PERSONAL NOTES.

Otago Witness, Issue 2087, 22 February 1894, Page 49

PERSONAL NOTES.

Mr T. W. Russell, M P , is a slight, dark man, with a very energetic method of speech. Long before he entered Parliament, Mr Russell bad won his laurels as an orator on tbe temperance platform. The hon. member ia, himself, the proprietor of a temperance hotel at Dablin.

The author of "Self Help," Dr Samuel Smiles, is in his eighty-second year, but his sight is still so good that he does not use glasses. He is very fond of his pipe, and often smokes while at work. Dr Smiles has for many years made ,it a rule to have an hour's walk every morning, and he believeß that bis remarkable health is dependent on this habit.

Miss Ormerod, who has done so much for the protection of crops and cattle against the ravages of insects, bad her attention first drawn to tho subject when she, in oonjuno-

tion with her sister, was managing her father's large agricultural estate. Miss Ormerod's researches have been greatly appreciated by the agricultural community.

The coveted post of successor to the late Sir Andrew Clark as physician to Mr Gladstone bas been given to Dr Thomas Barlow, a well-known man at the London hospitals, and a learned one withal. He is still quite young — that is, for a successful doctor — being only about 45, and bas written much on medical subjects for the British Museum.

Ttie fame of a 44 musical prodigy " sometimes lasts through life. Signor Tito Mattei, the pianist, gave his first concert at the age of six, and when 12 was awarded a gold medal by the Pope for playing at the Vatican. He is not 52. Born in Naples, Signor Mattei has spent tbe best part of his life in England, his first appearance in London takiog place close on 40 years ago. Very few indeed are the known instances in which men in high rank have voluntarily abjured their titles and estates to assume the workman's garb. Yet this is what the Due de Galliera, who bas just died at Naples, did. On the death of his father he positively declined to take the title, but donned workman's clothes and called himself Ferrari. His mother tried to induce him to take his rank and behave like a rational being, but utterly failed. She saw that it was useless to leave her vast wealth to such an extraordinary man, and left a great deal in charity.

Mr Edison has challenged the sceptical to name one substance, organic or inorganic, which is not to be found in his laboratory. Every department of Nature bas yielded its tribute to the potent wizard. The bones of birds and animals, feathers, bides, teetb, and horns, shining metals, lucent crystals, variegated minerals lie scattered in profusion ; dainty shells and coral repose amongst mosses and seaweed ; fragrant gums and spices recall memories of the fair Babe of Bethlehem. Chalks, resins, salts, and chemicals are heaped about in lavish plenitude. The collection embraces not only raw products, but specimens of nearly every human industry.

As the Queen's Indian Secretary, the Munßbi Abdul Karim is a personage of no small importance in this country. The Munshi has been taking a holiday in India, and recently returned to resume his duties at Osborne, where the Queen will reside as soon as she leaves Balmoral. By order of her Majesty, the Munshi's progress from London to Frogmore was quite a State affair. The railway officials paid bim every deference, and placed at his disposal an elegant saloon car with drawn curtains. The Munshi travelled with his wife and daughter, who, in accordance with Oriental custom, were close veiled in a shroud of yellow stuff, so that the profane should not gaze upon their features.

Madame Tolstoi is a remarkable woman, who received a diploma from the Moscow University at the age of 17, was married when she was 18, and her husband 23 years older, and is now, after 31 years of married life, the mother of nine living children, and her husband's potent aid in his literary labours. Until her children are 10 years old she makes all their clothes. She copies and recopies her husband's manuscript — a task of which the difficulty is increased by the selfinvented shorthand in which Counc Tolstoi seta down his compositions. Even his wife is not allowed to interrupt bim when he is engaged in tbe first dratt of an important work, and at such times be writes nearly all day, and sometimes far into tbe night. Baron Bernhard Christian Tauchnitz, whose continental editions of popular novels are so familiar to the English traveller comes from a celebrated family of booksellers and printers. He was born at Schleinitz, near Naumburg, in 1816, and Started his well known series of Snglish authors in 1841. At that time there was no system of international copyright, but Tauchnitz obtained the sanction of tbe writers to the republication of their books in his series, and paid them for the privilege. The collection at the present time consists of over 2700 volume?, and is continually increasing. It was as a mark of his appreciation of the publisher's endeavours to popularise in Germany the masterpieces of modern literature that the Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha raised bim to the rank of baron.

The Berlin correspondent of an English paper writes: — "That mighty Nimrod, Wilhelm der Zweite, has things made tolerably easy for bim when bunting the wild deer or boar. This is also necessary, as his Majesty in shooting uses only his right hand, tbe left being powerless to hold a gun. An attendant is always with the Eaiser, and carries, besides a second gun, a long staff with a sharp point. At the moment when tbe game is seen this staff is stuck into the ground ; the attendant h" lds it firmly at the required height, and the Kaiser rests his gun upon the man's arm, who must have pretty good nerves to hold it perfectly motionless, as the Eaiser always uses bullets for the larger game. It is much the same thing in partridge shooting; the servant hands his Majeßty the gun in an upright position, the Kaiser holds it against his cheek, and in this attitude fires. It must be admitted that his Majesty has a very straight eye. but there is always a great fuss made wheu he hit.p, and a discreet silence when he mibses. As a rule there is more silence than fuss."

— French way of complimenting the old lady : " Ab, madame, you giow every day to look more like your daughter ! "

— The long-haired caller in the editorial room was indignant. " Poets are born, sir," he said to the eminently practical editor. 41 Of course they are," responded the editor, suavely, " you didn't imagine I thought thej were hatched, did you 1 " "I mean, sir, they are born ; bom, sir, do you understand 1 " 44 I think I do," and the editor rubbed his chin reflectively, " but why are they 1 " That was the straw that fractured the spinal column of the camel, and the poet stalked out of the den.

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