WHO'S WHO?

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIII, Issue 13286, 19 September 1906, Page 9

WHO'S WHO?

Mi;. John Btr.x.s M.P., is an exceptionally powerful swimmer. Edison's laboratory coots the famous inventor fully £5000 a year to manlaiiK The Tsar of Russia, it is stated, its fond of reading L'ouut Tolstoi's -novels, although lie by no means, appreciates the author's preachings. Although he seldom drives a car himself, King Edward is a skilled motorist. Roth His Majesty and the Prince of Wales received instruction in automobilism some yen is ago. . ■~-„.,. ,'J'iic Shah of Persia own*' the most costly pipe, in the world, which he. smokes upon .State occasions. It is encrusted from the top of the bowl to the amber mouthpiece with diamonds, rubies, and pearls, and is valued tit £60,000.

Theft) is nothing about, Miss Braddoti which suggests the popular idea' of (he literary woman. She is. indeed, said by those .who linow her to be a model of domesticity, and she finds her relaxation in gardening, as well as in music ami literatim'.

Sir John And, the great contractor, i« one of the. busiest men of the day, but, besides hie engineering work and a considerable amount of Parliamentary business, finds time to indulge in his own special hobby of collecting rare pictures, of which lie possesses a great number!* *

Mr. Charles Dana Gibson, the. famous American artist, had his first picture' refused by almost, nil the artistic establishments in New York. When he did succeed in getting it before the public it made his name immediately. Before he was 21 he was earning £50 a month.

The ex-Empress Eugenie has a house in. Hampshire and another near Monte Carlo. Latterly she has grown very infirm, and, as she cannot walk far, she keeps a bath-chair at. her disposal. Up to a short time back she, was fund of yachting. The widow of Napoleon 111. is much richer than most people suppose.

Mr. Marcus Stone. It. A., was only seventeen when he exhibited his first picture, at tim Royal Academy. At twenty, lie was supporting In his art a, widowed mother ami several brothers and sisters. He had a warm friend in Charles Dickens, and it was partly by Dickens' influence that he was enabled to obtain employment in book illus--11 inn.

Mr. S. H. Crockett, the. novelist, used in his childhood to read the biographies of the Covenanters by an old Scottish writer named Patrick Walker. From Walker Mr. Crockett says that he got his first idea of style, for lie had, "with all his roughness, the wisest possible discrimination for a. clean-cut phrase or a sonorous sentence;" and even now, it is said, Mr. Crockett invariably takes one of that author's books with him wherever he goe u .

Mr. Walter Hudson, the Labour M.P. for Newcastle-ou-Tyne, started life as a railway hand on the North-Kastern, thus following in the footsteps of his father. Progressing little by little, he was eventually appointed guard, a position which he occupied for iive-and-twenty years. Thero aro now two ex-railway guards in Parliament, Mr. Richard Bell, who was for years in charge of a goods train, being the other.

The Emperor of Austria is a very remarkable, man. Until lately he was a tremendous worker, commencing his duties, a.s a rule, at live in the morning, but sometimes at lour. This he was able to do by making it a rule to retire to bed at nine o'clock at night. His Majesty is conversant with half a. dozen languages and dialects, and is exceedingly well-read. His open-handed generosity and his invariable kindness of heart have won for him the love of every one of his subjects.

Mr. Herbert Gladstone, the Home Secretary, is a good deal more than merely the son of the "Grand Old Man," for in his own right he is accounted one of the sturdiest statesmen in the Kingdom, and has long been recognised as the host. '•Whip" his party has had for many years. He was horn at 12, Downing-strec't, the Ministerial residence, and was educated at Eton a.n-cl Oxford. For a time lie was a lecturer at Keble College, and then entered political life as his father's secretary. He has held the posts of Financial Secretary to the War Ottiee, and Under-Secretary to the Home Office. • *-■.■>•-•■