NEWS AND NOTES

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1685, 15 June 1904, Page 15

NEWS AND NOTES

"M AP. ” in a sketch, of Miss Violet Hunt, the novelist, tells a story connecting her with Browning, borne years ago the "Pall Mall Gazette” held a plebiscite of the twelve best living authors and their best books. Miss Hunt entered the competition, and won it. She did not give her own opinions, but those she thought were the public's, and among the authors she included Robert Browning, with, as his best work, "The Ring and the Book.” &bme time afterwards, at Mts Sutherland Orr’s, Browning came up to her, caught her by the shoulders, and fairly shook her. “So it's you .pretends to gauge the public taste, is it. And you think, ‘The Ring and the Book my best work, do you?” ‘ No, replied Miss Hunt, looking Browning square m the eye, "I don't.” "Ah I” Browning, releasing her, "no more do I.” - - * * *

Two children, a boy of 11 and his sister of 12. are at present living in a splendid Fifth-avenue mansion in New lork in ignorance of the fact that they are heirs to <£2-000,000. Their names are Louis and Katherine Hamersley. Every effort is being made by their guardians, says the "American.” to bring them up in a simple manner and keep from them the knowledge of their great wealth.

A Moscow University professor named Ivanoff, who was suspected of having furnished reports to the Government concerning revolutionary students, has been found stabbed to the heart in his room, a Dalziel iSt. Petersburg message says. On a piece, of paper pinned to his breast wsro th.o words, to death by «. the Revolutionary Tribunal’for having delivered to the executioner of the Czar many martyrs for liberty.”

Baron Heinrich Liebig, head of the lirm of Johann Liebig and Go., who died recently in e rankfort, has left in his wuJ <£4O,OW to the poor of Eeichenberg, his native town. Xn addition, ho has given to the town, his valuable collection or pictures (worth the same amount), his villa, his Frankfort house, and some of his landed property. The Eeichenberg library and reading-room has been aiso endowed, and altogether the town lias inherited a sum of JB2€'O,G9O. * «-

An Imperial trade has been issued m Constantinople refusing to accept the kalpak as the head-dress of the gendarmerie, and insisting on the wearing of the foz.'

Mr Stead, who was entertained by AKJ Afrikander ladies at Johannesburg cently, said Dutchmen were superior to Englishmen, and, although defeated m war, would ultimately triumph p>liticall >'* ,

Mr Kruger., who is still living on the Riviera, has lately shown considerable increase in bodily and mental activity. He rises early and spends much time n his garden. Dr Leyds is still staying at the Grand Hotel, Garavan, Mentone, and has frequent interviews with the Ex-Pre-sident.

An old man, wlio said he was KXX yeais old, was found sitting on a doorstep New York recently. He said he had. been turned adrift because he q>uld not pay his rent. Some years age he had a comfortable fortune, but a daughter had nduced him to let her nave control of his money, and had then disappeared, and v left him penniless.

.Great Britain has informally notified tlie United States of her intention to protest against Nicaragua's violation of rim Treaty of 1860, ensuring the territorial reservation and the local autonomy of the Mosquito Indians, a number of whom arrived at Jamaica recently, and appealed to Great Britain to redress their harsh treatment by Nicaragua. O # »

Peter Hiband, aged 69, an inmate of the workhouse, says a Paris message, shot a widow named Catherine Briet recently because she refused to marry mm. He then shot himself. He had been a neighbour of tlie woman, and had given her his furniture before gpdng into the workhouse. Hiband had written on a slip of paper: “I am jealous of all who are near my Catherine. She must die, and then I will kill myself." He is not expected to recover, buf the woman was not so dangerously wounded.

Judgment was recently given against Mr William J. Bryan, the famous American orator and twice-defeated candidate for,, the presidency, in a curious probate action. . Some time ago an admirer of Mr Bryan, named Philo S. Bennett, a resident of Connecticut, died leaving a will and a sealed letter. The Democratic orator was not mentioned in the. will, but the sealed letter .directed Mi's Bennett -to pay Mr Bryan <£lo,ooo, the money to be used in the furtherance of his political principles. Mrs Bennett contended that under the Connecticut statute the sealed letter could, not be regarded a.s a part of a will, and Judge Gager, sitting at Newhaven, Connecticut, has decided, says the "World," in favour of this contention. Mr Bryan, who offered to give a bond that his family would not accept the money in any case, gave notice of appeal.

The custom of bowing to the Speaker’s chair in the House of Commons, whether occupied or vacant, is said to have had a quaint origin.. At one rime the Commons sat in what is now St. Stephen s Hall, which was formerly the Chapel Bey ah of the Palace of Westminster. After the Reformation Edward VI. gave over the chapel to the Commons for their deliberations, the Speaker’s chair being placed just in front of where the altar stood. The obeisance originally made to a Catholic shrine survived the change, and is continued to-day.by members of all denominations. With this may be paralleled the custom in the navy of ealutigg the quarter-deck. Originally, the capstan was covered with the 'Union Jack, to ' which every sailer took off his cap.

The Union Jack has disappeared, but the saluting survives. * * *

There is a guard-ship at S'alomca (writes Mr Reginald Wyon, author of ‘‘The Balkans from Within”), » fairly modern-looking small cruiser, lying year in and year out peacefully at anchor m the bay. One daj r an order came to the commander to take a cruise, and the consternation of that gallant officer was great, because no screw steamer can move without a shaft, and that had been sold some time ago. But he was a mau of resource, and had a shaft made of wood, praying that it would break within the first few minutes. The wooden shaft held by some miracle, and as the ci*ui6er slowly steamed out of the gulf, the captain’s heart sank, for he had no desire to go tc sea with a shaft that must break sooner or later. So he sent below, and had the shaft sawn half-way through. A little extra steam, and the desired was accomplished, and the guard-ship was towed back "disabled.”

From accounts it would appear that Spain's criminal settlement in the &afarina Islands is quite a paradise of convicts (says the ot. James’s Buciget”) Their liberty is restricted only so far that they must'not leave the islands, and must return at night to prison unless they obtain leave of absence for the night. A 6 o'clock in the morning the convicts quit 'the prison. Some do a little work, but the majority go straight to wineshops and hostelries, where they pass the day drinking, singing, and occasionally break ing the monotony of life with a little knifing—for each respectable prisoner carries his "faca” (knife) day and nigin with him. This idyllic state of things appears less strange if one considers that the prison warders—the "capatares”—are the publicans of the islands, and that a good deal of illicit trading is carried on in those places of resort, the prisoners buying revolvers, ammunition, jemmies, and so on.

The recent election of Lord Kelvin to the Chancellorship of Glasgow University has put into circulation a number of anecdotes. Most Kelvin stories which obtain in Glasgow, says the “Manchester Guardian,” are founded, upon the occasional inability of the great man who lisped in logarithms to bring his mind tc a childish sum. On his black-board hr made two and two five, and hearing the chuckles of his delighted class, altered t hastily to three, lie was once heard to say, in his characteristic slpw way, with his beautiful use of the soft Irish r "Seven times nine, Mr Mac Jar-lane, are a hundred and wliat ? (Pause.) But, no seven times nine cannot be a hundred and anything, Mr Mac-faivlane, for the square of a hundred is ten.” Lord Kelvin's inaptitude for simple arithmetic may account for his taking the wrong side, three years ago, in the controversy as to when the 18th century ended.

* * * Two young girls of Berlin found their eyesight failing, and their parents sent them to a doctor, where they had to undergo a cure lasting for some weeks. Questioned by their parents as to what they had been doing to bring their eye* to such a condition, the girls confessed that they had washed their faces in water mixed with frogs’ eggs in order to secure a delicate complexion!

. Two thousand ladies of the upper classic are engaged in St. Petersburg under the Czarina’s direction in preparing clothing and comforts tor the Russian soldiers. Many of these ladies have never hitherto done any useful work, and after a short time those who proved inefficient were politely told by a lady-in-waiting that the Empress thanked them for their good intentions, but desired them to work at home henceforth, to leave the space at the Palace for more accomplished needlewomen.

Carlyle admitted, as appears from the new issue of his letters, that DisrafiJi heaped coals of fire on his head when offering linn a baronetcy in 1875. Writing to his brother he said:—“l do, however, truly admire the magnanimity of Dizzy in regard to me; he is tlie only man 1 almost never spoke of except with, contempt, and .if there is anything of scurrility anywhere chargeable against me, I am sorry to own he is the subject of it; and yet, see, he comes with a pan of hot coals for my guilty head."

Professor E. G. Dextei*, of the University of Illinois, who has devoted much time to proving that football is a harmless game, is very popular among the students< - He was entertaining a group o f them at his residence one night, and dvr. ing a space of silence ie took down an.l brandished a magnificent sword that hnng over his nreplace. "Never will I forget/' be exclaimed, “the day I drew this blade for the first time.’’ "Where did yon draw it, sir?’’, a freshman asked, respectfully. "At a raffle/’ said Protossov Dexter.

Among the Danes, Norwegians, and Finns women are employed as sailor®, and prove themselves to be expert. In the small sailing ships, when there is a woman on board, whether she be the wife of the skipper or the stewardess, she is expected to take her r,urn at the ordinary work, not even excluding the duties of the man at the wheel or of the nighl watch. Denmark employs several women as state officers at sea. Experience! captains assert that the women make excellent sailors, and are equal to most seamen in dexterity and power of endurance.

Mr Sorath Kumar Ghosli, the Hindoo barrister, has been telling a Cardiff audi . ence that the cleverness of Indian jugglers is explained to seme extent by thj fact that they are trained from early childhood By way of illustration, ie mentioned that a child of four would be taught to hold email coin in his throat for. a few seconds. As the years went by the time and the size of the coin would be increased, until by the time he reached manhood two good-sized cavities would be fiormed ou each side of his throat, each large enough to hold several large coins-

Mr Jopling, the painter, denies that women dress to please men. They dress for each other. "It interests them, and they know more about it than men. Man, when he admires a woman, never even looks at kef* dress. He feels drawn to wards her personality. The things that strike him are the tones of her voice, cne look of her eyes. I know many husbands who never notice what their wives wear. ’ Miss Lillias Campbell Davidson is of the same opinion:—"Most women who know the world will agree with me that, as a sex, we don’t dx-ess to court the approval of men, but to escape the criticisms of our sister women!"

An extraordinary duel was recently nought in Paris between two youths named Maltier and Lamort. The arrangement was that Maltier wa3 to stand with a drawn sword while Lamort, 190 yards away, and armed with a knife inountel his bicycle. At the word ther latter wa> to ride'-at his best speed at his adversary. The combat took place in the Rue de l.t Convention, and Lamort rode at breakneck speed, and succeeded in knocking down his opponent but at the same time fell liimself! The swordsman received a serious cut on the head from a pedal; the cyclist got two severe cuts from the sword. They were taken -to the prison infirmary. A * ■»

There is mention of Bret Harte in the recently-published "New Letters >f Thomas Carlyle.” "Bret Harte,” writes Carlyle, "is a notable kind of object, •» man altogether modelled upon Dickens, like Dickens seeking his heroes in the region of blackguardism and the gutters, where heroic magnanimities and benevolences, 1 believe, were never fotuid; and delineating them, like him, by ell-deep mimicry, instead of penetration to the real sort of them and their affairs —which, indeed, lies much farther down ! Like Dickens, however, he does the feat genera j.v rather well; and I suppose will continue at the same moderate workmanship, though a man of more weight of metal than Dickens was.”

Picture post-cards are said to have originated during the Franco-Prussian war. During 1870 a camp of about 40,000 men was formed in the department of the Sarthe, where there was a bookseller and stationer, M. Leon Besnardeau. It occurred to him that the soldiers. would be glad to have some method of indicating their surroundings to their friends at home, which wpild not necessitate long written descriptions or the addressing of envelopes, which were often difficult *o procure. He had, therefore, a number of post-cards engraved with cannon, shells, tents, and the like, and found such a demand for the first series he issued that lie furnished a second set. When the camp broke up the idea was forgotten until it was revived in Germany and Austria in the early 'nineties.

Commercial travellers are talking in the hotel smoking-room, and they begin o brag about the business they do. 4 drummer in grindstones boasts of six sales a day, "a fellow in whisky” of ten, and a German Jew in neckties ox. a dozen. But one man remains silent until at last the Jew pounces on him. “You hafn't told us vot you do, mein frent,” he said to the quiet" fellow.. "Everybody must speak in this exberience meeting. How manv sales do you make?” The man looked up with a sort of weary expression on his face, and replied, ‘‘Well, if I make one sale a year, I think I’m doing pretty well.” "Yon sale a year!” exclaimed; the descendant of Aaron, with a pitying smile. "Yon sale a year! Vy, vot do you travel for?” "Suspension bridges,” replied the quiet man. “Letters from a Son to His Self-made Father.”

Many great ladies nowadays have their own special fancies in the way of perfumes and scents, comments "Madame." The Queen of Spain is said to have made Peau d’Espagne her very , own, and very rarely use’ any other kind. Queen Alexandra has lately taken an immense liking to Coeur Jeannette, which is made exclusively in Paris. No scent or perfume but that of the modest violet will the Czarina of Russia have about her, and, above all, she loves the real thing, all her cabinets and linen being strewn through with fresh violets daily. Her Majesty’s toilet and bath water i 3 always sprinkled with a perfume of fresh violets. One of the newest and most popular of scents is that of new-mown hay. This perfume is largely patronised by the reigning Empress of Germany. ** * ‘

There is a story (says "M.A.P.") that when tlie Shah of 'Persia was visiting Paris, on driving past the Palais de Castille he asked who lived there. "Queen Isabella," was the reply. "Who is she?" was liis further question, and on being told something of her history, and that she was “a Sovereign in exile," he exclaimed, "What a happy woman to have a big fortune and a magnificent house of her own in Paris where she can always live." On learning also that there had never been an attempt to assassinate tlie ex-queen, and that she had been for thirty years in Paris without having trouble with anarchist or fanatic, his admiration and even envy for the queen’s lot knew no bounds.