PERSONAL ANECDOTES.

Auckland Star, Volume XLV, Issue 128, 30 May 1914, Page 15

PERSONAL ANECDOTES.

BCT"ORE FTIS TIME. ! A reporter was interviewing Thomas j .V. Kdbson. ""And you. sir." he said to the inj ventor. "made the tir=t talkinc maIchiner" | "No." Mr. Kdison replied, "the first | fine was made long before my time— | 1 "in of a ri'.,." | | j JRVIXi; AN"D THK CABMAN". lOu one occasi,,n Sir Henry lrvin._t, ! wh<-n placing Shylock at the I drove to the theatre in a hansom and I Jby mistake tpndpred a shilling when I : tin- fare wa.s really eighteen pence or I two shillings. The cabman looked hard [at the shilling, and then said, "Well, lif you play the .lew inside as well as | yiui play il outside. blest if 1 don't spend tl'.e. hob in coming to see you." ITvIXCI-: AND TAILOR. According to a Paris newspaper, the frown I'rince of <!prmany has defied his tailor, lie shares -his father's pa.ssion fee- uniform. 'Hip only civil drpss ho affects is a dinner jacket. Recently he ordered his tailor to make cmc with moire silk facings and silk elastic buttons to keep the jacket hai'-buttoned. The tailor ventured to remark that this wa.s no longer 'fashionable, siiowing hint the latest Paris fashions. "I don't want Paris fashions and I don't want Paris buttons." said the I'rince. The tailor hastily hid tic fashion plate, ami the Prince appeared in the dinnpr jackpt, which makes the tailor wince I every tune he thinks of il. and the Prince's friends every timp thpy sec il. TTIK PRESIDENT WAS -IT." I President Wilson has a fund of l .stories. One that lip tells is of a little boy wham hp encountered at Staunton, Va., the President's birthplace. -Mr. Wilson was speaking to a. good-sized crowd from the steps of the Raldwin Seminary for tlirls. when he discovered a little seven-year-old lad pushing and shoving his way through tlic crowd. Thp boy finally landed in front of Mr. Wilson an 1 shouted excitedly: "Where is i 1? Where is it':" Mr. Wi],son stopped his speech, and, with a broad smile, said good-naturedly: "Well, my boy. I guess il'm it." "Oh p&haw!" responded the youngster, with a look of disgust. "Why. I thought it was a dog fight." TITi: SPKARER.S REPLY. j A certain marchioness caused a. little j flutter up in the Ladies' Gallery of thp ! House, of Commons the other day by commenting rather too loudly" on tin' ineptitude or the folly of some of the politicians taking part in dehate in the Chamber .below. The latest story going the rounds of .political tea-tables is to the elToct that a ._r"ot lady, th,- wife of a Cabinet. Minister, wrote to thp Speaker asking him whether he could not keep the women .piiet. . Mr. Lowther's rpply secrns so characteristic that, the st.>ry surely must he true. Here it is t — "Dear Mrs. A. . . . .—I have as much as I can munage in keeping ordpr among the devils below without huviJg to control the angels above." NAPOLIXIN'S SNCFFBOX. Many ■.""•' stori.-s were told by the late Lord -Minto. One of the best was about a famous art connoisseur who 'hapepened to sit next to a rather illiterate alderman at a public banquet, ln tiie course of conversation the aldpr-m-an mentioned that his grandfather had known the great Napoleon. "Indeed!" remarked the otdier. "That's very interesting." "Yes," the alderman went on. "Ami 1 still have the tine snnffbox that Napoleon pave -him. It has a hen in diamonds on the lid." "A hen!" exclaimed the othpr. "Oh. I see. You probably mean an eagle— tin- imperial eagle':" "No."' insisted the alderman, 'it's a hen plain enough. I've got it with mc. Look!" He pulled from his pocket, a splendid ..old box with an "X" in brilliants on The lid.

TIIE QLEEN'S RARE SMILE.

A photograph of Queen Victoria was recently advertispd for sale in the "Times" as "thp only one extant of Her Majesty smiling." This must Live been taken after an interwip-w with "Dizzy." The writer of a character sketch of ihe latp Queen, published in the "Quarterly Review" semn after bcr death, which "was evidently based o« intimate person&l knowledge, relates that: "No o-no ever amused her so much as Disraeli did. She permitted to him what she permitted to no <mc else---, reckless disregard of Court etiquette. He was never in the lea-st shy: lie did not trouble lo insinuate: he said what be meant in terms tbe most surprising, the most unconventional: and the Queen thought she had never in her life seen so unconventional a person. ... It is still remembered how much more she used to smile in conversation •witb trim than silie did with any other of her Ministers."

KIPLING AND THT. NIOHTINTiALE.

Mr. Irvin Oobb, an American, has had a long chat, -with Mr. Kipling, a. summary of which appears .in the New York ••Evening Post." This cis bow Mr. CoHb describes 'Mr. Kipling: "He has a ebig jaw. and >he wears shiny glasses and shows hi- -teeth Itkp Thpodore Roospvett. and clip's a strong man and blocky, witb a big. strong bard." Mt. Kipling, in a walk after lunch, said be didnt know birds well, though he was fond of them, but tie knew trees. "I wish, you would stay until ai'cT dinner." said the poet to his gucisT.. "I'd like you to bear a nightingale that comes every evening to our garden. I'd like you to compare 'him with your mocking-bird. Tell mc about the mocking-bird—what's he like?" Air. Cs>bh said the Southern mockingbird was the troubadour of the woods. a licentious scoundrel, ■who left Airs. Mocking-bird at home with the little ones and mm. serenading other birdbeauties—but withal, a fellow with romance in his soul, a true poet. "Well," said Kipling, "l vrish 1 could say as much for the nightingale. I know all the pi>pnlar illusions about him. but 'the t.rutii is. he's :i blackguard with n gift of musk- in his throat that he can't control—a noisy, swashbuckling blackguard of the garden, lie comes here at night and 'he proceeds to abuse all his enemies for all he's worth, it's feathered profanity in :t disguise oi harmony, and he gels a., worked up ■over it that he finally ends in an inarticulate gurgle.''