Untitled

Otago Witness, Issue 2433, 31 October 1900, Page 67

PERSONAL NOTES.

— One of the most distinguished and bestloved names in the peerage is that held by the Earl of Shaftesbury, who was 31 on September 1, and whose wedding to the granddaughter of the first Duke of Westminster was celebrated last year. The present Earl's grandfather was the great philanthropist who did so much for the alleviation of ihe poor, not only in London, but throujjhoat tbe country.

— The present Duke of Argyll was remarkable as a boy , for his good looks ; he was very fair, and had golden hair and blue eyes. Ho was not. in the least conceited, bus, if anything, almost too anxious to be civil and obliging to everyone. A story is told of his asking a fiy-man in Ascot week the fare from Windsor to Slough.' "Ton shillings?" said the then Lord Lome, when the man told him he could not take a penny less. "1 didn't ask the price of the horse," which happened to be a very decrepit steed.

— A point missed in announcing the death of Wilhelm Steinitz, the great chess player, was the fact that he was a Jew. Steinitz was descended from a Rabbinical family, his grandfather being a celebrated Talmudisfc, while he himself was originally intended for the Rabbinical profession. Ho distinguished himself both in the study of Jewish law and in mathematics. It was while visiting the local Habbi daily that he first learned to play chess. The Jews have always been noted chess players, and when Steinitz, in 1894, was at last beaten he handed the chess championship of the world over to a co-religionist — E. JUasker.

— "Practical John" is the name to which Mr John Hollingshead will always answer, for it was bestowed on him in the height of his popularity when he was manager of the Gaiety Theatre. He was 73 on September 3, but in spite of that fact he is as keen for work as he ever was, and would, no dcubt, undertake the management of another theatre with the confidence born of his former svlccess of being able to make it pay. He was tho first man who abolished fees in the theatres, and he was the first to introduce the electric light to England and the first to use it on the stage. .

. — Prime Minister of England in some I/iberal Administration of the future is the prophecy which has been made with regard to the Right Hon. H. H. Asquith by the believers in his political acumen, among whom Lord Rosebery ranks. He is a very successful barrister, and he certainly made a success as Home Secretary during the Administrations of Mr Gladstone and Lord Rosebery, for it was the G.O.M. who first picked him for that important office. Mr Asquith is invariably considered a very young man in the political world, but was born on September 12, 1852.

—Mr Choate is not typically American in features, nor does he typify America by his speech or by the boots he wears. Indeed, the Ambassador's face is wholly English in mould, not unlike the recognised features of John Bull. His tall figiire with the scholarly stoop, the eyes beaming out kindliness, the voice with the mellifluous ring, each spoken word being carefully pondered before articulation, the plain but neat attire — all combine to make the American .Ambassador a man whom to meet and to converse with on anysubject upon which jnost men with claims to culture can say something must be accounted an intellectual treat.

— The Emperor of Austria is much less talked of nowadays than the German Emperor, but he is one of the most noticeable figures in the great panorama of European Royalty. He is often said to be the richest man in Europe, and certainly the Hapsburg family is one of the wealthiest, as well as one of the oldest, in the world. In charity he is v munificent. His Majesty is strongly opposed to capital punishment. On one 'occasion he was called upon to sign a death warrant, and began signing his name, but a tear -falling on. the ink blotted the letters, and he turned to the Minister in attendance, saying, "See, my tears obliterate my name. I cannot sign it.'' And he tore it up.

— From band-boy to colonel represents the success in life of Lieutenant-colonel G. Shields, whose death is just announced. He commenced life as a soldier-boy in the Warwickshire regiment, and after nearly 13 years' service in the ranks was jiosted from quarter-master-sergeant to sub-lieutenant, and joined the 12th Foot— the' Suffolk Regiment. He commanded an Army Corps in the Afghan War, became lieutenant-colonel, served as staff paymaster in Natal and other foreign parts, and retired in 1893. After the outbreak of the Boer war he was called tip for duty. Lieutenant-colonel Shields could* speak French, Persian, Arabic, and Hindustani.

— Prince Ranjitsinhji on September 10 completed his twenty-eighth year. He has been in. great form this year, and has given further proof that he is one of the greatest cricketers in the world at present. When he was at Cambridge the waggish students used to say that it was his ambition to make 50 in an important match, and on the day he e did so he cabled to his father, "Have made 52 runs." This telegram brought an answer