PERSONAL NOTES.

Otago Witness, Issue 2086, 15 February 1894, Page 45

PERSONAL NOTES.

Jost before sitting down to the piano, Paderewski always holds his fingers in warm water for a few minptes. He claims that this process renders them mere flexible.

Patti has written some " confessions," from which it appears that her favourite poet is Longfellow; her favourite novelist, Dickens ; her favourite pastime, entertaining friends, and her favourite flower, none, because she loves all flowers ; her favourite story, her own.

Who has been the most fortunate man in Europe this year? Not many can have done be't=ir than the Russian commander, Admiral Avellan, if the etory which cornea from Odessa is correct. It is stated that the intrinsic value of the presents which he received during the visit of the Russian fleet to France waa not less than £140,000.

Mr Swinburne is growing old, and the great heart of the public no longer beats expectantly when a new volume of verse from his pen is announced. And it was only yesterday, surely — yesterday or the day before — when hia entrance into the old smoking room of the Erechtheum filled us youngsters with

a thrill of joy as we looked at the man who was going to take his place with the immortals. — Speaker.

One of the deepest regrets of Ibsen is that he does not speak Eng'ish, and therefore feels that it is useless for him to visit England or America. " What interests and fascinates me," he said recently, " is the heart of the people. To get at that, one must understand the langaage of the country." He thinks Norway the pleasantest place in the world to live in.

An amusing story of Schumann is told by a veteran Vienna critic. The composer once accompanied his wife, who was even then a celebrated pianist, to the palace, when she went to play bsfore the King of Holland, and was gratified by the monarch's compliments on her performance. The compoter was Bomewhatsurpiised, how6ver,when the King turned to him and courteously inquired, 11 Are you also musical 1 "

Lord Masham, who is one of the large colliery owners affected by the recent strike, has made his fortune entirely by his own energy. It is said of him that he has registered more patents than any other man in England. The one of these whioh paid him best was the invention for utilising the waste of silk in the manufapture of plu; h. Lord Masham is a man of nearly 80, and boasts that up to past middle ago he always rose with the sun.

The Bdlgian explorer, M. de Meuse, who has recently returned from a tour of three and a-half years in the interior of Africa, Bays that all through the upper Congo region the most terrible cannibalism is still common and customary. In every village human beings, both men and women, were exposed for sale for the purpose of being killed and eaten. The individuals, who were slaves, appeared indifferent as to their fate. This practice prevailed in every village, and " tom-toms " were sounded to tell people of an approaching slaughter..

" Bill Nye," the American humourist, recently a visitor to England, is easily recognisable as a Yankee, apart from his marked nasal twang. Tall and lean, bub broadshouldered, he looks the keen, alert, "Brother Jonathan," familiar to us in fiction and caricature. .At first a Uwyer, Mr Edgar William Nye soon discovered that his natural bent was for j urnalism and a year or so from his opening an attorney's oJfice found him editor of a local paper. That humour doe 3 pay sometimes is made evident by Mr Nye's success, his books and lectures still securing him a substantial iucome.

At Econ Lord Rjsebery (or Dalmeny, as he was then known) was a tall, siight boy, with a prim, demure, almost girlish appearance that consorted well with his family name of Primrose. He had an dyer-beaming countenance, and never got into scrapes like Master Randolph Churchill. The latter was a jolly, mischief-loving young rascal, a "rough-and-tumble urchin, merry as a grig," according to one who knew him as a schoolboy. When Chnrohill was "wanted" by the head master — and this was not seldom — his loud peals of laughter at once indicated his whereabouts.

Some time before Baron KonigsWarter, the Austrian financier, millionaire, and philanthropist, died he expressed a strange desire that his body after death should be dissected, in order to discover whether or not the 'dreadful headaches from which he suffered in his lifetime were due to hereditary causes. This wish has been carried out by Vienna specialists, but no traces of hereditary disease have been discovered.

The late Sir Robert Burnett David Morier (who had been for years a great sufferer from gout) was appointed her Majesty's ambassador to the court of the Czar in 1884. He was born in Paris just G7 years ago. r f ne vasant post at the Holy Italian Embassy is worth r early £8000 a year, with house and allowances. Sir Rjbert Morier belonged to the comparatively new and useful, as compared to the old-fashioned and ornamental, school of diplomatists.

The late M. Gounod stands exonerated from the reproach of vanity, which, like affectation, belongs to the weak and the yourg. Age and talent restore equilibrium, and vanity is superseded by legitimate piide. He one day compared the progress of modesty in his soul with the simultaneous whitening of his hair. " When I was very young I used to say, • I ' ; later on I said, • I and Mcz=rt ' ; then, ' Mozart and I.' Now I say, ' Mozart. 1 " The master has reversed the haughty words of Mirabeau, "Humble, when I consider myself ; proud, when I compare myeelf with others."

I been is desirous of visiting England, not on account of the attractions that lure other foreigners to the "tight little island," but solely to see the old men. "In fell other countries," he says, " the best work is done by men between 40 and 50 years of age ; in England, the best work is dote by much older men, at d a man of 70 or 80 is often, still in his prime. I should like to see such men as Gladstonp, Salisbury, and Herbert Spencer." The famous Norwegian dramatist might have added to this list other names. Ibeen himself is 65. He is very rich, though when 1 c bf gan to write he was exceedingly poor. Physically he is short, and a maikcd contrast t* his son-in-law, Bjornsen, who is one cf the tallest men in Norway.

The death of Sir William Fraser removes from London society one of its prime favourites, one oE the dandies of the old days, one of the most genial of hosts, and one of the most amusing of raconteurs. He would rattle on by the hour together telling you about the different celebrities he had known, and giving you in the most frank fashion his ideas about all kinds of persons and things. He had collected a lot of objects of interest. He possessed the original manuscript of Gray's "Elegy in a Country Churchyard," and was very proud of it, and very fond of tellinc how an American had bid £200 for it, and how be, Sir William, had obtained it for £220. He was vary fond of Gr.^y, and used to assert that he possessed every engraving of the poet. He also had a curious water colour drawing of him taken when in lesidetcs at Cambridge, by Rowlacdson.

Whether on land or at sea, on the prairie or in the crowded city, Ayer's Pills are the best cathartic, being convenient, efficacious, and safe. For torpidity of the liver, indigestion, and sick headache they never fail.