CURRENT GOSSIP.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XVIII, Issue 6213, 15 October 1881, Page 3

CURRENT GOSSIP.

An American paper says :—Queen Victorfe has refused to accept a barrel of Kentacky whiskey named in her honour. Wlustler, the London artist, is the funnv man among his friends, and the author ©*■ wit * CredU *° a P rofes sionaj: The Emperor of Japan rises every momma at fa ve o clock, and His various duties anS studies occupy the royal time until the same time m the afternoon. -Mr. George Macdonald has assumed a new r6le, and advertises himself and children at amateur theatricals. It is stated that he is a failure on the stage. In chronicling the death of M. Dufaure, M. Rochefort suavely remarked "M. Dufaure has died at eighty-three. Buffon never said that crocidiles were wont to live so long." Dean Stanley received his early education before he went to Rugby, at Ssaforth Vicarage, near Liverpool, under the late Rev. W. Lawson. Amongst his fellow pupils were Mr. Gladstone and Sir Richard Cross. Herbert Spencer's method of investigating is commented upon severely, because like many ethnologists, he is too ready to accept the statements of chance travellers without criticism or without giving authorities. A London paper, referring to Oscar Wilde, says that "he is said to have native wit and that peculiar bashfulness which is so essentially Irish." The fact that there is any Irish bashfulness at all will be hailed with great joy in this country. Mademoiselle Henrietta Polak, a youthful Belgian soprano, of exceptional ability and promise, has made a recent and very successful iWnd at the Crystal Palace Promenade Concerts, and London musicians and critics predict that her career will be a genuine success. A band of gypsies surrounded the royal carriage on the occasion of the visit of the Prince and Princess of Wales to Hampton the other day, and begged to tell their fortunes. The Prince bought a. pair of cubs from them, and was rewarded by being called King of Egypt by the queen gypsy. Miss Kdmonia Lewis, the sculptress, is the daughter of an American Indian by a negress. In her native land, she was constantly insulted on account of her colour. In Rome, Pius IX. blessed her ; Lord Bute purchased a Madonna, carved by her, for £600, and now she has abuudauce of orders at high prices. Historic places seem to change bauds often. Newstead Abbey has had two masters since Byron's death ; Abbotsford has been advertised for a "desirable autumn residence"; Strawberry Hill, which Horace Walpole tied up in order to keep it in the V.aldegrave family, is to be sold shortly; while Gadshill luis been sold, and its contents scattered to the winds. It is not generally known that Miss Anna Parnell is an artist of considerable talent. Several excellent works, the product of her skill, in oils and sepia, are to be seen in the Metropolitan School of Art. She was a diligent student, apparently the gentlest of the gentle, and nothing surprised her teachers and class-fellows more than her appearance in. the political world.

M. (jambetta and Madam Adam were once friends, but became separated by political differences. But at one time, M. Gambetta being threatened by a person who had letters in her possession which would prove of serious danger to an ambitious man, Madam Adam took pains to secure possession of the package by paying £200 for it, and sent it sealed and unread to her enemy. Such is a woman's revenge. The father of the late M. Vieuxtemps was a Belgian mechanic, who repaired violins in his native village, and on one occassioa a wealthy man, happening to be in the shop, heard from behind* the curtains of a little bed tlio violin imitation of a cock's crow with quaint accompaniment. He pushed the curtain aside and found the little Vieuxtemps soberly playing, and from that time the violinist's fortune was assured London Truth says:—Every one knows that the Kashmir shawls which figure so frequently as wedding presents from the Queen are part of the annual tribute paid by the Maharajah of Kashmir as an acknowledgment of the suzerainty of the Empress of India; but every one does not know in what deus of squalid misery and by what a physically debiliated race these shawls are produced. The agriculturists and the boatmen of the delicious valley are physically a fine race—the men robust, the women fair to look upon. But in every siiawl-producing village the physique of the wretched workers is painful to observe. Long hours of work in crowded and ill-venti-lated rooms, with poor, nay, wretched pay, have made the shawl workers of Kashmir mere shadows of men. It is absolutely painful to see their pallid faces and weak, illnourished forms ; and, although the Government of India has moved somewhat to better their condition, it is one of the few sad sights in the " Kashmir-i-benazir," or the unrivalled Kashmir or the Persian poets.