Social Gossip from Home.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 6007, 25 November 1890, Page 3

Social Gossip from Home.

i A 1 oiidott oorrespoudent of the Melbourne t> Artus writes a, follow- under date October ? en ° d ,. ndcd ovi more than ten years fee w T theo S iouo -chpommenta., i *™™» th™ man of warm friend-hips and hei-co iiSshasfalleuoutofinensthouKh^ I had occasion recently to seaioh 1a I « » Index to t.io Tim.-s for his name, aud I ■f_Cd that the nut-COR of him in recent years did not often exceed two in "- quarter "It one time iw daily paper was printed whioh did not eom-whero cntaiii his name. .Once in a way ho Hays something wluoa irritates tho Opposition, and i- abused nnd .ridiculed for a day ; his name then becomes again rapidly shrouded in Hilenee-not mat -,hiß old _.■-!.-.*■.. -«• *_"-* «r ,n y. . have * bttUid aught of their aversion tor him. It you ■mention tho word* short service, promotion -w merit- or territorial regiments to an «Lr,3*tho_Jd«.bool, or of "tho Due, party," be will ..ill go oil at .cure about Vo&l-v nH fiercely as in daya *rou« uy, ■when Wolseloy wan, for sonmoccult re,.*.-.,,, T ~ .1,« friend of radicalism ami tl-.-.no-deemed the iriti a c WolwK . y ia ouo «aoy. delightful of m 0.,, of thoinostMmplo -.ponUm-ity essentially ooj*< with * northern I and moreover aili sU > woUlid , brogue, wluob innt , ■L nor pe-tilenne, nor uuvel m iu>. t ■k beeil able to obhiurate <> _ » ■I loyal husband, and loving Uthy n ______■ -n-.tiular muu «m t"o whole, auu ye-- J ■ Srtd of __ I»nul«r ooeuliurity probably due to Lady J™ 1 * 1 .donation to cultivate bo «.«--£-.nt " __d corouioniHl - a.--iy ™ 11 " t ;- tl „„i-ui t y. AU „.11.- »»" *;.»,,;;'£ i« other band, i-> the party of reform ia tho a withdraw* from ■rin-i... th.m of the c-x-pro.'-dcul <•- the «r tie pea _*-r t'..c adv*---.** o- U£ nowcw ivforms. Al.- i-v-._-ii-i.--dy ■'■ l0l( Vf' ■for tho r_.ll-n-...t* 0 h.au.-uai-te- - - ...an no m-ro think out ,i .m. ; u*-|l«i.: tm Wmoni-iug lh_ rLViidieim-ntioL.thottmo / with the eondituifl ..1 modem «■.oi-tj tlMu J a ~K_.t. K _.t ohoc-i-hiyv f-'ul" ««rvu the cln-ss-men «*r " ' -li- B-L._.d. J.ia-.konbiii"i' " New l.iirrits ' ami ngour military thuikeis. -■ ,ul "■''l- 1 -i- y";» ai-poiutnient to Jrt-htui ~'a , ij.u-Biiei.ed jr. Opposi- ;-,,.. journal, on ae'-.,unt oi ins iiaj.u-.nt -xrioi.-n-' mjaim-t Home Rule: but tho 11 ,*,*:,- rabble, who are Nationali-lsto » man, U "..' i i h>-.-< :-.'tt!od th-.. iiii.-.tter for tlicm--4P i P -i.T-i-'---'t. a-*" _vn:-.e by cheering him selves in a -■■.-•• . >-v „ ,-

lustily all the way from Westlaud Row terminus to his quarters at the Royal Hospital, Kihnainbatn. We h-ive jmt passed through tho exciting - crisis of the London licensing sessions. Last year a formidable attao'c was made all along ; the line by the Puritan party against the music-halls, which at ono time seemed likely in be crowded with success and to lead to the future extinction of music-hall enterprise. Puritanism was the outcomo and apex of Dissent. Dissent had long been the steel-head of tho democratic pike. Demooraoy had gained an utterly unexpected and overwhelming ascendancy in the County Council elections. What was tho good of having- a democratic County Council if it was not to carry out Puritan ideals ? The music-hall manager's head on a charger was the price which Dissent asked from Democracy as the reward of its alliance. But Dissent was doomed to disappointment. It is tho doctrine of tbo newest lights of democracy that all sin is due to " ground-landlordism "— that until tbo Duke of Westminster's incomo is impounded it is useless to preach purity or righteousness on the earth. Shutting up musichalls is only dealing with the symptoms, not tho social disease. The anti-Puritans rallied under the unlooked-for leadership of John Burns. The danger to the music-halls was averted for the year, but the dofoated enemy threatened to renew the battle when a twelvomonth had passed. Tho crisis has como and gono. The attack this year was infinitely feebler than before. Not a voico waa raised in tho press in support of tho crusade. Last year the crusader 3 had tho enthusiastic support of the Pall Mall Gazette; but since then Mr Stead has retired i from its editorship to reap tho rioh harvest of his Roview of Reviews, and his spirit, like that of tho bad character in Scripture, has become choked with riohes. The net result of tho struggle is that the authorities of the Aquarium have promised that tho portrait-posters of the beautiful Miss Zoeo, which have scandalised so many thousands of good people, are to be pasted over, as well as certain less known wall-pictures representing a lady lying at the bottom of a river amidst alligators. It came out incidentally in evidence that one result of the many denunciations of the picture of Miss Ztvo was that 250,000 copies of hor photograph had been sold within the year. It is an ill wind that blows nobody good ; as sho herself must reflect when sho considers that the effect of all tho abuse of which she has been tho subject has been to change a six weeks' engagement into a freehold tenable until death or marriage. Sir Thomas Freake's baronetoy is a glaring instance of tho absurdity of conferring hereditary honors for merely personal merit. His father was Charles James Freake, son of a butler in Mayfair, who was brought up as a builder, and amassed an enormous fortune by creating the whole suburb of South Kensington. He was a shrowd and honorable little man, with an unbounded desire to do good and act handsomely. Ho stood high in favor with tho Prince Consort for timely aid in Ids various enterprises for promoting art and culture in England, and tho Queen and Prince of Wales thought no loss highly of him. When the Great Exhibition of ISO 2 was ou the point of opening, it was discovered that one whole end of it—including the Royal throne beneath one of the famous domes, or ■•Brompton b'ilers," an they wore called—was built on Mr Freake's land. The commissioners wero in despair. They made certain that he would ask a crushing fine as the price of not ordering tho encroachment to bo removed. They went to him and made a clean breast of it, asking what terms he d--iuuudud, to which he replied, "A shilling, gentlemen, a shilling ;'' and the transaction was then nnd there completed. A man of this temper was naturally munificent in his: charities | and punlio benefactions. His good deeds culminated iv giving a building for the Prince of Wales' (.nee favorite hobby, the Royal College of Music, and thereupon the Queen made him a baronet, but in two years ho whs dead, and ths only baronet . whom mankind has really known is the hero - of tho squalid scandal. "Sir Charles Freake ' was blessed with a very remarkable wife, who in her day mado Cromwell ■ Houso ono of tbo most brilliant, centres ' in Lon ion. Arthur Sullivan, Frederick . Clay, and other eompo..»rs wrote pieces for . her private theatre Grossmith, Tree, Arthur , Cecil, and other crack actors appeared in her pieces ; and when she took to organising table.iux, Millais, Watts, Leigh ton, nnd other great artists arranged thc-m for her— all the beauties of th" day representing tho f'-ni'ilc characters, nnd th.' whole Royal i Family being seated in the stall? beneath. ( It was on tho scene of all this vanished I beauty and splendor that tho attack on tho '• unhappy Gibson took place, for the hou .o 1 has nevnr been let or occupied since the old baronet died, and is us bare and dusty as a houso in v Dickens novel.