PARS ABOUT NOTABILITIES.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 172, 20 July 1907, Page 11

PARS ABOUT NOTABILITIES.

Mr. Albert Borrington. who is now contributing an admirable scries of of sketches in our columns, is on a visit to London. By birth and education he is an Englishman. He was born at Stratford-on Avon, and educated at King Edward's Grammar School, Birmingham, but he wont out to Australia when only seventeen, and for the last twenty-one years has had opportunities of seeing almost every phase of Australian life—the pearl-fishers of the north, the whalers of the south, the gold-seek-ers of the west, and the artisans of the east. His experiences have been vivid, and as a writer he has realised the colour and variety of Australian life to the full.

Mr. Frank Grimes, of Illinois, and Hiss Helen Burns, of St. Louis, have agreed to marry, says a New York message, if Mr. Grimes' horse wins the Fourth of July race. Mr. Grimes' horse beat one owned by the girl's uncle in an impromptu race on the highway, and the girl dared Grimes to race again, whereupon the engagement to race, with the bikle as a stake, was made.

Mr. Croker. whose horse. Orby, won the Derby this year, was formerly best known as the "Boss" of Tammany Hall at New York. His father was a blacksmith, and the family inhabited a humble shanty in what was then 99th-street, but now' forms part of Central Park. The early history of Mr. Croker was mainly connected with the more violent side of New York polities, and at the ase of 25 he had literally fought his wav into a prominent position, for he was a remarkably fine pugilist, and scored many a victory over less-accom-plished opponents.

Prince Miguel de Braganza, who announces that " should he receive an invitation," he is ready to ascend the Portuguese throne, is a son of the ex-King Miguel. In 1826 Pedro IV. abdicated the throne in favour of his daughter, Maria da Gloria, a child of seven, on condition that she married her uncle Miguel. As soon as Pedro had left the country. Miguel, as the wicked uncle, seized the throne for himself, and it took a long war. an English loan, and a Portuguese fleet under Admiral Napier and other English naval officers before, in 1534. Miguel was forced to abdicate. Queen Maria and her descendants have since reigned in peace, undisturbed by pretender-. Mr. Thomas Hardy is now 67. It is over 40 years since his first story was published, and 33 since "Far from the Madding Crowd "' placed him in the very front rank of English writers. No living English writer, unless it be Mr. Meredith, stands out with so distinct and attractive a personality, and no other has in the same degree the peculiar gift of creation which we call genius.

Lan Maclaren was talking to a group of literary beginners in Xew York. "Begin your stories well." he said, emphatically. '" There's nothing like a good beginning. Indeed, it's half the battle." Then with a smile this excellent beginner of stories added: ''''Always bear in mind the case of the young man who desiring to marry, secured a favourable hearing from his sweetheart's irascible father by opening the interview with the words: 1 know a way, sir, whereby you can save money."-

Probably no man has made his- way to colossal wealth more rapidly or under more romantic conditions that Mr. Chas. M. Schwab, the American " Steel King," who is said to be weary of extravagant living, and to be anxious to sell his £700,000 mansion at an enormous sacrifice. Only 25 years ago (says the

" Westminster Gazette") this man of many millions was driving the mailcart between Cresson and Loretto and 'filling in his spare hours by working on neighbouring farms. A little later he was selling sugar and tea over a grocery counter in Braddock, as a preliminary to driving stakes at a dollar a day for the Carnegie Company. At 22, so rapidly did promotion come in his new sphere of work, he was earning £1000 a year; and three years later we find him superintendent of the Homestead Works on a British Cabinet Minister's income. From this point his advance towards wealth was so meteoric that lon<* before he emerged from the thirties, he was in receipt of a salary. of £ 160,000 a year and owned shares having a par value of nearly £8,000,000 of the comipany for which he had, less than 20 '■ years earlier, toiled for a dollar a day.

A family dinner brought together, in Brussels in May, the Due d'Orleans, the Comtesse de Paris, Duchesse de Guise, the Due de Montpensier, Princess Louise de France, and a few ultimate friends. In the course of the _mner the betrothal was announced of Princess Louise de France to Prince Charles de Bourbon, Infante of Spain. The wedding is to take place next November at Wood Norton. The Priueesse Louise Francois d'Orleans is, of course, the sister of the Due d'Orleans, and has resided with her brother in England for a number of years. Born at Cannes on February 24, 1882, Princesse Louise, it will be remembered, was, in September, 1905, mentioned as a probable bride of King Alfonso, but this report was denied. The lady, however, it seems, is after all to make a Spanish marriage close to the throne.

Jeau Brun, aged 102 years, of Alberewil. near Lucerne, has died at Geneva, while smoking his pipe and reading his morning paper. Brun gave a dinner on his hundredth birthday, and in a speech declared that he had never taken mcdi: cine in his life nor called in a doctor. He had been a tobacco smoker and spirit drinker all his life, and, with the exception of his mother, he had never kissed a woman. He believed he was the best man on earth.

It is told of Mrs. Disraeli that she once made a droll remark about her distinguished husband. It was at a country house, and she was engaged in confidential chat with a friend. "Dizzy," she said, "has the most powerful moral courage, but no physical courage. I always have to pull the string of the shower bath."

The following incident of Mr. Chamberlain's Parliamentary career is recalled: In a strenuous career, distinguished by dauntless courage, he has always faced the music with undaunted smile. •Sometimes, however, even his well-con-trolled temper breaks away. During debate Mr. John Ellis, M.P., interposed with a correction of a statement made by Mr. Chamberlain, who tartly replied,

"The hon. gentleman hjs related some facts . . . but he has withheld a full account. I will tell the truth." "For the first time." added a voice from the irrepressible Irish quarter. This was too much. it evidently stung him as if it had been the lash of a whip across his pale face. Looking steadily in the direction from which the interruption came, he hissed out the single word, "Cad."

From Pasadena, in California, comes the news of the death of Mr. E. H. Conger, who was Uhited States Minister at Peking during the siege of the Legations nearly seven yeaTS ago. The Austrian Legation and the American oiilcial residence were the first to become untenable, and from, the last days of June, 1900, till the afternoon of August 13, when General Gaselee reached the city, with General Chaffee a good second, the high walls, of the British Embassy sheltered Ministers, missionaries, customs staff, and all the incidental women and children. When it was all over, and the Dowager Empress had returned, Mrs. Conger had an audience of her Majesty, and, it is/said, told her more home truths than had ever come in her way before.

It is interesting to note the close association of the Derby and the Oaks with our political and military history. The twelfth Earl of Derby, who instituted the famous races, was the father of cue of the most eminent Prime-Ministers of the last century; the grandfather of two Cabinet Ministers —the Earl of Derby, who, as Lord Stanley, was Foreign Secretary in the Government in which his father was Prime Minister, and the present Earl, who, as Colonel Stanley, was Secretary for War in Lord Beaconsfield's Administration—and the great-grandfather of a member of the late Cabinet, Lord Stanley, who was Postmaster-General. The designation of the Oaks recalls the romantic elopement of the then Earl of Derby's youngest daughter with captain, afterwards Sir John Burgoyne, who bejcame Com-mander-in-Chief of the English Army in the American War of Independence. When Sir John settled down in England after the war, he purchased a house at Epsom, then known as Lambert's Oaks, | from which the race derived its name.