RELAXATIONS OF DISTINGUISHED PERSONAGES.

Otago Witness, Issue 2403, 22 March 1900, Page 60

RELAXATIONS OF DISTINGUISHED PERSONAGES.

From the latest edition of "Who's Who'/ 1 ' it is possible to learn how great personages enjoy themselves in odd moments. For the most part, they seem to be particularly conventional in their amusements. They ride, they hunt, they walk, they drive, they play cricket, lawn tennis, golf, and football, they, trundle bicycles, they fish, and they shoot. And everybody — man, woman, and child— rides the bicycle. The annual output of Coventry could not' supply all these famous people with their machines. The only proclaimed exception is Mr Zangwill, the novelist. He says he enjoys all methods of locomotion — except the bicycle. Mr Kipling, less original than his wont, confesses to fishing and cycling. Herein seems to be some lack of candour. Have we not been told that when in South Africa the delight of his life was to ride on raihvay engines. Those who do not find pleasure in 1 omotion find it in slaughter. Mr Arnold Morley fishes and stalks. Mr Kendal shoots. Lord Albemarle hunts and shoots. Colonel BadenPowell is fond of sticking pigs — in, the way of sport, it is to be presumed. Lady Florence Dixie raises the only voice against slaughter. She says she is a good shot, but, having published a book called "The Horrors of Sport," she has foresworn the gun. She has views also about, riding. She advocates the cross-saddle for women, and confesses to being as much at home on a bare-backed horse as in the saddle.

Lord Kitchener appears to have no lecreation, unless it is fighting Dervishes. I Lord Rosebery makes no confession of racehorses, nor Mr Morley of catching butterflies. Mi Chamberlain is equally silent. He has been known to say that he takes no exercise and plays no games, and never walks ij he can ride. Mi Cecil Rhodes is •less secretive. He has 20 lines of recreation. He rides from 6to 8 every morning. He reads the classics in type-written \ translations ; he is fond of Froude and Car- ' lyle, and thinks " Vanity Fair " the best book that ever was written ; he collects-bld furniture and curios, with a preference for anything Dutch. Presidents are not included, but neither are they excepted. He is a good pyramid player; he keeps a private menagerie, and visits his lions whenever he gets a chance. As for Sir Walter Besant, he prefers to "look on." Mr Guy, Boothby collects live fish and breeds prize dogs. Mr Lionel Brough is content to be " the original Savage." Miss Marie Corelli plays the mandoline, and Mrs Ormiston Chant is ford of billiards. The Hon. Harold Finch-Hatton mentions that he is che only white man who could ever throw a boomerang like the blacks of Australia, and Mr Clement Scott says he played in the first game of lawn tennis ever seen i this country.