PEOPLE WE READ ABOUT.

New Zealand Times, Volume LXVII, Issue 3442, 25 May 1898, Page 1 (Supplement)

PEOPLE WE READ ABOUT.

The Pope made eight hogsheads of wine last year from the vineyard in the Vatican gardens. A small part of the wine is reserved for his own use, another portion is sent to the churches to bo used at mass, and the rest is sold.

During his remarkable career, Sir F. C. Selous has killed in round numbers 2800 animals, including 100 elephants and 25 lions. Ha began his waudeiiuga in 1871, when he was nineteen years of age, and made Africa his homo until 1801.

The Empress of Japan takes a great interest in all that concerns the nation, from the rice crops upwards Her Majesty is said to have a special talent for literature. A pretty poem of hers, set to music, is sung all over the land.

The ex-King of Annam, now in his thirtieth year, whom the French are at present keeping as a State prisoner at Algiers, has no little skill in painting, and intends to send a few of his most interesting pictures to Palis for exhibition.

Mr Alfred Pease, M.P., is one of the most successful big game hunters in the Rouse of Commons. Re is also greatly interested in the fauna of the Biitish Isles, and has made a special study of the life-history of the badger, with whose habits he has been conversant since boyhood.

It is said that the Czir of Russia signalised the bii th of his daughter and heiress by insuring his life for £500,000. Amongst other heavily insured royal lives are those of the King of Daly, who pays a premium on £ 1,500,000, and the Prince of Wales, who is said to bo insured for £600,000.

The richest woman in the world is probably Senora Cousino, who owns most of the copper mines in Chili and Peru. She is supposed to be worth £20,000.000, while her annual income is believed to reach £1,600,000. Her personal characteristics are thus summed up; “aim is about fifty-five years old, tall, dark, and still beautiful."

Lord Silisbury is a very clear, unaffected speaker, easy both to hear and to report. He makes a rule of mastering the difficulties of large buildings in which he is to speak for the first time, and rarely tails to make himself heard by everybody. Within the last few years he has perceptibly “slowed down" as a speaker, but in no other respect has his oratory undergone any change.

Few people know how Bismarck Jaud his ancestors got tho'r name. Bismarck is the name of one of those ancient castles a short distance from Steudal, on the road from Cologne to Berlin, in the centre of the old Marquiaato of Brandenburg. The castle had this name because it defended the “ Marca," or the lino where the river Bieae formed a boundary in former times, or mark of defence against intruders. Hence tbo name of Bismarck,

When President Kruger goes travelling about the country, he rides in a covered carriage with curtains hiding him from the inquisitive guza of the world. It is a great lumbering affiir, this travelling carriage of Oom Paul's, and is drawn by either eight or ten horses. Behind the carriage there always rides an escort of cavalry, or, rather, mounted infantry, for they carry long rifles instead of carbines, and every one of the men has been trained as a sharpshooter.

One of the most influential posts in the immediate circle of the Queen is held by Herr Maurice Muther, whose existence even is scarcely known to the public. Herr Muther is known as the Queen’s German Secretary, and all her relations with the Continent come within his province. He writes many of her Majesty’s private letters, makes extracts fiom various Continental papers, and knows probably more Court secrets than any man in the Queen's personal retinue,

Mr Thomas A. Edison, .Tun., the sou of the great inventor, seems to have inherited much of the genius of his wonderful father. Although he is little more than twenty-one years of age, lie has already distinguished himself by the production of a new kind of incandescent lamp, which is said to be far superior to any other ever made.