Big Men at Play.

Auckland Star, Volume XXVII, Issue 156, 4 July 1896, Page 1 (Supplement)

Big Men at Play.

Lord Salisbury might have become a3 eminent a scientist as he is a statesman. His laboratory and chemical apparatus at Hafcfield are a sight worth seeing, and his knowledge of his subject a thing even more worth having. One of his fellow Ministers of the Cabinet is reported to have suggested, in a weak moment, that his lordship's graep of foreign policy might be due to his ,keon eye for foreign bodies in a test-tube. Mr Joseph Chamberlain, like a well-trained maid, does many little things about the Louse, which, tempered with an absorbing desire for Imperial Federation, now practically manifested, is iiis real hobby. But he grows, as doe? also Baron- Henry Schroder, of cUy banking fame, that most alluring of nl! flowers, the orchid. Many a long price has one or the othe; pttirl fora rare though unsuspecting huib. Mr Chamberlain has been known to do some gardening on his own account in the undignified condition of uprolled ehirt sleeves. Considerable paragraphs have been perpetrated concerning M r Gladstone's fkill with tbe woodman's axe, but the pastime nearer to hi* heart is the intimate study of Horace—whoße immortal odes be has lately translated into graceful English verse—and of Homer, upon whore sounding lines he is an acknowledged authority. It is only a year or two since he delivered his memorable lecture upon Homeric research in the Debating Hall of the Oxford Union Society, The president of the union afe the time was Mr A, G. V. Peel, the son of the late Speaker; Mrs Gladstone was also present. The lecture delivered as it was upon the eve of the veteran orator's retirement from public life, formed a grateful and historic eoisode in the lives of all who heard it. How very different is the private life of his contemporary, the rugged Bismarck ! During his youth, the German was passionately fond of duelling. An authority states that twenty-sovsh duels in which he took an active part are on record. When surfeited of duelling he turned to practical jokes, a'ud carried them to such an extent that he was dubbed ' Mad Bismarck.' His refcirotr.ont, it is now asserted, ts relieved 'by never-ending cigars and light boev, with the novels of Dv Boiegobey thrown in as a solid. Amoncot tho athlatic mnmbera of Parliament, Sir Edward Grey claims rightly a high place. One need not look back far to find him holding the amateur tennis championship —an honour which represents nob merely a figure of speech, but physical prowees of an exceptional order, cool judgment, a keen eye, and long endurance,—'.Cassell'e Family Magazine.'