PERSONAL NOTES.

Otago Witness, Issue 1898, 19 June 1890, Page 36

PERSONAL NOTES.

Madame Pommery, who owned one of the famous brands of champagne, died recently at. Rlipims. Her private foitune is esiiiuated at £400,000. A short time since the deceased lady bequeathed one of tlie moso important works of Millet — " The Gleaners '' — to the Louvre Gallery.

M. Lessar, the distinguished Russian engineer who took a prominent part in the labours of the Anglo-Russian Commission for the delineation of the RussoAFghan frontier in 1886, has been appointed Russian diplomatic agent in Bokhara, replacing M. Tcharikoff, the present occupant of that post.

Bishop Oallaway, formerly well known in connection with mission work and philological research in South Africa, died in April last, aged 73. In 1886 Bishop Callaway resigned, having suffered an attack of paralysis, aud returned to England to end his days ; but, with characteristic liberality, he dedicated all the property belonging to him in Africa to mission purposes, amd, in addition, devoted £2000 to the permanent augmentation of the stipend of the Bishop of St. John's, Kaffraria. Father Ignatius, in 1860, was appointed to the curacy of St. Peter's, Plymouth, and was then mission curate to the late Mr Lowder, at St. George's-in-the-IJast, London, but left St. George's to begin the attempt of

restoring monasticism in the Church of Eugland, in 1862. He is at present " abbot" of Llanthony, and a Home paper of a late date gives a description of the induction of two " monks," which reads very ludicrously, however solemn the ceremony may have appeared to the actors in it.

Mr Charles Stanley, of Rotherham, who died in April, belonged to the Evangelists, a body which has no duly appointed minister, and for upwards of 50 years he had occupied the position of preacher amongst that body. His work was not confined to Rotherham, as he has preached in nearly every important town in England. As a tract writer he was successful, and during the Franco-German war his publications were the only Protestant works allowed to be distributed amongst the French army.

Mr Kinloch Oooke having refused the post of Chief Justice of Samoa, it is suggested that it should be offered ko Mr Robert Louis Stevenson. As Mr Stevenson proposes to reside in Samoa permanently, he might accept the office, but, unfortunately, he does not possess the necessary qualifications. Mr Kinloch Cooke is a barrister as well as a literary man, but adventurous as Mr Stevenson's career has been, it is not recorded that he has enjoyed the advantage of a legal training.

The Rev. William Stoddarfc, D.D., minister of Madderty, Perthshire, has completed the sixtieth year of his ministry in that parish, having been inducted and ordained on the 10th March 1830. Although in hia ninety-eighth year, Dr Stoddart is still remarkably hale and vigorous, and preaches Sunday after Sunday, besides more or less regularly discharging his parochial and other duties. He was licensed by the Presbytery of Perth in 1817, and for some years acted aa assistant in Aberdalgie, near Perth, so that he has been preaching for about 73 years.

A notable military charaoter has just died in the Carmarthen Workhouse, at the age of 68. His name was David Thomas, and he was one of the heroes of Balaclava. He entered the 4th Light Dragoons in 1843, and his first bit of active service was helping to suppress the Rebecca riots. He wa3 present at Inkerman, the Alma, Sebastopol, and the famous charge of Balaclava. He gained the Crimean medal with four clasps, the Turkish medal, and the medal for distinguished services in the field. After 26 years of service, he left the army, and since then seems gradually to have sunk into evil times. In any other country in Europe, a man who bad done for his nation what David Thomas did, would have been well tended, .cared for, and honoured; but in England he was allowed to pass his last days in a workouse. Yet we talk of hero worship!

Henrik Ibsen, like Eeats, began as an apothecary's apprentice, He threw over the " plasterers, pills, and ointment boxes " to write plays which were not published, or when pnblished were not sold. The Swedes bought 30 copies of his "Catalina." "The remainder was sold for waste paper," says the author, "and so for a few days we laoked none of the necessaries of life." Then, at the age of 23, he was appointed " theatre poet " to the Norwegian National Theatre, and drew the magnificent salary of something less than £70 a year. Eleven years after, the Norwegian Theatre closed its door, and Ibsen was appointed " aesthetic adviser " to the Christiania Theatre, with £65 a year for pay. And so, at 35, his pecuniary position -was so preearions as to be almost desperate. His plays brought him in next to nothing, for the Norwegian literacy public was very small, and he was as yet t aimost unknown outside Norway. Recognition, however, came to Ibsen in 1865, when he was 37.

Mr John Grubb Richardson died on the 29th April. He was the founder of the village of Bessbrook, which stands out as a bright contrast to the rest of Ireland, not having a single public house, pawnshop, policeman, or lock-up among its 4000 inhabitants. In 1847, when the Bessbrook estate came into the market, the brothers Richardson bought the estate, built linen factories, opened the blue graiite quarries, and gathered round them a considerable number of workpeople, for whom they built the village known as Bessbrook, on the same lines, so far as concerns the exclusion of public houses, as Saltaire. The experiment has been eminently successful, for although the little colony has experienced the fluctations of the linen trade, they have been able to tide over the most severe crises without the levying of a poor rate. Mr Richardson's manners were singularly refined and unassuming, and when, some years ago, he was offered a baronetcy by Mr Gladstone, he declined, stating in a courteous letter which he wrote in reply to the preferred honour, that it was his greatest ambition to see his beloved country free from the curse of drink, which he saw too clearly waß paralysing her resources and debasing her inhabitants. For some years he has been id declining health, but his life, which has been prolonged beyond the allotted threescore years and ten, has left a noble record in the successful adoption of bis unselfish schemes for the happiness of his employes The cause of death was influenza.

Bunlighfc Soap, Gold Medal Paris ExMbitfoD 1889.— fADTT.]

— The average number of billiard balls cut from the tusks of an elephant is 10— five from each tusk.

—The use of electrio lights is increasing with great rapidity among the London shopmen.