PEOPLE WE READ ABOUT.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1425, 22 June 1899, Page 15

PEOPLE WE READ ABOUT.

Gaidenuig is a ravount? amusement tf the Queen of Sweden. * * * «. r The wonderful vitality of iff* p o oo i* ascribed to plain living and high thinking. 3 Princess Christian is fond of a game of draughts played in the Continental fashion. Miss Mary Andersen, when jonriwmi-'-by tram whiles away the time by plaw mg at chess. If she ha 3no t rave line >- companion she will play by herself. ” -jr ; jg. Mr Edison finds time in The midst of his scientific labours to follow his hobby of fowl-rearing. H e has more than two hundred fowls, and obtains very »oed prices ror those he seiis. ° * *: There is no more daring rider amon >• European royalties than the heir to tha thiqiie of Italy, the Prince of Naples. He is a keen sportsman, and has verv few equals m the hunting field. * * * *' * M. Loubet, the new President of the Trench Republic is the most musical of ail tne heads ot the present Republic, ood music will have a larger share than’ Jiitiierto m the entertainments at th* Llysee. The Sultan has developed a great ‘admiration for German doctors since th7/sit of the Kaiser. He declares that they are incomparable; he lias dismissed lus french physicians and replaced them by Germans. *P *. t ; Mr W. S. Gilbert has a collection of curiosities at his house at Harrow Weald and among them is the model of a man-of-war of one hundred years ago, ffff ?^n feet long; it was from this that the scene in ‘‘ Pina for- ” was designed. Tne Izar has inherited his father's love or mushrooms. ffo enjoys noth in ** so much as a dish of these prepared by hia consort. His Royal relatives in ’ this, country and in Denmark occasionally send him a special consignment. * * * *s * Prince Henry of Prussia, brother of the Kaiser, became so delighted with the Chinese language during his visit to the Ilowery Land that he has taken up the study of the tongue and thinks it superior to any other, ancient or modern. * * * * * The Princess Walderaar of Denmark has devoted herself to the welfare of the national fire brigade. She thinks that firemen are the bravest of citizens, and she does all she can to help and encourage them. She often turns up at a fire and watches the proceedings. Miss Ellen Terry’s favourite hobby U the collecting of eyeglasses worn by celebrities, and whenever she makes a request for a pair—a request never refused— 3he gets the wearere to write liis or her name on one of the lenses. The collection is kept in a special cabinet in her house in South Kensington. Mr Rhodes once paid .£‘3500 as passage money from the Suez Canal to Beii-a. in Portugal. The vessel in which he was travelling- went aground, and—" to Jive time”—he chartered a steamer to take him to his destination. This is a record in the way of passage money for a single individual. The Tzar is not less careful of his life than his predecessors, but he adopts different methods of safeguarding himself. Instead of' having three trains ready when he is going on a railway journey, and leaving the Anarchists to guess which train is conveying him, as his father did, he simply allows no one to know liis plana. The route is published, but he never keeps to it. - * * *= * ’ r The Prince of Wales is not to be included in. the list of those Royalties and aristocrats who despise ” trade.” A friend was chaffing him recently because his brother-in-law, the Marquis of Lome, has two brothers engaged in business, whereupon H.R.H. retorted that if lie hei the chance of entering into partnership with one of the large London merchants, he would do so at once. Mr Henniker Heaton is another example of a. prophet who has no honour in his own country'. He is an Australian, and many of his countrymen are railing at him for his advocacy' of penny postage to the colonies. One influential newspaper say* that the man who would object to pay twopence-halfpeny to have bis letter carried to the other side of the world must; be a born sweater. * * * *• * If Mr Alfred Austin, the Poet Laureate, had not won distinction Avitli his pen he would undoubtedly have risen to eminence as a landscape gardener. Gardening is his hobby, and the grounds of his country house give ample proof of his skill. Mr Austin’s gardener has to take orders from liis master, for the Poet Laureate by no means follows the general custom of meekly submitting to the rule of the man. he employs. * # . *# * Tlie lot of the Crown Princess of Sweden is not a happy one. Her indifferent health compels her to spend half the year in the south of Europe, away from her husband, and her life is saddened by the thought that when he ascends the throne she will be of but little assistance to him in liis task of keeping the kingdoms of' Norway and Sweden together. Music is now her chief occupation; she used to paint and read a good deal, but lier failing eyesight deprives her of these forms of amusement. —"Pearson’s Weekly.'