OTHER LANDS.

Northland Age, Volume 3, Issue 20, 18 December 1906, Page 2

OTHER LANDS.

A pretty story is being told about Miss MarCarthy, the famous musician, who passed some of her earliest years in Sydney, N.S.W., where she was a diligent student of the violin. One day she was walking in the park with her nurse, when she noticed a smalll ragged boy, who was trying to earn a few coppers by dint of scraping out some tune on a violin. Maud, in an impetuous way, offered to play for him, as she wished to help the poor boy, and none of the passersby seemed to notice him. The boy, however, evidently doubting the ability of the little girl, younger than himself, refused to part with his precious violin even for a moment. Persuasion seemed useless, when suddenly little Maud had a happy inspiration. Opening her own purse she’ gave the small amount it contained to the boy, who thus being assured, handed her his violin. Maud MacCarthy began to play, and such was the marvellous way in which she showed her power over the instrument, that first one person and then another stopped to listen, till soon a crowd had gathered round. The little girl played on, quite lost in her music, till the nurse(who had been too surprised at her charge’s act to interfere before) made her stop playing. Maud then told the boy to take off his cap, in order to collect the coins which were bestowed freely, and the generous little girl went off with her nurse, happy at seeing that the little street musician, instead of being rewarded only by a few pence, was astonished and delighted as many silver pieces fell among the coppers in the cap which he held in his hands.

A curious account has recently been published of the average number of letters received daily by European sovereigns. The Pope breaks the record, as his daily average of letters and papers reaches the enormous number of from 22,000 to 23,000. Thirty-five secretaries are kept fully employed with his Holinesses correspondence. King Edward must find his daily quota of 1,000 letters and 300 newspapers a heavy tax on his attention. The Czar and the German Emperor receive from 600 to 700 a day ; the Emperor likes to answer many /himself. The King of Italy gets 500 and the young Queen of Holland struggled under the daily burden of between 100 and 160 letters. • • « «

There are few more popular monarch 9 than King Victor Immanuel 111 of Italy. From the time when he was called to the throne, upon the assassination of his father, King Humbert, on July 29, 1900, he has shown himself a thorough capable Sovereign, combining a firmness of purpose with a kindliness of heart that has not failed to endear him to all classes of his subjects. Born in 1869, the King as a young boy was not strong ; but thanks to the judicious care of his mother, Queen Margherita, whose love of open-air life is well-known, he outgrew his tendency to weakness, and, entering the army, passed through the early stages with much credit, becoming an export horseman, and thoroughly well versed in military tactics. In 1896 he was appointed to the command of tho Naples Army Corps—a post he filled with great credit—and in the same year attended, on King Humbert’s behalf, the Czar’s Coronation. In 1897 he went to England to be present at the celebration of Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee. The King, like his mother, is an ardent hunter, he is a keen yachtsman, and possesses great artistic taste, his collection of coins being greatly envied by connoisseurs. Before coming to the throne, King Victor Immanuel had married, on October 24, 1896, Princess Helena, daughter of Prince Nicholas of Montenegro, byi whom he has three children.

The oldest diary in existence is said to be that preserved in the Japanese family of Hozaka. It has been duly maintained by the various heads of the family for four centuries. About twenty years ago a dispute over precedence arose between two branches of the famity, and this was promptly settled by recourse to the diary and the discovery of the record! of a dinner given two or three hundred years ago by the head of the family to the founder of the side linq It is the rule for the Jap soldier to keep a diary, and each night, when march has ceased, hundreds of men may be seen lying on the ground around the camp fires, writing the daily record for their children’! children to read.