The Feilding Star. Oroua and Kiwitea Counties Gazette. TUESDAY, DECEMBER 29, 1908. Personalities.

Feilding Star, Volume III, Issue 764, 29 December 1908, Page 2

The Feilding Star. Oroua and Kiwitea Counties Gazette. TUESDAY, DECEMBER 29, 1908. Personalities.

There are probably more interesting personalities before the world to-day than ever before at one period. There are outstanding figures in almost ©very department of life — figures that hold the gaze of the public the . world over. World-figures is a phrase that may fairly be applied to an unusually large group of men—- and to some women. Place aux dames — there is Queen 'Alexandra, who is easily the" first favourite amongst the consorts of kings— the daughter, sister and wife of kings, a popular idol of the British and Danish people, a charming lady who seems to have discovered the secret .of perpetual youth. She goes about doing good, and her latest achievement is to._pubiish a book of photographs taken by herself and published as' a means of providing funds for charity. Madame Curie, who was conducting research work with her husband (lately deceased) when -they discovered radium, is another great lady. Of kings, Edward of England takes first place as the most interesting- personality, and we -find by the latest cablegrams that he has sent a personal mesage to that doyen of European monarchSj Francis, Josef of Austria-Hungary,- which, is expected to have an r important Hearing upon the trouble in the Balkans. "Edward the Peacemaker" is' the apt - TiSTne^""bSßt<)^ged j<upon ; >^<^-U;n<i|s;ji.Qf ;

i» anything but a lover of peace, and I Uncle Edward is kept busy pouring bushels of tact upon the heaps of trouble that, like disturbed anthills, his wayward nephew raises. Czar Nicholas has gone into retirement, and is' having a breathing spell. The Anarchist seems to have emigrated from Russia, and is practising his ignoble arts in foreign parts—probably India. Alfonso of Spain was under the limelight for some time, but he is now too busy growing a family, and needs must stay home like a staid ' much-married man. Modest old Farmer Fallieres, whom accident has placed at the head of France, has been dragged into the public gaze literally by the beard by a would-be assassin. But', although scratched and bleeding and participating in a scuffle in the gutter — the President resumed his interrupted stroll ! How different is the conduct of those two South Americans, Castro and Gomez. They have been the centre of plots and counter-plots,, which were so fierce that Gomez nipped the Castro conspiracy in the bud — without the shedding of a drop of blood. Why, Burns and Johnson, , who are also in the world's limelight, did not settle their little difference without blood-getting. In the United States of America President Roosevelt is easily the most conspicuous personality, whilst the world and his wife are taking great interest in the coming expedition against big game in South Africa which Mr. Roosevelt is booked to undertake as soon as he is released from the cares of office. We are all so keenly concerned in this great expedition that our mind was considerably eased on i reading that Selous would be in the [ Roosevelt party. When the wild .animals read this in the Nature Study columns of the newspapers they will tuck in their tails and agree [ that nothing serious must happen to the Rooseveltian expedition. Certainly Selous is a guarantee of safety, for he is one of the world's mightiest hunters. When Mr. Roosevelt returns home again 'from South Africa, he is to settle down in New York — as a journalist. Presently Lieut. Shackleton will be a worldfigure, for he is to report upon Hs dash to the South Pole — and perhaps he /will bring a chip from the Pole to prove that he has conquered Antarctica. M. Isvolsky, the Russian Foreign Minister with a name that suggests revolvers and bombs and skyrockets, has been under the limelight consistently ever since the trou- ! ble in the Balkans began. And ho is making a great showing, particularly with a pro-British policy. He has done much to weld Russia, England, and France into a powerful triple alliance, and he must have given Kaiser Wilhelm and von Buelow some uneasy nights. Figures which have been flitting on and off the stage have been those of the Sultan of Turkey, the Shah of Persia, Sultan Mulai Hafid of Morocco and his brother Abdul Aziz, Baron von Aerenthal (Austria's Foreign Minister), and a whole group of Britishers in England and in her Empire overseas. The regular reader of the daily press will readily agree with our declaration, therefore, that to-day the world has an unusually, large supply of interesting personalities.