PEOPLE WE READ ABOUT.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1367, 12 May 1898, Page 12

PEOPLE WE READ ABOUT.

Dr Max Nordau, the author of "Degeneration," works on an average between fifteen and eighteen hours a day. He has always several irons in the fire, and works in a study very small in size, but simply crowded with book cases.

The Pope made eight hogsheads of wine last year from the vineyard in the Vatican gardens. A small part of the wine i 3 reserved for his own use, another portion is sent to the churches to be used at mass, and the rest is sold.

During his remarkable career, Mr F. 0. Selous has killed in round numbers 2800 animals, including 109 elephants and 25 lions. Ha began his wandeiings in 1871, when he was nineteen yeais of age, and made Africa his home until 1894.

The Empress of Japan take 3 a great interest in all that concerns the nation, from the rice crop 3 upwards. Her Majesty is said to have a special talent for literature. A pretty poem of hers, set to music, is sung all over the land.

The ex-King of Annam, now in his thirtieth year, whom the French are at present keeping* as a State prisoner at Algiers, has no little skill in painting, and intends to send a few of his most interesting pictures to Paris for exhibition.

Mr Alfred Pease, M.P., is one <f the most successful big game hunters in the House of Commons. He is also greatly interested in the fauna of the British Isles, and haa made a special study of the life-history of the badger, with whose habits he has been conversant since boyhood.

It is said that the Cz«" of Russia signalised the birth of his daughter and heiress by insuring his life for £500,000. Amongst other heavily insured royal Hve3 are those of the King of Italy, who pays a premium on £1,500,000, and the Prince of Wales, who is said to bo insured for £600,000.

The richest woman in the world is probably Senora C ;usino, who owns most of the copper mines in Chili and Peru. She is supposed to be worth £ i 0,000,000, while her annual income is believed to reach £1,600,000. Her personal characteristics are thus summed up: "She is about fifty-five years old, tall, dark, ;and still beautiful."

Lord Salisbury is a very clear, un affected speaker, easy both to hear and to report. He makes a rule of mastering the difficulties of large buildings in which he is to speak for the first time, and rarely fails to make himself heard by everybody. Within the last few years he has perceptibly " slowed down" as a speaker, but in no other respect has his oratory undergone any change.

The Emperor of Austria is said to be one of the most hard-working of sovereigns. He is up every morning of his life by'six o'clock, and may be seen at his writing table often as early as four o'clock, trying to cope with an overwhelming mass of correspondence. On days given up to chamois hunting the Emperor begins work all the earlier, in order that he may have longer hours to devote to the sport that he loves so well.

Mme. Patti possesses a fan on which all European sovereigns have inscribed a few lines. Among them ia 'Queen Victoria,'whose vords are: "If 3£ing Lear was right in saying that a sweet voice is a precious gift in a woman, you are, of all women, the richest." The Czir has written: "Nothing is so calm ing as your voice." The German Emperor and the Queen Regent of Spain have also contributed inscriptions.

Few people know how Bismarck and his ancestors got their name. Bismarck is the name of one of those ancient castles a short distance from Stendal, on the road from Cologne to Berlin, in the centre of the old Mafquisato of Brandenburg. The castle had this name because it defended the " Marca," or the line where the rivtr Bteaa formed .i boundary in former tim«», or mark of defence against intruders. Hence the name of Bismarck.

When President Kruger goes travelling about the country, he rides in a covered carriage with curtains hiding him from the inquisitive gazo of the world. It is a great 'umbering affair, this travelling carriage of Oam Paul's, and is drawn by either eight or ten horses. Behind the carriage there always rides an escort of cavalry, or, rather, mounted infantry, for they carry long rifles instead of carbines, and every one of the men has ,been trained as a sharpshooter.

One of the most influential posts in the immediate circle of the Queen is held by Herr Maurice Muther, whose existence >even is scarcely known to the public. Herr Muther is known as the Queen's ©erman Secretary 4 and all her relations the Continent come within his province. He writes many of her Majesty's private letters, makes extracts from various Continental papers, and knows probably more Court secrets than any wm In fchfc Queers personal retinue,

Mr Thomas A. Edison, Jun., the son of the great inventor, seem? to have inherited much of the genius of bis wonderful father. Although he is little more than twenty-one years of age, he has already distinguished himself by the production of a new kind of incandescent lamp, which i 3 sail to be far supeiior to any other ever made.

Lord Justice R'gby is, perhaps, the most confirmed smoker on the Bench, and is alone amongst his brother-judges in the " cnlt of the briar." He scorns the more refined de':uhts of cigarettes, affected by his brother Lord Justice, Sir Joseph Chitty, or the cigars of the Master of the Rolls ; and clings lovingly to his well-seasoned briar, with which he composes his soul during the luncheon inter val. Asked once what he would do if deprived of his pipe, ho answered in his characteristic formula, " I'm hanged if I know !"

The Marquis of Londo idcrry who, although he boasts a distinguished descent from an ancestor who fought at Agincourt, has been willing to earn large revenues as a coal merchant—is a dark, handsome, fine-featured man of forty - five. IV. e noted Seaham collieries, the sale of which he has been negotiating for the sub-

stantial sum of £2,000,000, were at one time in the possession of Byron's family, who had not the enterprise to turn them into gold. Lord Londonderry owns 50,000 acres of land, and has two princely seats north of the Humber, one in Ireland, another in Wales, and a town house in Park Lane.

Herr Krupp, of E3sen, Germany, is the largest employer of labour in the world. On the pay-ro!l3 of the greut Krupp establishment are more than twenty five thousand men. Thirty-four Governments have made purchases there. Heir Krupp, the son and worthy successor of the great Krupp, is only forty two years old. His employed live in " model houses," have schools, baths, libraries, hospitals, and pensions under his direction and co-opera-tion, The present head of the establishment has been a member of the Reichstag, but, like his sturdy father, has always refused to accept a title from the Government.

Miss C. M. Yonge, the author of novels innumerable, of over a dozen substantial volumes of Easdish, Roman, Scottish, French, and German history, of biographies, reminiscences, and other works and also for many year 3 the editor of a magazine, has yet always made time for Sunday-school work. She has been a Sunday-school teacher for six'y years, beginning at the age of fourteen, and for many years also gave Scripture lessons in the day school near her residence Miss Yonge lives in the village of Otterbourne, not far from Winchester, attends daily service at the church, takes an active interest in the Girls Friendly Society, and resists all interviewers.

Lord Ampthill, who is acting as Private Secretary to Mr Chamberlain, gives promise of as much success in politics as he has achieved on the river. His record as a "wet-bob" at Eton and Oxford was remarkably brilliant. At Eton he wa3 Captain of the Boats and rowed several successive years at Henley ; and he thrice pulled an oar for Oxford in the 'Varsity boat-race. As a tribute to his mental prowess, he was also elected Pcesident of the Union. Lord Ampthill, who is still two years on the sunny sHa of thirty, I*3 a son of Lord Odj Russell, f »v some time our Ambassador at Berlin. He is well endowed with good looks and personal graces, and has every physical and mental equipment for a brilliant career.

The playing-cards used by the Emperor William have old German designs on their face?. The backs are devoted to a symbolical exposition of tho Triple Alliance : the Prussian Eigle, the Double E*gle of Austria, and the Silver Cross of the House of Savoy appear on a red field, surrounded A-ith ivy and surmounted by the imperial crown. Similar d-signs are introduced at the corners. The picture cards are executed in corresponding but special characters and portraits are assigned to them Thus, the king of has a family likeness to the founder of the royai house of Hohenzollern, while the queen of nearly appears as a simple Gretchen, and the knave of diamonds as a knight of the order of St. John.

Prince Oukhlomßky,, on his presentation as Russian envoy to the Chinese Emperor, offered a variety of costly presents from the Cz*r. Of one of them an amusing atory ia told. It is a group of statuary in silver, which had undergone strange vicissitudes before finding a home in Pekin. The original design was an allegorical representation of the emancipation of Bulgaria. It was intended as a present from the late Czar to the then reigning Prince of Bulgaria. But while the artist was at work history was being made, and was completed more quickly than the work of art. By the time the latter was finished Prince Alexander of Batfcenberg had forfeited the Czar's favour, and the gift never reached its destination. The group i 3 now in Pekin, a slight alteration of the accessories having changed the emancipation of Bulgaria from the Turk into the emancipation of the Leao-Tong Peninsula from the Japanefcfc,