Pars about Notabilities.

Auckland Star, Volume XL, Issue 205, 28 August 1909, Page 13

Pars about Notabilities.

I heard a very pretty tale about the Queen of Spain the other day (say 3 a Liverpool "Post" correspondent). Someone had congratulated her after her second baby, and she answered: "Tea, is it not nice? I always hoped I should have as many babies at grandmamma, and I still hope so." Her own mother said erf her: "She has taken to maternity as if it were her destined profession."

Everybody (say 3 a London society gossip) always seems to be getting Princess Patricia of Connaught to their dances. She has heaps of girl friends, and always kisses r,hem when she meets them. As it ie etiquette to bob to Royalty, it is rather funny to see a girl, just addressed as " You darling. Sue," bobbing to the other Royal girl of her own age who has just kissed her. Princess Patricia has only two topics of conversation—the misfortune of being Royalty and clothes.

Sunday, July 11, wa 9 the birthday of I Lady Sarah Wilson, youngest and not j least remarkable of the seventh Duke of ' Marlborousrh's sis daughters. It wa3 j while staving with her sister, the ia.t*! Lady Howe, that Lady Sarah Churchill j became engaged to Mr. Gordon Wilson, 1 a young officer of the Royal Horae ' Guards. A great traveller, she was Tn Pouth Africa during the Boer War, was j shut up in Mafeking during the siese, ! has acted as war correspondent to a. ' daily paper, and has visited the remotest ' parts of Rhodesia. Sir Charles Brooke, better known, perhaps, as the second Rajah of Sarawak, has just celebrated his eightieth birthday. He rules a population of nearly j half a million, and a tract of country i -M.OOO square miles in extent. He sue- i ceeded his uncle. Sir James Brooke, as , Rajah in ISfiS. and upon Sarawak beinij taken under the British protectorate ho received the G.C.M.G. The present Rajah j was in the navy before- going out to ' his uncle, and wa-g educated at Crew- | kerne Grammar School, and is a thorough ' Westcountry man. He has surrounded j himself almost entirely with men from I his native district. There is a railway guard, one William Clarke, of Beceles, on the borders of Suffolk and Norfolk, who for 444 years ( has acted as guard on one branch of j railway with a total distance of 19* miles between the towns of Beccles and Tivetshall. His train is known as "Clarke's train." The tcr.al term of his j service is 50 years, all with the Great ' Eastern Railway. He has a clean record i of servicp, and being known to every riser of the line is regarded as a local i institution, and a very popular and! respected one. General Sir Georsre Wnl=»!ey, who has ju3t entered his seventieth year, is six years junior to his illustrious brother. Viscount Wolseiey. Sir George enterpd the Army in lS.ii. just in time, to see fighting in the Indian Mutiny- When he was Major in the York and Lancaster Regiment, he wns again on active service in the second Afghan War. From India he went to Egypt, and held the po*t of A-A.G. during the brief campaign against Arabi Pasha, and in the Nile Expedition of 1884-5- The honour of K.C.B. was conferred upon him for his services when in command of a brigade in Burmah. The versatility of Lieutenant Shackleton's heroism is positively astounding. Not content with facing the rigours of the Antarctic regions, he is now engaged in tackling a round of festivities in England which would strike terror into the heart of any but the most undauntable. It will interest the editor of the "Tailor and Cutter' to learn that the Royal Humane Society has presented the lieutenant and his comrades with a complete set of elastic waistcoats. All explorers are not gifted with Shackletonian bonhomie, and there is a story told of a hero of earlier days who accepted all tbui honours showered upon him in an uncom- ! promisingly aggressive and high-handed I manner. At one of the banquets given in I celebratitm of hi 3 return, the chairman, I who had been severely snubbed by the I hero during dinner, rose to propose the ! toast of his health and began his speech !in the following words:—"lt now falls jto my lot to propose the health of the I lion of the evening. From my earliest youth onwards I have been told that the lion is the king of beasts, but never until this evening have I fully realised the truth of the'statement." A number of Germans who resent the ridicule of visiting foreigners oe the native manner of bowing have formed a society for its reform. The correct way of greeting a friend in the Fatherland, of either sex, is to bend to an angle of 90 degrees, remove the hat slowly and reverently, dropping it with, stiffened arm until it reaches the knee, and replace it in the same manner. Progressive men are revolting against a custom which dates back to a period when people had time for ceremony, and the reform manner of greeting consists merely in touching the ha.t without removing it. The first member of the reform society to carry out the new idea was a young official who greeted the chief of his department with nothing but a short nod and a raised hand. He was at once arrested for insubordination, and this event has somewhat checked the progress of the reform. Readers may be astonished to know that the German Emperor is less German than probably the lowest of his subjects. He is a Hohenzollern only on his father's siiie; on his mother's side he is connected with the house of Saxe-Co'burg-Gotha. Furthermore, he inherits a trace of French blood from Louise de Coligny, daughter of the gTeat adrnfral, who became the fourth wife of William the Silent. King Haakon of "Norway does not inherit a drop of Norwegian blood, and the future ruler of Norway is half English and half Dane. Somn of the ancestors of the Emperor of Austria were Bavarians. King Victor Emmanuel of Italy is more Austrian than Italian. There can be no doubt that when Mr. Will Crooks starts nn his lensithy voyage abroad Poplar will be inconsolable. By the good people of that district he is regarded as almost a father, and many are the stories told concerning tho veneration in which he is held. But there is at least one man in Poplar who is somewhat disappointed in Mr. Crooks. This worthy went about his house one day sulkily muttering. "Wot'q the good o' Crooks? 'Ec ain't no good:" '"Wot yer talkin' abaht? W'y ain't 'c no grjod?" asked hi 3 wife. "Well." replied the srumbler in disgust, "it's three weeks that our sink's been stopped up an' 'c ain't been rahnd to see about lit yet!" Practically all the troubles !of Poplar are confided to Mr. Crooks. : and his advice on all subjects is regarded j as infallible.

Mr. Daniel K. Pearsons, of Chicago, popularly known js the Sage of Hmsdale, celebrated his 90th birthday last month, and announced that as he does not expect to live much longer he intends to spend the next twelve months in ridding himself of his last £200,000. Personally parsimonious to the point of eccentricity, Mr. Pearsons has already given £800,000 to colleges and educational »nd philanthropic institutions. He says he is now going , to dispose of all his wealth, except a. small sum sufficient to keep him out of the workhouse.

An interesting story of Lord Charles Beresford's devotion to the Navy is told by the " Standard," London. Soon after Mr. McKenna took over the Admiralty, Lord Charles discussed the situation, with him, and in the course of conversation the Fir3t Lord expressed his regret that there was such a wide divergence of opinion between the policy of the first Sea Lord and that of Lord Charles. Lord Charles Beresford made the notable rejoinder: "Get rid of both of as if you cannot decide between us, and hand over the Admiralty to any admiral you like. They are all splendid."

The Earl of Orford's fifty-fifth birth- ! day was last month. He ia a descendant !of Sir Robert Walpole, the celebraced ' i Prime Minister in the reiyn- of George j 1., who enjoyed the almost unique honour : lof being made a Knight of the Garter ' 1 while yet a commoner. Lord Orford ] ! served in the navy for some time. At i 14 he was shipwrecked in the trooper i llajera, and spent three terrible months , with his comrades on a. desolate island, . ■ living on sea-fowl's eggs and seaweed, j ' and such vegetation a3 the place 1 afforded. Then he went on to the ' Australian station and served on the ' Blanche during her famous three years' , .-rusade aarainst the slave dealers of the i South Seas. Theodore Roosevelt, who is earning ,IS a week in a carpet factory. U not . ' flowing so closely in his father's footstep>= a« other sons of rulers at the i Whi f .« House have done. Lincoln's 3on : j B.ober- hae seen service in the army, i has svwCed law, has taken part in poli- | tics, and is now chiefly concerned with 1 commercial affairs. Of GarfUld's four I sons, one—'Henry A. Garfield—has also I practised as a lawyer and a soldier, and is now president of the New England College. Another son, James Rudolph Garfield. is a lawyer, who afterwards I entered the Civil Service, and i 3 now 1 Secretary of the Interior. Of the other ! two sons, one is an architect and another is in business. Lieutenant Shackleton has been Tclai- ! ing the story of his first appearance as 1 a lecturer. It was a spec, on his own 1 hook. No institution en°riged him. not even a Church literary society had m- ■ vited him to hold forth in aid of charity i funds. Determined to try his the daring , lieutenant hired a ha.ll in Leith. and had the forthcoming lecture duly advertised. On the eventful evening he | drove down to the scene of action fault- j lessly attired in orthodox lecturer's garh, j ; and full of hopes. But he was compira- i 1 tivply small potatoes in those days, and ■'. to his intense disgust and disappointment i lie found that his whole audience cmili | ! have Wn comfortably accommodated . round his dining-table. In hi* debvt j '' upon the platform Lieutenant Shackle ', ;. ton experienced the ill-luck of man> ] i ! others whose audiences in after years I i i even Albert Halls were all too small to I i! hold- Beethoven's first recital drew' ! out the magnificent crowd of twelve. | IHe scored an immediate success by at!' j once inviting the dozen to sup with him ' !at his hotel, and postponing the com- ■ ' mencement of his programme until the : feast was done-