PERSONAL NOTES.

Otago Witness, Issue 2376, 14 September 1899, Page 59

PERSONAL NOTES.

— It is not unusual for the Duke of Westminster's charity bill to amount to £20,000 a year.

— Senor Sarasate, the great violinist, has had 30 odd watches given him at various times, several in the shape of violins.

— The estimated value of the Turkish Sultan's jewels is £8,000,000. If his Majesty has any hobbies at all they are the purchasing of jewels and witnessing private theatricals.

— The Sultan of Morocco has a somewhat imperial method of amusing himself with cycling. A kind of couch is rigged up between the wheels, and on this the monarch reclines, studying the cyclometer and the compass, while his attendants pedal for him.

— Admiral Dewey has a hobby, to which however, in consequence of his naval duties, he has not recently been able to devote much attention. He is an enthusiastic collector of butterflies, and his collection, which is said to bo the finest in America, is insured for £1600.

— President Kruger sometimes remains almost silent for days together ; at other times he has talkative fits, when his associates say, " nobody ehe can get in a word." He is a man of much humour, frequently jokes, tells witty stories, and possesses a fund of the most varied information.

— The Prince of Palermo is said to owe his wealth chiefly to the trade in snow, of which he has a monopoly. The snow is brought at night in baskets on muleback from the mountains of Italy to the coast, and is thence shipped to the large cities, where it is sold for refrigerating purposes. — The Rev. Mark Guy Pearse preached his first sermon when he was a. boy at Wesley College, Sheffield. He borrowed a clericallooking coat on the occasion from a schoolfellow; and he recollects the fact that two old ladies with whom he lodged gave him a couple of slices of Yorkshire pudding as a reward for making the sermon very short.

— Sir Robert Ball has just completed his fifty-ninth year. He has had a distinguished career in the field of astronomical science, and is one of the ablest lecturers of the day. Lord Rendel was bora on July 2nd, 1854,

and has therefore completed his sixty-fifth year. Lord Rendel, who was well known ', for his association with Mr Gladstone, is the j third surviving son of the late Mr J. M. ' Rendel, F.R.S., the eminent engineer. j — The .Sultan of Turkey's favourite colour . is dark red. The German Emperor likes ' his uniforms blue and red. and covered with gold embroideries. The King of Greece, who dons his uniforms as seldom as possible, has a marked preference for light colours. The Emperor of Austria has a preference for grey, while the Emperor of Russia likes dark green • uniforms, and the King of Italy, excepting the rare occasions when he appears in a general's uniform, generally wears black.

— Prince Louis Napoleon, the '' Pretender " to the throne of France, is perhaps the only one of the great Napoleon's descendants who has inherited his qualities. The young Pre Lender. who is the .second «on of " PlonPlon " and the Princess Clotilde, represented to bo the plainest and wealthiest princess in Europe of her day, is a fine soldierly man, swarthy, us becomes his Oor.sican blood, with a dark beard and moustache, and keen, commanding eyes. His elder brother, Prince A r ictor, is said to have sold his right of accession to the French throne to his more ambitious younger brother, who was also made heir to his father's magnificent fortune.

— Signor Mascagni, \vhose new opera, "Iris." is just now causing a stir in musical circles, had a hard struggle in his early years, before- " Cavalleria Rustieana " brought him both fame and fortune. He i? the son of a baker of Leghorn. There is a strong tinge of romance through Masc^gni's; early years. He went to Milan to study, and there he met his future wife, who was at that time a member of a small travelling theatrical company. Mascagni heard her sing, and eventually became so attracted to her that he succeeded in obtaining the position of conductor to the orchestra of the same company. He thus had more opportunity of seeing her, and ultimately they were engaged.

— The Italian papers are now giving many stories concerning Vinceny Muscarello, the famous bandit, who, at the age of 80, has just been released from prison. He was the famous bandit in the middle of the century, and not only operated in Sicily, but also in Italy, and in Rome itself, where on one occa-, sion he rescued at the very scaffold a comrade who had been condemned by tope Pius IX to the garrote. In 1860, when Garibaldi was made Dictator of Sicily, Muscarejlo, who happened to be then on the island, was hunted down, captured, and sentenced to hard labour for life. His companions were executed. After having spent several years in prison his sentence was commuted to simple unpriggam.9O.tj and a short time ago, owing to bis

remarkable good conduct and his great ag«, King Humbert pardoned him.

— ■ Mr H. S. Cavendish, who is searching the wilds of Patagonia for a specimen of t ho ground ploth for the authorities at Souch Kensington which lias long been believed io be extinct, has already spent more year 3of his short life — he is only 23 — in big-gama hunting in Africa than many enthusiastic bportsmen of twice his age has been able to crowd into an entire lifetime. Two years ago he performed a remarkable journey, together with Lieutenant Andrew, of the 42nd, as a result of which he discovered a !)cw lake, two active volcanoes, and one or two species of antelope in the neighbourhood of Lake Rudolph, of which he made a complete circuit. His was the first purely English expedition to cross from the Gulf of Aden to Zanzibar. More recently he had a miraculous escape from being killed by a wounded elephant, which first '" went for him " and then literally rolled him over!

— '"lionnio Maggie Lauder." By Alr.n c-t. Aubyn. (F. \. White and Co.)— The heroine, Maggie Lauder, is the daughter of once wealthy parents who, after squandering their patrimony, leave their children penniless. The mother survives her husband ; she is a passionate, headstrong creature, whoße only thought is for her own comfort and cravings, caring nothing for those who are dependent; upon "her. Years before the story opens she is worshipped — somewhat after the fashion of Claude Melnotte in the Lady of Lyons — by a poor hardworking ploughboy, Will Hartopp. who leaves his native village for the great city, and in a few years realises a larga fortune. He returns when the old house ol pick Laudei is about to be sold, and to the indignation of the widow he bids for it, and purchases the property. His wife has been dead some years, and when he seep the daughter of the woman he once idolised his old passion is revived, and, strange to say, the young girl falls in love with a man old enough to be her father. After much opposition from the mothev all becomes smoothv sailing, and the strangely-assorted pair are united. This is the drift of the tale, which is remarkably well told- The characters and the situations are cleverly devised, and the dialogue smartly written.

Both deaf and dumb they said he was Because he could not hear or speak, He'd simply lost his voice, that's all, His head bunged up for just a week;' But now he hears the least thing drop, He- speaks in accents strong and pure To. say that he'd been dead ere this Except for Woods' a Great Peppermint Cugg* .