ABOUT NOTABILITIES.

Auckland Star, Volume XLVII, Issue 31, 5 February 1916, Page 14

ABOUT NOTABILITIES.

At St. Columba's Church, Pont Street, S.W., on Wednesday, December 13th, Miss Reid, the only daughter of Sir George Reid, was married to Mr. Leonard Swainsoa Cleaver, of West Derby, Liverpool. Owing to a recent bereavement, only relatives were present.

Mrs. James W. Gerard, wife of the American Ambassador to Germany, has been decorated by the Kaiser with the Red Cross gold, medals of the first and second classes. This Is the first time the Kaiser has ever given a decoration to a ■vnoman not of royal blood.

Harry Lander is in the midst of his eighth American tour, and is singing to crowded houses in New York. He has just told the reporters that he has written a Scotch comedy called "Jimmie." lt will be tried in America first. The play is autobiographical, and deals ■with festivities on tbe eve of a wedding.

Prince Albert, the sailor son of the King and Queen, has completed his 20th year. He has been with the Grand Fleet in the North Sea for the greater part of -the lent sixteen months, but he is now at Buckingham Palace on sick leave. He had to return home some time ago as the result of an obstinate gastric disorder, for »which he is now receiving special treatment.

The death ; is announced in Edinburgh of Mrs. Mapson, widow of Professor Masson, Historiographer-Royal for Scotland and Professor of Rhetoric and English Literature in Edinburgh University. Mrs. Masson was the eldest daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Charles Orme, of Avenue Road, London, whose house was frequented by many of the literary, artistic, scientific,' and musical notabilities of their day.

Tbe King's medical advisers report that His Majesty has so far recovered from tbe grave accident of October 28 as to be able to resume work, with certain limitations. The King has lost seriously in weight. It has been necessary, on medical grounds, that His Majesty shonid take a little stimulant daily during biß convalescence. As soon as tbe King's health is quite restored Hia Majesty wiU resume that total abstinence which be has imposed upon himself for public reaapns.

Professor Theodore William Richards, of Harvard University, who has been awarded the Nobel prize for chemistry, is director of the Gibbs Memorial laboratory, is author of papers on the significance of changing atomic volume, and has revised the atomic weights of oxygen, copper, and other elements. He is a native of Pennsylvania, a graduate of Harvard, and has also studied in Germany, where he devoted himself to chemical research. Professor Richards is a member of many scientific institutions.

Sir George Buchanan, the British Ambassador in Petrograd, is a son of old Sir Andrew Buchanan, who for so many years ■ represented Great Britain, not only diplomatically, but also in a sporting sense, at the Courts of Russia, Prussia, and especially Austria. This means that Sir George is persona grata on the banks of the Neva, where his wife, Lady Georgina, a sister of Earl Bathurst, is also a great favourite. Sir George has to his credit a very remarkable translation of Goethe's "Faust" into English.

"The death of Dr. Henry Charlton Bastian removes the last member of the great scientific school which numbered among its associates Pasteur and Darwin and Huxley," says "The Times." i "Dr. Bastian was one of the fighting men of science; he knew no compromise, he sought no discharge. All his' life he did battle for ideas which were unacceptable and which, in spite o| his labours, never achieved acceptance. These ideas may be stated shortly as the conception of life as a form of energy which is capable of arising spontaneously. Dr. Bastian denied the theory that life arises always from other life—the theory of Pasteur and his disciples; he claimed that he had proved conclusively that life could arise of itself from inorganic •material."

Dante Gabriel Rossetti once showed Whistler a sketch and asked his opinion of its merits. "It. has good points, jjossetti," said Whistler. "Go ahead wjth it by all means." Later he inquired howit was getting along. "All right," an- ; swercd Rossetti, cheerfully. "I've ordered a stunning frame for it." In due time the canvas appeared at Rossetti's house ( in Cheyne Walk, beautifully framed: "You've done nothing to it since I saw it, have you?" said Whistler. "Jfo-o," replied Rossetti, "but I've written a sonnet on the subject, if you'd like to hear it." He recited' some lines of peculiar tenderness. "Rossetti," said Whistler, as the recitation ended, "take out the licture and frame the sonnet."