PERSONAL ITEMS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXV, Issue 9148, 1 September 1888, Page 4 (Supplement)

PERSONAL ITEMS.

Mary .Anderson is still in a convent, which she entered for rest. Mrs. Hamncersley, now Duchess of Marlborough, has a pearl necklace valued at £10,000. The Queen of Italy, who ia a clever artist, has designed what is considered to be the most beautiful lamp in the Italian Exhibition in London, Lady Carnarvon has, since her arrival from the colonies, been very seriously ill. The latest news concerning her health is, however, more reassuring. Of the coinage of the deceased Emperor Frederick, and bearing his ettigy, only a few thousand piecee were issued, and these are already at a very high premium. We are authorised to state that a marriage i≤ arranged, and will shortly take place, between Sir Francis Motitefiore and Miss deGutmann, daughter of Mr. Wilhelm de Gutmann, of Vienna. General Boulanger's mother, who is a Welshwoman, is eighty-four years of age. She lives quietly at Ville d'Avary. Her famous son is very kind to her and has always shown her a great deal of attention. The oldest working journalist in Europe is Sir Edward Baines, now in his eightyninth year. He began his newspaper career seventy years ago on the Leeds Mercury, and is still connected with that journal. There is a young man in the Spanish department of'the New York Life Insurance Company who will be the hero of the day in '92, when America celebrates the 400 th anniversary of her discovery. His name is Cristobal Colon, and he is said to be the only surviving , descendant in a straight line of Christopher Columbus. The Duke of Marlborough, during his recent visit to America, has sent over to England several of the best made trotting buggies and light waggons. He has also made arrangements to transfer to Blenheim a number of fine trotting brood mares. He thinks it about time for England to wake up in the matter of roadsters. Henry Johnson, the well-known English " masseur" of the Hatomam Turkish baths, has been smothered, with an apron, at the St. Anne Lunatic Asylum, in Paris, by an attendant while trying to put a strait jacket on him. He had been the " masseur" of the Prince of Wales, Lord Lytton, Cardinal Howard, the Emperor of Brazil, and General Boulanger. The Queen of Sweden is undergoing peculiar treatment to restore her nerves to a normal condition. Her doctors have ordered her to rise early, make her own bed, and dust and sweep the room. She has to take a walk in the garden before breakfast, work among the flowers afterward, and lead an active out-door existence all day long. Already the Queen has been benefited by this curious "cure," the "chambermaid treatment," as it is called. Oliver P. Rahin, inventor of the selfscratching match, is living quietly in Booneville, N.Y. He is now an old man, and his fortune, estimated at £50,000, gives him every comfort and successfully keeps the wolf from the door. His famous match was an inspiration which came to him in sleep. On retiring he had attempted to light his gas with an ordinary match and had burned his fingers. He had a dream which suggested the device by which he made a fortune. The insanity of the unfortunate ex-Em-press of Mexico, Carlotta, who has just completed the twenty-first year of her widowhood, exhibits curious phases. She has now developed a strange mania for military and judicial works, which her ladies-in-waiting are compelled to read to her for hours at a time. She is so absorbed in the«e readings that when her wearied attendants attempt to skip a few pages she at once calls attention to the fact that the narrative has been interrupted. Mr. T. Balfour, the actor who is playing in " The Golden Ladder at Cork" Theatre at present, finds that his name isunpopular with the rowdies. When his trunks were handed over to the railway company at Dublin they were all right, but when they were delivered at the Court Theatre it was found that the straps had been cut, the handles removed, and many marks of injury were evident. The outrage was probably committed by someone who supposed the name Balfour on the trunks was in some way connected with the Chief Secretary.