of Braithwaite. For
some six months I attended the school with the regularity of the Prince
Smith Clock, and was not absent a single Sunday. Fellow scholars of mine
were, William Scott, Hannah Holmes (afterwards married to a missionary,
named Kaberry, with whom she went to Africa), Midgley Hardacre, Thomas
Binns, John Pearson, and James Smith, locally known as "Jim o' Aaron's,"
who met his death by falling down a lime kiln. Sunday school work
interested me greatly, and it was with much "happiness at heart" that I
looked forward to Sunday. I was not long a scholar ere I was made a
teacher. Possessed as I was of what I may call a "theatrical" voice,
acquired during my career on the stage, the people liked to hear me read,
and I was kept fully occupied in reading chapters from the Bible. Yes;
the time I spent at the Sunday school was a very happy one.

LED ASTRAY BY POLITICS

But, unfortunately, a few of my companions got me to bother my head with
local politics. There was a Local Board election approaching at Keighley,
and some new-made acquaintances led me, as it were, to contract the
prevailing political fever; and, as events turned, it was not meet that I
should do so. My sinning friends were Bill Spink, better known as "Old
Bung;" "Porky Bill," Jonas Moore, and others. I struggled hard for the
particular party which I favoured, writing "squibs" and all kinds of
doggerel, until I became literally saturated with politics. In the
meantime I had continued my attendance at the Sunday School, though my
duties were entered into with less zest and enjoyment than formerly. I
well remember Mr Pickles, the superintendent, saying he had no doubt I
should be a great man some time. But the insinuating influences of
certain companions acquired during my political career soon told upon me;
the old saw says "Show me your comrades and I will tell you who you are."
I got associated with people older than myself, many of them wool-combers
from Bradford and other places--men who had seen the world in all its
dodgy and dark ways, and who knew how to take advantage of people who
hadn't. I had plenty of money, and I found plenty of friends to help me
to spend it. I began a retrograde movement, finally severing my
connection with the Sunday school, a step which gave my parents great
uneasiness. I attribute my falling off entirely to the bad companionship
into which I was led. They were too "old" for me, and I was rather too
"soft" for