THE GREAT LAFAYETTE.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 3264, 8 July 1911, Page 10

THE GREAT LAFAYETTE.

A MAN WHO LOVED DOGS BETTER THAN MEN.

Refering to the tragic- death of “Lafayette” in the Edinburgh theatre fire, “The Times” says:—His eccentricities wore many. His cheques contained his photograph and that of his dog guarding two bags of gold, with the inscription underneath, “My best friends,” His bank, the Credit Lyonnais, Cashed these fantastic documents, and Lafayette never forgave the man who, in a calling in which practical joking is an everyday pastime, suspected .him of performing anything but a business transaction. He loved advertisement, and was constantly devising new ways of bringing himself into public notice. Two such schemes which he was not allowed to put into execution were proposed by him to the management of the London Coliseum during his last visit. In the one case lie wanted to create a sensation in one of the chief thoroughfares in the West End by throwing a dummy woman out of the window of an hotel. In the other lie sought permission to advertise that lie would be in Piccadilly Circus at a certain place and time, and would give- £SO to anybody who slapped him on the shoulder and said, “Yon are Lafayette.” In. the latter case the police refused to allow him to exercise his craft in a public place, and they also crossed his reith when lie commemorated his love of dogs on the wall of his iho use in Tavistock square. He had a medallion, hearing the words, “The more I see of man the more I love my dog,’ ’placed on tliei house front, but it attracted so much attention, from pas-sers-by that the police insisted on his having it removed. The door-plate inscribed, “The Great Lafayette and Beauty”—the latter being The name of his favorite dog—was, however, allowed • to remain. Inside the house, which was decorated with a . garish and glittering splendour, his eccentricities _ ran riot. His guests were greeted with a notice:—“You may eat my food, you may drink my wine, you may make use of my servants, you may smoke my cigars but you must respect my dog.” He amused himself by “spooling” his guests with a table of “property” refreshments and with other tricks and illusions.