PERSONAL NOTES.

Otago Witness, Issue 1905, 25 May 1888, Page 35

PERSONAL NOTES.

F. Marion Crawford, 'the' novelist, is 6ft 2in height. • , •„'?* .• .. '.' Princess Louise has ,just completed her 40th year. The Czar 'Of Russia has been keeping t his,44th ; birthday, and the American President his olst. The King of Portugal,' Don Luiz, is by some people said to be much better ; others insist upon it that the abscess on his right side is cancerous. His father, Dom Fernando, died of a cancer. ' diabetes and abscesses his Majesty,. "hasn't much of a chance. Dr Fairfax,, of Virginia, the gentleman who really is a baron ,of Scotland, and could call, himself Lord Fairfax if he liked, has recently received the regular request to attend the' meeting of Scotch nobles to elect a representative peer for the British House of Lords. Mr E. L. Stevenson's friends are doing that young man harm' by, indiscriminate puffery. As much fuss is made about' his provoking little essays in " Scribneir" as would serve to greet a revelation from Sinai. His egotism used to be charming ; it . is not so now. Fair.' v Minister Taylor,' of Liberia, who is opposed to a black man being termed " coloured," a) jcl ß :__«« Black is the absence of colour. If we are anything we are negroes. I am a negro, and don't Wish any man to call me coloured. I was born a slave, and commenced as a bootblack." ' Queen Marguerita of Italy is a lady of artistic and literary tastes, and possesses a voluminous Hebrew library, comprising some of the latest Hebrew works, which she reads fluently. The Pearl of Italy devotes a considerable portion of her private income to the acquisition of fine paintings and rare statuary, and is herself a poetess of no mean ability. If there is a rising politician on the Gladatonian side (a point on which we give no general opinion), it certainly is Mr Labouchere. He is not a. fool which distinguishes him from a considerable number of his fellow-members of. that party, and he is not an ex-minister who wants to be ■ a Minister again, which distinguishes him from the rest. — Saturday Review. - . Lord Beaconsfield's niece, Miss Sybil Disraeli, is engaged to be married to Mr Selwyn Calverley. She is the daughter of Mr Ralph Disraeli, the brother of " Dizzy." who christened all his children after the heroes and heroines of his famous brother's novels. Thus, his son, who is now at Oxford, is Coningsby, one of his daughters is named Venetia, and the .other Sybil. The present Khedive of Egypt is a monogamist, leaving peaceably with his young and beautiful wife and her children at hispalace at Ismaila. His wife is about 26 ; she has lustrous dark eyes, a brilliantly fair , complexion, which owes nothing to extraneous art, pearly teeth and a lovely mouth. She is attired in trailing robes of white silk, richly embroidered and sparkling with gems, She wears a miniature of her consort set with diamonds, which also glisten on her arms and in her dark li air. lire Elizabeth Garfield, mother of the President who was murdered by Guiteau, died a short time ago. Her history was a very remarkable .one. Left a widow with four youg children on an almost barren farm in New England, she supported her family by selling cloth that she spun during the few hours daily which she snatched from the work of tending the, farm-. . At iengjth her son James Garfield grew old enough to help her. and finally rose to be President of the United States. His mother henceforward to the time of his death always had< the place of honour at his table. She was 86 years old when she died. " j An American who.recently visited Mrßus- , Mn has been printing an account of .the j interview. Among other questions put to i the author of "Mbdern Painters " was one— j "How do you like, the Americans ?" Mr I Ruskin replied : •• Yes, I like the Americans now better than I ever did before— such youth, such energy. Their time is not now, it is in the future. Though I admit their progress in wsience, still they are crude; art.j does not coma to a new- people; it must be built up with p-atience and reverence. Some day they will have a national school ; now they are crude, arid have no more idea or B Ppreciation of a work of art, of a picture, than the English have."

Hono-orkd and Blest.- When a board of eminent physicians and chemists announced the disW'erj* tliaf by combining some well kjiown Valuable wnedies.the most wonderful medicine wasproduced, 7»ioh would curej-ucta a wide ranee of diseases that ; ™°st all other relnftdies>fiouUH>e 'dispensed with, FJJOV were sceptical ; but proof of its merits by !*uM trial has dispelled all donbt, and today the wcovarers of that great medicine, Dr Soule's , *WeHcan Hop Bittera, are honoured and blesaed by »" w beuefactow. " pemocrftt, H