LADIES’ GOSSIP

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1509, 31 January 1901, Page 27

LADIES’ GOSSIP

Mr Alfred Vanderebilt. son of the celebrated American millionaire, was married on Ith January at Newport, Rhode Island, United States, to Mis§ Elsie French. Mr Vanderbilt made a marriage settlement conveying to his bride the sum of £750,000. * Sfr <t *

A slight sensation was caused in St. Paul’s Church, Bendigo, on Sunday night. When receiving the plates from the collectors the Rev H. S. Bagbie, who was .standing in front of the altar, noticed a button in one of the plates. The rev. gentleman, addressing, the congregation, said lie had an unusual an. nonneement to make before the service was concluded, and amidst intense silence he severely commented on the act of the person who had placed the button in the plate. “Fancy,” he remarked:, “anyone committing such a grosss insult as offering a button to Almighty God.”

Accompanied by 48 trunks, two fex terriers and five maids, Madame Sarah Bernhardt looked, it i.s said, quite blooming on her arrival in New York the other day. She informed an interviewer that in Paris she had been making statues, painting, and writing memoirs. Apparently nothing could stem the tide of Madame Bernhardt’s vivacity. but another tide —that of the sea. In the Atlantic Ocean she found an unconquerable master. “I could not read, I could not write, I could do nothing., Ugh! je deteste, I detest the sea,” she exclaimed in her liicturesqiie FrenchEnglish. “It is very bad, it is no good!”

The Earl of Bonoughmore, who died from an attack of paralysis, was only 52 years oi age. He took a great interest in colonial affairs. When lie succeeded to the earldom on the death of his father in 1866, he was only eighteen years of age, and at once began to fit himself for his place in the House of Lords by visiting our colonies and dependencies. While on one of these voyages ,he married, in Tasmania. Frances Isabella., daughter of the late' General Stephens, of the East India Company’s service, by whom lie leaves' one .son, Viscount Suirdale, who now succeeds to the title, and two daughters, the Ladies Evelyn and Nor all HelyHuteliinson. The peer who has just •passed' away took an immense interest in the organisation at the commencement of the year, of a corps of Yeomanry for sendee in South Africa, where his brother, -toir Walter lieb'-Hutchin-son, is Governor of Uatal. Lord Donounhniore was commercially interested in the development of several of our colonies, was an aruent supporter of ’f reemasonry—in which the Prince of 'Vales conferred on him the rank of Senior Grand Warden—and also concerned himself in the modern drama, which he encouraged in a considerable degree. The new peer (Viscount Suirdale) is in his 25th: year, and is secretary to Sir Henry Blake, Governor of Hong 1 Kong.

It is announced that Mr Kruger’s wedding present to Queen Wilhelmma of Holland will be a thimble artistically engraved by a French sculptor. The design round the edge represents a bevy of youthful Parisian sempstreses at work in a dress maker’s shop. Among these young ladies Oom Paul was veiy popular during his stay here. They used to flock from the big dressmaker’s workshops in the Rue de la Paix during their luncheon hour to go and cry “Vive Kruger!” under the windows of the Hotel Scribe, and clap enthusiastically when their hero appeared on the balcony. Mr Kruger has carefully specified! that he does not wish to retain rights of ownership over the design drawn for Ids thimble. This hint Parisian jewel, lers have not been slow to take. In a few days’ time their windows will be stocked with Kruger and Wilhelmina thimbles, which they expect will be the fashionable trinklet for the coming, jour de l’an. ,

An amusing action for slander has been threatened by a. Parisian lady living in a street near the opera. She complains that her pet cat has been treated in a most abominable manner by another lady, who is her neighbour. The latter lately received presents of some larks, pheasants and rabbits. These she ordered her cook to hang for a. while outside the kitchen window, whence they soon disappeared in a most mysterious manner. The other person’s cat was charged with the larcenies, but the owner of the animal protested against the accusation, and said that whoever libelled her pet would have to go to court. She took out a summons in due form, when it was discovered' that the larks, pheasants and rabbits were pilfered by a butcher’s boy living on the sixth floor of the house, and who in the “dead waste and middle of the night" dragged up the birds and

bunnies to his lofty abode by means of a hook and line. He was assisted in his strange operations by a, female servant. Unless a compromise be effected between the parties at issue, the proper court will have to deal with a libel on a cat.

A Boston paper states that after many years of friendly encouragement the. daughter of Mark Twain, Miss Clara Clemens, is to try her luck a* a professional singer. Her name will go a long way, says the journal, and besides that, she is said to be thoroughly musical. For her father’s sake it is hoped she is not another good amateur gone wrong, and that success will attend her, even that vain and payless thing “fashionable success.”