PERSONAL NOTES.

Otago Witness, Issue 2516, 4 June 1902, Page 66

PERSONAL NOTES.

— All who are interested in cricket will wish many happy returns of March 13 to the Earl of Darnley. As the Hon. Ivo Bligh he won much distinction as one of Mr Kipling's "flannelled fools." To-day he is one of the hereditary legislators of the country, having succeeded his brother to the title in 1900. He was 43 on March 13.

— Famous in the world of Freemasonry as he is in that of the. theatre is Mr Edward Terry, who was 58 on March 10. He was at one time Grand Treasurer of English Freemasons, and he is connected with a great number of benevolent institutions in and out of his profession, in which he is so justly celebrated, while his acting has won. for him a very great popularity. — Though close upon 70 years of age, Mr Baring-Gould, the author of more books than any other living Englishman, is as upright to-day as he was 50 years ago. Ho attributes this ereetnes9 to his invariable custom of writing at a high desk in a standing position. Mr Gould always writes with a. quill pen, and his manuscript is not beloved by printers. As a relaxation from literary work Mr Gould, like the late Mr Gladstone, often spends a couple of hours chopping down trees. —Mr James Henry Smith, one of the wealthiest baohelors in New York society, is one of the heirs of the enormously wealthy and somewhat mysterious person who was known as Chicago Smith, who lived obscurely at the London Reform Club, and died in 1899, leaving an estate which paid no less than £900,000 in legacy and succession duties to the Chancellor of the Exchequer. Mr Smith was of Scottish birth, though he made his millions in Chicago and the West. Mr James Henry Smith was his second cousin, and before succeeding to a large slice of his wealth was a prominent figure of Wall street, where he was known as the Silent Broker.

— Sir James Timmins Chance worked with the Royal Commission of 1859 to correct the then errors in the lighthouses of the country. He has introduced many improvements and designed lights for all parts of the world: while in 1867 he was awarded the gold medal and the premium of the Institution of Civil Engineers for his paper on "The Optical Apparatus Used in Lighthouses." He has been one of the great benefactors of our times, giving to the public a park at West Smethwick and £50,000 to the Birmingham University, as well as large sums of money to other public institutions. He was 88 on March 22.

— Algernon Charles Swinburne, the poet, was 65 on the sth of April. Now that Browning, Tennyson, Morris (William, not Sir Lewis) have gone to the Elysian fields, Mr Swinburne alone remains of those mighty masters of poetic fire who adorned the midVictorian era. It is many a long year since Mr Swinburne first charmed us with the matchleps magio of his melodious verse. Since then wo have suffered many things from the "poets" who, like Mr Gilbert's hero, believe that in them alone burns the cat-red flame oi poetry, and who declare that other men — From. Ovid and Horace, To Swinburne and Morris,' They aill of them take a back place.

— Lord Rayleigh is said to enjoy the distinction of being the only senior wrangler in the Hou»e of Lords, though that august body boasts one other Smith's prizeman in Lord Keh in. Lord Rayleigh — he was then the Hon. J W. Strutt— was only 22 when he came out senior. His lordship, who is a brother-in-law of Mr Balfour, is not entirely engrossed in scientific work, but has found time to carry on a thriving retail trade in dairy produce from his own estate. He is the third baron, has been Lord-Lieu-tenant of Essex for ten years, and has held the post of bcientfio adviser to Trinity House since 1896. Lord Rayleigh is delivering a series of lectures on "Light" at the Royal Institution, where h& has beeu the profeo^r of natural philosophy for some 15 years.

— Among the rising or risen young men is Mr George "Wyndhaun, now Chief Secretary for Ireland. He is the ruler of Ireland. The Lord-Lieutenant, to whom he is chief secretary, is not much more than a figurehead, or may not be. Mr Wyndham comes of the family which, with many titles of its owu to distinction, became celebrated two years ago m the art world through Mr Sargent's wonderful painting of the three Wyndham sisters, Lady Elcho, Mrs Adeane, and Mrs 'Pennant. He is cousin to the present Lord Leconfield, husband to the Countess of Grosvcnor, and one of the bestdressed men in the House of Commons. To these titles to regard he adds others, perhaps more individual. He is a man of contrasts, an habitual urbanity of demeanour hiding a. certain fire in his inmofct soul, which, on due occasion, breaks out and adda something to the general temperature of the House.

— Reporting Lord Ttosebrry recently, I heard him describe himself as "a comparatively old nian," and for a moment I lifted my eyes off my note-book, and gazed at him. Though I am his junior by some 14- or 15 yeara, 1 believe there is no journalist in (Scotland, bo he iron-grey or white, who has reported him oftcner, and thus my observations of him may be read with some interest. Indeed, to far as hit. speaking in Scotland \<i rnnceriied, it has been between 11=1 a ca^p of "where thou goe-t I go," but I don't bolxnr he "kens my face." The first placo at winch, to employ a professional phrase, I iiail him, was in a marquee in Castle Dous>l,is where he a-ddressed a Liberal demonstration. I may be wrong, howoxer, for 1 recollect reporting him in the Drill Hall in. Bo' ness at another Liberal mooting, and j-cs-ibly the Bo'ncss engagement came brforo. that of Castle Douglas. At any ratP,-T =!mll never forget that Bo'ness fcpeech. I wr.-i young and ignorant, and I remember a phiaso he used. It was ■"Serbonian bos " J had never heard the expression before, find, to tell the truth, I was a "nee f cr.!t" to write it. for I was not rxi^tly 'iii'o 'hat the word i\a^ really "Srrhr.'iian.' T wondered whether I jix-jiUi lva 33 l-.ftT/l ai> to aak him v. hetligi

All else was fugitive. All Beauty doomed to wither, droop, and die: The boul a-shrinking from futurity.

A coward fear that clung,

Wracked, tortured, torn, and wrung, One moment o'er the blackness of immensity.

Far off one feeble light Intensified the night, And told of deeds of horroi doing there. The limbs of martyrs, shrunk and green With dungeon horrors, life-long doom, The terrors of a living tomb; Blood, beastliness, the groanings wrung From souls that throbbed for freedom; young And delicate, fair bodies cast To dogs and outrage; blast on blast, Beating the hoary, dauntless brow; Vile stenches from the freighted scow, Where withered backs were lashed again; — Such horrors held me with their passing pain. And deeper night descended, gloom on gloom — Deep, deep, depressing, and the torrent's boom. Came upward, like the wail of agony From some lost spirit, lone eternally In thirsty wildernesses, when The blackened tongue is swollen. Then The Tempter whispered, "Curse thy God and;

die, And sink to utter silence everlastingly."

When, lo! a tender light is on the tops, And darkness to the deeper valleys drops, The cloven clouds are tinted o'«r the bright-

ening dome, And tender silver flecks the flushing foam 1 . Now saffron, amber light Is round each rugged height, And, melting from the sable forest, see Cloud after rosy cloud, Like blushing maidens, crowd. While woodlands well with matin melody.

Sweet, sylvan faun and fay

Are forth at peep of day. And naiades breast the stream with nicasiuecl laps,

Till, hearing human foot,

To deeper bhade they shoot. As some sweet fay gives warning when sho olaps Her dainty, dimp'ed. hands. Now all the lands Are lit with glory, and the azure dome High overarches- that secluded home Where I await my pure, ethereal love; Of human semblance truly, Sweet woman, wedded duly, Soul-wedded, as supernal natures are. O soul, deep-echoing, The boundless beaven3 will ring "With rolling harmonies for evermore, Far echoing from starry shore to shore The power of perfect love All music far above; For her, with her, we move, Are moving on foi ever and for evermore TJnto the holy throne of Him we must adore When Satan's throne has crumbled into clay, And all the stains of sin are purged away for aye. — Charles Oscats Palmer. BrenU-ood Farm, May 12, 1002.

Advice ao Mothers.— Are you broken in your rest by a sick child suffering with the pain of cutting teeth/ Go at one© to a chemist sujd get a bottle of Mrs Winslovt's Soothing Sthup. It will relieve the poor Buflerer immediately. It is perfectly harmlesa and pleasant to taste, it produce* natural quiet sleep, by relieving the child from pain, and the little cherub awakes " a. bright a* a button" It soothes the child, it »oft«nfl ths gums, allays all pain, relieves wind, regulate* the bowels, and is the beet-known renwdy fo* dysentery r.r.d diarrhoea, whether arising from teething or other causes. Mr« Window's Soothing Syrup w «W bjr Medicine foalcra

the word was actually "Serbonian" or something like it. I asked, and with a smile he spelt out the word to me. In all liktelihood Lord Kosebery will have quite forgotten how he befriended a yming and ignorant journalist. — M.A.P. — Whether or not there is the slightest ground for assuming that Lord Wolseley's reoent visit to the Ca2ie had anything to do with tha political situation, it is certainly interesting to recall the Field Marshal's eon* neotion 'with South Africa. He has twice been thither on semi-political, §emi-military missions. The first occasion was in 1875, when in consequence of native troubles in Natal it was felt that a stronger man than Sir Benjamin Pine was needed to cope with the situation. In circumstances of muck delicacy Sir Garnet Wolseley administered the colony without entirely suppressing- the Constitution. Next, after the direful news of Isandhlwana, Sir Garnet was sent poß* haste from India, but the military situation had been saved ere his arrival by Lord Chclmsford's victory at Ulundi. In place of Cetewayo Sir Garnet set up 13 kinglete in Zululand (including "King" John Dunn), but this arrangement proved as unsatisfactory as did his subsequent "settlement" of the Transvaal — where he instituted a nominated Legislative Council in place of tlie elected Council the Boers had been promised by Sir T. Shepstone. But for this the Home Government was probably more to blame than was Sir Garnet. It was eight mouths prior to the rising of the Boors in December, 1880, that Sir Garnet Wolsetey left the Cape, which he has not since visited — at least in any official capacity. Twice has Lord Wolseley had to endure the humiliation of having his words, publicly uttered in the name of England,falsified. In Pretoria in December, 1879, being then Governor of the Transvaal, he declared: "There is no Government, Whig or Tory,. Liberal, Conservative," or Radical, who would dare under any circumstances to give back the country" ; and in opening the Legislative Council he gave the assurance — on the direct authority of the Colonial Secretary — that the Transvaal would nofc be given up. A few years later, after the fall of Khartoum, addressing the assembled sheiks at Dongola, Lord Wolseley told the Soudanese that the British flag would "never" be withdrawn. Yet six months afterward* the flag was withdrawn, not to be seen again at Dongola for full ten years. It must be some consolation to the veteran soldier that, whatever has happened in the interval, the Union Jack \s again flying both, in the Transvaal and in the Soudan.