an awful tomboy. I do love your acting so, I think you are streets ahead of Lewis Waller, although some people do not think so. I have been to see you heaps of times, and I would come every day if I could.
Complete Works of a E W Mason Page 852