PERSONAL NOTES.

Otago Witness, Issue 2240, 4 February 1897, Page 49

PERSONAL NOTES.

ft . • Alderman Sir Crisp Ga?conye 9 who was Lord Mayor of London in 1753, was a direct ancestor of the Marquis of Salisbury, the Prime Minister of to-day. • . Mr William Black, the novelist, is well known as a fisherman, and principally as a fly-fisher. Some time ngo the Fly-fishers' Glob wanted him to stand for Parliament in order to look after the interests of those who i love the " gentle art." • . • President Paul Krnger has beoome so fond of Mark Twain's humour that he has ordered a let of that author's works for bis library, which (says Pearson's) contains two other books— namely, the Bible and "Pilgrim's Progress." •.•Mr Gladstone's maiden speech in the House of Common* was an unmistakable failure. He spoke so low that even those nearest to him failed to catch the drift of his words, and later on he had to rise on " a point of explanation " at the -request of a speaker who complained of the want of clearness of the honourable member for Newark. ' . ■ Bdison recently told a reporter that be frequently went for 48 hours without sleep, and sometimes for 70. Following such a period of work, he often sleeps for 18 hours at a etretcb. The celebrated inventor smokes ■ enough large, blaok cigars to break down an ordinary constitution, but he seems to get ! -more robust of physique, as he grows older. ' He is within a few months of his fiftieth ' ' year. j • . • Miss Mary Moore, the actress, is a great ; reader. Her father, a Dublin gentleman, j was quite a bookworm, with an enthusiastic • admiration for his nameßake, the great Irish poet. On her marriage with Mr Albery, the dramatic author, she helped her husband to form a fine library. On Mr Albery's death she resumed her maiden name and went on the stage, but the greater part of this library she succeeded in retaining. • . • The fact that the Sultan of Turkey is himself partly an Armenian through his ' mother is rarely noticed. The Btrong facial ' peculiarities of the race are so marked in ' him, however, that on his accession, when { his photographs were - first exposed in the shop windows of. Pera, everybody at once remarked on his Armeoian appearance in contradistinction to the Turkish features and • hearing of his predecessor, the late Abdul Aziz. • . • The Right Hon. Professor Max Muller, who was made * Privy Councillor on the Queen's last birthday, is the first philologist to receive the honour on account of his scientific work, and is probably the first person of foreign birth admitted to the Council in modern times. Sir George Comewall Lewii, though a philologist, was in the Counoil as a politician. Sir John Lubbock is a political as well as a scientific man. Professor Huxley was the only person who became a Privy Councillor purely as a Ecientist before Professor Max Muller. . Thomas Moiling, who has died at Ecoleston, Lancashire, was an enginedriver with an interesting history. He drove the engine of the first express newspaper train between London and Birmingham, and in 1858 he drove the first train across the desert between Cairo and Saez. On a special occa- j sion he accomplished the journey, 131 miles, in 2hr 20min without a stoppage, for which ' he was presented by the mother of Mahomed Said Pasha, Viceroy of Egypt, with a hand- I some and richly-chased gold watch. In 1859 Melllng brought Livingstone across the desert. • . • In some comments on Jewish lord mayors, apropos of the installation of Mr Faudel Phillips, the Jewish Chronicle recalls that his father and Sir David Salomons were both Jews, that Sir David was far above the average municipal functionary, and that bis polished manners as well as his finished oratory became the burden of many a legend. For example, Bentley's Miscellany for July 1856 relates a story apropos of Sir David Salomon's "mayoralty, the dramatis per&ona cf whioh are said to have been the late Prince Consort and a well-known bishop. " Thank goodness, your royal Highness," said the bishop, " we've got a gentleman in the civic chair at last." " Ye?, my lord," returned the Prince, " but you had to go beyond the pale of Christianity to find him." The memory of Sir David Phillips.Mr Faudel Phillips's father, is, according to our contemporary, regarded with peculiar affection by the Jaws. He realised more thoroughly our tradition of Dick Whittington than bis Jewish predecessor.' Sir David Salomons was a man bom to wealth.- Sir Benjamin Phillips, on the other hand, was a self-made man, the typical "industrious apprentice" of the nursery books. Sir Benjamin's mayoralty was exceptionally brilliant.

Criminals usually have large car*