PEOPLE WE READ ABOUT.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1290, 19 November 1896, Page 11

PEOPLE WE READ ABOUT.

The German Emperor objects to the use of foreign terms of any sort in his presence. The Imperial menu cards are always written in German. They average six inches in width and nine in height, and are plain white with a gold border, and an eagle or monogram in gold at the top. The names of the dishes are printed in black.

Sir Frederick Carrington, who is now in charge of the military operations in Matabeleland, had a summary method of maintaining discipline among his unruly followers. When one of “Carrington’s Horse" was brought up before him, he would sit solemnly in court-martial, and the charge was recited. “ Did you do it ?" he would say. “ Yes, sir," was the reply. It was not much good to say “ No." “ Oh, you did, did you? Then take tint." Wherewith Carrington would rise in his might and thrash the culprit then and there until he considered him sufficiently punished.

“ Has paint done all this, Mr Millais ?" “It has," replied the artist. “ Then," — remarked Carlyle, as he gazed at the marble staircase of the painter’s mansion at Palace Gate—“ then all I have to say is, that there are more fools in the world than I thought there were !" This was in 1877, when the great painter was fortyeight. But the Sage of Chelsea had not much reverence for the works of other men. He used to- declare that both ho and his wife had read through “ Sordello " without being able to make out whether Sordello was a man, or a city, or a book.

The Pope has presented the Golden Rose, which is valued at about .£2OOO, to Princess Ferdinand of Bulgaria this year, in recognition of her loyalty to the Roman Catholic Church.

Johann Strauss, the “ Waltz-King," as he is popularly known, cannot work to order. Sometimes weeks and months will go by without his touching a pen or even a piano. He utterly relaxes himself, visits his friends, drives, and lives like any other man of leisure. When an idea strikes him he jots it down at once, his only available note-book being generally his sleeve cuff.

It will be news to many to learn that Millie Christine, “ the famous coloured double-headed nighingale," is still alive and on exhibition in the United States. She is now about sixty years of age and will not appear for less than 600 dollars (T 120) a week. But she can well afford to demand these terms, since she has made .a large fortune by speculating in land, and is independent of showmen.

Edison’s laboratory costs the famous inventor fully .£SOOO a year to maintain.

One of the officials of the Sultan of Turkey is charged with the duty of collecting the notices of that monarch which appear in various European newspapers and other periodicals. The Sultan keeps an attentive eye on these expressions of public opinion.

M. Saint-Saens, the famous French composer, delights in surprising his friends. He has been known to disappear after some great triumph and give the papers a chance of finding his dead body in a dozen places at the same time, to say nothing of the veiled hints that his mind has broken down.

The late Austrian Archduke Carl Ludwig was a man of many eccentricities. Parsimoniousness seemed to be his ruling characteristic. Tie allowed his cook two florins per head per diem for every member of his family, and out of this the cook undertook to find them in four meals a day. When not engaged in imperial cheese paring his Highness was fond of embroidering vestments for his clergy, and would stitch at sacerdotal garments by the hour.

Don Antonio Canovas del Castillo, the Spanish Prime Minister, is the son of a poor village schoolmaster, and was born near Malaga nearly sixty-nine years ago. At at early age he went to Madrid—some people maintain that he covered the distance on foot—and obtained a clerkship in the offices of a railway company. In spite of his meagre salary, he contrived to pay the expense of studying law, and in due time blossomed into a lawyer. He next attracted attention by two works, one on fiction and the other on history. After occupying several subordinate posts he became, in 1865, Secretary for the Colonies, an office which he considered the . first, step to a Ministerial career Thenceforth his rise has been compara-, tively rapid.

Sir Donald Smith, who is spoken of as the probable successor to Sir Charles Tupper (should the latter decide to remain in the Dominion) as Canadian High Commissioner in London, is one of the wealthiest men in Canada, and has long been chief of the Hudson Bay Company. He is a native of Banffshire, and only recently became proprietor of the historic estate of Glencoe. . . *