LONDON GOSSIP.

New Zealand Times, Volume LXXI, Issue 4319, 30 March 1901, Page 5 (Supplement)

LONDON GOSSIP.

(FROM “M.A.P.”)

THE QUEEN’S DOCTORS,

It will liavc been noticed that the early bulletins from Osborne were signed by Sir dames Reid and Sir Richard DonglasPowell. These two men are the primary doctors of the Queen, and with the addition of Sir Francis Baking make up the complete royal medical bodyguard. the underlying principle ot the appoinimeiit is. that it is the most confidential that a medical man could occupy. * r i f most part this trio.” says the '’Pall Mall i Gazette,” ‘'are trne disciples of the den--1 nerian school. and one ot the first principles of Or. ".Tenner, who was for thirty years the Queen’s doctor, was the preservation of the secrecy of the sick-room. SIR JAMES REID. “Jenner still lives in his royal medical successors. It became a principle that his system in regard to Her Majesty must be carried on unbroken. Twenty years ago Dr. Keid was appointed Resident Physician almost for that purpose. He was a local Aberdeenshire man, whose medical brilliancy had been bi-ought to the notice of .Tenner. The latter soon satisfied himself that he was just the man he wanted; he proposed to Her Majesty that Dr. Reid should become Hie resident doctor, and his appointment followed. All through those early years of Dr. Reid’s service .leaner exercised a close supervision, and thus it came about that the former was thoroughly tutored in the Jeimenau system and adopted it. Moreover, he seenied_ to absorb many of Jenner’s characteristics. A SILENT SCOT. ‘‘Sir William was the embodiment of reticence; but Sir James has proved quite bis equal in this, respect. He is a silent Scot, who never speaks tiro words to patient, nurse, or acquaintance if one will do, and has never been known in his life to speak of the Queen's health aind any peculiarities it might possess. In more senses than one has he followed in Jenner’s footsteps. The Queen became closely attached to him, and in many ways displayed the fact. Mark that he married a Maid of Honour, a circumstance of no small significance, whilst within the last few weeks Her Majesty provided him with a house within the precincts of Windsor Castle. He occupied apartments in the Castle before he was married. SIR R CHARD DOUGLAS-POWELL. ‘‘We get .Tenner again in Sir Richard Donglas-Powell, who was one of his pupils, most of whom have risen to distinction’. It must be noted that the Resident Physician could not be Jen tiers successor as first Physician-in-Ordinary to the Queen. No appointment in this respect was made till Jenner had passed away, and then Sir Richard received his call. His skill and discretion are proverbial in the profession, and lie is one of the first authorities upon consumption treatments His eyes are clear and penetrating, his face clean-shaven and dignified, and there is a look about him which somehow brings the Sherlock Holmes of fiction to one’s mind. SIR FRANCIS LAKING. ‘‘Sir Francis Laking is quite of a different mould from either of the others. Probably be is the least Jennerian of the three, but lie is the greatest exponent of medical cpmmon sense.-and his vivacity and cheerfulness are in themselves acquisitions to any sick-room. One of the first principles of his medical teaching embraces the manifold virtues of rest, and another is that of doing unto the constitution what the mind feels most inclined to do. Neither he nor his colleagues are to any extent faddists, nor even prone to experimentation in a case, of illness; in this respect they are quite conservative. They have always regarded the Queen as an excellent patient, principally because of Her Majesty’s optimism in regard to her own . cpnsitntiou and its capacity for endurance/’ DR. CREIGHTON’S “DIOCESAN” KNEES. A clerical contributor sends mo some more jottings about that exceptionally distinguished man, the late Bishop Creighton. He was always (says my correspondent) a great lover of children, and, when staying with me during the - transition period,' on the eve of his leaving Peterborough for London, took kindly notice of my daughter V. The little damsel sat on his knee the morning he was leaving, whilst we had a long, grave talk about the coming change. The child was listening, and as he rose to go, said, “Bishop, whose knee have I been sitting on—Peterborough or London?” The Bishop laughed in enjoyment of the child-like.remark, and said it was a difficult question. The following day I had an acknowledgment of an ecclesiastical book I sent the Bishop relative to London, in which he said, “It will he a memorial of my old diocese—alas! that I should write the words 1 ” and then, ever mindful of children, he added: “Love to V.; tell her one knee belonged to each diocese!”

A SWEEPSTAKES FOE, AN ARCHBISHOPRIC. Talking with him about the same time, on the growth of gambling, which he much lamented, the Bishop said its increase in every form and in every class startled him. and he wondered if it were the same in other countries. Then suddenly, he added, "it was really very different in onr young days; we were not j nearly so speculative. Why, I heard from j mv sons at Cambridge (two of them were then at Emanuel College), that the sad | news of the sudden end of Archbishop j Benson reached college just as they were going to hall, and that at the scholars’ table, where they have a friend, a sweep- I stake was at once arranged as to the new , Archbishop. I am glad to say the one . who proposed it drew a rank outsider.” j "One smiles over it,” said the bishop gravely, “but it. was. a grim business. Is it a sign of deterioration? lam sure no one at Oxford-in our days would bet on such a subject.” But, then, with that remarkable facility for seeing both sides of a ouestion which was ever present to him. Dr. Creighton added with a smile: "Possibly,, however,- it shows a healthy interest iii the episcopate. I am sure it would never have occurred to you or me when we were undergraduates to care a fig who were bishops or archbishops.” LORD CLONMELL’S ILLNESS. The Earl of Clonmell, who is reported Horn New York to he dangerously ill at the Waldorf-Astoria, where he is staying, is an exceedingly amiable and businesslike young man of twenty-two. It • was only two years ago that he succeeded to the earldom, of which he is the seventh representative. Lord Clonmell is yet another peer who considers it is not derogatory to his dignity to engage in commerce, and it was in the furtherance of his business —which, by the way, lies in the breeding and export of cattle—that five weeks ago, he left for America. And now I pneumonia has him in its fearful grip.

THE STORY OE A MOTOR CAR. In Ireland the railways are even less np to date than over here in England. The young Earl, when living at his beautiful country sent of Bishop’s Court. Straffan, used always to have an hour’s journey before he could reach the station to lake train to Dublin, sixteen miles away, where he has his office. Four or five months a rr o . however, he invested in a motor car, in which the journey from Bishopscourt to Dublin can be accomplished in less than an hour. Once, when he and a friend were out driving, something went wrong with the motor—a valve spring dropped off. And, as it happened, the motor went wrong right in the middle of a little village, where the children were just

* coming out from school. Everybody, of i course knew the Earl, and his chagrin was i very great. But it would never do to let the villagers know that the motor would j not go. It would he ail over Kildare m ; an hour. j So the Earl and his friena started looking for five golden sovereigns which, it appeared, his lordship had nnforlunately : cropped on the road. AVell, before very Gong the spring was found, and. while ; Lord Clonmell helped the children in the search for the sovereigns, his friend reaffixi ed the spring to the valve and soon had I the motor going again. But, curiously ■ enough, nowhere could those five pounds ha found! And, as the Earl drove off. the children were still busily searching for the precious coins, and may still he seeki ing them until this day. But nobody 1 knew, save the Earl and his companion, ! how very nearly antomohilism had been brought into dire contempt in that little village of Kildare. LADY CURZON’S HOME-COMING. Lady Curzon is about to say “good-bye” for a time to her favourite elephants in India, and take a run to Englaua with her two little daughters. She will remain over here some time, and probably visit New York to see her relatives belore returning to Simla to rejoin the Viceroy in the summer season. The climate of India has not agreed too well with Lady Curzon, and this has given rise to the rumours that have been spread from time to time that Lord Curzon was about to retire from the Viceroyalty. STORIES OF LORO KITCHENER. Most stories (writes a military correspondent), including even your own amusing and most widely-quoted one about the eye-glass, represent Lord Kitchener in a somewhat stern light. Here is one which shows that even the modern “man of blood and iron” can unbend. During the la.st Soudan campaign Kitchener was accompanied by, a telegraphist, to whom he took the nearest apjiroacli to a fancy his stern nature would allow. After Khartoum. the telegraphist heard that his mother was ill and in want at home. He applied for his discharge, to which he'was entitled. Kitchener sent for him, and demanded to know why he wished to leave. The man explained. “Don’t yon think yon could help your mother without going home ?” asked Kitchener. “I'd rather go home, sir,” replied the operator. "Oh, very well.” said Kitchener, closing the interview abruptly. ‘‘You know your own business best. That’ll do.” A SURPRISED TELEGRAPHIST. The day came for the telegraphist to leave, and he went to hid his chief goodbye. “Ah.” said Kitchener, “you’re a fool to go." I would have given you a good post had yon stayed. I’m very busy—-good-bye.” The man sainted and was’retiring when Kitchener called out, “Here, just take this note to the paymaster for ine.” The note was delivered and the bearer was walking away when he whom irreverent subalterns call “Shovel-penny” called him hack. “I’m to give yon this by the General’s orders,” said he. “This” was the equivalent in Egyptian money of a ten-pound note. It was characteristic of Kitchener that he would not lift a finger to urge the man to stay, and that ho did hot want to he thanked. “K. OP K.THE SICK MAN, AND THE DOCTOR. . My other tale, a South African one this time- .(adds my military correspondent), whilst illustrating Kitchener’s severity, also shows that he is not so inaccessible as might be supposed, and that his men know it. A soldier felt extremely ill and to the doctor, who examined him more or less carefully, said there was nothing the matter with him —indeed, hinted none too politely that he was shamming—and ordered him to continue his work. To be even suspected of malingering on active service is a terrible thing, and the man toiled on till at last he gave in and sank down, muttering; “I can’t do another stroke—doctor or no doctor; I don’t care if I get six months.” “Why don’t you go to Lord Kitchener?” suggested his chum. “What's the good—he wouldn’t bother about me,” moaned the sick man. “Oh, ye‘s, he would.” said his comrade, “and if yon won’t go, I will,” and with that ho sought out Kitchener, and explained matters. Kitchener had the sufferer brought to his own, tent, and there examined by another doctor,' who pronounced it a had case of enteric. Then the original doctor was sent for. “Yon told this man there was nothing the matter with him.” said Kitchener, “examine him,- please.” The doctor did so, and, in some confusion, admitted that he had. made a mistake —the man was seriously ill. Kitchener had the man taken away to hospital, then turned to the doctor, and said: “I give you twenty-four hours to send in your papers and leave the camp.” “BOBS” AND A DISPUTED GENDER. The picture of Lord Roberts with a pretty little mite of a girl on his knee, and the orderly waiting at the open door, has become national property. “But,” says “Harrovian,” with an emphasis that should make the sentimental hate him for all time, “there was no little girl at all—it was a little boy! A man just back from the front said to me the other day as we were looking at the picture in a window in the Haymarket;’’ Tt was a little boy, the son of a German’innkeeper just outside Pretoria, and lie was standing by the Commauder-in-Chief, who w<is helping him with his lessons when the orderly appeared. The hoy has been called j "Bobs” ever since.’ I saw him just before I left.’ 1 .

LORD ROBERTS LOSES HIS COLOURS,

- “Besides,” continues "Harrovian,” "Lord Roberts likes boys best. He lias Gordon’s eyes, ■which saw in. every little lad a possible'soldier. ■ And boys like ‘Bobs.’ It must be nearly twenty-five years ago, at the Harrow and Eton match at Lord’s, when he was guest on the Routledge's’ drag, on which the young Routledges were entertaining a number of Harrovian schoolmates, myself among the number. Unfortunately for him, Sir Frederick was the only ‘Eton chap on the drag and, of course, he had ‘the cheek’ to sport his colours. From noon till eve how we pulled and pummelled him! At last after a gallant defence, owing to the overwhelming superiority of the enemy, he suffered complete defeat with, I think, total loss of.his colours! And how ho enjoyed it!”

PRIEST AND SOLDIER. - Many are the stories that are bein" told about Father O’Leary, attached as Catholic Chaplain to the first Canadian contingent in South Africa. The following, which I take from that sparkling little paper “The Outlook,” are particularly good, and show what a remarkable man Father O’Leary proved himself under the stress of campaigning: . "Seek cover. Father, seek cover,” the troopers, themselves entrenched, would call again and again to him as he marched here and there amid the bullets, encouraging the men in action. But all the reply they could get was, “Faith, I’m all right, boys; the bullets don’t come my way.”' And lie certainly had a remarkable record of escapes. After one engagement, in which the Canadians suffered severely, be was to be seen going from wounded nian to wounded man, giving the last consolation of religion to each. But with all his belief in his luck Father O’Leary was laid low and he has his tales to telf of hospital life. F \THER O’LEARY AND LORD ROB- ’ ERTS. Here, for instance, is a very characteristic story of Lord and Lady Roberts: ■ When ‘he was in hospital wearied by. the slowness of his convalescence, his orderly would persist in an annoying hum-

ming or whistling about the house. “I told him over and over to stop it/’ says Father O’Leary, ‘and one morning when again I heard him piping away—though this time it struck me it was a new tune —I fairly lost my temper. I called out to him: ‘ln Heaven’s name, man, stop that eternal whistling! I've told you a dozen times I would have no more of it. and I declare I’ll sack you for this; I will, ’pon my soul!’ Then I heard a laugh, and tlie door opened. 'Who’s that you’re going to dismiss 1 Not the Com-mander-in-Chief, surely?’ And there stood Lord Roberts, and nothing did he do Imt laugh at all my lame apologies.‘You’re getting mooed here.’ said he; “I’ll send Ladv Roberts to you. She hasn’t anything on earth to do but knit and knit, she shall, by your bedside.’ And so she did. Such a kind, motherly soul as she is, anvays thinking what she can do for her husband’s soldiers. Poor lady! she wears her son’s Victoria Cross that the Queen gave her on her own gown.”