PEOPLE WE READ ABOUT.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1523, 28 February 1901, Page 15

PEOPLE WE READ ABOUT.

Mr W ill him Baird, in his life of General Wane hope, tells the following characteristic story of that gallant officer. On the way up the Nile with the expedition to relieve Gordon, Wauchope was, as. usual, helping his men with all his might. His boat was in -trouble, and the staff officer va® shouting any amount of advice gratis from the bank. Thinking, apparently, that enough notice was not being taken of his instructions, he called! out —“You No. 2 boat there, do Jon know who I am? lam Colonel 'rimrose of the Guards.” This immediately 'drew the following answer from a wild-looking, red-headed, and halfnaked worker in. the boat—“ And do you know who I am, sir? I am Colonel Wauchope of the Black Watch. So honours are easy.”

Cord Blantyre had the whole of his large property at his own disposal and he has bequeathed his estates in the counties of Berwick, Dumbarton, Haddington, Renfrew, and Lanark to his grandson, Mr William, Baird, younger son of Sir David and the Hon. Lady Baird, of Newbyth. His daughter, Mrs William Henry Gladstone, is left £20,000 and a leasehold house in Berkeley square. Erskine House, the family seat on the Clyde, near Renfrew, is a modern Tudor mansiqn, with fine gardens and grounds.

Of the fifteen members in Parliament from Connaught, only two can speak Irish (says the “Angli-Celt”) one of whom is the Hon. Martin Morris, who ranks as a Unionist. "Not one of the members for Clare, Waterford, Limerick, Donegal, Monaghan, Tyrone, Kilkenny, or Tipperary knows anything about the language. Of Cork’s nine only one has even a smattering, whilst of Kerry’s four only one can speak Irish, but he (Mr Thos. O’Donnell) certainly represents worthily the. Irishspeaking part of that country, some eighty per cent, of the whole. Of the eighty-two Nationalists, not more than fifteen can be said to be capable o f keeping up a conversation in the Irish tongue. * * * ii.

“Punch,” contains an announcement which will 1 be read with general sympathy and regret.. It is that no more of Sir .John Tenniel’s cartoons will appears in it® pages.. After fifty years the veteran artist retires, followed into retirement by. the kind thought® and 1 .good wishes of all, who. have, week by week, for so long been 'charmed by the grace of his drawing and impressed by the fertility of invention with which he has carried cut the ideas originated at the weekly “Punch” dinners. Mr John Tenniel bidis farewell with. a_ striking doublcpiage . picture, which represents Time carrying on his arm the infant 1901 and in company with Peace checkiug the impetuous course of Bellona’s chariot, while the smoke of burning habitations clouds the horizon. The figure of the wav goddess reining in the steeds and the horses checked in their career are particularly good. Spirit and execution alike compel regret that the time has come for so distinguished: a. talent to be withdrawn from the service of the public.

Major-General Kelly-Kenny, who has handed over the command at Bloemfontein to. Sir Archibald Hunter, is a Glare man and! will soon pay a. visit to his relatives in that country, where he has property, a® the double-barrelled name shows. He is said to be certain of a. prominent post in the War Office, under Lord Roberts, who has u high opinion of him. The General, who> is a bachelor, got his C.B. some years ago. and has a long and honourable record of army service, though he is still a young man, being barely sixty. : A Catholic, "he has friends in all parts of the kingdom and is a first-class soldier.

America, according to/telegrams from New Yofk,'%buld appear fd* be suffering somewhat more severely this winter than usual front influenza. It is estimated -that some 200,000 people in New York } and Chicago have been seized with the disease, and about sixty fatal cases have been reported since the beginning of the month. The weather is soft and unseasonable and this is regarded as the cause. The cases generally have been . of a mild! type/" •Presideilt McKinley and other well-known peopl'c&have been, attacked'. ' 3 * * « # * i * ' ... i Some stories of homely kindness on the part of the German Emperor that are told by the, special correspondent of the “Daily Telegraph.” On Christmas i eve, the Emperor took a walk in the neighbourhood of-his country residence, the New palace' at -Wildpark, near Pots/dam. In every sentry-box the Emperor left a present fpr the sentry to discover on returning from his rounds. To .every workman and woman engaged in the park of Sans Souci the Kaiser gave a new five-mark piece. Continuing his walk and leaving the park, the Emperor next met a number of old women with their baskets on their backs. Into every basket he tossed some pieces of silver. <•; Then he told 1 one of his aides-de-camp to slip a two: mark piece, into the hand of a boy who was wheeling his little sister in a perambulatof. Tbe boy on the re- : ceipt of the money left his charge, ran after the Kaiser, afid shouted at his Majesty, “Thank you very much, dear

Mister Emperor.” greatly to the Kaiser’s amusement. One does not wonder that William II.; is a popular monarch. * ; 0 •- • V •'a- * *

It-fßyas ? in ‘ the ' Christmas number of “Piiiieh,” in the year 1843, that Tom' Hood’® famous “Song ©f the Shirt” first appeared. Although it was published anonymously, it ran through the land like wildfire, was quoted by innumerable papers, and was the talk of the clay. Hoed himself was surprised at its amazing popularity, but his wife foretold its success. When folding' up the packet for the press she said, with true prescience, “Now, mind Hoed, mark my words, this will tell wonderfully! It is one of the best things you ever did.” The Christmas poem was soon translated into French and German, although Hood wondered how the foreign translators would render “Stitch, stitch, stitch,” and* “Seam, and gusset and baud.” a.

The Archibshop of Dublin (R-.C.) is no enemy of the stage, if it is not degraded by impropriety, but degraded it is at times, and his Grace in a recent speech,i, expressed' regret that some of the worst offences of the kind have been openly and ostentatiously encouraged by the patronage of “those who are" under a more than common obligation to keep up the tone of public, social life in Dublin.” The “Freeman’s Journal’ complains that newspaper influence in the matter is very ineffective, because on a Thursday it described' a play as being notable for “indelicacy of costume and dialogue, suggestiveness, drunkenness, dissipation, immorality and conjugal infidelity,” and on Friday evening the Countess Oadogan and a party, including Mr Wyndham, th,e Chief .Secretary, were present to witness the performance of the same niece. .

A clergyman of the Church of England, whose reputation as a pulpit orator for a period attracted all London, and who then as suddenly disappeared from the firmament, has just passed away in the person of Dr Alfred Williams Momerie. Son of a Congregational pastor, he was intended for the Dissenting ministry, and had a brilliant' University career at Edinburgh and Cambridge. but renounced Nonconformity for the Episcopal form of worship, and was ordained by Dr Fraser, Bishop of Manchester. His fame in the pulpit was almost entirely restricted to the eight years when he was morning preacher at the Foundling Hospital, from 1883 till 1891, since which time he had not held an incumbency, but had been preaching with the consent of the Bishop of London at the Port-man Rooms, Baker street. The Queen of Portugal, whose gallant rescue of a drowning boatman has brough t -her a. medal from the admiring Kaiser, is as brave as she is beautiful. Already she wears a. medal for .jumping into the Tagus and rescuing a child. No wonder Queen Amelie is beloved by her people. There is not (says the “King”) a more kind-hearted Queen in the world. Not long ago' she descended from, her carriage jn the streets of Lisbon to attend to a, fainting girl, and, finding that she was a. milliner, the Queen invited her to call at the Palace, The' girt-Talled)-and Queen Amelie gave b’Cftl** nets. “Take these as models' j ”-sh,M Hefi Majesty, “and tell your customers-ThaE they are made after the Queen’s own fashioning.” To-day the young woman has an extensive business in the Portuguese capital. Hdk Majesty, who is an expert milliner, is also, for all practical purposes, a doctor, and has established a. dispensary for poor children in Lisbon, in which she takes a warm interest. * * * •* * The new Lord' Harrowhy adds one to the comparatively small number of peers who are actually engaged in banking business. The Duke of Fife was for many years a partner in Sir Samuel Scott and Co., but when he married a daughter of the Prince of Wales, and Parr’s Bank took over the business, he retired. Lord Harrowbyts connection with Coutts’s comes from the fact that his gradmother, a daughter of the first Marquis of Bute, was granddaughter of old Thomas. Ooutts. Among other banker peers are Lords Hillingdon and Wolverton, of Glyn, Mills and Co. Lord Ame.sbury is the head of Robarts, Lubbock and; Co., while the Earl of Jersey takes an active, part in the management of Child’s. One peer only gives his name to a banking firm; he is the Earl of Melville, the head of the house of Melville, Fickus and Co., of 75 Lombard street. There are, of course, plenty of peers who are directors of banking companies, but the above list about exhausts the banker peers proper; neither Lord Carrington nor Lord Tweedmouth now : take an active pare in banking business.

Dr J. W. Gregord, Professor of Geology in the University cf Melbourne, the selected chief of the scientific staff in. the forthcoming National Antarctic Expedition, has lately completed arrangements with Sir Clements Markham and the members, of the joint Antarctic committee for the conduct of his department of work, and he - returns - to; Australia early in January, where in all probability ‘ lie will remain until the good ship Discovery'picks him up en route) for the regions l within the- Antarctic circle which are to be explored. The choice of a name' for the vessel presented some difficulty, since it Was not desirable to employ one used in her

Majesty’s navy, and, on the other hand, there were some 25 names of former Antarctic ships to be borne, in mind, including the almost forgotten Jane, Lively and-Magpie., and the well remembered Erebus ancl Terror. The accepted one, Discovery, seems, however, appropriate enough, a® no fewer than five vessel® have previously supplied an exploring Arctic record to recommend its selection, under such captains, too, as Cook and Vancouver; so that for the southern hemisphere it ha® the double advantage of good com pa 113- and noveltv. *** * ~ *

The Roman Catholic Pontiff, although quite well, is notv perceptibly less able to- get about than this time last year. The truth is that he sleeps much, eats little, and occupies himself less with cares of State as the days ..go by, witii a. corresponding increase of devotional exercise. Every effort has been made to. induce him to receive fewer pilgrims, and in most cases in a more informal and less fatiguing way, but one might as tv ell speak to the wind. “I -would rather break than rust,” he says, “One day my poor life will be snuffed out like a candle, and I want to be at my post.” This has become a fixed idea, and his thoughts are so turned to celestial things that he seem.s more a,wraith than a. man His days are peaceful, and his apartments more comfortable than would ever be suspected from the bleak, bald exterior of the palace, and from those rooms seen by the tourist when “doing” the galleries. His whole x>ri-vat-e .suite is heated by steam, not 100 warm, so that he runs a minimum of risk in going into St. Peter’s. It is lighted with electric light, softly shaded to suit his eyes, but brilliant enough to write and read by. Thus the -venerable Pontiff spends tre evening of his life, happy, peaceful and respected ny -lie whole world.