CELEBRITIES OF 1927

Auckland Star, Volume LVIII, Issue 20, 25 January 1927, Page 6

CELEBRITIES OF 1927

SOME REVELATIONS FROM "WHO'S

WHO."

The 1927 edition of "Who's Who," with all its heart-burning omissions and heart-warming inclusions, has just been issued from the house of a "d C. Black, Ltd., and it is safe to assume that many moistened mayoral thumbs are at this * ery moment nervously flicking its pages in search for the fateful entry. As likely as not that entry will not be there; for there are many more applications for inclusion in what has, with Whittaker and De Brett, become vulgarly known as the " stud book," than there are acceptances. Yet, in spite of this, " Who's Who" for 1927, with its 3370 pages, is an even more ponderous and portly volume than any of its ancestors. Allowing, at a very conservative estimate, ten names to a page, there are now some 33,700 distinguished persons in the British Empire. As the total population of the Empire has been estimated at 4t>o millions, one is driven to the rather distressing conclusion that only one person in 13,800 can be classed as " distinguished" in the true sense of the word. Who shall say we are not a democracy ?

« ! 8 ' m P oss i^ e to read through the whole of " Who's Who" in one sitting, or in sl hundred sittings for that matter; but so far as can be judged one of the record entries in point of length is that of Mr. Berriedale Keith, the great authority on international law, who is accorded no fewer than 82 lines. An enormously entry of only a line less belongs to Paul Sabatie", but it is a discursive, almost a chatty entry, and does not cover anything like so much ground. H. G. Wells and Annie Besant have 70 and G8 lines respectively. Morley Roberts, the author, has 58 lines; into the first twenty of them there are crammed more travels and adventures than the average man has ever dreamed of.

But by far and away the largest entry in the whole volume belongs to Sir Wallis Budge, the keeper of Egyptian and Assyrian antiquities at the British Museum. The list of his degrees and publications on Egyptology occupies no fewer than 151 lines, or very nearly two columns. The ernormous number of his books defies imagination, and this apart from the fact that many of them run to several volumes, while others, such as a " History of Nebuchadnezzar," and dozens of exhaustive treatises on hieroglyphics and coptics, seem as though each of them must necessarilv have been a life's work in itself. In all this enormous list it is pleasant to find included " Laughable Stories—Translated from the Svriac," which seems to indicate that Sir Wallis Budge must still be human.

The recreations of the great are a little banal, to judge from the entries in " Who's Who." Travel, golf and fishing seem to predominate; and it is curious to note that the bicycle, though we are accustomed to regard it these days as an almost extinct species, is still apparently the chosen vehicle of the great. Mr. Bernard *Shaw, with a characteristic grasp at even such publicity as may be offered through these solemn columns, defines his recreations as " anything except sport." Mr. Oliver Baldwin, the son of the Prime Minister, whose education was "In Football at Eton—in other things, beginning to learn," rather curiously includes " Socialist propaganda " among his recreations. Whether this is intended to be a hit at or for Socialism it is a little difficult to determine. Patrick Macgill, the Irish author, asserts that his recreations are "telling stories to his wife; watching spiders; and mowing Irish meadows." Another recreation, this time from William Shakespeare, the singer and composer, is given as "Surgery," which sounds a little grim as a pleasant pastime. Still another method of passing the time is given as " arguing."

Mr. Bruce and Mr. Coates tie with a modest entry of eighteen lines each, but they may be comforted by the reflection that Mr. Stanley Baldwin himself has no more, General Hertzog can only muster twelve lines of description, but Mr. Mackenzie King, with the majestic total of 71, puts all other Dominion members of the Imperial Conference entirely in the shade. He is, in fact, nearly six times as famous as Mr. Baldwin; and, by the same calculations, Mr. Bruce is eight times more obscure than Sir Wallis Budge. So, perhaps after all, the mayors who have been omitted from this year's " Who's Who " will be able to tell themselves that the whole thing is entirely ridiculous, and that they are just as glad they aren't included, anyway.