ITEMS OF SOCIAL NEWS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXVIII, Issue 8664, 5 September 1891, Page 3 (Supplement)

ITEMS OF SOCIAL NEWS.

[F&OM THE SOCIETY PAPERS.] ' The yohhg lady to whom Lord Ails® Is engaged is not,' as has been erroneously reported, an American, but a pure-bred Scotch las?. Both her father and mother came, I am told, from a village near Crieff. The father went out when a lad to India and made his pile, in the approved Scotch fashion; and While so engaged sent home for his sweetheart, who went out and mar. fled hitri. Those who are anxious for the perpetuation of our old nobility ought to rejoice to see them breaking through the fatal traditions of caste in the way that Lord Ailsa has done.

Although Balmoral is about six hundred miles from London, the Queen is as thoroughly in touch with the metropolis when she is in Scotland as when she is at Osborne. There is a private telegraph wire direct from the Castle to London, which is working from morning to night when the Queen is at Balmoral. Every morning at ten o'clock a messenger ia despatched, with the Cabinet boxes and a mass of papers and correspondence for Iter Majesty, from either Whitehall or Buckingham Palace to Balmoral. He reaches the Castle late at night, and the cases are dealt with by the Queen on the following morning, so that the boxes, papers, and replies to letters (such as cannot be answered by telegraph) are sent back the same afternoon, leaving Balmoral about two o'clock, and arriving at Euston Square between seven and eight on the following morning, or less than forty-six hours from the time when they were originally sent off from London.

"The house in Park Lane, in which Mr, and Mrs. Gladstone are established for the rest of the season belongs," says the Sunday Sun, "to Mr. Guthrie, one of the partners of the,firm in which Mr. Henry Gladstone is also a partner. It is large and roomy, and decorated throughout in the Adams' style. The large front room on the ground floor is sacred to the ' Grand Old Man,' whose desk is placed in the bay formed by the three windows which overlook the park. The personnel of the Gladstone household changes little. The same tall footman reappears without fail with each recurring session, and the little German maid, growing old in Mrs. Gladstone's service, still has her place there."

The Philadelphia doctors are denouncing the " ginger habit" as becoming a serious addition to the ordinary alcoholic intemperance of the city. Women and girls take advantage of the ease with which Jamaica ginger-containing 95 per cent, of alcoholcan be obtained, and consume in it largo quantities. The Philadelphia Times calls for legislation putting ginger under the same restrictions now governing the sale of commoner alcoholic beverages. Ono of the doctors tells of a prominent physician who didd only a short time ago from the effects of this vice.

Truth suggests, instead of the ridiculous ' words that bride and bridegroom are made to utter by the Established Church mar. miage service, the substitution of the words in the Mahometan marriage ceremony. The bride says :— " 1 stand here in tlio presence of God, and all who are assembled, to unite my heart to your heart, and my destiny to your destiny, and to be called by your name." The bridegroom repeats the same words, omitting "to be called by your name."

Very few members of Parliament, and still fewer of the general public, are aware that a singular duty is imposed by statute this autumn upon the Speaker of the House of Commons. This is the examination of the standards of the British yard measure and pound weight, which, for security, are built into the wall at the side of the central staircase' in the Palace of Westminster, When the old legislative palace was destroyed by fire, the former standards perished, and a Royal Commission sat to consider how the new standards should be preserved. It was decided that they should be buried in the wall within a fire-proof safe or rather coffin. But the law provides that once in twenty years this coffin muse be opened and its contents officially inspected, lest they might have been tampered with, or—still more terrible to contemplate—removed.

Mr. Gladstone's interest in nearly everything under the sun is pretty well known by this time. Of late the right lion, gentleman has been interesting himself in literary antiquities. Some time since he wrote a review of Dr. Smiles' " History of the House of Murray," in the course of which he expri '1 an opinion that the ; sum paid to Milton ior "Paradise Lost" was the first regular payment for literary work. The theory was questioned, and Mr. Gladstone courteously promised to read an article in which a number of instances to the contrary were given. On Friday last the writer ol the article, Mr. W. Roberts, sent proofs to Mr. Gladstone, and, in spite of the great domestic affliction, the right hon. gentleman not only found time to read the article, bub to return it 011 Saturday, with a kindly and characteristic letter, in which he observes« " The enclosure and perhaps other works clearly show that in the sixteenth century there were authors in the pay of booksellers. Milton, however, was no journeyman. He sold a property ; and I have not yet obtained notice of any earlier case in which a literary work was made the subject of sale and purchase. Very possibly some such case or cases may come to light."

Royalty has given its patronage to the lady doctor. A short time ago Dr. Julia Maitland, the nerve specialist, was sum' moned to Buckingham Palace to attend tin Princess Christian, who was suffering from a severe attack of neuralgia. The next day she was again sent for to Her Royal Highness' home, Cumberland Lodge, Windsor, and Dr. Maitland attended the patient until a complete cure was effected. Dr. Maitland has a consulting practice in Grosvonorstreet, and has lately been very busy with nervous disorders arising from the influenza.

Though not unacquainted with the " art" of photographing royalty, Mr; Russell, of Baker-street, has had a few new experiences on his recent trip to Berlin, where he went) for the special purpose of supplying this country, on the eve of the visit of the Emperor and Empress of Germany, with the likeness of the august visitors, liverything had gone quile smoothly ; the per. mission to take the photographs had been readily given, and when Mr. Russell reached Berlin it was intimated to him that the Emperor would be glad to "sit" next morning at eight o'clock, an hour which neither to prince nor pauper in Germany is at all as unearthly as it may appear to our minds. Great, however, was Mr. Russell'* consternation when, on having missed the first train that leaves Berlin for Potsdam, he reached the latter place a few minutes after the appointed hour, and was bullied by the Imperial officials as only German officials know how to bully. "How dared he be late ? Did ho not know that an Emperor could not be kept waiting ? Wlial did he mean?" etc., ad nauseam. The Emperor himself, however, did not shara the sentiments of his satellites, and caitui out as soon as the camera was fixed, replying to Mr. Russell's apologies with a cheery "No matter, no matter at all I" and in excellent English.

What has suddenly come to all the heliotrope—not the flower, but the colour! It broke out upon us some six weeks ago, when the influenza was at its height, and carried all before it. Ib even attached men (in their scarves), so that wherever we went we saw it. And now all of a sudden (a correspondent of the Pull Mall Gazette observes) it has disappeared. At church parade on Sunday there was plenty of black and pink, an abundance of grey and pink, and a good deal of black and green, but scarcely any heliotrope. Crushed berry'seems coming in again, but the dominant colour is blue —blue in all shades, bub especially in the uncompromising and aggressive shades. In fact, the only blue that is nob worn is the beautiful pale turquoise. Now, this is singular ; because, as a rule, when pale pink is fashionable, pais blue comes in as a sort of complement to it. . But the blue now in vogue is the shade of cornflowersan ugly, inharmonious blue, that goes well with nothing except a special green which the milliners have not yet discovered.' • : „