ILLUSTRATED MISCELLANY.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXVII, Issue 164, 11 July 1906, Page 3

ILLUSTRATED MISCELLANY.

A CENTENARIAN'S MESSAGE. On the occasion of the celebration of his hundredth birthday Mr "Mathew Fowlds was asked by a Glasgow "Weekly News" representative to" write a measage. The centenarian ..willingly complied, and penned the message of which the following is a facsimile:— ft^/ft***'^* ;fa_ fc^atr Graystoneknowe, May 22nd, 1906. Lord Thou has been the God and the Guide of my life from mv v I^ uth U P hitherto, even to old age, and now I would praise Thee for all lay goodness and kindness unto mc for a hundred years.—MATHEW FOWLDS. ' ,

Nicholas 11., Emperor of All the Russias, celebrated his 28th birthday in May. As son of the Empress Dagmar, sister to our own Queen Alexandra, he has a close claim to the sympathy of Englishmen, and all must wish well to a ruler who, whatever be the gloom and trouble among his subjects, is known, personally, as a kindly man, with warm domestic affections. He succeeded his father, Alexander 111., on November 1, 1894, and in tho same year and month married Princess Alix of Hesse Darmstadt. Five children have been bprn to them. Four daughters came first, but on August 12, 1904, to the great rejoicing of the Imperial pair, arrived the baby Prince Alexis, whom our picture shows nestling in his father's arms. Nicholas 11. is a very cultured man; he Bpeaks fluently French, German, Italian, and English. Of the literature of the latter he has a, very thorough knowledge. On August 19 last year the Crar issued the manifesto granting a new constitution in the National Duma, which has now become an established

ft - * " ■"••■™™""■" . # • c a A GIANT TREE TRUNK. A picturesque structure now- stands '-? the streets of Washington which advertises very fittingly a famous product of California. The little building,, which is three stories in height, is made from the trunk of a single tree, the walls being formed of bark. It is so designed that it is a decorative feature of high value. THE NEW HTXANERY. An amusing side light of the new Milan Exhibition is the unprecedented stimulus to the sale of stovepipe hats occasioned by a rigid regulation excluding every other kind from the inaugural function. ■Such a rigid enforcement is quite ifnknown in Rome itself, where there are said to be Cabinet Ministers, and deputies who are innocent of ever having donned ona The. story is that several provincial deputies who were invited to Milan were so fearful of mishap that they bought tall hats for their wives as well as themselves.