PERSONAL NOTES.

Otago Witness, Issue 2252, 29 April 1897, Page 52

PERSONAL NOTES.

* . " The German Emperor has the reputation of being an excellent marksman. It is estimated that in the course of bis career aa a sportsman he has killed over 20,000 head of game. * . * The sons and daughters of Harriet Beecber Stowe do not look kindly upon the proposition to erect a public statue -of their mother. The Bsv. Charles E. Stovre says it belongs to him and his sisters to erect whatever monument may bs placed over, his mother's grave. * ,_ > * . * Said Gaorge dv Maurier once in a private chat : " I think that the best years in a man's life are after he is 10. A man at 40 has ceased to bunt the moon. I would add that, in order to enjoy life after 40, it is perhaps necessary to have achieved before reaching that age at least some success." • . • Her Majesty is very easy to please in the matter of her own photographs. It would seem that " our royal lady " (as one of her chief statesmen prefers to speak of her in private) has but little feminine vanity, since a passing glance is all she often gives to her own counterfeit presentments when they are sent first to her for approval. • . • Madame Adelina Patti's charities are well known, but she oft9n gives herself much thought and trouble in bestowing pleasures upon her poor neighbours at Craig-y-Nos. She is reported as saying : " I would as soon give a joy to a lonely or unhappy person as I would provide a famished one with food, for I am sure the wants of ihe heart are harder to bear than those of the body." • . • Of all party leaders and front bench men in the House of Commons Mr A. J. Balfour has won the reputation of beiDg the most invariably amiable. He does not mix nearly so freely with his supporters as Mr Chamberlain, preferring to smoke his cigarette in his own private room in 'the House rather than in the members' room or on the terrace, bub he is always ready when he does meet any one of them with an amiable and conciliatory word and a sunny smile. • . • The Duke of Norfolk is a great lover of natural history and botany, and enjoys few pleasures more than a long country ramble in solitude. His Grace has a strong dislike for all cruel sports, especially for pigeon shooting. He is well known as a patron of art, haviDg helped and encouraged marjy young uncelebrated painters, some of < whom have now achieved success and fame ; and he possesses a particularly varied and valuable collection of animal pictures, in which he takes a great pride. • . -, Lord Sandhurst, the Governor of Bombay, possesses a marvellously retentive memory. An old school friend of his, upon being told of his appointment, remarked, " Ncdoubb he will soon know by name the greater number of the 821,764 individuals he ,is to rnle over 1 " and though this was an exaggeration, Lord Sandhurst's powers of memory were indeed so remarkable that a i famous politician once described him as " a man whose mind files all the facts that other minds forget." • . • Major-general Kitchener, who has ren- ■ dered such distinguished service as Com- ! mander-in-Chief .of the Egyptian army, gained his first experience as a soldier under the French llag. On the outbreak of the war of 1870 he had $11 a young Irishman's sympathy for France, and when its fortunes were falling offered himself as a volunteer to General Chanzy, commander of the army lof the Loire. This taste of camp life decided Horatio Herbert Kitchener in favour of the military career, and on returning to England after the fall of Paris he obtained a commission in the Royal Engineers. Since 1874 most of Major-general Kitchener's time has been spent in the East, • . • Dr Canon Doyle is very diligent in his methods of work. The library he has collected for the writing of his historical novels is one of exceptional size and value. He read no fewer than 150 volumes, for instance, in preparation of "The Whit 3 Company." It is said that he has felt a severe twinge cf disappointment because his visit to the Soudan as special correspondent for the Westminster Gazette did not afford him the sight of a battle. As it is, however, old soldiers declare that the doctor's account of Sedgemoor, in " Micah Clarke," is one of the best descriptions of a battle to be found in fiction. ■ . ' Rigo Jancel, the Hungarian gipsy fiddler who ran away with the Princeese de Chimay, led the Romany Hungarian orchestra on the roof of the New York Casino in i the summer of 1888. At Lakewood his ! music, was greatly enjoyed by Mrs Grover Cleveland. Dr Leo Sommer, who managed the band that Jancei led, says that the fiddler was an ignorant, illiterate, and vicious fellow. "He is of such a low order of intelligence that I bad to treat him like a dog. But when he plays, this little gipsy, his music is wonderful. He is all music when he is playing." • . • Mr A. D. Cammeyer, the banjoist and composer, hails from New York, where he was formerly well known as a violinist. He gave up the violin, however, in favour of the banjo, and has succeeded in getting it recognised in first-rate musical circles. At one of the Royal Amateur Orchestral Society's concerts in London, for instance, at which the Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Gotba was first violin, Mr Cammeyer was invited to play two solos on the "jo."' Some time ago Mr Cammeyer, who takes a great interest in both amateur and young professional players, made a similar instrument to bis own for Madame Adelina Patci. • . • The two sons of Lord Salisbury in Parliament, Lord Cranborne and Lord Hugh Cecil, who are both so intensely interested in the educational questions of the hour, are a contrast in many respect?, though both possess in a marked degree certain family characteristics. Both Lord Cranborne and , Lord Hugh Cecil are of higaly-struDg tern- | peraments, but in debate the latter keeps himself more easily in check, and has a pretty < power of irony. Lord Cranborne is short in ' stature and careful in matters of dress ; I whilst his brother, who is tall and lath-like, with a considerable stoop, is evidently careless of such things. • • When Prince Max of Saxony decided ■ on becoming a priest he renounced his right < of succession to the thrpne, his rank, aod all its privileges, as the legal foimal renunciation will iliow ;— " We Max, Duke of Saxony.

having been consecrated to the holy priesthood, do hereby renounce for all time, with the restrictions hereafter mentioned, all rights appertaining to us as a prince of the royal house of Saxony, under the decree of September 4, 1831, relating to the succeasion to the throne, to the administration of the kingdom, to participation in the royal family council, and to membership in the upper bouse of the Legislature, and also under the royal hon.se decree of December 30, 1837, relating to money allowances, snite, and the succession in the collateral line. This renunciation shall be ineffective if at any time, the Saxon royal throne being vacant, we shall be the only surviving prince of the royal house of Saxony." • . ' " The Doke of Connauaht is a splendid fellow," said someone at Portsmouth the 1 other day. " When I was in the Navy, I remember that he came on board one day to look round our ship. When he arrived at the part of the vessel I bad charge of he asked questions about everything, made jokes all the time, and ended with shaking bands with me and my men, without any affectation whatever. On comirjg down here to take up his command at Portsmouth, the first thing he did was to insist on going round with the officer of the day while the men were at mess. A soldier who was thora told me that he tasted all the food, made running comments upon it, and characterised some of it as unfit I for the men to eat. No, the Duke didn't shirk his work — in fact, his whole life seems to be "devoted to improving the lot of soldier j and sailor." j . • Dr NanseD, according to the World, ' quite surprises you by his knowledge of foreign and native literature, showing that his reading has been most catholic in its extent j and variety. He is conversant, if not with the books themselves, yet with the names and status of all our best I&Dglish authors, and he make 3no secret of the fact that, were he not a Norwegian, he would elect to be an Englishman. Naturally you will interrogate Dr. Nansen as to the next exploration he proposes to undertake, and whether it would lead him to the antartic pole; bat you gather that afc present any such intention is of the most problematical nature, he having no inclination to leave his wife and child again for any long period. The two great tasks he early in life set himself to accomplish in the pursuit of scientific investigation j he has achieved — first, to cross the inland j ice country of the continent of Greenland; I and, secondly, to prove the existence of a i drift-current by which a ship conld be carried in a fixed course round the North Pole from the Siberian and Behrirsg S'.rait side to the sea between Spitzpergen and Greenland, and while adverting to his recent expedition, he i impresses on you the fact that, although it ' was possible this current might take his ship to the Nqrth Pole, that was not his primary object, but to explore the unknown Polar regions. By the passage of the Fram, and by the sleigh expedition which he made with Johanaen — probably the pluckiest exploit ' ever achieved— his ambitions are satisfied, at any rate for the present.