ITEMS OF SOCIAL NEWS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLV, Issue 13722, 11 April 1908, Page 5 (Supplement)

ITEMS OF SOCIAL NEWS.

'■■.'■'■'"';".- -■•'■":■. ■:■:■■■■ v--r:-y^:-^^^^' •■■;•;::■■--?.[»k6m rar. «ocosr* v&mm.j '■ '- . , : ■'-'•'.:" . - ;.■■;. '■'■'. ■' ■' • --v,--:: .■■•-/ ■■"V--"- -. ; '-. ; Pat.s'o; Kl>w.»itr. OF Wiiiwi i* already. I ■ >\l ing forward to the lime when he mil really s .-' go to sea. lie will bio! be ailowtd to be*" come a real sailor, however. If ail pro lability, he will go on a tour round the world on » battleship, as his father did. Alter- that be will join * crack cavalry / -i,< : * ntent, for he is intended to be a soldier, " Daddy," he one* said, as a small boy, *" I want to be a sailer." '"That's right," Mid his father "daddy's a sailor, jou knew So yon want to be a sailor, toot" -"-Ye*-,*--, v.-'fr was the answer; "you see, I d«n't lib' doing my le*«ons, and if, doesn't take tnu i brains to be a sailor, docs it, ■daddy?**:' The shot by which the anarchist Hrcifet took the life of King Humbert of Italy- at Momca in 1300 cost the insurance companics concerned no lew than one million and a-balf m English ; money, the King.having limited hjrawir more ■-,* '"ily thou any other monarch of Ids time. The loss was, however, very widely distributed, the risk having been regarded a* a comparative-, ; ly safe one tie Royal " lives" 51.. The rej verse was the case with that of Alexander 11. of Scry murdered along with Queen ! Draga in 1903. Not very long before tin* I tragedy took place efforts were made. to insure the King's life in London for £60.00-7,' but the premiums asked were considered too high, and the business was reported to have been concluded m the Continent. Underwriters m England looked* upon the risk as a very serious one, and the accuracy ol this view was proved when, within a very short time, claims were made;chiefly upon' Dutch and Belgian offices, for the amounts of the policies. People presented at Court are often astonished and gratified by King Edward's wonderful knowledge of them and his ex traordinary memory for face* and incidents. They are still more, astonished when, it years later they meet the King, they find lie has not forgotten them nor the occasion I of their liiit meeting. The secret of thin j feat of memory lies in a book wherein '*» 1 registered details of the lives of all pemons I who have been or ait likely to bo presented at Court. In it are entered beside th* names, details of family, career, and sugges lions as to what the King shall sav and. after a presentation, whit wan said. At no one has an audience without special in vitatiou, there is always time- for the po,i tlemen-in-waiting to place before the Kin-. the necessary information. Another book —a sort of social black list.—contains de tails of scandals in high life and is kept sc that, the Court may bo fiee from people of I questionable antecedents, j .■':.. r ■•"■ '}[.''! .:': : \'.'--.:.y'^'B [ When knocker-wrecking was, a hobby, l Lord Charles Beresford, whose birthday occurs on February 10, once set his heart on the silver door-knocker of a door in Berkeley Square, Young London at that time had given up tho knocker iu despair, as it was so securely fastened. But Hertsford's way was unique and ingenious. He called a hansom at three in the morning One end of a rope to the coveted knocker, the other end to the hansom; then full speed ahead in the hansom, and the knocker left is fastening, bringing with it, too, a panel of the door. Then there is a story that is better known. It will remain foil ever as a classic comment upon life's litis" lies. Refusing an invitation to dinner, Lord Charles sent this message "Sony cannot come. Lie. follows to-morrow." - The King of Spain has just had an (tdt venture in Seville, where he was recently paying a visit, which, owing to tho Kmg'fi sense of humour, has its amusing side. A large crowd had assembled outside the palace to see the King. .With that boy tan love of the mischievous, so charactorolic of King Alfonso, he chose to saunter towards the palace from quito a different quarter to that from which ho was expected. Before the King quite realised what had happened he found himself attacked by a sturdy policeman, who had concluded that Alfonso was a suspicious-looking per? son who must not,be permitted to mis: with j the crowd. The Governor of Seville, who : j was following behind, seized the officious I constable, and a ticore of spectator*, be- : lieving that an attempt was being made ; upon the King, promptly knocked the policeman down. The Governor demanded the instant dismissal of the officer, hut Alfonso ordered his liberation and seemed highly amused at the whole affair. Earl Percy, whose speech on our relation* : with Russia caused so much interest in the House recently, is the eldest son of the Duke of Northumberland, and ifi considered : to have a. brilliant future before him in tie. political world. Although ho is only 37, he has already had a varied and distia-: . guished career, and has-been Undersecre-, I tary for India and Under-Secretary for [Foreign.Affairs. A great traveler, So ha* written two clever books, on Asiatic Tur- ; key, and he is a post of more than average j ability. While at Oxford, he carried off I the ISewiligate prize for English poetry and the Harvey prize* tor verse? He also take* j a great interest in art, and is a trustee of i the National Portrait Gallery. Karl Percy I owes hin second Christian Algernon ! —to a- curious circumstance. The founder ! of his family was: one William de Percy, ! who came over to England with Willi;.« the Conqueror. He was known by the strange title of "William als Gernou," or ; "William with the Whiskers," and sii.ee that time most of the male Percys have been christened Algernon in consequence. It is currently expected that when .'id Kitchener relinquishes the command of the army in India at the end rf tho present year ho will be succeeded by General Sir Beaucltamp Duff, an officer whoso acquaintance with India and its military problems is almost unrivalled. He has filled practically every important billet in the I Indian army, and his appointment will some elmost am a matter of course. He tells a story of how some years ago he was sue* ceeded in a position under a general whose temper was, to say the least, " peppery," by an officer who showed only the most" rudimentary knowledge of the duties of his , -S i position. "By gad! sir," thundered the : genera l "your predecessor was a 'Duff,' j but you are a most confounded .'duffer.' : General Duff rarely or never loses his tem- ' per, and when annoyed resorts to sarcasm of the most cutting order. A year or two back he was inspecting some new defence ; works near me frontier when he discovered to his disgust, that one fort had been so built that it was easily commanded from the summit of a neighbouring hill. Sending for the officer responsible for this blunder he shook him warmly by the hand and said, to the great delight "of his assembled staff, "I congratulate yon, sir, on your choice of a position for this fort. By the way, when do you commence to re"move the hill?" Some harsh things have been said i&boiis Dr. Jameson, whose resignation m Cape Premier is announced, since the ill-advised raid of ISSS. But whatever mistakes he may have made, there is much in "Dr. Jim's" career to admire. As a boy he was so delicate that it was thought 'he could not live long. But in spit© of physical weakness he made hi 3 in ark in the study of medicine, and earned off a surgical scholarship, an well as several silver medals, and when he graduated at the London University he took the gold medal for medical, jurisprudence. He was practically penniless, and by this time his health was M> bid 1 that he left England for South Africa as the only hope of saving his'life. There he be? came one of Cecil Rhodes' closest friead?, and his fortune was made. * Everyone thought when the Imperial Colossus "died - tliat "Dr. Jim"' would inherit a huge* fortime. But Bhodes, ever a keen judge *of character, knew his man, and left hi.friend, not * huge fortune, hut a handsome in*ome carefully tiled np; for he remarked, "If I left * Dr, Jim a lot of money to do,*» be liked with, he wouW.fpgnd ; ib.9«.M^. : .'-- : iilim . ~^