PERSONAL NOTES.

Otago Witness, Issue 2151, 16 May 1895, Page 45

PERSONAL NOTES.

• .• The Spectator says that Mr Watson is on a poetical level with Matthew Arnold and Tennyson. • . • M. Ernest Oarnot, the late French President's second son, is 29 rears of age. He was recently elect id for his f ither's old constituency by an overwhelming majority. * . * Sir Donald Currie began life as general clerk in a shipping office. But to-day he is practically the owner of the "Castle" Line, numbering some 20 first-class steamers. • . ' William T. Adams, the American " Oliver Optic," who is now 73 years old, has, during

leave the premises till tne paper had gone t« press. • . * M. Bikelas, the Greek novelist and critio, was born in 1835, on the Island of Syra. Strange to say, for four-and-twenty years hie was a London merchant, yet during tboso years he contributed much to periodical literature. In X 874 he withdrew from commerce, having acquired a competence, and has since oscillated between Paris and Athens. ••• Dr Ribson Roose, the pbyßician who attended Lord Randolph Churchill, is one of the most accomplished, as he is one of %he most genial, men of his profession. The recognition of his skill is not confined (o England; it has extended— thanks to his professional contributions to literature— to both France and Germany. Dr Roose is one of the greatest living authorities on gout. • . • Ddtaille, the celebrated Frenoh painter of army life, looks himself a great deal like a soldier. He is tall, slender, and erect, and with Mb ample, prominent moustache and close-fitting jacket, whioh is not unlike an undress uniform, the military effect Is considerably heightened. M. Detaille is going to England to paint a portrait of the Princo of Wales, which is a commission from the Emperor of Raesia. ' . * Madame Sarah Grand, whose fame was made by a fiingle book, takes a vivid interest; in the poor girls of London, and every Thursday evening, when she is in town, she may be found at a oeitain working girls' gullet* where she joins heartily in ail their occupations. She is a strong believer in athletics for women, and has taken especial pleasure in helping to provide the girls with pretty costumes for gymnaslios. * . • Sardou, the playwright, once a frail youth starving in a garret, now rolls, wrapped in magnificent Russian fur?, in a luxurious carriage, from the Renaissance Theatre in Paris to his splendid home in the Rae de Oiioby. Indooro he is anything but imposing. He has a queer, yellow, wizened face, that looks like old ivory, and tiny, bright eyes that twinkle under a little velvet bonnet suoh as was worn by Louis XL • . ■ Lord Oromer, whos6 position in Egypt is one of extraordinary weight and authority, is notable for many things. He is famous in Cairo for his habit of nearly always wearing a white top-hat. Whenever you see in the distance a white top-hat, whether at the races, at a gymkhana in the desert, or in the Mooskee, be sure Lord Oromer is underneath it. Hl3 rosy face is pugnacious, and at the earns time imperturbable, and he looks the incarnation of will. • . • Mrs Alexander, the novelist, who is really Mrs Alexander Hector, is s tall, stately-look-ing, handsome woman, fond of her home and its occupations, and absorbed in her clever children. The most strong-minded thing about her is her belief that girls should work independently for themselves. Mrs Hooter is an Irishwoman, who married a Scotsman, and who has lived many years in England, France, and Garmany in order to educate her children well. ■ . ' There is no doubt about Tolstoi's sense of humour continuing to exist. The other day Blumenthal, the great Berlin manager, was paying him a visit, and Ibsen came up for discussion. " I have put a great many of his plays on the stage," said Blunientbal, " but I cannot say I understand them. Do you?" Tolstoi smiled and replied, "Ibsen doesn't understand them himself. He just writes them and then sits down and waits. After a while his expounders and explainers coma and tell him preolsely what he meant." * . * There may be greater improbability than the possibility of seeing the grandson of ft famous pugilist in the chair of the House of Commons, for Mr Gully, tho clever Queen's oounsel and popular parliamentarian, is a grandson of John Gully, the famous pugilist and champion light-weight. It is no discredit to be a descendant of John Gully. He was himself a distinguished parliamentarian. On retiring from the ring he lived the life of a country gentleman. He was returned member for Pontefract unopposed in 1832. * . ' Mrs Alice Shaw, the American aifflcue*, says:— "Sach health as I have had since I began this magnificent exercise must be saen to be appreciated. My chest measures have increased 41n, my throat measures Bin, and my lungs expansion sin. The muscles of my neck and of my face have bad a course of training which they could not have received otherwise— not oven from a face masseuse— and my Inuga have become actually powerful." Mrs Shaw recommends that doctors should try the whistling onre on their patients. *. • Robert Louis Stevenson wa3 vastly proud of his Scottish origin. In one of his books ho says that to be born a Scotsman is the happiest lot on earth, but it is a privilege you must pay for. " You have to learn," he said, "the paraphrases and the Shorter Catechism ; you generally take to drink ; your youth, so far as I can find out, is a time of louder war against society, of more outcry and tears and turmoil, than if you w«re born, for instance, in England. But, somehow, life is warmer and closer, the hearth buin3 more redly, the lights of home shine softer on the rainy street, the very names endeared In verse and music cling nearer round our hearts."