PEOPLE WE READ ABOUT.

New Zealand Times, Volume LXVI, Issue 3262, 20 October 1897, Page 2 (Supplement)

PEOPLE WE READ ABOUT.

Air Luke Fildes is the first artist whom the Princess has ever favoured with a sitting.

Bechad Effendi, who is regarded as Abdul Hamid’s probable heir, is the owner of something that is exceedingly rare among Turks—a head of red hair. Should he succeed to the throne now occupied by his brother, it is said that he will be obliged to dye his sandy, locks jet black. Ho is described aS genial, rVell educated-, and ah excellent performer on the piano.

Max Nordau, the famous author of “ Degeneration,” among his other strange hobbies, is a zealous advocate of the movement for bringing back the Jewish race to Palestine. In a few days he will take part in the great meeting in Switzerland, where some 250 Jewish delegates will resolve themselves into a committee of ways and means. Few people are aware that Nordau is the son of a very distinguished Hebraist, and no man has more keen racial pride and feeling, and this in spite of the fact that he is not what is generally called an orthodox Jewi M. Ralll, the (3 reelc f rinie WKnlster, is but 49 years of age, and looks 10 years younger. He is the son of the late M» Italli, who was distinguished as Professor of Commercial Daw in the University of Athens. Rich, ambitious, with a will of iron, full of energy, and highly educated, M. Ball! has courted popularity with a success that few Greek statesmen have achieved. He has held office twice before, under Delyannis and Tricoupis. In both these Ministries he distinguished himself by his opposition to his chiefs.

Admiral Thomas Massio, who succeeded Sir Provo Wallis as “ Father of the Fleet,” is a halo and active man of 95, full of stirring memories, and “ ready,” as he avers, “ to go to sea again, if his country wants him." Ho was born three years before Trafalgar, and has a vivid memory of the Waterloo rejoicings. He joined the service as a midshipman in 1818, and took part in the _ battle of Navarino. He reached flag rank before leaving the Navy at the age of 98. Admiral Massie .is a well-known and revered figure at Chester, where ho takes “ his walks abroad" daily with the regularity Of clockwork.

An amusing story is told of Jean Ingelow in tho Lady’s Fictorial by one who knew her well. Once, when she was staying with some friends in the country, it transpired that, although she often wrote delightfully of nightingales, sho had never heard one sing. So bile night the whole household went out in the moonlight especially to hear them, and after, by an effort, holding their tongues for five minutes, while tho nightingales sang divinely, they were startled by Miss Ingelow asking, “Are they singing? I don’t hear anything I" With a Londoner’s dread of draughts, the poetess, before going out in the night air, had filled her ears with cotton wool 1

The Prince of Wales is exceedingly fond of all dogs, not excepting mongrels. It is told of him that once, many years ago, he was in church when a little terrier invaded tho sacred edifice. The animal, after being hunted vainly and fiercely by indignant persons, took refuge with His Royal Highness, who, upon giving it up to bo removed from ohnroh, not only tenderly caressed it, but expressed a desire that it should not be punished but treated with all kindness. There lived a dog in the neighbourhood of Sandringham, as lately as last year, who was locally known as “ Albert Edward’s,” on account of its habit of following in the Prince’s footsteps whenever possible.

The Archduchess Elizabeth of Austria is certainly among the most interesting girl Eoyalties o£ Europe, for a great many Austrians freely assort that she may some day be Empress-Queen in her own right. The orphan Archduchess strongly resembles her unfortunate father, the late Crown Prince of Austria, whose painful suicide attracted so much attention some years ago. She is a fine, healthy-looking girl, devoted to mountaineering, and is fond of making her way up the steep sides of a cliff by the help of the curious-looking climbing irons used by the peasantry of the Tyrol. The Emperor Francis Joseph is tenderly attached to his unfortunate son’s little daughter, and till three years ago he never allowed her to leave Austria.

Louise Michel, with her emotional nature, and careworn features and threadbare garments, presents a spectacle that might arouse pity from any. This “ pathetic figure with a tragic past, the incarnate protest of disinherited despair, of trampled womanhood," combines in herself the tenderness of a pitiful woman with the fierce rage of a tiger whelp robbed of her cubs. At the barricade in the Commune, as a petroleuse in burning Paris, as a placid teacher in a Pacific convict island, and, finally, as a fearful and despondent advocate of Anarchy in London, she has flitted sadly across the stage of life. Poor, with few friends, forced to continue in the grey and fog haunted London she dislikes so much, Louise has found the cross of life almost harder than one woman can bear.

When Mr Cecil Bhodes was a very young man, a malicious friend drew upon him the attention of a rocmtul of fashionable dames and misses by pointing him out as “ The boy who meant to bo an African king some day.” As is wellknown, young Rhodes in boyhood oheerished ambitions, many of which ho has since realised. A laugh was raised at his expense on this occasion; but, though blushing painfully, he found couroge to answer, “ I guess your relatives would be glad to ship you off there. If ever Igo to Africa it’ll be by my own choice 1" The boyish quarrel amused the company vastly, but Bhodes was proved right. His enemy was “ shipped off” to Africa. They met, and Rhodes asked, “ Come for a holiday trip ? " Years later the foe of h s boyhood asked him to help him with money to pay his passage back to England, as he had failed hopelessly out there. “ Nonsense, man," was the answer. “ Make up your mind to be a success for the future, and I’ll stick to you.” The result was that the “ enemy a fortune.

Mr Spurgeon left behind him enough material to keep “Sword and Trowel" supplied with hia sayings for many years. At present his answers to enquiries made by students at “ The Question Oak ” at Westwood are being published. Here is a sample: Q. —Is it right to apply tho title “ Rev." to a Baptist minister ? A.—lt depends upon who he is. If he is a very small mite of a man that no one would see except with a microscope, call him “ Rev." If ho is anybody that is anybody, you need not.

The Prince of Wales has deserted Hornburg, it seems, and intends this year to take the waters at Marienbad instead. Perhaps he will get less mobbed there. Lord Bowen used to have a good story of the Prince at Homburg. His Royal Highness had a dog with him there, and the dog did not follow his royal master as closely to heel qs heniighL .“ The Prince bf Wales’s dog," siid Lord Bowed, “ was the only person in the place who did not run after his Royal Highness."

The senior barrister of England, with the exception of Mr 0. P. Fillers, M.P., is Mr P. V. Wobdhouse, who was called to the tar at the Inner Temple on November 20, 1829. Mr Woodhouse, who lives at Albury, Surrey, is not only remarkable for his great age—being considerably over 90 years—but is the head of the Catholic Apostolic Church founded by the renowned Edward Irving, and is the only survivor of the twelve “ apostles," who were chosen by that community in the “ thirties."

A correspondent bf the Glasgow Evening News tells a story of Carlyle which has the, merit, he believes, of never having been published before. During a visit to the farm of Templand, Carlyle and his wife, along with some friends, had sat down to coffee. “ Jane," said the sage, in a fit of ill-temper, “ this coffee is cold; I shan’t have it." Thereupon up rose Mrs Carlyle. She went to the fire grate, and picking out a red-hot cinder with a pair of tongs, dropped it into her husband s cup, with the exclamation, “There, Thomas, is it hot enough for you now ?"

Dr James Martineau, the doyen of Non-conformity, and brother of Harriet Martineau, the gifted writer .of a generation ago, is a tall, erect; silver-haired man of ninety two. Seventy-five years ago he was a student of civil engineering, which he abandoned to enter a divinity college at York, where for some time he filled the Chair bf Philosophy before becoming Principal. His ministerial work was in connection With little Portland Street Chapel, of which he was for years the Beloved pastbr. He is still a firm believer in pedestrianism as a form of exercise, and may frequently be seen, a distinguished and reverend figure, walking in the squares of Bloomsbury.

The Czar, in spite of his insigiiificant physique, is no mean athlele, and is a firm believer hi all healthy exercises. Every morning-, as soon as it is light, he runs a verst, (about three furlongs) at a good speed, usually timing himself by a watch he carries in his hand. His average time for this distance is a shade under three minutes —by no means a bad performance. He is a keen cyclist, and is seldom happier than when-on his bicycle with a rookriflo in his hand. Ho prides himself bn being able to bring down three rooks out of seven while riding at a good pace.

, . Despite the victories bf the armies under his command, Lord Gough still remains the general who was held to be too rash to be continued in the direction of a great war. If, however, Sir Charles Gough’s book fails to alter the verdict of history on Lord Gough, it supplies a clear narrative of the operations in which he bore so memorable a part. Tho book contains many interesting touches of character, from Gough’s, exposure of himself at Firozshah “ to draw the enemy’s fire from his men," to his reply after Ohilianwala, “I'll be damned if I move till my wounded are safe."