Personalities,

Alexandra Herald and Central Otago Gazette, Issue 414, 21 April 1904, Page 7

Personalities,

.;. : -- '.♦-.; £$ . 11l rj WOMAN WITHOUT A STOMACH. §9P?T an assembly of medical men at Vienna, on 28th October, Dr. saus£ UUmaan presented a wornm tt2 years old vhoae entire stomach had been removed in the course of an operationfor.;cancer.?';The patient nevertheless digests all her food, and her weight has increased by several pounds since the operation. Dr. UJlmann declared th»t, thauka to the progress in surgical science, of removthe entire stomach had been performed over 20 times with the greatest success. . . * t r *

DUKE OF BEDFORD'S SQUARES. The Dnke of Bedford,, who is, stated to make JBIOGOO-ayeaV out of Cdvent Garden, owns practically: all the-great Bloomsbury, squares. r/Badfordia'r, covers something like ISO acres, and is reported to be worth about £2sfioo ah acre. Seeing the Duke of Bedford has himself boasted that one-fifth of his estate is devoted to pleasure ; gardens, exclusive of 'roadways' and streets, the residents in this neighborhood ought to be able to rest assured that their squares are safe from violation. Earl Caddgan is another owner of London squares'whose regard for central open • Bpaceß;iß!W i ellknownj:iv) A STORY OF ST. PETERSBURG. ; *We iiave Heard a good deal^from timef to time of the<smartness of those individuals who waylay tailors' errand sofie plausible story.pn' order? to ofotairi pj|ssessibn ofliheir parcels; but for smartness the following will take some beating. The Czar of Russia some time ago gave s to the Minister of!his Imperial household a magnificent Overcoat lined with almost priceless silver fox fur.

The knowledge of this fact reached the ears of some smart, thief, who evidently imade bplhitfMMto get possessi&n #'that 'coat. " " - .Shortly after;the announcement of the, gift of the Czar appeared, a Court function took .place, at .which the Minister #as"presanb.i fhef reception the Minister proceeded to tho J hall, .where -the servants jwertf ita Siting ? Vith their master's furs and wraps. SoundJ that, by some means, the left sleeve of the garment'had entirely disappeared. The servant was unable to account for the theft, which had evidently been perpetrated by a clever thief in the crush of servants waiting in the entrance hall of the Winter Palace.

On the following morning the garment was sent to a first-class furrier, with orders to anpplj a new sleeve in place of the one stolen, without delaji: s%■.' A couple of hourb afterwarcU, and before the firm had time to find a silver fox akin sufficiently fine to match that of the garment, a servant dressed in the livery of the Minister entered the establishment bearing the missißg sleeve. He stated that the police had just recovered it, and that he had been sent to have it sewn in while he waited, as his Excellency wished to wear it that afternoon. Within an honr the sleeve had been replaced, the coat handed to the servant, who straightway made oft is the direction of his Excellency's palace. Later in the afternoon, however, his Excellency's valet entered the shop and asked when the garment was likely to be done. The astonishment of the poor furrier can be readily imagined when he discovered that the liveried individual who had called upon him in the morning with the: missing sleeve ? was a; clever thief, who had first stolen the sleeve with a view to being subsequently able to obtain the entire coat, which even the Eußßian police have failed to discover any trace ot.

A BOULEVABDi ■ ; The death in Paris of 'Bibi la Puree' roba the BjuLMich' o& charactera. '. Andre v ' Salia e was once '& pcuiptor, but for many years past he bad been a Bohemian of the weirdest type. He attached himself to the decadent; poet Paul Yerlaine, and survived his master by but seven years.H§ must have" blen nearly 70. A graphic description -of. t Bibi* isfgiven by MtVJ in l hi| > book, Paris and the Parisians. The scene is the-Bpulevard Michelj aad the hpn.r,9 r . at night; the students Are sitting ifrtleir'; cofiee and cognac; when—— :> " * ** " * <.-? ' ETeryoneVjinnkß, long, lean, rustily dressed person comes in view hair falls on bis shoulders, three cabbage roses hang from his coat. "HelSaffOlightly" "on "MveF mounted, neat. His eyes are humorous and.green;.his cheeka shaven and* uakehi; H#looks ; fal Eefieotiyely; he pun's at ari' ! inch oijcigaf fltte. t Waiters point at hjLm-; students salute Km. low* he smiles—Bibi of the Bive Gauche, Bibi the Bohemian, Bibi la Puree.

'Who is Bibi P Secretary, valet, anye thißg and everything, to Paul Veriaine was Bibi, six years ago. They met in ths Procope, where Yerlaine used to take hi absinthe. Soon a close friendships sprang up between the two; Bibi amused and interested the poet. When Yerlaine was stupefied with absinthe, it was Bibi who led him home. When Yerlaine had ho money to buy absinthe, it was Bibi who sold the poet's autographs oh the BouP Mich'and his books on the quays. Two years passed; Verlaine fell ill. In; spite I of Bibi's tender care, he grew worse, and •' was removed to the hospital, where he died, leaving Bibi a legacy of three shirts ~ •'Then all'at once a 1 strange 'passion look possession of him. Ha had hot known it in youth—it seized him suddenly, and amounted, in short, to this terrible vice i an irresistible craving for ■other* people's 1 His honor tottered before them. Old or new, shabby or smart, they stirred ia him -dishonest' emotion. He would use stratagem, craft; visit cornera casually,' linger byhatstandsj lazily, disappear suddenly, until someine would say, «st,Bibi P Efc tiens, ou est moa p&rapluieP' Next morning Bibi would enter the Pxpcope as.though nothing had happened.'

On the anniversary of Veriaine's death' the students subscribed for a new suit and presented it publicly to Bibi at the celebrated Cafe Proeope of M, Theo. 'At the grave Bibi. wept bitterly, and the mourners, pitying him, resolved to feast him when the ceremony was over. Bat alas! Bibi's soul had been stirred by a stack of umbrella's leaning againsfea tree. It; waß top. muebjfor ihlio. .Drying'his tears, he slipped away, and with him disappeared no fewer thtfn fifteen umbrellas.? In his latter ... days Jna students? feast ibr, carnival cortege wasT complete without Bibi; At mi-careiae(fie went through the streets on a throne, as Bibi simply, with umbrellas about him. .On all points of, etiquette—Latin Quarter was ooßsulted»