In the Public Eye

Evening Post, Volume CVIII, Issue 83, 4 October 1924, Page 24

In the Public Eye

POINTS OF NOTABLE PERSONAGES

The Prince of Wales is a young man of many parts. H e is a AVelsh bard and a Highlander by turns. When he danced_a Highland reel at the Imperial Jamboree camp-fire he paid a delicate compliment to Scotland. But there is another point about the story which has not been printed, and which Scotsmen only will appreciate at its proper worth. The Prince jokingly selected to dance with a "seventhsome" of the braw lads o' Aberdeen, "because," said he in an aside, "Aberdeen is the only Scots word I know!" As a Welsh bard he has- expressed the hope that he may "inherit some of the poetic spirit of the ancient people who'for centuries have delighted in 'heroic story and far descended song.' "-

lew if any residents in the Temple in London have as great a right to publish its reminiscences as has been vested in the Hon. Stephen Coleridge, whose family tradition has been bound up .with its old stones since Samuel Taylor Coleridge haunted them "in the majesty of a universal understanding." But- the r.ctual building in which the poet's utterances—"Suspended whist and took with ravishment the thronging audience" —has disappeared with the amazing eloquence of "the most impressive talker of his age."

Mr. Daniel Hopkins, who has been called, to the Bar at Gray's Inn, London, began his working, life as a farmers boy at one shilling a week. He is 38 and has had a varied career. He was left fatherless on a farm in his native village of Llantwit Major, Glamorganshire. For two years he was oddjob boy to the curate, and received three shillings a week. His cleverness at the village school gained him a pupil teach-'. or s post at the age of 14 at £5 a year. A King's Scholarship for Carmarthen Training College followed. He managed to save enough money to go to Cambridge. -

There seems to be' a tendency for comedians to put their sons into the legal profession. George Robey's son, tdward, recently passed his' Law Tripos —getting his B.A. and LL.B.^-at Cambridge with flying colours. Sir Harry Lauder's only son, who was killed in the war, was a promising law student; but the most famous case of all was that oT the late Director of Public Prosecutions, Sir Charles Mathews, whose father, "Charlie" Mathews, kept the old Gaiety echoing with laughter. Mr. Edward Robey is taking jip the criminal side of the profession as a barrister. May he bo the .Marshall Hall of the future.

Mr. Eric Robert Dalrymple Maclagan, 'who has succeeded Sir Cecil Harcourt Smith as head of the Victoria and Albert Museum, has long been recognised as one of the most discriminating and refined authorities upon art, not only in England but throughout Europe. 'His career has been watched with interest since 1905, the. year in which ho entered the great Art Museum of-which he now becomes the director. He is the son of Archbishop Maclagan, of York, and was born in 1879, and was educated at Winchester and at Christ Church. Ho spent some time studying on tho Continent. His great gift' for languages made him of use during the war, when he held high appointments both in England and in Paris. - .He was made C.B.E. in 1919 and elected a Fellow of tho Society of Antiquaries in 1921. Ho is tho greatest living authority upon sculpture and architecture and upon primilifs, bnt his general knowledge of art and literaturo is wide and embracing.

Lord Balfour is turned 76 to-day. He was in his 70th year when ho made a notable trip from Washington to Mount Vernon,in company with M. Viviani and Marshal Joffre, to lay wreaths' on tho tomb of Washington. The trip was mado in the President's yacht, Mayflower, and on board there wero many officials and much ceremony. It was discovered after a while that Mr. Balfour was missing.. After a search ho was found iv tho forecastle, sitting on a box, engaged in a lively discussion with the bluejackets. lib had treated tho men to cigars all round, and was on tho best of lerms with them, his identity being unknown to thum. Regretfully Mr. Balfour wont back lo the dull formalities of tho upper deck.

The Democratic Party in the United States finally ehoso John \V. Davis as its candidato for. president and Charles W. Bryan for vice-president. Mr. Davis is an eminent"'lawyer, closely associated with corporation affairs, and was Ambassador to England during the war. Mr. Bryan is the Governor of tlie Stnlo of Nebraska, aiid is best known „as tho brother of William J. Bryan, a popular politician, who twice was nominated for tho Presidency on tho Democratic ticket and each time failed of election.

A man who, besides being a Cabinet Minister in Canada and the world's biggest poultry farmer, is Mr. John S. Martin, Minister of Agriculturo for Ontario, known throughout tho Dominion as tho "Wyandotte King." Thousands of grown birds are exported from his farm every year, and nearly a quarter of a million hatching eggs. So big is the business that five typists are required to deal with the correspondence alone. And it began with half a dozen hens in a backyard, Mr. Martin having started his career as a school teacher.

Sir Walford Davies, Gresham Professor of Music, is a worthy successor'to tlie late Sir Frederick Bridge, who held the appointment for over thirty years, and made the Gresham lectures more popular than they had even been since Sir Thomas Gresham 'founded them in 1597. At one time tho sure passport to a Gresham professorship was to bo a member of the. Gresham Committee. That was how a man named Griffin became Music Professor in 1763. He knew' nothing of music, being a barber, but he kept the job for eight years.