ITEMS OF SOCIAL NEWS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXVII, Issue 8162, 25 January 1890, Page 1 (Supplement)

ITEMS OF SOCIAL NEWS.

[from the society papers.]

" Smoking prohibited" was the order at the Edinburgh banquet to Mr. Balfour, of course in the interests of the ladies in the galleries. This innovation in political dinners reminds us that our statesmen are much divided about the soothing weed. Lord Salisbury detests smoke and smoking, and Mr. Gladstone neither smokes nor likes to be smoked. Lord Harrington is a moderate smoker, while Mr. Chamberlain smokes very heavily, and prefers a strong cigar. Mr. Balfour can puff a cigarette with an effort, but prefers golfing; Sir William II arcourt rarely smokes during the day, but often of an evening. Lord Randolph Churchill smokes about as much as most men, and Mr. John Morley adventures a dainty cigarette or a real mild cigar, but only now and then.

Mr. Broderick, M.P., speaking at Eastbourne lately, happily described the membersof theParnellite Parliamentary brigade. They are divided, he said, into two parties— those who take round tie hat, and those who take out of it.

A story is going the rounds which is too good to be buried in the oblivion of the country press. At a London West End reception last week one of the greatest of our living actresses was reciting a story, in thirteen verses, describing amongst other things the agony of a maiden who is watching her lover struggling with death in the turbid waters of a torrent beneath her feet. The maiden's cry, " Help 1 help!" so realistically rendered that the army of footmen and waiters downstairs thought the house was on fire, and came rushing up with buckets of water and hand grenades to pub it out!

Michael Davitb left London almost immediately after the curtain had fallen on the I'arnell Commission. When at home he resides in one of tho prettiest localities in Ireland. " Land League Cottage," Ballybrack, overlooks one of the loveliest landscapes in a country of unrivalled varied scenery. Ib is a small, one-storied house, plainly bub comfortably furnished, and is surrounded by neatly-kept grounds, on which the founder of the Land League has expended more personal labour than money ; for of the latter commodity he has only what he earns by his literary work. He is very fond of flowers, and devotes his exercise hours to their cultivation. When confined in Portland Prison in LSBI-2, " Convict W. 822" was permitted to reclaim the infirmary garden, which had gone to waste, and during his fifteen months' imprisonment there he was allowed to expend his time in flower culture, a privilege which was granted him by Sir William Harcourt, the then Home Secretary—may I hope as an atonement for the harsh treatment to which the Fenian prisoner of Dartmoor was subjected during his eight years' incarceration in that establishment '! In private life Michael Davitb has nothing of the "fierce agitator" about hi .i. Despite his well-known uncompromising views of landlordism, he counts scores of Irish landlords, and many British Tories, among his numerous friends and innumerable correspondents.

Sir Daniel Gooch's will disposes of £653,492 personal estate after the fashion of most rich morrwho leave little to the public and everything to their children. Each of his children get £25,000, and the balance, after some other annuities and legacies are paid, is settled upon his eldest son, Sir H. D. Gooch. His widow has a life annuity of £500 in any case, but her marriage is guarded against by settling £2500 per annum upon her during widowhood. If ib were not 60 common there would bo something grim and ghastly in this provision for the gratification of post-mortem jealousy. Surely a constancy that requires bo be bound over to eternal fidelity by a sum of £2500 per annum is not worth much—least of all to a dead man.

Quite a voluminous budget of chit-chat concerning the Vatican has come to hand. One of the interesting items is the rumour, of which Rome is full, that very shortly a nephew of PiuslX. is bringing a case against Leo XIII. ,in which he claims a very considerable sum of money (some millions, on dit), which his uncle shortly before his death deposited, as his private fortune, in a London bank. The administration of the Vatican refuse to give up the money on tho plea that it is not private property, and express their astonishment that only after a lapse of twelve years the nephew of the late Pope should remember the money and claim it as his own. But Pope Leo himself is turning his mind away from the things of this world and solemnly preparing for his journey to the world to come. On All Souls' Day ho gave instructions as to his funeral, and in order to save hie successor the expense of erecting, according to custom, a momument to his predecessor from his private means, he has chosen his grave inside the wall of the Tribuna of the Lateran, which is covered with very costly marble. Leo XIII. himself caused this sanctum to be restored and beautifully ornamented with marble and mosaic decorations.

One of the most interesting questions raised in " Tho Melbourne Papers," just published by Messrs. Longmans, is the place filled by a Prime Minister among his colleagues. "Tho Duke of Wellington, says Lord Cowper in his proface to the volume, "did everything himself, and his Government very soon collapsed in consequence. Pitt and Palmerston are commonly supposed to have been very autocratic ; though there is little doubt that the first leaned very much upon Dundas; and one of Lord I'almerston's colleagues has told me that his power in his Cabinet has been much exaggerated out of doors. It is possible, on the other hand, that Lord Liverpooland Lord Aberdeen may have exercised more controlling force than is generally imagined."

According to a French contemporary, Sarah Bernhardt, the great tragedienne, is, as a consequence or her bereavement, seriously thinking of retiring from the stago to the cloister. It is not commonly known that Sarah in early life had more than half an intention of taking the veil. She scored a success, however, at the Conservatoire, and a few months afterwards, to the horror of all those who had followed her progress towards sanctification, announced her conversion to atheism. Sarah, if not a religious woman, is painfully superstitious. She would nob eat meat on a Friday for untold gold, and to this day, ib is said, " crosses" herself before the beginning of each of her performances. She laughs at herself, runs the story, for this pietistic observance, bub confesses that habit is too strong for her, and prevails even in the teeth of her atheism. On the walla of her bedroom still hang the pious pictures and the crucifix before which, when a convent girl, she was wont to say her prayers. It would nob he surprising if she were to become a tiun. Ib would be surprising, however, if she remained one. But very many Parisian actresses end their days wibhin the cloister's shade, and Sarah, after all, may elect to follow the fashion of " The Profession" in France. v