PERSONAL NOTES.

Otago Witness, Issue 2661, 15 March 1905, Page 77

PERSONAL NOTES.

— Maxim Gorki, on being asked by his publisher for an autobiography, sent the following: — "1878, a shoemaker's apprentice ; 1879, apprentice to a designer ; 1882, sculleryman on board a sttamer ; 1883, a baker ; 1834-, a house-porter : 1885, a baker ; 1886, chorus singer in a travelling troupe; 1887, apple-seller in the- streets; 1888, suicidally inclined ; 1889, lawyer's clerk ; 1891, pedestrian through Russia; 1893, day labourer on the railroad; 1894, my first novel appeared." — Inspired by his jfcsire to attain honours in musio to submit to a painful surgical operation, J. Henry Saylor, of Richland Centre, has returned to his home from liiepsic, Germany, where his art won for him high distinction. To render his touch on the violin more delicate Slaylor placed himself under the treatment of a, surgeon, who undertook lo alter the shape of the digits of his left hand, and at the same time make them sensitive. An incision was made in the underside of the tip of each finger and a small diamond shaped bit of flesh removed. The incision was stitched together, _and in healing it narrowed the fingers at the " tip. The result made it possible for Saylor to finger the strings of his violin with more rapidity and finesse. — . It would be really difficult to find a man of more pleasing versatility than Sir Gilbert Parker, M.P. Sir Gilbert has bean professor in a deaf and dumb institute, lecturer in English literature, journalist, author, theological student, and deacon of the Church — ail in Canada, the land of his birth and love. In Australia he has sat in an important editorial chair and produced sueoersful plays ; while in London, where he has made his home, he has placed himself in the very forefront of novelists and playwrights. He is a Doctor of Civil X<aw. a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons, a Colonel of Artillery, as well as a member of Parliament, and there is scarcely a section of the earth which he has not explored. — General Nogi is a man of the .sort Carlyle loved, a strong man, one whose orders his fellows obey blindly, instinctively, without any heart-searching or asking of why and wherefore. Again and again, while besieging Port Arthur, he gave his troops impossible tasks to do ; he sent them, it is stated, not by ones or twos, not by tens or even hundreds, but; by thousands, straight into the very jaws of death ; yet never a murmur was heard. Baron Nogi is pure Japanese, one of the few latter-day Japanese who' bear no trace of European influence. In appearance, Nogi is insignificant in the extreme, is short and slight, ha.s shaggy grey hair, and is none too "well dressed — he has all Marshal TTamagata's horror of gorgeous uniforms. He is •emphatically plain man In manner, too, he is singularly simple and unassuming. He lives on the most familiar terms with his subordinates. — Lord Dunraven. who is installing electricity in his liimerict. residence, Adare Manor, is a man of great energy and considerable versatility. For two years he was in the Ist Life Guards, and on retiring from the service went out as special correspondent for the Daily Telegraph during the Abyssinian war. He has been TJnder-secrefcary for the Colonies, besides declining the Governorship of the Cape, was on the L.C.C. is Lord-Lieutenant of bis county, a.nd preceded Sir Thomas Lipton in making two gallant attempts to capture the American Cup with the "Valkyries. In the Boer war he started and was chief organiser of the Sharpshooters, the Ist Battalion of which he accompanied to Peira to join Carrington's force, which latter never really existed to any purpose. — 51. Paul Doumer, the -new President of the French Chamber of Deputies, receives £3200, or 60,000fr, yearly, with splendid lodging and general accommodation. M. Doumer (says Truth's Paris correspondent) is a native of Oantal, the poorest of French departments on this side of the Higher Alps. Hard lines forced his family to come tion at the Christmas cattle shows. The father obtained some small place on, a railway. The son attended an elementary school up to the. age of 14. He left it to enter a factory. At evening classes he obtained a scientific education. His mental culture has entirely run on scientific lines. In Scotland his -wife would pass for a douce decent litrle body, who minds her own business too well to deal in cracks about her neighbours. The new President intends to take up residence at the Palais Bourbon. "Mme. Doumer would prefer merely going there to bold receptions, according to the example set by M. Brisson. M Doum.'r sees the immense advantage residence would be in helping- to establish the five sons and the second dpughter. — Sir James Ronald Leslie Maedonald (lately knighted for his able conduct of the Ihibetan Mission) is a son of Surgeon-major James MaerionaH, Garden place, Aberdeen. He was born in 1862, and educated at tho Aberdeen Grammar School and Aberdeen University. He entered the Royal Eng;neers in 1882, and has had a distinguished military career. He was employed in railway works in India for some time, his labours were so successful that he wua named in 1891 as 'the best officer for the survey of the Mombasa-Uganda line. This task, an exceedingly difficult one, he accomplished satisfactorily, and was appointed Acting Commissioner of Uganda. "While occupying that position the natives rose, in rebellion, and he had to crush the last struggle of Mohammedan barbarism in the district of Usranda. After a -short time in India again, he was called in 1897 to East Africa to explore the district between Lake Rudolf and the Nile. The expedition encountered many difficulties, bub they were successfully overcome, and when Colonel Maedonald returned he received many tokens of the honour in which he was held. — The Birmingham Agricultural Exhibition has lost one of its most prominent members — namely, Mr Frederick Elkington, head of the well-known firm of Elkington and Co., silversmiths and eleetroplaters, who died on Monday, January 2, at his residence, Sion Hill, Wolverley, near Kidderminster. Fond of all country pursuits, M** Elkington showed his interest in the work of the Birmingham Agricultural Exhibition Society, and in 1873 his firm presented a challenge cup of the value of lOOgs to the council of the society for competition at tre 'Christmas cattle showp. The cup had to be won under conditions a certaft> number of years before absolute ownereaip ©f it was secured. During fclis last 30

' years five Elkington cups have been won outright, but the firm na\e always generously replaced each cup by another of erjaal , value. In 1891 Mr Mkington was elected ' a member of tho council ot the society, and he remained a member until his death. By the death of Mr Richard Hargrave, age 89, which occurred at Armidale recently, the State of New South Wales ' has lost the only surviving member 01 its first Parliament, snd cne of its oldest 1 p'onoers. Mr Hargrave arrived at the then primitive settlement of Port Jackson in • 183S, and went straight to Cambekmg Station, on the Mouaro, for colonial experience. ~l year or so after he went into partnership with his employer in the purchase of " a large draft of Hunter River cattle^ and took up a large tract of country on the Maclntyre. He was one of the founders j of Callandoon, Beeboo, Wyame, and Kitta I Kitta runs, which extended beyond the Queensland border through Goondiwindi down towards InTerell. Mr Hargrave had many sensational experiences with the blacks. He represented the New England district in the first Parliament, when the journey from his electorate to Sydney occupied a fortnight, find was not without peril, owing to the bad roads and bushrangers. The deceased gentleman leaves "' six sons, all living in New South Wales, and one daughter, who resides in Queensland. I — The State of lowa has been paying 1 5000dol a year for -he last two years to a ir-an who in the last 12 months has earned 1 10,000,000d01. His name is Professor P. G. • Holden. He is an agronomist. lowa farmers laughed at the idea of a man with such a title trying to teach them, the test corn growers in the world, anything about i the art of raising corn. But they do not , laugh now. Instead, they flock by the hunj dreds to hear Professor Holden talk, and they go away and do exactly as he tells I ttem. As a result, in large part, of following his advice, they have raised about 100,000,000 bushels more corn this year than in any year of this century, and they ex- ' pect to add another 100,000,000 bushels to their crop next year. Professor Holden became an agronomist — that is, an expert in grain-raising — by accident. When he taught school in Michigan he started a corn-grow-ing contest among his pupils. He induced the boys to pick out the earliest, biggest, end most perfect kernels. The result, aided by scientific methods of cultivation, was thar the boys raised more corn on their little patches than anybody had ever ( dreamed of. Professor Holden worked en ; his system until it was perfected. The State of lowi- engaged him to occupy the chair of agronomy in the lowa Agricultural College, in Ames. The chair was created especially for him. Professor Hol1 den made the farmers believe after a tame that he knew more about corn-raising than Ihey did. He irav-elle-d all over the St&t-e in special trains last spring and winter, making "tail end" speeches and drawing better crowds than any vice-presidential candidate, say, later in the season. He told the farmers how to select their seed corn, how to plant and eultivat-o it, and on what sort of ground to plant different sorts of corn, and how to handle it under different conditions.