ITEMS OF SOCIAL NEWS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXVI, Issue 9325, 30 March 1889, Page 3 (Supplement)

ITEMS OF SOCIAL NEWS.

[from the society papers.] None of the stories of the late Lord Beaconsfield show him in so pleasant light as those whien concern his dealings a:£ftf Minister with men of letters. Everyone remembers the generosity and felicity of his offer of an " honour "to CarlylS. The little story told by Lord Coleridge.. tho other, night of Disraeli and Dr. Lfghtfoo't -is equally charming. Dr. Lightfooc went to stay with Disraeli after his appointment to the bishopric of Durham, and 4 began to thank the Minister for it. " No, 1 ' Disraeli, "itis I who ought to thank you. It must indeed have been a sorrow and a trouble to you to leave your books and •'your learned life for public affairs. I have gone through it and-experienced it myself." V i '* \ • # A friend who was recently'in the presence % of the ex-Empress Eugenie tells me that the * once lovely Countess de Montijo is now terribly bent by; age and illness and walks painfully with the help ( of .a* crutch-stick, |and that the beautiful hair, which once enslaved so many susceptible heart?, is now snow-white. lam >also sorry to learn that the health of, the' Empress is causing considerable anxiety to b'pr friends, one of the chief of v/hoin is our fjueen, whose sympathy with the widowed Empress has ever been unfailing., J S* /■W' A pleasant incident, illustrative of the tenderness and sympathy of the Princess of Wales, has just been brought to the notice of a correspondent of the Manchester -j>P, Courier :—A friend, travelling in Norfolk^ Cfv near Lynn, met in the train a woman dressed fh deep mourning. In conversation she stated that recently she had lost a daughter through consumption. Her husband was .a labourer on the Sandringham estate, arid during her daughter's protracted illness the Princess of Wales was a frequent s 'visitor, sitting by the dying girl's bedside, talking and reading to her on religious subjects, " and after her death," added thellnotherjj " the Princess gave me this shawl that I am* now wearing." ffi,

Miss Essie Jennings, the charming young actress who has turned the heads of half Australia and who is .now in England, is engaged to be married to a gentleman with £30,000 a year. The lucky man, who isla native of Australia, is said to be somewhat of a rough diamond, bjit a little roughness is tolerable'when the diamonds are ao'tundoubtedly genuine.

King Charles of Wurtemburg has, it would appear, become so passionately enamoured of table-rapping that he spends his days and not infrequently nights, in holding communication with the denizens of the land of shadows. He believes thatljfie has had several interviews with the spirits of Napoleon I. and Frederick the Great, both of whom, he says, assured him thafashe would. be the means of establishing a Ffanco-Ger-mtm Confederation which should conquer the world. Schiller and Heinric Heine have also, it seems, exchanged confidences with him, and have promised to write jubilee odes on his coming coronation as Emperor of that newborntState. It is now reported that the Iron, Chancellor is so natch impressed by the state of affairs in the Wurtemburg Palace, as reported to him by his detectives, that he proposes calling on the eccentric monarch either to abdicate or to ' give up his spirit-rapping. The Wurtemburg question may therefore soon become one of the vexed political problems of the day. , '

The latest " lion " at Monte Carlo is Lord Randolph Churchill. He walks about in a white Tyrolean hat; drops down to take a pee}} at the pigeon-shooting, or looks,,into the Casino to see how the ball ifPrdHing. He likes the excitment of roujette, plays frequently and, for a man or his means, rather heavily. I have watched his "plants" on one or two occasions, and so far the banks seems to have had the advantage—comme toujours.

Here is a little sketch of the scene on which the eyes of those fell who entered Prince Rudolph's bedroom as soon as the terrible deed became known. Above the bed on which he died a picture of the Crown Princess Stephanie hangs in a silver frame. On the table lay watercolour sketches, a large folio with architectural plans, and two unopened letters. The head of the dead man rested on two bolsters, and in his face not the slightest change was noticeable. An anecdote of the Crown Prince : When he was in London in 1887 for the Jubilee he insisted, as usual, upon seeing overy thing which his friends had to show him. lie was not content with the "lions" of London. He begged to be introduced into its dark places. Among other excursions which he declined to postpone was one to the New-cub. Being there, he was not satisfied until he had taken a drink at the overcrowed bar of one of the most flaming pub-lic-houses in the locality. What happened there increased Prince Rudolph's respect for the extreme cleverness of the English people. He had, or believed he had, a fine ring on his finger when he entered to drink. After 1 the libation he discovered that the ring had disappeared. Amazed and admiring, he offered the value of the ring to anyone who would inform him as to the means whereby it had been removed from his finger. The loss of that ring made him believe that we were a nation olj&njurers., ——.— _fr ■

Sir William Robinson, who is to act a3 interim Governor of Victoria during Sir H. B. Loch's leave of absence, has just finished his term in South Australia He is a quiet, clerical-locking, easy-going, musical enthusiast, who has given the Australians the only national song they polfess—a rousing refrain with the title of " Unfurl the Flag." He only risked his popularity once, during his reign in South Australia, and that was when he sent to England for a new carriage at a time when a number of the local coachmakers were out of employment. The result was that the carriage was stoned and considerably damaged when it made its first appearance ac the antipodes. Sil William is the brother of Sir Hercules Robinson, her Majesty's High Commissioner for South Africa.

In the education of his five sons the Ger» man Emperor out-Spartans the very Spartans themselves. At six o'clock the four eldest boys get up, at seven their lessons begin, and what with military drill, with music, and other lessons, only an hour and a-half is left for daily recreation. Surely this is rather hard on lively little lads, the eldest of whom is only seven years old. The little Crown Prince,, by the way, has his own- suite of apartments, where, under a tutor, he is absolute monarch of all he surveys. This "all" includss a very scant allowance of toys, for the Emperor, not unwisely, holds that many and costly toys neither increase a child's happiness nor allow those qualities to bo dovolped which are brought out when a child has to turn to its own resources for fillir"" up its "leisure hours.