PERSONAL NOTES.

Otago Witness, Issue 1970, 22 August 1889, Page 34

PERSONAL NOTES.

The postman delivers General Boulanger's letters before those of anyone else in Portland Place, in order to. get rid promptly of what is the most serious part of his burden. A correspondent who met Dt Dpllinger in Munich recently says that the lightness with which the reverend doctor bears the burden of his 90 years is simply marvellous. Even his thick hair is yet brownish, and his figure is scarcely less erect than it was 20 years ago. The death is announced of the Rev. J. J, O'Carroll, an eminent linguist. He was skilled in Gaelic and gave important aid to the movement set on foot -to save that language from extinction. He was also a constant contributor to " The Gaelic Journal." The Earl of Fife's income is put down at £70,000 a'-year, which is (says an Australian paper) about a third oE our own Sir William Clarke's revenue. But they both pale before Jimmy, Tyson and the Duke of Westminster. The former's income, has got beyond his calculation, and the latter is said to have £800,000 a year and to be' worth £16,000,000. Dr Oliver Wendell Holmes was recently invited to attend the birthday celebration of Mrs Julia Ward Howe, the American poetess. His reply contained the following neat little compliment: "As for your mother's age," he wrote to her daughter, " I am bound to believe her own story, but I can only say, that to be 70 years young is sometimes to be far more cheerful and hopeful than to be 40 years old." The personalty of the late Dr Joshua Hughes, Bishop of St. Asaph, has just been sworn at £23,646 13s The quiet and very economical way in which this prelate lived enabled him to feather his , nest most , completely, and the revenues of the church, of which he had such a good share, but which were never intended for the enrichment of his children, will nevertheless fall to their lot.— Home paper. The death of Lieut.-colonel R. D. Osborn removes an Anglo-Indian writer of great talent, and the object of much vituperation from those who resented his favourable attitude to the natives. He wrote two bcoks on the history of Mohammadanism, " Islam Under the Arabs " and " Islam Under the Khalifs of Bagdad," to which he planned a continuation that was never written. He retired from the Indian service after the first campaign of the Afghan war of 1879, owing, it is said to disagreement with the policy of that war. His death occurred suddenly from heart disease, while playing tennis with T. E. Renshaw, the champion of All England. Franklin once attended a public sitting of the French Academy. He understood but little French, yet, wishing to appear sociable and polite, he resolved to applaud whenever he saw a certain lady of his acquaintance clapping her hands. Madame de Boufflers gave many signs of satisfaction. When the meeting was at an end, his little boy said to him, "Why, papa, you kept on clapping, and louder than anybody else, every time they were praising you up." The philosopher then had to explain the difficulty of his situation and how he had tried to get out of it.

— Jones : " Hullo ! my boy, how are you 1 I hear there is an, addition to family ! Congratulate you ; hope the wife is quite well." Brown : " Oh, we are all jolly enough, thank you.". Jones : " Pretty uncomfortable at home for a little while, eh 1 It always is." — " Uncomfortable ? rather not ; my motherin^law feeds me up until I can scarcely see ; and we've got relations everywhere, and they send delicacies every day, and wines, and I don't know what. I never had such a jolly time I Talk about marriage being a failure 1 "