GOSSIP AND NOTES.

Press, Volume LIV, Issue 9739, 29 May 1897, Page 8

GOSSIP AND NOTES.

The greatest dandy in the world is Prince Albert of Thurn, Germany. This fastidious young man attires himself in a new suit of clothes every day, enough yearly to keep twenty experienced workmen going, and to run up a bill of £3000. Each suit of wearing apparel is highly perfumed with attar of roses, at £5 an ounce. He wears no fewer than 1000 necktie 3 during a year, being an average of three every day. His cast-off boots number 200 pairs a year. The cigarette bill of this highly-scented young gentlemen reaches the total of £200 per annum, and the different sports he indulges in, including hunting, shooting, fishiag, golfing and bicycling, cost him more than £15,000.

Our readers have perhaps been wondering how the Government has been able to keep such tens of thousands and millions employed upon the relief works in India and Further India, for Burma has been afflicted as well. How can the Government afford to pay them ? An article on " How the famine came to Burma," in Biackieood's for April, will enlighten you, for in it you will find that it is estimated that 240_ of rice are sufficient for the daily needs of a man and 20oz for a woman. Half-ounces of ghee, salt and condiments, together with 4oz of vegetables, complete the estimate, and the wage paid is the sum which at market rates will buy this ration, with the addition for each man of one halfpenny a day for extras (such as clothing and cooking utensils). This means that at present the Government pay a man 2id a day and a woman a trifle over 2|d. In these circumstances, keeping a few million natives heaping up earthworks is not such a stupendous business.

Ma Hoeac- Plonket, M.P., told a neat little story recently in the course of his speech, on the Irish financial question. His family, he said, had for generations been divided into two branches, Protestant and Catholic respectively; and it had been the habit of the Protestant members of the family to swear that all the property WaS theirs in order to preserve it from confiscation. But towards the end of last century the practice was interrupted, one old gentleman declaring that, standing on the brink of the grave, he could not take the responsibility of telling such a he. "If he had been younger he might have acted otherwise." This is good, but not so good as the instance which lan Maolaren gives of the Irishman's unique way of looking* at things. An Irishman was once carrying a live hare to his parson, and' when halfway to the house the hare managed to slip from Pat's grasp. For a. moment be was amazed as he saw the creature bounding away, but almost instantly lie shouted after* it, " h may NM, and ye may run, and. ye may run, but yell never get there, for ye haven't got the address."

Our dogs (says a Home writer), will soon be aa modish ns ourselves. It is essential that their collars should be in the latest fashion, and it is considered becoming tor 'them' to wear bracelets on their fore-paws. They are cultured dogs and Know how to bark joyously when the right political leader is mentioned. Altogether, it is not surprising to hear that a veterinary surgeon has discovered that our dogs are fin-de-stHcle enough to he neurotic ! Their social efforts have, no doubt, brought this on them. Their drives in the park, their walks in overcoats cut a little low in the neck, a dietary too rich and dainty, too much game and cream, and the general excitement, have all combined to upset their delicate nerves, and make them neurotic and hysterioal. May it not be that many dogs esteemed mad are really hysterical ? Somebody has suggested that if these excited animals were taken in, given a good plain meal, and allowed to have a long uninterrupted sleep, followed by plenty of exercise, their madness would disappear like magic.

Mr Chamberlain's youthful looks are the subject of -an anecdote which is quite new to most of us. When he was a member of Mr Gladstone's Administration he had occasion to cross the Irish Sea on a day when the steamerwas overcrowded,, and there were not berths for all. He was attended by a private secretary, with; a beard, who made acquaintance with a Scotchman. The latter made a suggestion for the distribution of the party on the principle of age before honour. " You and I, mon," he said, "will occupy the berths, aud the wee laddie"—indicating the distinguished statesman—"can just lie himself down on the floor." This story, we should add, is taken from an American paper.

"X " writks to the Times :--" President Kruger's * little bill' reminds mc of another which was once shown to mc as a curiosity. A provincial manufacturer in small business had a*d_ughter,/a fine, handsome girl, about eighteen years of age, who was employed in her father's office as a clerk. A gentleman of family and fortune, well on in his sixties, came into the neighbourhood, fell in love with the young lady, and was accepted as her future husband. She had been but slenderly educated, and, in view of the intended change in her social position, her lover expressed a wish that she should give up her clerkship and should endeavour to ' improve her mind' on lines which ho laid down. This was done, but difficulties ar6Be, and finally the gentleman broke off the match, at the same time intimating that he wished to act liberally in the way of pecuniary compensation, and inviting the lady to suggest an amount. She replied by a care-fully-drawn bill of charges on commerciallyruled paper, - demanding 'so much for lacerated affections, so much for loss of the expected position, so much for expenditure in the preparation, of her trousseau, &c, and, finally, 'To loss' of time in improving my mind, £52 10s.'

Tub Very Rev. A. K. H. Boyd, D.D., LL.D., was married at Dunedin recently to Miss Janet Balfour Meldrum. Dr. Boyd is an Ayrshire man, and was born at Auchinlech in 1825. He was educated at. KingCollege, London, and the University of Glasgow, where he took high honours in philosophy and theology. He was incumbent successively of parishes in Galloway and Edinburgh, and in the University city of St. Andrews, which position he still holds. Dr. Boyd first became known aa a writer by papers in Eraser's Magazine over the signature "A. K. H. B." The best of these are the well known "Recreations of a Country Parson." He is further a member of the Middle Temple, having studied two years at the English Bar, and he is now in his seventy-second year.

Smart society (says a London correspondent) goes out of town from Friday till Monday nowadays. It is the thing to do. To be sure, it makes the wesk very short, but society has discovered that it gets a " London y " appearance after five days in town, and it, therefore, recruits in country air with great regularity. Those whose affairs demand their presence in London console themselves by giving dinners on Sunday, evening. Quite the best dinners often take place' on Sunday evening. What would our forefathers have said ? Another bit of good form among the "people one knows, don't you know," is never to have the smallest idea of who their neighbours are. A belted earl may live next to a gilded duke, and neither would appear to be aware of the fact unless they happened t» know one. another. ; A friend of mine was to dine with a certain distinguished judge. He had forgotten the number, and trusted to finding it ont from some resident in the street, which was not at all long. But, to his dismay, in ho house at which he inquired did anyone know who lived on either side, and my friend finally asked a footman who was standing by "a can—ge whether Lord So-and-so lived at the house before which the carriage was drawn up. But the footman had no idea, though it turned out to be the very house where Lord So-and-so did live.

Hockey has superseded golf in England. People who could not live unless they were near their favourite links, now look languid and surprised when golf maniacs annoy them with conversation of the abandoned sport, and only, brighten up when some civilised being appears who understands the beauties of hockey. -■_' v -