PARS ABOUT NOTABILITIES.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 53, 2 March 1907, Page 11

PARS ABOUT NOTABILITIES.

Lord Cole, eldest son of Lord Enniskillen, has a unique souvenir in the shape of a fireman's discharge, which he earned by working as a stoker for exercise on board the Carisbrooke Castle while on a voyage home from South Africa. The Marquis of Graham, who is learn-i ing shipbuilding and engineering on the Clyde, says that nautical schools should be established in or near all the chief seaports, the principal instruction for the boys to be seamanship, and they should be sent regularly on a voyage ia a sailing training ship. Carnegie has no snioke-room in Skibo Castle. Visitors who smoke must join the gardener in the tool-shed or the coachman in the loose-bos, far from the eye of their host. The Duke of Connaught,. returning from India in H.M.S. Renown, showed much interest in the lot of the naval stokers, and went down, suitably dressed, and plied a shovel amid the astonished coalies, to the horror of liis suite. But at the end of half an hour he had to confess that he had had enough, and that the work of the stokers was even harder than he had thought. Mr. Sargent, R.A., the famous portrait painter, owes something to five countries. He was born in Italy, his parents were Americans, he was educated for some time in Germany and in France, and he Uvea in London. The Emperor of Austria finds his greatest relaxation in work. He rarely.permits himself a real holiday, for no matter where he may be he insists on keeping in the closest touch with affairs of State. An exceedingly early riser, his breakfast, consisting of tea and a slice of cold meat, is always placed on his writing-table, and he partakes of it as he scrutinises document after document. Phil 2sewbury, the tenor, who is to return to Australia this year, was one of the soloists at the Christmas performance of "The Messiah" in Belfast (Ireland). "The Life of Madame Melba—Woman and Singer" has been written, and is to be published shortly. The "Life" is in all probability the work of Miss Agnes Murphy, who is now in the United States as Madame Melba's press agent and private ' secretary. President Roosevelt has induced James B. Connolly, a popular writer of sea stories, to enlist as a cadet in the American navy for two years. Mr. Roosevelt wishes the American navy to be "exploited" as the British .army has been by Kipling. Mr. Connolly will have unusual privileges, including a private cabin. In a "New Year's Greeting" in the "Labour Leader" Mr. Keir Hardie, M.P... says:—"l have a profound distrust of party newspaper eulogies of Ministers, or coming men, but. in common fairness, I must say that Sir Henry Campbell-Ban-nerman has earned, and fully deserves, all the praise which is being heaped upon him. He seems to be mellowing with age, and to be really desirous of effecting some useful social legislation. Of one thing, at least, I have convinced myself, that where the Liberal performance fails short of its promise the blame will not rest with 'C.-B.' " "If it would make the little om-s happy, 1 would allow myself to be hung head downwards from the top of the tree," said t.3ie Lord Mayor of London, before distributing <he presents from the Christmas tree to the children of the Eoyal National Orthopaedic Hospital. '" Oh, do r do! '' cried the children unanimously, but, startled by their eagerness to sec a Lord Mayor in al his panopoly upside down, his lordship had politely but firmly to refuse t» carry out his offer. Bcnnet Burleigh, in a\ m article on the late Colonel Stewart , , whose death was announced last month, describes nn amusing incident which occurred when the Colonel was "rounding-up" the Boers after Ladysmith. On one occasion he and his black orderly crawled up a kopje to reconnoitre the Boer position. Arrived at the top he was surprised to find quite close to him, an enemy's vedette. There was only one thing to be done. Having no weapon available he threw up his glass to his shoulder, just as if it were a Mauser pistol, and shouted "Hands up! " The rase succeeded admirably, he Boer did as he was told, upon which the astute officer seized his victim's rifle, and conveyed him with his horse back to camp a prisoner. Mr. W. Stead's presence in Paris has inspired a French journal to a line effort of imagination, which takes the form cf a biography of the editor of the " Review of Reviews." Hβ- is said to have flung away for the sake of his political opinions, £20,000,000. which would have come to him under Rhodes' will, if he kept silent during the South African war. But he wrote on behalf of the Boers, and so, the journal declares. Rhodes, in a passion, tore up his will, and Stead lost the £20,000,000. i Owing to the bad health of Mme. Cosima AVagner, it is probable that the Bayreuth Festival will not be held this I year. M. Clemenceau has a horror of the number 13. The Sarrien Cabinet was formed on March 12 last year, and the official announcement should have appeared in the " Government Gazette " of the next day. But Clemenceau, under whose department as Minister of Home Affairs, such official notifications came, deferred its publication to the, 14':h. Again, with the creation of a new portfolio of Labour., the Clemenceau Cabinet would number 13. The Premier, however, has arranged for the attendance of the Under-Secretary's of State at future meetings of the Cabinet^ Admiral yon Koester ■is a favourite with the Kaiser, and a frequent guest afc the Imperial table. On one occasion when the Admiral was at the Palace the diners had reached roast venison, a dish to which he is particularly partial. The Emperor pushed away his plate, and the servants began to remove the course. They came to the Admiral aud wanted to remove his fork, but he brought his knife-handle down smartly upon the ser- ! vant's fingers, exclaiming, " Hands off j there! I'm not ready." He accompanied. i his actiou also with a naval adjuration j which left his fellow-guest 3 aghast. But j the Kaiser prides himself on his nautical character, and the oath rapped out so naturally delighted his Majesty, and he burst into laughter. The Admiral, after one glance of curiosity at the laughing monarch, drained his glass, and returned placidly to his venison*

It is common knowledge that it -was a romantic attachment which kept the late J3aroness Burdett-Coutts a spinster until she was very nearly 70 years of age. It may not, however, he universally known that the object of this romantic attachment was none other than Count Alfred D'Orsay, poet, exquisite, sportsman, sculptor, and arbiter of the elegancies. The handsomest man of his age (even Byron in verse admired him), the mend of Lady Blessington, whose daughter he married, and the companion and confidant of Prince Louis Napoleon, httle wonder if the late Baroness for so long flaunted the willow for him. She might have done worse; and, certainly, her romantic fidelity served to save her tram, falling into the hands of many a fortune-hunter. The Queen of Roumania, better known as "Carmen Sylva," has reached her sixty-third year. ' She is the junior of her husband, whom she married in 1869, by four years. Few Royal marriages have been happier than theirs, in spite of the fact that its only issue, a beautiful daughter, died in her infancy. In. addition to beins a sweet singer and teller of eharmin" tales. Queen Elizabeth has always been a help-meet, in the highest sense of the term., to her husband. The Revising Barrister in the Colchester Revision Court has been not unnaturally amazed at being confronted with the polysyllabic and voluminous name of Lieutenant Tollemache. His amazement would have been considerably greater had he been confronted with the names of that gentleman's brothers and sisters, cousins and aunts. The gallant lieutenant's father—Ralph William Lionel Tollemache-Tollemache had a fine eye for a pedigree and a fine ear for sound, and as the children of his two successive marriages appeared he bestowed, on them names of appalling length and unconventionally. Here are a few out of the list of eleven: —Mabel Elmingham Ethel Huntingtower Beatrice Blazonberrie Evangeline Vise de Lou de Orellana Plantagenet Taedmag Saxon. Lyonesse Matilda Dora Ida Agnes Ernestine Oursoa Pauiet Wilbraham Joyce Eugenic Bentley Saxonia Dysart Plantagenet. Lyulph Ydwallo Odin Nestor Egbert Lyonol Taedmag Hugh Erehemvyne Saxon Esa. Cromwell Orma Nevill Dysart Plantagenet. Lyona Deciroa Veronica Esyth Undine Cyssa Hylda Rowena Viola Adela Thyra Ursula Isabel Blanche Lelins Dysart Plantagenet. Lyonella Edith Regina Valentine Myra Polworth Avelina Philippa Kolantha dc Orellana Plantagenet; and Lyonulph Cospatridc Bruce Berkeley Jermine Tullibardine Petersham de Orellana Dysart Plantagenot. The size of the family Bible in which these names were recorded would, we imagine, be what printers describe as "double elephant/