CURRENT GOSSIP.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XX, Issue 6811, 15 September 1883, Page 3 (Supplement)

CURRENT GOSSIP.

j Is London a man cook f"r a dinner party : chart-us two g-iineas >he legit uome tor M. Gr<S y's F/anfiis Judith Paul, but. he o.ills; him-elf simply , Jules. The tallest princess in the w rid is said to be the Crown Piincess of Denmark. She is six feet two inches high. Victor Hugo s»ys that he ha 1 his mind •from the German tide of France, hut h:s sensibilities, which toveru his tastes and leanings, from Brittany. Mark Twain, who is slowly recovering from a very severe rheumatic attack, has discovered that there is something in tho world that i?n't funny. Earl Granville is small, slim, straight, of the mo.it i-ymmetrical figure, with white skiD, pink cheeks and grey hair and drtsaes nattily in the style of a quiet, feshiouable youth just of age. He has reached the scriptutal limit of years. The reception-room in the house of General [gnatieff, which is close -o the Czar's Winter Palace, is a museum > f Eastern curiosit e3— Japanese stutfs, curtains and hanging* from China in fantastic patterns, Turkish sofa-, Persian mats and divans, and articles of vertu generally. Mr. Aldrieh's editorial den in Boston,' overlooks a cemetery. Receutly a friend called on him and maHe some remark about his pleasant surroundings, to which the editor of the Atlantic replied, "Yes, I have excellent n-igh hours ; they never send iu any manuscript." The first strawberries sold in Pari„ are habitually known as "Engbsh," and it is said th*t they are all descendant-i fiom ths (dips which the Princess Victoria sent to Loui* Phdippe in return for some Mexican paulonias which that monarch had courteously bestowed upon her.

The Duke and- Duchess of Teck are in a sad plight. Their plate, linen, china, and furniture are ou sale now at the Kensingfcou Palace, including their family relies. There is much severe comment in society on the conduct of the Qu*e«, with all her accumulated wealth, allowing such a d.sgracs as an auction in the royal family. Tho whole number of p >pes from St. Peter to Leo XIII, is 258. Of these 82 are venerated saints, aud 33 have been martyred. One hundred and four have been Romans, 104 natives of other parts of Italy, 15 Frenchmen, 9 Greeks, 7 Germans, 5 Asiatics, 3 Africans, 3 Spaniards, o Dalmatians, 1 Hebrew, 1 Thracian, 1 Duchman, 1 Portuguese, 1 Candiot and 1 Englishman. Edison's failure in some of his undertakings was supposed to have made him more modest, but such is not the case, if he is not belied in the report which attributes to him the following remark: "about six weeks ago I clo ed my laboratory, and I have now got the (el'-otris lighting) system worked down to the minut-st detail. Tnere is nothing more in electric lighting to be invented or required." Lord Salisbury made some observations at a Conservative dinner which are remarkable as coming from him:—"lt is fallacy of the most perilous aud deadly kind," he said, "to suppose that the very rich can be tmsted to defend the rights of property." "The interests of property," he added, " are essentially the interests of the industrial classes, of all those who lire by the labour of their hands or their brain."

It is asserted that few of the merchant kings of New York are native Americans. The O'Neills and MeCreerys are Lish, the Johnsons are Scotch and the Sterns are Hebrews of German birth. Looking back on form: r nnme3, Stewart was Irish and Aaron Arnold wan a native of the Isle of Wight, while the founders of the Lord and Taylor concern were from London. The only distinguished retailer of American birth was K. H, Macy. Concerning the thought-reaaing quarrel in London, Mr. Labouchere writes in 1 ruth as follow? :—"I observe that Mr. Bishop writes a loug letter to the Times in which _ he threatens legal proceedings against me for what I published in Truth last week By all means. Lest there should have been the slightest vagueness in my observations, I beg to inform him that I regard his system of obtaining money by professing to possess the power to read the thoughts of others without any indication being given, as roguery. In my opinion, therefore he is an impudent impostor, of the class to which Slade and other professors of strange and supernatural powers belonged. This, I hope, is plain language, and it is intended to be plain language.