ABOUT PEOPLE.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 7002, 3 March 1894, Page 2 (Supplement)

ABOUT PEOPLE.

The Archduchess Stephanie, widow of the Austrian Crown Prince Rudolph, who died so mysteriously at the hunting ooiaqv of Meyeriing. has given to the church of Dozen her white wedding dress, embroidered in silver ;;n-l ornamented with the coat of arms of Uapsburg and Belgium. The dress lias been tri'insformed into a ' chasuble,' a clerical vestment which was worn for ihe lirst time some Sundays ago by Dean Wieser, on the occasion of the consecration of an aisle of his church.

John Elderkiu, who has been a member of the Lotos Club from its beginning, is writing a history of the club, to be published on its twenty-fifth anniversary. It will contain anecdotes and reminiscenoes of all the celebrated and brilliant men who have been connected with it and the guests whom it has entertained. Mr. Elderkin was associated with the late John Brougham in editing 'Lotos Leaves' in 1.873. The forthcoming volume will be illustrated with portraits drawn from the large collection in the clubhouse and from photographs. The sudden fall of tho iron roof of the railroad station at Dover, in England, carries with it a lesson to our iron bridge constructors, and especially to the management of the elevated railroad system of this ciry. The roof in question was old, having been constructed some thirty years ago, and, notwithstanding repeated coverings of paint and of oilier protective material, it seems that the metal was eaten away to such an extent by the rust that it ended by the falling of its own accord, and without the slightest warning. It remains to he seen how long the iron girders of our elevated railroad system and the Steele cables of the Brooklyn bridge will he able to withstand the wear and tear and vibration, as well as the atmospheric influences, to which they are subjected. Some of the Chicago papers have treated Mr. W. T. Stead and his attempt to elevate the moral tone of Chicago with considerable flippancy.

' The Journal,' for instance, says : ' Tie came to us in a period of civic trial. The closing days of the World's Fair, the lamented death of our Mayor and the strife of an election, over an issue that was modi lied our usual exuberance of spirits. With the slapdash of a clown in a pantomime he jumped into the midst of us and began belaboring us with a split shingle. As it made a terrible noise, but did not hurt, the impression was humorous rather than punitive.'

Vasily Vasilievich Bervy, the latest addition to the number of Russian 'political refugees in London, is a remarkable man. He is sixty-four years old, and twenty-six have been spent in exile and imprisonment. He has been in side no less than thirty-two prisons, and yet has committed no act humanity or civilization can regard as a crime. He was arrested in 1802 on suspicion of taking part in the propaganda of a revolutionary society and sent to biberia, as 'no proofs of his guilt' were forthcoming, to quote the terms of an official document referring to his case. He endured terrible privation with his young wife and child while in Asia. Tn 1870 he was allowed to return to Russia, but for writing a pamphlet advocating the abolition of class distinction and tyranny he was soon after exiled for another fourteen years. He is a prolific and distinguished writer, and his ' Primer of Social Sciences ' was at one time a standard educational work iv his native land. Bervy is a vegetarian, and his daily diet consists of a plate of rice boiled in water and a

glass of red wine. Yet he works ten hours a day at his desk.

According to a computation of the ' Ikevy; nnd Huettenrnaemiisclic Xoitting,' the amount of salt in uhe sea water of the globe, if extracted, would be greater in mass than the land, so far as it appears above the surface. The seaS; it says, cover 73 per cent of the earth's surface, estimated at 9,2(10,000 (German) square miles. Tlie percentage of chloriiafrium in the sea is the same at all depths. Assuming that the average depth of the sea a half (German) mile, there are then 3,-100,000 cubic miles of sea water. A cubic mile of sea water contains, on the average, about twenty-five kilograms of salt. The 3,4000,000 cubic miles of sea water would, therefore contain 85,000 cubic miles of distilled pure salt. There is, therefore, little danger of the salt famine—is the rather logical deduction of the writer.

This is the way the musical critic of

• The Webb City (Mo.) Times ' describes a pianist : ' The soft, sweet tones blended with wild, rollicking bursts iv ecstatic measures, dying away again until tlie room seemed filled with the requiem notes of a dying silver Senator. Then the bright, racy measures would chase each other through the profundo, down the crescendo skip over the staccato, and off again into the fields of bright melody and classic, diction. 1

Just before tlie, piM.-age of tlie much-talked-of lottery and opium bills in Hawaii, Liliuokalani was waited upon by a committee, of women, wives of many prominent residents of tlie Islands, hearing a petition begging that Her Majesty would not confirm by her signature the passage of these bills, whose effects would be so demoralizing on her people. Liliuokalani received them with courtesy, wept, and prayed and promised to follow their advice. Much gratified, the ladies were making their exit, when one of the committee, turning suddenly, diseried. the tlueen mocking with mincing steps much to the amuseuieul. of her ladies-in-waiting, tilt! venerable missionary mother, who helped U> educate this woman at a time when she little dreamed of aspiring to Ihe throne of Hawaii. Two days later Liliuokalani signed both these lulls, which she herself had helped to bribe through the Legislature.

The ' Memoires' left by Marshal MacMahon, which he refused to have published during his life-time, were finished three years ago. They were i.ransciibod in his hotel of Hue 'Sellechas.--" no.lor ihe direction <>f ('..Mill I >c Jh-aiii'ot't, ii: - aide-de-camp. ■ work was done by a retired military -..leer, and only fifteen copies were orinle.l on parchment lot- the members ..)' (he family. The -Memoires" are divide 1 into several chapters, forming tour .'.■'iimes, which contain in all i'bout 2000 pages, .'■-. I'aiis paper recently offered a i I'i'e on the he-;I -qiccii-ieu of microscopii: xx.'X'l:: i-'li'ig. T ! " winner was a ■iiol ' -'ho hi"l Cojo ..I . ':! ill full oil a ; i/sta' : cord (ho ~ -o ... s of the first lovo p ".'os oi'; : A..- iMV'.-oapor. Another j I'Uididale, ingeniously jibcling (o the j faiiiui.s incident, v.t.'A mi au i.igg an j account ol ihe career of Columbus. A

third submitted the 19,000 words of Francois Coupee's novel of' Henrietta,' written on the back of a cabinet photograph. It has boon decided by an English court that it is not libellous to cad a I lady a woman. This recalls the fact that in a Western town, a couple of years ago, a young woman who worked as a clerk in a drygoods store threatened to sue a newspaper for libel because it referred to her as a saleswoman, and not as a saleslady. She did not carry out her intention, however, as she was advised that she bad no case. There died recently in the poorhouse of Wayne County, i'enn., a man known as Johnny '"arr, but whose real name '.wis dohnnes Zeer. ---c was horn in C-rmanv in May 1797. When a young man he entered the Prussian army under Field Marshal lilucher, and was in the battle of Waterloo. Fifty ago years Zeer went to America, and settled in Wayne County, where he bought, a farm in Berlin Township. He was prosperous, but ten years ago lie lost all bis property by endorsing Cor his stepsons. For a lime ho struggled against adversity, but filially milk refuge in the poorhouse whore he died.