In the Public Eye

Evening Post, Volume CV, Issue 124, 26 May 1923, Page 14

In the Public Eye

POINTS OF NOTABLE PERSONALITIES

The Duke of York, with his bride, is said to be a devotee of the latest fashionable idea of economy. He recently went to a photographer in London with his bride. Lady Elisabeth was about to give the order for copies, when—"No," said the Duke, "I will give the order,, for I get special terms.". -It is encouraging in these strenuous times to see even those in high places cultivating the virtue of economy.

Brig.-General Cuscaden, V.D., of Melbourne, who has been knighted, was born in Wexford in 1857. He studied medicine at the Edinburg University, and-secured the Licentiateship of the Royal Colleges of Physicians and of Surgeons, At the age of 29 he came to Australia, and took up a practice. He was honorary surgeon to the Women's Hospital, : Melbourne, and was also consulting surgeon to that institution. He is a past president of the Yietoran Branch of the British Medical Association. When war broke out, in August, 1814, General Cuscaden was appointed Principal Medical Officer of the Third Military district, and hs held that office until January, 1918. Subsequently he was DirectorGeneral of the Australian Army Medical Services,

M. Eena Doumic has been elected permanent secretary of the French Academy, succeeding Frederic ftfasson, the authority on Napoleonic literature, whose far-famed brusqueness of manner overlaid a heart of gold. Th.c secretary of the Immortals must himself be an. Immortal. M. Doumic was elected to a Chair in tha Acadamy in 1909, succeeding the; savant, Gaston Boissier. The permanent secretary receives a- salary of 6000 francs a year, while an ordinary Immortal draws only 1500 franca. He is also entitled to living quarters in the Palais Mazarin. But his work is enormous, since he has to administer numerous prize-giving foundations. Doumic is the editor of "La- Eevue de Deux Mondes" and a contributor along critical lines to all the other first-claes French papers. He founded the popular magazine, "Lectures pbur.Tous," and is known as one of France s most brilliant and indefatigable, writers.

Mr. James Welsh, the Scottish poetminer, whose recent speech made so greatan effect in the Hou^se of Commons, is a stnkimj-Iqpking man. He is not very tall, and he is so well-proportioned that he appeal's to be even shorter than he really, is. Jlis manner is attractively modest. He has "seeing" eyes and the 1 -prophet' look which you expect to find m the face of a man who sees visions of a perfect state dl society. His high forehead, unmanageable curly hair, sensitive^ nostrils, and broad jaw are the marks of the enthusiast, while the mild eye and small, finely moulded chin under chistelled lips betray the poet. James Welsh has the softest voice imaginable and a confiding way of telling his hopes and ambitions. He has written since he Was a small boy. Books have always been his companions, and his joy is the writing of verse. " ' '

Mr.; Sinclair Lewis, the novelist, who wrote.."Main Sheet" and "Babbitt," is, back in ..that London the dust of which lie shooTi from his feet with such disfa proval less than a year ago, The cables reported him as having uttered some pretty viojent reproaches;, about" English people when he landed in^.fJew"York. "When I went back to America," he said, "I fully intended to stay there "a year. But I found myself growing restless, and I set out on a tour of the West Indies. And now.l have come here—it is the only country in the world in which to work." Mr. Lewis has taken a furnished flat in §t. James's, and there, clad in a morning coat and the nether button on his waistcoat carefully unfastened, he tramps to and fro holding forth to visitors. He is full of that chronic restlessness which Americans acquire in their climate and seem to bring -over with them. ' The stream of his monologue is copious^ Everything he mentions he makes vivid. Parties he has been; to, books, plays, criticism, people, the morals of the United States, scenes .in . the. West Indies—he parodies them all in a highly-wrought declamatory way, '' \

Darius ■Milhaud, the noted French composer, is the leader of the celebrated "Groupe de Sixe," which represents the newest tendencies in French music, and which has succeeded in attracting almost as much attention as Debussy did a generation ago. The "Six,'' comprised of five men and one woman, are all young. The oldest of .the present group, Arthur Honegger, is only thirty, and the youngest, Georges Auric, is under twenty-five. Their leader, M.. Milhaud, was born at Aix in Provence, 4th September, 1892. He was..educated at the College of Aix and the Paris Conservatoire. In. 1915 he obtained the Lepaulle composition prize with his sonata for two violins and piano. During the war he was employed on missions from the. irerach Government t s i Jih 6 United [States. In 1917 and 1918 he was in Brazil as attache to: the French Legation at Bio de Janeiro. On his return to ; Pans in 1919 he and his'companions ! organised a concert tour from Paris to' England, Italy, Poland, Austria, and Holland. The long list of Milhaud's compositions' includes operas choral works, symphonies, " chamber music, piano pieces, and songs. /

,In an article on Winston Churchill, Lord Riddell-says: "No man has been more criticised than . Mr. Churchill. Some people excite criticism, and he is one of them. To .repeat ..Princess Bibesco's clever epigram, 'Winston cjigs .up ],i E faults, and throws them at you, whereas mosfr people leave you to do the digging, lhe details of his amazing career are well known. As yet only fifty, he has played many great parts-soldier newspaper correspondent, author, painter, orator, aviator, politician, Cabinet Minister, and all with distinction. His war dispatches were brilliant. Before he was thirty he had written one of the best biographies in the language' and sold it for £8000. He early maofe a reputation as a speaker. He was a Cabinet Minister at thirty-two. For eighteen years he has taken a leading part in national affairs, and has been one of the storm centres in British politics."

Nicholas John Coundouris, now eightyseven years old, was one of a small group of merchants in the Near East to teach Englishmen and later some Eastern Americans the use of cigarettes, whicli were, first, mistaken by the Occidentals for little candles to be used for decorative purposes. Durmg'the Crimean war English officers learned the habit from the French, Spanish, and Turks, but it was not till 1860 that companies were'formed to "turn out cigarettes already rolled. 1 According to CQundouris:. "It was at the invitation of the late Duke of Cambridge that I sent ten bales of. Turkish tobacco to England in 1858. At the. beginning only a handful of people smoked, cigarettes, among them being the then Prince of Wales, later King Edward Vll.yand Lady ;_Mo'rdaunt; who' smoked a special brand I made for her.,"