PEOPLE WE READ ABOUT.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1315, 13 May 1897, Page 9

PEOPLE WE READ ABOUT.

Anton Bruckner, the musical composer, died recently in Austria, at the age of seventy-two. His best-known work —his Eighth Symphony in C minor—takes a whole evening to perform. When he began to play it was difficult to stop him. He once competed for the post of Court organist at Vienna, each candidate being allowed twenty-five minutes, and kept on playing for over an hour. On another occasion, at the Crystal Palace, he played until he exhausted the organ-blowers.

Madame Diaz, the wife of the President of Mexico, is in her thirty-third year. Among her many attainments she speaks English and French with almost equal fluency. A great part of the President’s popularity is due to the high esteem in which she is held by the peoplo of Mexico.

“Lucas Malet,” who has recenFy published another novel, “ Carissima,” is the pen-name of a daughter of Charles Kingsley. She is the wife of the Rev. William Harrison, the Rector of Clovelly. Strange to say Mrs Harrison never wrote anything till some time after her father's death, being deterred by his strong preju iiee against women doiDg work other than that of their homes.

Dr. Conan Doyle is very diligent in his methods of work. The library he has collected for the wiitings of his historical novels is one of exceptional size and value, He read no fewer than 150 volumes, for instance, in preparation of “The White Company.” It is said that he has felt a severe twinge of disappointment because his visit to the Soudan as special correspondent for the Westminster Gazette did not afford him the sight of a battle. As it is, however, old soldiers declare that the Doctor’s account of Sedgemoor, in “ Mieah Clarke,” is one of the besc descriptions of a battle to be found in fiction.

The Czar of Russia is the richest man in the world. The disposal of every penny raised for the Government of Russia is in his control, and he draws upon it as if it were his private purse, to as great an extent as he pleases. But if his wealth is great, the claims made upon him are boundless. Despite the fact that he left 100,000 francs (£4OOO sterling) behind him for'the poor of Paris when he visited that city last year, a perfect delnge of begging letters poured in upon him from every part of France. One man wanted a horse, another wished to be established in a tobacco shop, a third required a place as a cook. Everyone, of these begging letters was thoroughly examined and sifted at the Russian Embassy, and arrangements made for the most deserving cases to be relieved.

“ Gyp,” who is one of the most famous of contemporary French writers, is, moreover, one of the few grandes dames who write for the Press. In private life she is the Comtesse Sibylle Gabrielle Marie Antoinette Martel de Janville. She is herself a grandniece of Mirabeau, whose name one of her sons will bear by special permission of the French Government, and her husband is a member of the old French nobility. She is a leader of French society as well as a noted sportswoman.

The Marquis Ito, the Prime Minister of Japan, is perhaps the most remarkable man in the East. A generation ago, Japan could only be compared with a feudal nation of the Middle ages, when great barons waged war one against the other and each kept a large band of soldiers ready to fight against any man at the bidding of their lord. But now, Japan is a land of railways, torpedoes, and electric light. It is to Ito, more than to any other man that the change is due. He is described as a kindly-faced man, speaking slow and careful English, and with a cigar perpetually between his lips.

Lord Roscberry is a prime favourite with the cabbies and newsboys of “ Auld Reekie.” “ See,” said a Jehu to the writer, as he extended his great palm, on which lay a bright gold piece, “ that's the size o”im every time. I ca’ 'im a Libeial Leader.” One evening in the summer, when walking out from Edinburgh to Dalmeny, as he sometimes does, he met a newsboy who had been calling his “specials” in the neighbouring villages with little success. Struck with the boy’s dejected looks, his lordship purchased a paper, tendering a so- ereigu and passing on. The boy stood for some minutss gazing at the gold in a dazed condition, and then hurried after the giver. Taking off his cap he was about to explain, when Lord Roseberry said : “ It’s all right, my boy,” and patted him kindly on the head. When his lordship got round t:.e corner out of sight ti e antics which the delighted urchin cut can be imagined.

Mr Jones Motion, who got up the first public bicycle race some thirty years ago, has written to a paper in the Transvaal, where he now lives, to inform them of the fact. It was at the Annual Gala of the United Friendly Societies at Crewe that the race took place, and Mr Morton, who was a delegate representing the Druids' Society, suggested the race, as he thought that cycling was likely to become in time a national sport. There were four entries for the race, bnt only two men rode, their machines having wooden wheels and iron tyres. The second man objected to the prize being awarded to the winner, as he had two steel spikes screwed into the tyre of his front wheel in order to get a good grip on the grass, but his objection was overruled.