NEWS BY MAIL

Gisborne Times, Volume LVI, Issue 6319, 23 February 1922, Page 7

NEWS BY MAIL

Fifty years ago our grandmothers wore ornaments made of elephants’ hair “for luck.” The newest mascots are a revival of this old fashion, and consists of rings and bracelets composed of a single hair from an elephant’s tail. These hairs are between one-sixteenth to an eighth of an inch ' m thickness. The rings are mounted ! in gold and in seme case decorated j with precious stones.

M. Brillat Savarin, the famous ! gourmet, was a public man in France I in the late eighteenth century. He ! was a prominent politician and a j magistrate, besides dabbling in music ! and writing. But it is by his dishes j that lie is remembered. Brillat Sava- j rin laid down four essentials for a j good dinner—good cheer, good wine, good friends, and good time! He wrote about food as an art, and at least one of his sayings has become a proverb in the French language. “Tell j me what you eat, and I will tell you j what you are.” " j

A picture-show is being organised | by a party of aristocrats including the Hon. Edward Lascellss, Princess ! Mary’s future brother-in-law, and 1 -Lord Erskine of Restmcral. They ! have purchased the little-church of ist. Peter in Eaton Square, and are I converting it into a society kincma- j house, it is within a stone’s throw j of Buckingham Palace, and there will j be only 730 stalls and about 300 dress- ! circle seats in the’ house. The hope J is that members of the Royal Family ' will patronise the society kinema. The j Prince of Wales, has long had the > "picture” habit, and Queen Aiexan- | dra lias her own kinema entertain- j meats at Marlborough House. Special j lighting, good music, and many “in- I terest pictures” are to be features of | tlie cosy little icmema-hou.se. j

A man of vast wealth, Mr Walter Morrison, has died in London. Walter Morrison has been described as the happiest millionaire who e\*er lived. Born with an ample fortune, he innerited three estates, all worth more than £1,1)00,0C0. Yet ho never allowed his wealth to embitter him, and he spent his life in doing good turns to poor people and struggling causes while he lived in happy simplicity in his Yorkshire shooting hex, a district described in the opening chapters of Kingsley’s “Water Babies.*’ He also interested lumself in politics, being elected for Plymouth so long ago as 1861. In those days Walter -Morrison was a Radical. Later he changed his political coat, and it was the Morriscn millions which defeated the Lloyd George Land Acts. Mr Morrison’s fortune came from the well-known firm of Morrison, Dillon, and Co., of Fore Street, London, the maker of the business bc-mg James Morrison, Walter’s father. James had seven sons and three daughters, all of whom were very wealthy, Walter’s brother, Charles, left an estate valued at£12,000,000. i

It is encouraging to learn that there are still men with a superfluity of wealth in Great Britain. There have been so many sales of estates in recent months that the impression has arisen that millionaires are a vanishing quantity. Since 1917, when the high taxation commenced, i. 776,000 acres, equal to five English counties have been sold by a single firm of auctioneers. At least a million more acres must be added to cover other sales by auction and private treaty. In 1920 the aggregate land sales amounted to over £18,000,000.

For most Englishmen Christmas is a home feast; but many thousands of persons are not chained by children cr grandchildren, and prefer to dine or sup at a public restaurant on Christmas night. Thus 1200 people dined at the Savoy, where Christmas evening was celebrated as a Tetrazzini gala night. The famous soprano occupied a central place on a dais in the restaurant,, and sang several songs. Earlier in the day the Savoy staff, including waiters, porters, liftmen, cooks, boots, pages, and “tweenies,” were entertained by the Savoy directors tc a dinner precisely similar to that arranged for the Tetrazzini gala. A special staff of waiters were engaged, and the diners had the novel experience of bestowing, instead of receiving tips. The chief item in the 'Savoy bill of fare was bear’s ham, specially imported from Norway. It is said that the delicacy has not been served at an English dinner since the days of King Henry VIII.

Examples shown by American clergymen in refusing the sacrament to women because of the immodesty of their dress were cited by the Rev. Dr. Kirtlan in a vigorous sermon at New King Street, Wesleyan Church, Bath. No sane mr.n would object, said Dr. Kirtlan,. to beautiful dress for a beautiful woman—God’s mostglorious work. There was, however, a certain, development in womanly attire which was leading to the demoralisation and degradation of our girlhood and womanhood. Dr. Kirtlan warmly denounced the fashions which were, *he said, to be seen in the lounges of the great London hotels and in fashionable watering-places throughout the land. A whittling down of moral values was going on, especially in regard to the relations of the sexes, arid the advocacy of tree love had almost reached the dimensions of a campaign. He exnorted mothers to bring up their girls with the idea of womanly modesty and sweetness, which used to be a glorious English characteristic.

Among the stories recalled by the death of that fine character actor, Sir John Hare, are those turning on the convincing nature of his old man parts. He began to play when he was quite youthful. Gladstone had seen him in some of them, and, meeting him in private life, remarked quite seriously, “Of course I’ve seen your father. The Garrick Theatre was built for Hare by Sir V illiani Gilbert, and was opened with “The Profligate.” regarded as the first of the Pinero problem plays. There followed “A Pair of Spectacles,” in which Hare ‘'created” the kindly old 'Benjamin Goldfinch. As a tribute to his performance King Edward presented him' with a golden model of the head of a hare, wearing spectacles. Dignity was an impression given bv all the work of Sir John Hare. Even to the rough old Eccles m “Caste” he brought a touch of nobility. * »

Douglas Fairbanks’s version of “The Three Musketeers” has-been produced at the Covent Garden Opera House with success, as may he judged from the critics’ verdicts that it is two-third “Doug” and one-third Dumas. Seventy-seven solid sets of scenery were built for the production, and the scenes in Old Paris were remarkable. The backgrounds really ‘look worth the quarter of a million sterling they are said to have cost. But what the Oovent Garden audiences value even more highly are the hair-breadth escapes of the irrepressible Fairbanks, hacking his way into the most impossible situationsand smiling himself out of thorn, until tho Queen’s jewels are duly recovered in time for the wonderful State ball. Or more immediate artistic interest is the engagement of Eugene Goossens symphony orchestra at a cost of £6OO a week, to provide the incidental music for tho £250,01/1 film.