PERSONAL PARAGRAPHS.

NZ Truth, Issue 340, 30 December 1911, Page 8

PERSONAL PARAGRAPHS.

! The latest. Australian to he confin-'; 'ed of a book 'is' Samuel t.i ri (lit h, theboss of the Commonwealth High , Court, who is about to issue with Uhe Oxford Press & new Knglish ren-

dering of Dante's "Divina Comedia." Ho\v insatiable is human vanity and ; lust for notoriety ! Why should an ' old--man turn . his declining yuars" inlo drudgery, when he has a well--paid '^Government job. and stew up Italian m the small - hours merely to see his name on another translation \qt a book that hasi been well translated by several men before him, and a book, moreover, which very few people want to read. Let the shoeiiiaker stick to his last, which m Sam's case is the law. High Court; law could do with a little .Cobbling, too. !'•'■ Z ■■■''-* ' '* '•*■ I* Most, "Truth" readers will remember Ola Humphrey, the red-headed young American actress who toured ■JVustralia and New [Zealand a coxiple bf -years ago, playing "intense" drama- under the management of J. C. Williamson. Last April Ola enriched her , experience by marrying an Egyp-. tian Prince. Ibrahim' Hassan by' name/ and the "London halfpenny rags gushed much m their women's ! columns about this delectable mixture of- brown and white. Ola soon ! 1 got. a sickener of hen gorgeous 'brown buck with the "Arabian Ni-gilts"'; inaine, and has separated from him. \ iHer brief taste of married life with j the Egyptian must have been a fairly | unspeakable experience, for Ola hopes she "will never see him again!" This serve . as an awful warning i (but it won't) to the large number tof English girls who become infatu|,ated wrt-h high-caste,, high-smelling [diggers who', come over here to ("study." . : . . : i ' ' .-r. '*' ..• • | A .life, of George Newnep. has justi [beeii published, for which ' you have jj-to pay shillings". You may re-' unTember.jthat Newnes- was the originJatpr .'of that green-covered <; 'snippet" ;.rag called "Tit-Bits," about which a very; vulgar song used to be current m Australasia a few years ago. The book tells how Newnes came to start the dreadful, paper. Ho was sit* ting at home one evening m., the bosom of his family reading the eve■ning , * paper. It didn't please him .(which _•-.!■' easy ■' to believe, seeing that Knglish evening papers are even worsej than the Australasian .productions). It -was '-dull and devoid oi jnews' I'—or1 '— or the kind of news thai the :?soul of 'Newnes thirsted for. Presently, he: came across a paragraph ; describing* how a locomotive engine j bolted down the railway track with ;the stationmaster's two children J aboard, and the stationmasler yell.- --;: ing frantically m the rear. The story pleased the lofty taste of ; Newnes.; -"That's what *T call a titbit," he exclaimed to his wife, after reading "it to her, tlie baby and the family cat. "Why < does not somebody bring out a. paper containing nothing but tit-bits like that?"" Thus ■j did ' the -great mind of Newnes g'enc- : rate tlie' idea of. -'Tit-Bits." and it. 'speaks'? vckun&s for the -misevablp i standard of Enrrlish intelligence that ! he made a fortune out of the rag. j J^ut it was .hardly worth writing a book '.about. 1' ■»•■■• * Lily Elsie, London* leading pic-

ture-postcard. actress and the invert? tor of the "Merry AVidow" ' hat for' . jwoinen, which has been cursed by •men ever since its invention, got spiiced( this week to lan Bullough, son of a deceased millionaire textile manufacturer, • and, therefore, well gilt enough' for a; London musical ! comedy star, who, as a class, are about the most extravagant creatures m the world. The fair Lily made her name m the principal parfc of the "Merry Widow" at > Daly's | Theatre, which ran for over v two years. During the last few months she has been playing the principal part, m the "Count of Luxembourg,'' i and the sudden marriage of her and : Bullough came as a bit of a sur- , prise to Londoners. Lily's real name |is Cotton. She entered her age on the marriage register as 25, which is also a bit surprising, seeing, that jshe has been on the .stajje-for more • | than fifteen years. To account foivlief, .unsuspected, youth, -.she says that "sh«j jwas.a leading lady at fourteen V- So ,you never know. There is no doubt : afcput young Bulkyugh's age-r^-twenty-i ■ five — though he is a widower. Two- ; years . ago he married a pal of Lily's . — MiS9 Maudi Darrell— 'also a musical ; comedy star, but death rang down ' I the curtain on Maudi the following i year. Now Bullough, who has a fat, j foolish, grinning kind of face, has picked -another wife of the same sort).. Evidently be likes 'era. •