PERSONAL ITEMS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXI, Issue 9401, 6 January 1894, Page 4 (Supplement)

PERSONAL ITEMS.

Rear-Admiral Bowdkh-Smith, in command of the Australian station, boasts that he was never at school. Every crowned head of Europe, with the exception of that of Turkey, is descended from one of' two sisters, the daughters of Duke Ludwig Rudolf of Brunswick-Wolfen-buttel, who lived about 150 years ago. _ Mr. J. J. Van Alen, the newly-appointed American Minister to Italy, bears so close a resemblance to the Prince of Wales that he is known among his intimates on the other side of the water as the " American Prince of Wales." Mr. Van Alen, who i 9 reputed to be twelve times a millionaire (in dollars), was educated at Oxford, and was married to a daughter of the late William Astor. It i? announced from Spain that Emilio Castelar, the eminent republican leader, has retired permanently from public life, with the declaration that, while he will always be a republican, he does not intend to act against the monarchy; for he has come to believe that under present conditions no other form of government is better adapted t;> the needs of Spain. So he advises his friends to act with the Liberal party in the future and support the Crown.

Mr. Rockefeller's new house, near New York, is to cost a million and a-half of dollars. This is for winter use only. He spends his summers in Chicago, where he has one cf the finest residences in the city. Thirty years ago John Rockefeller was clerking for two English traders at £60 a year. In appearance Mr. Rockefeller is a soldierly-looking man of medium height, with a neutral-coloured moustache of precise cut. He is cold in manner, and is not liked by women, while those who knock against him in business speak more in termsi of fear than affection of his severe mouth and keen grey eyes. The death of the distinguished physician, Mr. William Freer Lucas, was "due 'to as real a, piece of heroism as ever was rewarded by a medal or a cross. Having to administer the anaesthetic during an operation of tracheotomy performed upon a child suffering from diphtheria, some of the mucus from the patient's throat was 'thrown on Mr. Lucas face. He would not endanger the patient by stopping to wipe ib off until the chloroform had acted, his system was infected by the virulent poison, and he died of diphtheria shortly afterwards. Mr. Lucas had an extremely high reputation in his own profession, and his academical career had been most distinguished.

Now that Marshal MacMabon has shared the common fate, there exists in France only one man who baa ever been the Head of the State, and that m the present President. All President Carnot's predecessors are dead. The present Republic had been established little more than two years when the last surviving occupant of the throne, Napoleon 111., died. M. Thiers, who had previously succeeded him as first President of the Third Republic in 1871, died in 1877. The next President was Marshal MacMahon, and to him succeeded M. Gr<svy, who ruled from 1879 to 1887, when he gave way to M. Caraot. M. Gr6vy died two years ago. During the twenty-three years of the existence of the present regime only one President, M. Gr6vy, lias completed hi» term of office and been re-elected for another seven years. ' v *■- r ' sy^ Mr. Thomas Woolner. K.A., tells how Mr. Nasmyth, of steam-hammer fame, once gave him an illustration, from personal experience. of the value of drawing. , Mr. Nasmyth was travelling in Norway, and one day in a wild, cut-of-the-way place reached an inn, very hungry, but unable to make the hostess understand his.wants by anything he could say. He was considerably perplexed, till he happily thought of his pencil. Ha then carefully drew a dish in perspective, with steam rising from it; beside this he drew a plate with a. knife and fork, and on the other side of the dish a bottle and a wine-glass..When . he had completed this diagram of his wants ( the face of the hostess ,brightened, and. she at once left him to execute his design. ' He then went for a stroll, and' on returning found the picture complete. There was the bottle, with wine-glass ..beside it, the plate,'knife and fork, and the ' dish covered. So as soon as he sat down, mine hostess lifted the cover, displaying a fine hot fowl that Boot forth a cloud of steam.