GOSSIP AND NEWS ITEMS.

Press, Volume XLV, Issue 7157, 19 September 1888, Page 6

GOSSIP AND NEWS ITEMS.

Lord Deerhurst has joined the ranks of the Peers* sons who haye*found congenial employment in the City. He has just become a member of a well-known firm of stockbrokers.

Bishop Cowie's book on " Oar Last Year in New Zealand" contains the following paragraph:—" These (the Australian) colonies have not always been so fortunate in the family of the Governor as we in New Zealand are at the present time. Indeed, it is scarcely too much to say that not long since in one of them the tone of *' Society, that is, the section of the people who are much at Government House, was seriously injured, and the morale of many of the young people in danger of being lowered by the example and the tin worthy principles of the Lady who is officially regarded as, in a manner, a representative of her Majesty the Queen. A leading citizen of the colonial capital referred to told mc that, had the said lady not left the colony when she did, he would have been obliged to forbid his daughters visiting at Government House." According to Truth, the Emperor Frederick left a sum of about £150,000, which is invested in Bnglish securities to the Empress for life, and then to his younger children as she may appoint, and the trustees are the Queen, the King of the BelgionSjand the Date of Saxe-Cbbon;-Gotha. He bequeathed other moneys m Germany, that were at his own disposal in the same way, and there is a special direction in his will that the Prussian Government is not to have any contra* ! over any part of this property. Mr Edward Hulse, whose engagement fa announced to the only daughter ol Ed , Ooneerracive representative, f<}r Salisbury* tod onei oj the youngest members ol til House of Commons. Hisfcia«c& i s known in I/Kidon, and rarely missei

driving daily in the Park a magnificent pair of chestnuts in a park phaeton. She is dark, petite, and pretty in figure and in face, with a beautiful complexion, and a magnificent head of hair. Through her mother, the daughter of old Ben Webster, lessee of the old Adelphi, she is cousin of the Miss Webster, on the stage at the Globe Theatre. Mr Hulse ie the eldest son of Sir Edward Hulse, and thus the heir to the baronetcy. A correspondent writes to a contemporary:—ln Crowndale Road, the other afternoon, my attention was drawn to a rather smart young fellow, dressed after a somewhat shabby-genteel fashion, and energetically grinding sounds out of a large street organ. Upon a large card fixed on the front of the instrument there appeared printed in very conspicuous characters, the following notice: " Utterly destitute! I am Viscount Hinton, the eldest son of Earl Poulett.— Vide * Burkes Peerage.'" Viscount Hinton has played clown at the Surrey Theatre. Peter Feketi, or Flack Peter, the famous Hungarian giant, is dead. He passed away quietly on August 4th at NagyKoros, the picturesque Magyar town on the road to Szegedin, where ne was born just thirty years ago. There is a great sameness about the ending of giants. They all seem to die young and of consumption ; and Peter Feketi was no exception to the rule. His life was uneventful and serene. His immense size and unwieldly bulk saved his youth from the disciplineoftheschoolsandinhisearlymanhood from the anxieties of the butcher's shop for which his father had destined him. For fifteen years a Continental Barnnm carried him—or perhaps it would be more correct to say led him—from city to city and village to village, exhibiting his huge form (he stood 7ft 6in in his stockings) at booths and music-halls, without once ruffling the even tenor of his stolid disposition. A local necrologer asserts that he " made a large fortune and was a credit to his native town."

The following singular case is troubling the heads of the Finnish lawyers at present :—A man died a week or two ago in Pielisjarvi, in the interior of the country, who was said to have led a bad and ungodly life. He had always been known to be well off, but nobody knew how he had gained his possessions. There were many strange stories afloat, but one which was more credited than all the rest was to the effect that Huolarinen, as was his name, had, in his early days, been on an intimate footing with "Wihtahausu" (the " evil one"), with whom he had several transactions of a commercial character. When Huolarinen's will was opened it was found that he had bequeathed all bis landed property and possessions to the devil. The family naturally protest against the will, and the question now arises how this ticklish matter is to be settled. Everybody seems anxious not to offend any of the parties concerned. There can be no doubt that the devil is thus a landowner, by legal right, in Finland.