PERSONAL ITEMS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXIII, Issue 10127, 9 May 1896, Page 4 (Supplement)

PERSONAL ITEMS.

There is a proposal to raise a memorial of Mrs. Hemans in Liverpool, her native city. Professor Rontgon has received a patent of nobility from the Prince-Regenb of Bavaria. , Don Carlos, the claimant to the Spanish throne, is known as a particularly fine swimmer. A Bangkok telegram announces that Mr. Stanloy, the noted billiard player, died thero recently from the effect of rupture of a blood vessel. Mr. William Salmon, J.P., a Glamorganshire doctor, has just entered upon his 107 th year. His descendants include 16 greatgrandchildren. Tho Duchess of Coburg, who marries off her daughters when about 17 yoars old, says she does not hold with leaving her girls tomake their own choice of husbands. Sir John Scott, Unionist, has been Installed Mayor of Cork in succession to Mr. Meade, Parnellite. The building was packed by a Parnellite crowd, which refused the new mayor a hearing. The distinguished singing teaohor, M. Manuel Garcia (now in his 91st year), has relinquished tho professional duties which ho has fulfilled in connection with tho Royal Academy of Music for close upon half a century. The infant daughter of the Marquis and Marchioneß3ofHarailton,andgranddaughtor of the Duke and Duchess of Abercom, has been christened " Mary Cecilia Rhodesia Hamilton." Tho Hon. C. J. R. will feel flattered, but thero ought to have been another name—"Jim—ima."

It is not very generally known that it is absolutely ossential that overy maid of honour should be a good horsewoman and correct reader of music at sight. Tho two favourite pursuits of the Princess Beatrice aro riding and trying over new music in tho form of duets; and no "maid" is chosen who is not an adept in both arts. Two tall men live in New England. Mr. W. H. Kelley, of Phillips, Maine, measures 6ft lOin in height. He is very strong, and has carried 2251b a distance of 200 ft. His wife is rather below tho average height. Harmon Johnson, of Danbury, Connecticut, though but 16 years of age, is 6ft 9in tall, and is " still growing." He weighs 1901b, and has never been sick in his life. In the matter of ancestors tho Mikado of Japan can entirely discountenance all other sovereigns. The present Mikado is tho 122 nd of his line, and members of his family have occupied the throne of Japan for tho last 2500 years. The founder of this dynasty was contemporary with Nebuchadnozzar, 660 B.C. Of tho seven great religions enumerated by Max Mullor as possessing Bibles, tho Mikado's family is older than five. The engagement is announced of Mr. Oliver Belmont to Mrs. Alva Vanderbilt, who obtained a little over a year ago a divorce from her husband, Mr. William K. Vanderbilt. A daughter, issuo of this marriage, is tho present Duchess of Marlborough. Tho families of Mrs. Vandorbilb and Mr. Belmont are opposed to the marriage, but Mr. Belmont and Mrs. Vanderbilt, howevor, state publicly that tho marriage will certainly tako place on the day appointed. Mr. W. K. Vanderbilt, tho divorced husband of Mrs. Vanderbilt, is vory much distressed by the announcement, so much so that his health is seriously affected. . Mrs. Stewart Parnell, the mother of the Irish leader, has just, at the age of eighty, given an American artist a sitting for her portrait. The vitality of tho old lady is quite marvellous. Her face is as bright and rosy as that of any girl; she reads tho newspapers without the aid of glasses, aud takes tho keenest interest in all the questions of the day. "I am haul to kill," she said, cheerily, while she was being sketched. " I have the Stewart bones, and they are hard and do not break." The only infirmity from which Mrs. Parnell suffers iB a lameness of her left side, which prevents her from walking long distances. As she puts it, " Now my limbs are feeble, but my will is strong."