ABOUT PEOPLE.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXXIII, Issue 15902, 13 April 1912, Page 17

ABOUT PEOPLE.

SOME PERSONAL NOTES,

STORIES ABOUT CELEBRITIES. Few people have met j Sir Joseph Ward without falling under the spell of his charm of manner. Some of the political opponents of the ex-Pnme Minister would have us believe that ho has cultivated urbanity and the spirit of conciliation until have become vices. But that suggestion is entirely •unjust. Sir Joseph Ward can be firm, as the men who have met him in the political arena have reason to know. His invariable courtesy even under the most difficult circumstances is born of Sal kindliness of heart, which ■ leads 01 constantly to study the feelings and wishes of the people with whom lie is brought into 'contact. Newspaper men have very often had reason to be grateful to Sir Joseph Ward for acts of consideration that few busy public men would have ■ troubled to perform. In the rush and press of a Parliamentary session he has always been ready to listen to a request or make an explanation. He has been known to alight from a train at midnight after a heavy day’s travelling and submit to the loss of some of his scanty rest in order that a “ cub ” reporter might sharpen his journalistic teeth upon questions that had been asked and answered a hundred times before. Courtesy could hardly he put. to a more severe test. '

Sir Joseph Ward is an extraordinarily fluent speaker, and the speed of I his utterance lias been the despair of many a shorthand writer. But a verbatim report of ono of his speeches, preferably on an occasion when no very important question was involved, would be startling to many people. Sir Joseph has a strange habit of leaving sentences unfinished, and of involving himself in by-paths of explanation that never return to the original topic. • The habit E assess unnoticed very often,, because is intonation and gesture convey his meaning clearly, and his flow of words is not. interrupted. But there have been occasions in Parliament when the Press gallery has puzzled in vain over some passage in one r of the Prime Minister’s speeches. Here is a curious extract from a reporter’s note of one of Sir Joseph’s speeches :-r-“ The occasion must como when—and I say this with full knowledge of the facts, knowledge that my friends opposite obviously do not possess, since they have been presenting suppositious cases that cannot possibly have any real bearing or importance. The position is not as they would have us believe. ..I have not the. least hesitation in saying that it is not,so.” And the speaker proceeded to explain the position from his standpoint, leaving the reporter to delete tne unfinished sentence at the beSing of the passage. But this parar speech gave evidences of the Prime Minister’s thorough grasp of his subject and skill in debate.

The Mother Country has been mourning the loss of one of her . most daring and successful aviators, in the person of Douglas Graham Gilmour, who was killed by a fall a few weeks ago. “He learned to fly in France,” writes a correspondent, “ and soon his daring exploits in tne air gained , him a reputation for recklessness. On one occasion he -collided with a telegraph pole, at Brooklands, the result. Deing that he broke his nose and suffered concussion .of the brain. Many aviators would have had enough of flying after this; but not so with Gilmour. As soon as ho "was better, he started flying again, and. he died in harness. Last July he incurred the wrath of the Royal Aero Club by flying over the course of the Henley regatta, actually! touching the water with the wheels of his machine. For this his certificate was suspended for. a month, thus debarring him from flying In ■ ■ the now historio circuit of Britain. Prior to his disqualification he bad told me that he was a certain winner of the race. On another occasion, ho boldly flew from Welbridge to St Paul’s and back, and again only narrowly escaped suspension by the Royal Aero Club. His death was sudden as it was tragic, and Gilmour is a loss not only to the flying world, hut to his numerous friends. He was certainV one of England’s,most brilliant—if not the most brilliant—flying men, for he knew no peril, and ‘ danger ’ was not numbered among his vocabulary.”

The head of the world’s cotton industry is a son of the manse, his father having been tho Rev William Macara, of Strathmiglo, Fifeshire, and entered commerce in 1862, occupying now the high position of managing director of 1 Henry Bannerman and Sons, Ltd., says the “ British l ; Weekly.” To suggest, however, that Sir Charles’s achievements are confined to the commercial world is to do him scant justice. For money in itself Sir Charles has little care. Many times has he declined lucrative directorships in order to de- . vote the time to .public and philanthropic work. He fives quietly, without dash or splash, and maintains that the great thing in life is not to get, but to give. “ and,” he said once, “I never think I have given anything unless it has cost me something.”

Sir James Carroll has resigned, and probably half New Zealand believes, thanks to the persistent attacks made

upon him by his political opponents, that he has been a poor administrator, an exponent of the “ taihoa ” .policy. As a matter of fact, Sir James has done his. ministerial work with remarkable ability. His real offence in the eyes of the Opposition is that ho has protected the Maori people from the raids that white “ land sharks ” would have made on the Native lands. A few years hence the last acre of Native land not required by the Maoris themselves will have oeen.handed to a wfcjte settler, and the public will.be able then to examine the position without troubling about party quarrels. It will he found that the Native land problem has been solved in New Zealand with fairness to the whole community, and with an absence of giiction probably unexampled in the The credit for this achievement must bo given very largely to Sir James Carroll. It is an open secret that years ago the retiring Native Minister could have taken the reins of government. He preferred to stand aside in the interests of the Hon W. HallJones, but nobody who knows him at all will doubt that he had the capacity for carrying a heavy burden of administrative .responsibility. His power in debate is known to most New Zealand people bj; this time. He is a horn orator, with a wonderful gift for vivid imagery, and when he attacks or defends m the parliamentary* arena his opponents sit up and the buzz of gossip in the galleries jf oases. “

Not many are left in England to-dav who _remember the sojourn of Mazzihi in London. One of the few survivors in the latter class is Mrs Hamilton King, whoa© book . of Mazzini reminiscences is published by Messrs Longmans. L conversation with a“Daily News” representative, she recalled some of her recollections of tho- statesman’s life and character. “ I was always an enthusiast for Italian freedom,,” said Mrs King, “ and during the last ten years of Mazzini’s life I met him frequently, and received lengthy letters from him. In his early days in England he lived in Goodgo Street, where a tablet is Boon to ho set up to mark the house, and afterwards he lodged in Fulham Road. Pictnro to yourself a very slender man with somewhat stooping shoulders, a high forehead, and abundant hair, well tinged with grey, and you have some idea of his appearance in those days. The sombre clothes and black stock which he always wore in sorrow for his country’s wrongs added ao almost clerical look to his figure,

and just as Garibaldi always impressed one as boing Italy’s fighting man, so M'azzini suggested tho brain of Italy’s national aspirations.”

The wife of Dr Sun-Yat-Sen, the leader of the Chinese republicans, was interviewed at Penang by Mr William Maxwell, a representative of the London “Daily Mail.” “Here she was,” Mr Maxwell writes, “ just a dainty little lady with sweet, smiling face and a grace and charm that make willing slaves. The simple robe of pure white threw into strong relief the clear, olive tone of the complexion and tho glossy black hair, unadorned and smoothed hack from the shapely forehead. Mrs Sun-Yat-Sen might be a beautiful nun if her face did not shine with tho happiness tiiat is of this world also. ‘ For vears,’ she said, ‘the cause has separated mo from my husband, on whose head there has been a price. . My married life has been filled with vague terrors and active alarms. But.never for a moment have I lost faith in the succ'ess of our sacrifice.’ This is the secret of her radiant youth and enthusiasm—faith in a man and a causo.”

“It is unnecessary for any sane man to inquire whether Mr Taft and Mr Roosevelt are on friendly terms. There is an open breach between them ” says Mr Maurice Low in the * “ Morning Post.” “It has existed for many months. At the beginning an effort was made on the part of Mr Taft, who is too sensitive to care to have ‘differences with a former friend advertised to the world, although persons close to Mr Taft well knew what his feelings were. It was inevitable, in the nature of things, that this break should come. Circumstances might make the two men friends, and iliat friendship might bo maintained up to a certain point, because the one man was useful to the other, but there it must end. \ In everything Mr Taft is unlike Mr Roosevelt; the contrast is no greater physically than it is in mind and temperament.”

Daniel Defoe, the author of “ Robinson Crusoe,” was the first great English journalist, and, moreover, lie was the first to take away, or. rather, to lessen, the stigma which had hitherto been associated with the making of newspapers. He it was who mapped out a chart in his “Essay on Projects” for the journalists who succeeded him. He indicated the salient features of their work, noted the dangers they would encounter and the best way of winning success in their calling. Defoe could not have had a more, unsympathetic wife, according to a recent biographer:—“The place, slie complained, was in a state of everlasting litter from pens, paper, and rubbish of that kind. Why did not the man stick to his hosiery trade at tho old shop, instead of writing what nobody wanted to read, or what when it was written, only got him into prison or into the pillory P”

The Prince of W f ales will matriculate as an undergraduate at Magdalen College, Oxford, next Michaelmas term. His Royal Highness, who has yust been welcomed enthusiastically in Pans, is thus in respect of University education following the precedent of Ring JUlward VII, who, after leaving, his private tutors, studied at Edinburgh, Christ Church, Oxford ancl Trinity College, Cambridge. King George, on the other hand, became when twelve years of age a naval cadet, proceeding direct from his tutor to the Britannia at Dartmouth, where ho took the ordinary curriculum, passing subsequently through the Royal Naval College at Greenwich.

The ready wit of the late Eugene F. Ware, author of “ The Washerwoman s Song” and other poems, is shown m tho following story.. He was giving a dinner at his home m Kansas City, the place to which he had retired after he resigned from the office of pension commissioner at Washington, under President Roosevelt. The guests were equally divided between Missourians, from the twin city across the line, and Kansans. Said a Missourian: iou Kansans always have your brass bands foing and your flags flying. Wo, from lissouri, don’t like your assertiveness. Tell me, what have you decided about the hen, for instance: Does she sit or does she set?” “We don’t bother about things like that,” flashed Ware. “ What concerns us, when she cackles, is, has she laid or has she lied?”

“ He presents a type by himself on the front Opposition bench,” says one who has ■watched the parliamentary progress of Mr Bonar Law, the new leader of the British Unionists. Deep sunk eyes, a big square jaw, an upright forehead, a straight mouth, covered by a somewhat drooping moustache, give at the first glance an impression of a man deeply reflective, touched with melancholy, hut dominated by the recognition of the necessity for strong and forcible action. . . . Here is no fervid prophet who runs to. words. Here is rather the man who, having convinced himself that a certain course of action is necessary, will work without personal ostentation but with a certain grim ruthlessness until his object is attained.”

There arrived in London a few weeks ago Miss Edith Onians the “ Newsboys’ Godmother,” of Melbourne. As a life-long worker among hoys of all sorts and the specially designated counsellor and friend of the thousand and one “larrikins” of the Victorian capital ; Bhe is all her name implies. Miss Onians’ actual position is that of honorary secretary of the Melbourne Newsboys’ Association, hut if her work and reputation did nofi extend far beyond the boundaries of Her purely official position, she would not now be making a tour round the world to study the “ street arahs ” of all nations and to compare the boy problems of Europe and America with her long experience of Australia. Sne has already been to Paris and to' several cities in Germany, and she will make a thorough study of tho newsboys’ clubs of America, which are said to be the best in tho world.

Miss Onians dees not think of street urchins as juvenile hooligans. “ I lovo them as hoys,” she confessed to a “Daily News” representative,, “and I have never met one whom I could not win as a friend. Ido not think that is the way you in England regard the hoy problem. I have once or twice oven heard .them mentioned as cases.” The work in Melbourne began about sixteen years ago. A large hall was taken, a course of trade classes started, and there was a night school for general studies and a gymnasium. Every youngster who showed .real ability had the opportunity of a good education at tho Melbourne Working Men’s College To-day former newsboys are holding responsible positions in various parts’ of Australia., America and the East Indies Miss Onians advocates that hoys in “blind alley” occupations should seek their fortune overseas. Australia has need of boys, and sho can offer them the finest things in life—the right to work, the right to live, and a good welcome. ,

Mr Coleridge Taylor, the coloured composer or Hiawatha and other famous musical works, has written a defence of the black races in a letter to the Purley Circle. At a recent meeting a clergyman who presided thanked a lecturer who had made several unfriendly references to coloured neonle “ Personally, says Mr Colerideo Tav lor, “I consider myself the equal of any white man who ever lived, and no one would ever change me i n that re spect; on the other hand no man reverences worth more than I, irrespective of colour. No woman has even been more courteous to me than a certain member of our own Royal Family and no man more so than ex-President Roosevelt. Tt was an arrogant little white man who dared to g a y to the great Dumas, * And I hear y ou actually

have negro blood in you!’ ‘Yes!’ said the witty writer; ‘my father was a mulatto, his father a negro, and his father a monkey. My ancestiw began where yours ends.’ Somehow I always remember that wonderful answer when I meet a certain typo of white man, and the remembrance makes mo feel quite happy—wickedly happy, in fact.”