CURRENT GOSSIP.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XVIII, Issue 6147, 30 July 1881, Page 3

CURRENT GOSSIP.

:» . i Rheumatic gout his attached the eyes fcF Mr. \V«kie Coffins. ' , „ A lady has been chosen as charob•warden lin the parish of Canon Troi or, at Beeford, ' England. "■- fiistori, who has now maateed the English language, is desirous of play iojg Lady Macbeth with Mr. Irving. ■ ■ , ' With all the Indian gold Jiining companies' organised of late in London, not one has yet paid any dividends. The English nurse who ofti'n risked her life on the battle-field and in honpital during the Crimean war, Mary Seacole, lately died in England. Ihe paragraph commenting of Lord Bcaconsncld's death, which appeared in the official Court Circular, was; written by the '•'•"■' ■<■- i Queen herself. /: .:■

The Saturday Review introduced ite comments upon BeaconsfieldV career by the statement that " a day or two ago there wero two men in England knowiii to the whole nation, and now there is only one." . , In a facetious issue of the /London Times tot 1890 the House of Lords is. the House of Ladies, there are fashion notes from the Feojee Islands, and news o:E a battle in tho arctic regions, and the capture of the north pole. ! Speaking of his picture of "Christ; in the Pretorium," Munkacsy says, "I wish to paint a God who has assunied human form, and who could only assume it in its most ■perfect aspect"—as the critics had accused him of modernizing the face of C;!hrist. ■ Ten years ago Louis of Bavaria was handsome enough to answer far a model of a young god; tall and graouful, with brown, hair curling on his forehead!, with dark blue eyes full of fire and poetry. He is still thought to bo the handsomest king ia Europe. ■ .

A vendor of second-hand clothes was the ambitious occupation with which Hobart Pasha began his career. He fitted out a ship and interested himself in the coasting trade in the East, in order to sell them, and was made a Turkish admiral, having secured' a little knowlege of navigation. Sarah Bernhardt's tour tlirough the United States lias been a great financial succoss. She gav« 162 performances, which produced £94,000, of which her share was £36,280. This is said to bo the '"most successful dramatic venture" ever mailo in the United States. , . '

Mohammed Hasliem Klian, the absolute ruler of a fortress in Candaliar, which is considered as the Metz of India, ie not quite seventeen, and a year ago might have been seen wandering ragged and. dirty about tho British camp. Ho can speak only the patois Puchtor of i;ho wild robbers among whom ho has dwelt.

It is said that Bismarck, who, by tho way, receives £3000 a year as Chancellor of tho German Empire, is a Czech by descent; that near the year 1000 an ancestor of the diplomate was a teacher of musiiu; that a second progenitor was the originator of tho Czechs' national costume, and a third compiled tho first Czech dictionpry. At a recent sporting dinner in New York two splendid noral decorations ornamented the dining table. Two horses of excellent proportions were woven out of flowers •with One effect. The bodies of tho racers were of white carnations, the names were of lilacs, and the tails of pampas plumes. Each horso was blanketed with crimson carnations.

At tho recent steeplcchaii.es of tho Eleventh Hussars, at Sandown, England, the tent in which luncheon was served was decorated with tho battered bugle which sounded tho '' advance" at Balaklava, n s well as tho silver trumpet blown by the trumpet-major at the proclamation of tho Empress of India, while around the tent the namcii of tho battles in which the regiment had iborne a part were arranged in flowers. ,1^ Miss Helen Gladstone, ii l young daughter of the Prime Minister of England, is causing quite a sensation in England and on the Continent, by tho moral courage developed in her recent determination to enter upon an active and useful career, and to give to tho young women of England a very noble example. This young lady has passed her examinations, and now returns to the Newham College to study for the position o£ preceptress of that institution.