PERSONAL ITEMS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 11825, 30 November 1901, Page 4 (Supplement)

PERSONAL ITEMS.

Dr. Purser, Professor of Mathematics in Belfast Queen's College foi the past forty years, has resigned his position of professor. Of Purser's students no fewer than four obtained the position of Senior Wrangler at Cambridge University.

Sidney Cooper, Royal Academician, is over ninety-seven years old. He says that he has not tasted beer, tea, or coffee in fifty years, nor milk for ten years. He only drinks Scotch whisky at luncheon, dinner, and before bedtime, with rarely a glass of champagne or port.

When King Edward, as Prince of Wales, visited India he received among many other presents a curious clock, which was said to have been made by a Hindu priest of extraordinary sanctity. After the timepiece had been brought to London it stopped running, and until recently lay quiescent in Marlborough House. On being sent to an expert to be put in working order it was found to have on the mainspring the name or a London firm of curio-makers.

Life on £18 a year was the experience of Mr. A. M. Torrance, chairman of the London County Council, when, at the age of sixteen, his career began in Glasgow. Mr. Torrance made the £18 meet all his needs, and he bought a book or two besides, which he almost learntd by heart. He admires punctuality, loves a Scotch song above all things, and tells a Scotch story with no end of " pawky"' humour. Every week-day morning for the last twenty-seven years he has caught the same 'bus from Highbury, and he always reaches his office by nine o'clock.

The Duke ot Portland always wears a buttonhole of crimson carnations and the duchess a spray of pale pink Malmaison carnations. There is a touch of romance (says the Week End) about the habit that is 'a pretty memento of the days when, as Miss Winifred Dallas York, she first captivated the fancy of the young duke. One day at a country flower show .she happened to mention that carnations were her favourite flowers, and henceforward every day there arrived a basket of incomparable blooms from the lovely greenhouses at Welbeek Abbey, and the duchess is even now hardly ever to be seen without her favourite flower.

The Kaiser's barber' is an incorrigible latecomer. Some time ago he kept his Royal master waiting several minutes. On his appearance the Kaiser, in a lit of generous irony, presented him with a costly gob chronometer, leaving it to the barber to guess tho real reason for the gift. The servant's inability to arrive up to time continued, however, until at last the Kaiser demanded, impatiently : "Have you still got the watch J gave you'.'" "Yes, your Majesty," was the answer, "here it is." "Well," cams the Royal reply, "as it doesn't seem to go very well, here is another." And the next moment the stupefied hairdresser had in his hand a nickel-plated timekeeper valued at ss.

Mr. John Hare, the eminent actor, who has been touring America, says that the most delightful compliment he ever received came from Mr. Gladstone. The late Premier had never seen a photograph of the actor, but he knew him as well behind the scenes as before the footlights. During the run of "A Pair of Spectacles" Mr. Gladstone frequently visited the green-room at the Garrick to have a chat with the actor. The really old man and the made-up old man would sit. there and talk in the most delightful way for an hour after the show. One day the Earl of Rosobery had Mr. Gladstone to dinner, and he also invited his friend John Hare. The actor came in .smooth-shaven, looking about thirty-five. He was preserved to Mr. Gladstone, and tho Prims Mi»?.3tcr shook his hand most cordially, and said:—"My dear sir, 1 am very, very glad to meet you. I know your father (very well. Splendid actor! Fine old man!" It took the whole evening for the earl and Mr. Hare to convince him that this son was really the father.