In the Public Eye

Evening Post, Volume CVI, Issue 48, 25 August 1923, Page 14

In the Public Eye

POINTS OF, NOTABLE PERSONAGES

Mr. Luther Burbank, the great plant wizard of America, recently celebrated his 74th. birthday. ; During 'the fifty years he has been at work he has handled many millions of plants of all kinds, and has bred more new varieties of beautiful flowers and useful fruits than any other man.- His first creation was a potato that is now grown in millions of bushels all over the world. Hischief achievement,- and perhaps the one that will have the most influence on. civilisation, is the production of the spineless cactus. Luther Burbank says that in,the course of his work he has come to two conclusions;, first, that plants'are pliable and under the control of'man, and that they can be bred and trained and developed just as: animals can be bred and improved and trained; and, second, that the human plank-the. child—can be trained, developed, and improved just as the skilled gardener or the trained botanist develops," trains,; and improves the best- that is in each qf his plants. :

The Hon. Arthur Ponsonby, who made himself notorious when' he introduced into the House of Commons recently to abolish hereditary titles, was in his unregenerate youth a page to 'Queen Victoria./He is, though he doubtless wishes it otherwise, related to many of the noble families of England. At one time he even, took an active part in English society. In the beginning of his politicaj career he was"a Liberal, but he has gradually swung more and more left till now he has become an important member of the Labour Party. His Bill, although it is not the first of its kind with which the British Commons has had to deal; was greeted with wild enthusiasm by , Labour members and great, indignation by the Tory members. •■''':■

Arportrait arid bust by Mr. A. Mac--Laren^ Labour M.P. for Burslem, was recently exhibited in the Eoyal Academy. Mr. MacLaren, who is 39, was appren.ticed in an engineering shop at the age of '14, but" within- a year had won a studentship at the Glasgow School of Artp .About ten, years ago he gave up his :trade and went to London to seek his'livelihood as an artist. He-mixes paint and politics;-

one -of the cleverest of young inventors, is Professor A.. M. Low, who has about 130 inventions to his credit. He is the inventor, among other things, of; the wireless-controlled aeroplane and torpedo, the synchronised slow-motion camera, the auditometer for snap-shotting sound, the sound-proof Tube trains shortly to he running, a new apparatus for enabling the "blind to read ordinary newspapers, ,and—most novel of all—the mechanism by which we may one day be able to see by wireless. , Professor Low has a keen sense, of humour^ and one..of his favourite jokes is"a game of magnetic^ billiards You can imagine his opponent's amazement when, no matter how "the professor strikes a ball, if rushes to a pocket and. .rapidly- and unerringly nestles inside ,it. ; :Th e secret is a-" hidden electric magnet which can beswitched on at will and a-"doctored" ball^ft.^^..^-: ... .._... ;.. .-':■-,.-,

Mr. Walte*' -Meakiii,-.president, 6f\the National Union of Journalists, isa wellknown and -popular;- Fleet street -figured. He is 44, and made his reputation as a writer on the "Manchester Guardian," and has for the last six years beeju on the "Daily News." He was for a. year Parliamentary correspondent, and now devotes himself chiefly to Labour sub: jects.' Mr. iMeakin is a widely:travelled man, and is an authority on Russian topics. He is r.lso an able speaker. As i one of the 1 founders of the National Union of Journalists he has rendered distinguished service to the profession to which he belongs. ■ ■■'■-• ; •

_ Kear-Admiral Sir Guy Gaunt began his life on the sea as a small boy of 14 in an old wind-jammer, and finished by flying his flag in a warship in the war. He had had many good meals in the Strand over a grating. "You get a nice warm/ smell from a grating," he holds ;_ and he believes that "a London bed at Is is very good^—if you have one all to yourself. Every.woman you see. when you lirst come ashore," -maintains Sir Guy, "is beautiful. \1 once- fell madly in love with an old charwoman whom I aaw on shore after 154 days at sea."

' Dr. Gilbert -"White, Bishop, of. Willochra, who' became notable by remarks made about the women of Australasia, is a bishops on a /very largo scale. His diocese takes in all the northern part of South Australia with an area of 300,0C0 odd square miles. Even that is a small place compared with his previous diocese of Carpentaria, which has an area of over 600,000. square miles. Dr. White is descended from a' brother of Gilbert White, the naturalist, who was content to spend his life in one little English parish, and wrote of the natural history of Selbourhe. - . "

The general •"■ of Barclay's Bank, .one of the, f'Big Five," Sir "William Carruthers, began work as a clerk in a Scottish, bank.''■/■-/IT ,began forty years ago iri; the. British' Linen Bank," said Sir William; "am'itom that day to this I have .never ha'iifai minute to spare: I put my Sivhole life in tny work, and found that ■everything coriiiected with it proved to be my greatest interest. "I. have; been ; working without a stop for forty-seven yeats, .''arid^-I shall retire in September, .to- give', .other people a. chance." .Sir. William '"Has been so busy that he has not ; eveh: liad time to lose his Scottish, accent. .'.''. ■"'. "'■ .

' Captain Robert A: Bartlett, is an American veteran of five Polar expeditions, one of which was Peary's famous dash to within.; 100 miles of the' North Pole. He is again: raising funds for a three-year .expedition'to tho Arctic Sea, this time to measure its flow and cui> rents and to 'spund;,its bottom. Captain Bartlett, who^was born in Newfoundland in 1875 and became, an American citizen fifteen years ago;, was master of a whaler at 17, and now holds, both American and English masters' tickets. One of Bartlett's Arctic expeditions was under Stefansson, when the ship Karluk was lost off .Wraiigel Island. He has received many-medals.

It is doubtful,if any man tn Australia has such a wonderful memory and varied range of knowledge, as Mr. justice Isaacs, of the High Court of the Commonwealth. ' His knowledge of case law is uncanny. He writes shorthand, even to-day, better than the' most recent graduate of a. business college. He is a fine .musician, playing both the violin and the piano in a, "way of which, any professional might be proud. Both in range and depth few scholars liaVe greater knowledge of literature.

The E&rL of Ronaldson, until recently a very successful Governor of Bengal, is a very great" traveller in thai East. He is soon to join the limited band of those whose statues have been -erected in their lifetime. Tho. itatuei will adorn Calcutta as a record of aoprtciatioii of:hii term of office. Lord "Rpnaldshay fe a geographer of woxld-wida reput^