CURRENT GOSSIP.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XIX, Issue 6422, 17 June 1882, Page 3

CURRENT GOSSIP.

0 j The cottage at Long Branch which has j 8 been engaged for President Arthur has forty rooms. g The total co3t of Mr. James Gordon Ben- ' nettt's now yacht, the JS'amoura, will be h about £40,000. ■ •*' Mr. Spurgeon, who is a great lover"of the feathered race, invites the birds to his lawns c l by showers of crumbs. * . 0 The Chinese are excellent logicians when they choosc to be. They are not lacking in brain power in any respect. [2 The Earl of Fife, a handsome and agreeable young man, is, it is said, thinking of a union with the Princess Beatrice. ;i The Pope recently purchased the largest t topaz in the world. It looks as though the Pope was getting ready to attend matinee. Mr. Thomas Hughes (Tom Brown of .Rug--3 by) has been appointed Governor of the Isle t of Man, with a salary of nearly £2000 a year, j The son of Mrs. Koss, who made the first j United States flag, as adopted by the committee of the Continental Congress, is in a J poor-house in San Francisco. The gold-mounted rifles which it is reported \ that President Arthur is to give to the Sultan [ of Muscat and the Rajah of Tuluban have 1 been finished by the Winchester Arms i Company. - A report is current in Dublin that Mr. Mitchell Henry (liberal), member of Parliament for Galway county, is about to be raised to the peerage with the title of Baron , Kylelore. The children of the Princess of Wales and the baby of the Duchess of Connaught received large wax dolls dressed in real Welsh costumes on St. David's Day—the day of the patron saint of Wales—from loyal residents. The Emperor of Germany intends shortly to confer on Prince Bismarck the title of a colonel-general of cavalry. This distinction is intended to mark the .--ovcrciga's approval of his recent speech in defence of the rescript. At Monte Carlo the administration of the Casino sent a magnificent bouquet to Queen Victoria at Mentone. It was returned at once with the brief answer, "Declined." Monte Carlo is the greatest resort ill the world for gambling. At a recent diamond show at the residence of the Baroness Burdett-Coutts, the largest puie white Cape diamond known, weighing 150 carats and valued at £150,000, was exhibited. An Indian diamond, held at £65,000, was also shown. . When Queen Margherita went to Naples the whole city looked like a bouquet of daisies, every doorway and window being adorned with them; while daring her voyage to one of the Mediterranean porta, every one on shipboard, from the common'sailor to tho admiral, wore the same flower. At the recent .marriage ot" the Princes 3 Maria of Shoa, of the most ancient royal house in existence, to the Crown Prince of Abyssinia, she wore a golden diadem "set with rubies, traditionally believed to" have been the property of Solomon, the - bride claiming direct descent from the Queen, of Sheba. An American paper says:—The new Russian Minister in America, Baron, de Striive, is the son of the great "Russian astronomer whose mime is a household word with our children". He lias brought with him to Washington the young sons of General Soko, of the Japanese Army, to be educated. ' , - It is said that when Mr. Gladstone returns to his residence in the small hours of. the morning from the House of Commons he continues the custom he. has observed through his whole political life, .of sitting down to the piano and accompanying himself on the instrument in an old Knglish or Scottish ballad or two. Sir Horatio Henry Wraxall, of England, died in an insane asylum recently, completely destitute, a charge iipoh a London parish. - The title goes to his brother, M. N. W. Wraxall, whose son, now heir to a baronetcy, was educated at a workliousoschool in Brighton, and was afterward apprenticed to a pawnbroker. - President ,Arthur is the first. American President to wear a frock coat and gloves at a morning reception. It is a departure from the-habit which has survived in the White House from the. last generation, when! full dress waa.thqdress of ceremony at all hours, and precise lawyers and careful law-makers and dignified clergymen never wore anything else. 'J . When Mr. Forbes was lecturing inCanada, and describing the deep, mptherly devotion of the Queen to her son, the Prince of Wales, during his serious illness, .a tall, gaunt Scotchman rose up in the centre of the-hall, and, to the'amazement of out, "Stop, sir; this audienpe wiirnojE siiig ' God Save the Queen !' " • And they sang it. Such is the force of Scotch character. = Oscar : VVilde seems to be " growing np with the eountry." Out in the Jar. West he falls in beautifully with local -customs, and . is pronounced a prince of goodi fellowa;*. He visited the 'Frisco Ghiuese 'quarter;-;',with the boys," and in.a Colorado: mine .'••it iiight . " lie drank twelve jnortcrs' from a'Bottle of whisky, and the miners' perfect gentlemen." But, OYAijoatle,;?! wqa.i that . igSthetic t „ •