PERSONAL ITEMS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXIII, Issue 7650, 29 May 1886, Page 4 (Supplement)

PERSONAL ITEMS.

It is said that tho Queen of Italy has given a large order for poplin dresses to a Dublin firm. Dr. Donaldson, Professor of Latin in Aberdeen, has been appointed Principal of St. Andrew's Univereity. Dr. McCoeh, of Princeton, has averaged ten bours of work and study daily throughout hie professional career. The Senatua of Aberdeen Univereity has conferred the degree of LL.D. on Mr. William Alexander, of the Aberdeen Free Press. The personal estate of the late Mr. J. B. Lippincotthae been valued at about £700,000. No wonder that some American publishers object to a copyright law. The death ia announced from Berlin of General Perle, one of tho few surviving veterans qf the Liberation war, who fought at Leipsic, Ligny, and Waterloo. The Princess of Wales has consented to lay the first stone of tho People's Palace, in East London. The ceremony will take place on some afternoon towards tho end of June. Tho Rev. Dr. Dallinger, P.R.S., the Governor of Wesley Collide, Sheffield, will be unanimously recommended by the Council of the Devonshire Association for the Advancement of Science, Literature, and Art, at the annual meeting in July, to bo president of th« association in 18S7. Madame Adelina Patti ia about to be marrind again. There is a story told of a fashionable beauty who, when ehe wns finally married, had a front pew in tha church reserved for all her rejected admirers, whom she porsonally invited to attend tho ceremony. Madame Adelina Patti might; take pattern by this. Lieut.-General H. H. Gieer, C 8., died at Moy, countj Tyrone, on the 2Cch March. He formerly commanded the tiSMi Regiment, and took a lsading part iu the New Zealand war of 1804 G, tirac at the head of the troops in the Tauranga district, aud later with his own regiment at the attack of the Gate Pa, subsequently commanding at the action of Te Ranga. Tho Archduke Charles Theodore of Bavaria, brother to the Empress of Austria, lately wrote to M. Paeteur asking tha physiologist to appoint a date when he ceuld bo present at the inoculations in the laboratory of Rue d'Ulin. M. Pasteur replied that he would be ready to receive the Archduke— who practises medicine himself—at any time. The savant also asked to bo informed of the name of the Archduke's assistant who is to accompany him to Paris, and was told that it was the Archduchess, who help 3 her husband in his profe?sional labours. Lord Wentworth, Byron's crandson, has written to the Times with reference to the proposed celebration of the centenary of the poet's birth, pointing out that no mere clique of unknown men would have the right to p;)Bsr«s themselves of Byron's memory a3 if it were their inheritance, arid that if veal men of letters are divided in opinion as to hie true place in English literature, his representatives would ask that his grave may be left in peace. To this Mr. H. Buxton Forman has replied that it is scarcely open to doubt that the greatest poets aud critics of our time will be unanimous in wishing to accord recognition of some kind to tho name of Byron. The question whether the centenary of that day when " the Byronic energy" entered the world ia worthy of celebration is, ho fays, absolute and independent of all accidents of comparison and phases of individual feeling and proclivity. Count Gczi Zichy, the famous one-armed pianist, has astonished tha Parisians. Mis countryman Franz Liszt w.i 3 his teacher. He is thirty-seven years old, and has an iiitonjely poetic and dreamy nature. His right hand was crushed at a hunt, and wan afterwards amputated. In opite of this great miafortuua ho net himself bravely to the task of making his left hand take the place of two bands, Tho inatrnment that he loved in hie youth wa3 the violin. He was obliged, naturally, to this up, and to use t!ae piano altogether. While he devotod most of his time to the piano, he also found time to etady literature aud law. to write several plays am) books, and to develop his physical strength. He is aa ezpert fencer, and ;>n accomplished horseman. In piano playing Count Ziehy substitutes hia thumb fur the right hand, a clever trick which he learned from Li.«zt. His performances aro given invariably for charity.