PARS ABOUT NOTABILITIES.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXIX, Issue 70, 21 March 1908, Page 11

PARS ABOUT NOTABILITIES.

Mr. Stewart Dimbar saved Ms life in a remarkable manner at San Rafael, California, when his foot became caught on a railway line. He set fire to a Clearing House certificate which, he had in pi* pocket, and stopped an approaching train by waving it. The Bishop of London tells a good story connected with a visit he once paid to a house in the slums. The woman eyed him in silence until he asked if she went to a mothers' meeting. "* Oh, no," she replied, "We've been hard up, but thank Heaven, we haven't come to that yet." The late King Carlos was a lover of good eating, and it is said that he liked English cooking the nest. "What feature of English cooking pleases you the most?" a French friend once asked htm. " The roast beef," said Dom Carlos. "And . after the roast beef?" "More roast beef." replied the King. The Bishop of London is about to sell his horses and carriages, and journey henceforth in motor-cars. The Bishop of London believes in saving every possible moment of time. His new motors are being well lighted by electricity, for most of his reading is done as he travels from one appointment to another. The Queen is an indefatigable letterwriter, writing as many as thirty letters in a day, besides sending telegrams, while Miss Knollys often gets through a hundred letters under her Majesty's personal supervision. The Queen's handwriting is slightly German in character, with pronounced flourishes and dashes instead of the usual punctuations. The Bishops of London, Bath and ■\Yells. Ely. and Exeter are all cyclists, while thefirst three also go in for golf. In addition the Bishop of London plays tennis, and had a game with President Roosevelt recently in America. The Rishops of Carlisle, Manchester, and St. c Asaph are anglers; the Bishop of New- j castle is an amateur gardener, while the f Bishop of Exeter is a keen player at v lives. f Sir Antony Macdonell told Lord Ash- t bourne, the Unionist Lord Chancellor of 1 Ireland under the last Administration, ] that he believed three-fourths of the < trouble in Ireland was due to officialism, j < The Lord Chancellor was aghast. "I'm | j astounded." he said, "that you should j say such a thing to mc." "Oh! I've said ] that to a bigger man than you,"' retorted ; Sir Antony, with his comprehensive j sniile. "Who \va3 that?" asked Lord • Ashbourne, incredulous. "The King." said Sir Antony. The rest was silence. i Queen Maud has (says the " Sunday Strand") in a marked degree the womanly cift of making a homa beautiful, and ->igns of this are to be seen everywhere in the palace, especially in the private apartments of the Royal Family. The decorations show her refined sense of colour, and, while the fine old Norwegian furniture has been retained, the rooms aave an air of coaifort suggestive of the young Queen's English home, Appleton Hou=e, where part of her early married life was pent, and the home of her girlhood, Sandringham. It is said that Kubelik uses a muff because hi=, hands have been insured for ; c 20,000. This heavy insurance is not, of j fourse, with one company. As the policy leclares that he must gives his hands "all! reasonable protection," he thinks it is j only right that he should carry a muff. Paderewski's hands are insured for il 10,000, and yet one would imagine that .i pianist, who' needs all his fingers, would value his hands at a higher price than ihe violinist, who might conceivably get on all right even though the bowing dig- j Mr. Henry Kemble, the actor, has bequeathed £100 to each of his godchildren, | tlizabeth Irving, daughter of Mr. Henry j B. Irving, and Geoffrey Kemble Grinham Keen. To "my friend, Henry B. Irving," all his books, jewellery, and personal effects whatsoever, and the residue of his | property to his cousin, Mrs. Gertrude J Meiggs,"daughter of Sir Charles Santley. lie directed that his body should be cremated as cheaply as possible, and that uo stone or other memorial whatever shall be erected over the place of his buriaL Princess Henry or Battenberg and her sons, who are spending the winter in Algeria, recently made an excursion as the guests of M. Jonuart, the GovernorGeneral, to the oasis of Bu Saada, known to the desert tribes as " Place of Happiness." After a long journey by motorcar, the royal party and M. Jonnart spent some time amid the exotic surroundings of an Arab encampment, and expressed themselves as highly pleased at the novelty. Great fetes organised with the usual Arab splendour were got up in their honour, and were attended by the , tribesmen, who came from far and wide. Almost every European sovereign is a great smoker, says '" Cassell's Saturday • Journal." King Edward, a.-- is well known,) smokes the very best of cigars, but when j he is with his intimate friends lie some- [ times smokes a pipe. Two confirmed : smokers are the King of the Belgians and j the King of Portugal, both of whom smoke about a dozen a day, but the Emperor of Austria, in .-pite of his advanced age, prefers a pipe, The Czar of Russia smokes at least thirty cigarette? a day, and the King of Spain also prefers cigarettes, which he always smokes in a long amber holder mounted with gold. Every now ana then, however, he ventures on a choice Havana. King Victor Emmanuel is not much of a smoker, and only takes one or two cigarettes a day. The secretary of State for India, who recently celebrated hTs 60Lh birthday, i has never disguised the fact that he has a greater love for literature than for politics. To be surrounded by books is his ideal of happiness, for, apart from his extensive library, he has no amusements. He is a capital walker, however, and, for his age, a remarkably active man. In appearance He s-rikes " one more as an eldsrly musician or actor than a statesman, his rather sharp, clean-shaven features and long, iron-grey hair being typical of one or two of the prominent lights in those professions. Mr. J. Ke:r-Hardie, M.P., Ihes in a quaint old-world house, in NevuTs Court, Kctter-lanc, London, hard by the E-olls Office, near many great printing offices, and within sound of the roar of Fleetstreet, in which he is often to be seen. Hardie has long since discarded the famous deerstalker cap, and he now wear 3 a jaunty Trilby hat. His everyday tie is not red, but it is salmon-coloured. The man with the loudest, most voluminous, ! and most flamboyant tie in fill Fleet-

street is another Socialist, Jim ConnelL Mr. Connell is engaged in law work in the Temple, and he WTote a very readable book about poaching. He"is a> keen angler.

The Duchess of Portland is one of the most abstemious of dietetists. She seldom, if ever, touches meat. Even at State banquets and big dinner parties she will pass by all meat dishes and take only a little fish and vegetables. She never touches ■wine at any meal of the day. Her breakfast generally consists of a boiled egg, skim milk, and perhaps a lettuce, while the same Spartan fare makes up the menu at luncheon, varied by cheese, biscuits, and butter, and again skim milk. The Duchess can boast of a perfect complexion, for which this simple dietary is no doubt largely accountable. Her only daughter, Lady Victoria Cavendish Bentinck, too, is a girl of very simple tastes. A tall and handsome debutante, she will be presented at court this season.

At the recent inspection at Berlin of the recruits of the First Regiment of the Guards, in which all the Royal princes serve, the Emperor himself examined the men. His Majesty asked a one-year volunteer if he knew the legend connected with the Schildhorn Monument, in the Gruenewald, near Berlin. The recruit had only the vaguest knowledge of the fable, and the Emperor told him it would be a good idea if he paid a little more attention to his books. A stalwart Pomeranian recruit was asked by the Emperor how the Hohenzollerns came to the Throne of Prussia, and was unable to say. The examination ended by His Majesty placing generals and brigadiers among the men and making the recruits identify each by stating his name and title. This gave better results.