PERSONAL NOTES.

Otago Witness, Issue 2210, 9 July 1896, Page 51

PERSONAL NOTES.

*.• Sarasate, the violinist, is remarkably simple in his manner of life. Though his apartments in London are magnificent, bis food is always of the most homely kind, not much better than that of an ordinary labourer.

* .• Marshal Yamatoga, Japan's conquering field-marshal, is a small, spare man, with a highly intellectual type of face. He is very unassuming, very gentle, and human-hearted. He is 63, and has been in the army since boyhood. He is called the " Little Corporal " of Japan. • . • General Sir Frederick Carrington, who ts in command of the forces at Matabeleland, is a man of fine physique, and as hard as nails. His hair is turning grey, but his step has lost none of its elasticity, and now, well into the fifties, he is ready, in the words of the Duke of Wellington, " to go anywhere and do anything." A'

• , • Mr Stephen Crane, the young *.nthor who leaped to fame so sudi^nly with «4fte

Red Badge of Courage," is a busy individual , jaab now. He has finished a story called ? " Dan Edmonds" for Mr Arnold, and, stirred '■ somewhat by the success of " Trilby^" he is' trying a new novel dealing with artist life-. The scene will be New York. • . * President Crespo, of Venezuela, has a habit that cannot.be particularly pleasing to hiis Ministers. He usually summons them to his presence at sunrise to plunge into business forthwith. As he goes to bed, as a rule, at 8 o'clock in the evening", he is fresh and ready for the affairs of State in the early matfn hours. He is a man of considerable force and determination. ••• The Chap Book is responsible for the following :—« Richard Harding Davis does not care if people know that he 'keeps a man.' In fact, he rather courts the publioity. In registering recently at a Bryn Mawr, Pa., inn* he subscribed himself, • Richard Harding Davis and valet.' A Philadelphia gentleman immediately followed Davis in registering, and casting a quick glance at the scrawl, above, wrote, 'Bradley Warbnrton and valise.' " *.' Dr James Martineau, the eminent; Unitarian preacher and philosopher, who has just completed his ninety-first year, is as interested as ever in intellectual and religious movements. Assrohuroh goer he is. something of a wanderer jußb now,, he says, in consequence^ the dosing of Mr Stopford Brookos'a churoh. Muoh though he differs from Mr Hugh Price Hughes, he admires his preaching, and goes to hear him occasionally, . . ••• ''You haven'b the least idea lfow to get news, and as to writing a story yon make about as poor a one as it ie possible to make. Excuse my bluntness." Thus #poko a San Francisco editor to Rudyard Kipling after his first and only day's work for the paper. Kipling had been tried as a reporter, and wrote out his " copy " in the humourous style that afterwards became famous, bub in the San Francisco sanctum it fell flab indeed.- •. • When some of the native priests saw a I photograph of the Emperor Menelek of ' Abyssinia, they upbraided him for allowing a European to reproduoe his features by means of an instrument invented by the devil. " Idiots 1" replied Menelek. "On the contrary, it is God who has oreated the materials which make the work possible. Don't tell me such nonsense again, or Til have yon beheaded." Menelek, by the way, is a great admirer of the French. • . • The young Duchess of Marlborough has a strange taste in pots. At Blenheim she is said to have set up a menagerie, in which are -two ostriobes, several eagles and vultures, and an ibis. ' The strangest member of the collection, however, is a garter snake that was purchased by the Duchess on the banks of the Nile. She was not at all afraid of the snake, and it soon.beoame tame enough to crawl towards her. Thns it became her favourite of all the pets. • . • Mr Gilbert Parker, the steadily-rieing Anglo-Canadian novelist, who In ,about to make a new Venture with " The Seats of the Mighty," is oply 33 years of age. Hlu father was an English officer, but settled in Canada many years ago. Mr Parker was educated tor the Ohurob, but his sympathies soon urged him to literature. He has travelled ia the most out-of-the-way places, and has a keen sympathy with very simple emotions and primitive folk who are close to the unspoiled heart of Nature. - - * . * President Cleveland, whose favourite occupation -is wild-fowling, has the lightest: duck punt in the world. It is made •£ aluminium. It Is 14ft long, and weighs exactly 301b. A boat that will carry two persons and may, be lifted easily with one hand is a u'Beful contrivance. The softest stroke of the paddle will set it in motion. Its draught ia so small that it can run among the thick reeds where the ducks love to hide in the daytime. Painted green, it oan hardly be distinguished from the rushes. * . * Sir Arthur Sullivan has just confessed that he doss not always work with the rapidity ascribed to him. " When the fever is on me and the subject excites my fancy I can turn out four numbers in a day. On the other hand, I have spent a week over n single song, setting it over and over again until I felt the melody interpreted the story of the words. I have thrown ia the fire • dozens of tunes that might have been used as 'pot-boilers.' There was a song, 'The merryman and the maid,' that gave me infinite trouble. I really believe I spent a fortnight over that jingle, and must have sat and reset it a dozsn times before Ijwas content." *.* Mr Alien Upward, whoaa story, "A Crown of Straw," is attracting a good deal of attention just now, is a lawyer, poet, and politician, aB well as a novelist. He has had a lengthy experience of the , New 3outh Wales bar (though, by the way, he is only 33), and is regarded as a very erudite disciple of the law. As a poet he ia little known, but he himself is disposed to look upon bis poetical efforts— chiefly unpublished —as his best work. He bad a brilliant course in Trinity College, Dublin, and for a considerable period was prominently identified with Irish national affairs. He is now a member of the Eighty Club. His father is a banker in Monmouthshire. . • Mr Howell Russell, the well-known costume artist and designer, told a St. Paul's interviewer that for two or three years he was in the ironworks at his native town o£ Worklngtoe, in Oamberlancl, bat he was not strong enough for the business! He broke down, and recruited his health in France ; then the spirit moved him to study art at Clifton. From boyhood's days he had been a dab at cutting out silhouettes,- and in his new sphere he made rapid progress. He made illustrations for the Bristol Observer, was asked to design some dresses for a local pantomime, and did them so well that he was greatly encouraged. Then he tried London. In 1880 he designed costumes at the Alhambra, and has been engaged there ever since. He dressed " Beauty and the Beast" for Drary Lane, the last aot of "La Oigale," " The Rose and the Ring " at the • Prince of Wales's Theatre, and many provincial and some American pantomimes'. He lives in Chelsea, and does not find tim.9 to travel much.

The police in Wellington have a great respect for the proprietor of Woods's Gbeat Pe?peh« Hint Curb for Coughs and Colds. Thej ftioMO beep a Is or 2s 6d bottlo bj then.