PERSONAL NOTES.

Otago Witness, Issue 2685, 30 August 1905, Page 77

PERSONAL NOTES.

pPrj r "William Nicholson, whose detention in England is said to have been brought about in orjer that he may succeed fcfur Neville Lyttelton, has heard bis name of late on all men's lips. When it was feared that Lord Kitchener would throw up ins command in India, Sir William was the man destinsd to succeed him. He will some day go out to India as the lion General's successor. Meantime, his sevv:oes are required in another direction. That something important was to happen everybody knjw from Ihe fact that, as Governor of Gibraltar, he resigned without even having entered upon his duties at tho Kock. As a demon for efficiency the siuggards regard him. Reformers always have cß.emies, and he is no exception. — President Roosevelt's father raised and equipped regiments which fought for the North during the American Civil War. but his mother came from the South. One oi her brothers built the privateer Alabam-a, and another brother fired the last gun aboard her as she went down before the fire of the Kearsagc. Theodore Roosevelt was brought up amid luxurious surroundings. He was a frail boy, who suffered a good deal from asthma ; but his imagination was fired by reading Mayne Reid and Fenimore Cooper, and he determined that he would himself become a hunter and path-finder. To do this, however, it was necessary that he should ha^e health, and strength, so he set to work to ride, walk, swim, and box, in order to get into proper physical condition. At Harvard he even went in for skipping to impiove the calves of his legs. — Everybody will be glad to hear of the recovery of the Archbishop of York, who for so many years has been one of the stalwarts of the Church. Stalwart is the right woid for &uch a man, for, prior to enlisting beneath the banner of th© Church, ho was> wielding a sword in India. How he came to be first a soldier Lc himself has told us. "He wa", bom on the anniversary of Waterloo day," &aid the old soldier-servant of Jiis father.* The- latter had been an army doctor, and readily listened to tho suggestion. But the family nurse said that the boy. having entered the world on. a Sunday, should enter the Church. Both suggestions were realised. When in health he is a prodigious wofker, but pympatlictieally regards the labouis of his clergy. This, no d-cubi, it was which prompted him to suggest -a. "quiet day" for a certain dhirict. Judge of his surprise when the vicar addressed replied, "What the peop'e in tlii=> district want in their spiritual life is not a quiet day, but an earthquake." — The German Emperor is glad to have it understood that ho models his career upon that of his grandfather, the first German Emperor. That being so, he lias ample precedent for pretty actions like those of the iving. One such marked the visit of William I of Germany to his oldest subject, a man of 106 years. The aged warrior lose from his armchair as the King entered, but did not remove from ] is mouth the old pipe at which he was pulling. The King made him sit down, and cordially they talked of the great old days gone by. Then the monarch asked if he had any wish that could be gratified. "No, sire," said the old man, "I have everything I need in the world, thank you." But the King pressed him again and again, and at last the veteran admitted that there was one thing in the world unattainable which he desired. "Tell me what it is," said the ITing, expecting that there would 1 be a request for a title or a pension. "The fact i=S sire," the old man went on, ''I have to take a walk, by doctor"^ orders, each day upon the ramparts. EA"ery time I pass the magazine the sentry makes me take my pipe out of my mouth. Now. as I advance but slowly, my pipe goes out every time. If your Majesty will be gracious enough to give orders that the fceuti'y shall let me &moke my pipe in peao© the vdiolo of the way, I shall esteem it the greatest boon of my remaining- days."' Needless to say the order was given, and the old man, the only one in the Fatherland to enjoy his privilege, smoked on till the end. and died with his beloved pipe still in his mouth.

— The following interesting character sketch Pi Mx J, E. Redmond, leader of the

Irish Nationalist party in the House of Commons, is written by Harold Begbie : — Intellectually Air Redmond is far inferior to Mr Timothy Hcaly, but as a leader of liish patriots he is immeasurably the superior of all the present Irish members. So long- as he is happy in playing his present role, and so long as he is content with his shooting, his fishing, and his recitations, he will remain a picturesque, a clever, and a friendly enemy of England. But if lie should tire of this, if tho old Redmond blood in his veins should clamour for rebellion and martyrdom, then he would be a far more dangeious enemy for England than was ever Charles Tai-nell. I do net mean that ho could fling the American navy into the arms of the Channel Squadron, but he could very certainly r.lay havoc with the present peace and erimelessness of Ireland. This is what makes him so interesting a personage rt the present juncture of history. Lord Rosebery has disowned him, and Mr Redmond, in return, has threatened England with an angry Ireland. Does lie mean it? The next general election will of a surety provide John Redmond with the largest stage that he has ever played upon. How will he manage his pai-t? From his unique first appearance in the House of Commons, when he delivered his maiden speech almost as soon as he had taken his =eat, and was suspended almost before he had sat down again, he has been growing in wisdom and in power. But — he is a Redmond. —Mr Whitelaw Reid, the new United States Ambessador, is one of those self-m-ade men who are more common in America than in England- Born in the yea* of Queen Victoria's accession, he had to thank the old Covenantor ftock for his gritr — for he traces his ancestry back to the small Clan Ronald of tho Scottish Highlands. He went to school in his na-iive town of Xenia, Ohio, and was taught so well by a relative and "brither Scot," Dr Hugh M'Millan, that he graduated .at Miami University when only 18 with "scientific honours." Then he took to the teaching profession. But schoolmasters do not

' make fortunes — and Whitelaw Reid was not spending his time on this tcirestr al ball '"for his health." By the time he va- 2C he had bought the Xcnia No ■a.--. iTou have probably never heard of Ken.a or its Ncw-s. But that paper was tho fir=f rung in the ladder whereby ihu :ing man. mounted. For he went on „ the Cincinnati Gazorte ; and having toured tlir* South after the war, and w ritte i a Look about it, became leader writer, majasmg editor, and finally proprietor of the New York Tribune. Then he had arrived. Ifc is a tradition that thp United States Ambassador to the Court of St. ,TanVo= should be not only a man of wealth but a man o£ culture. The latter quality Mr "Whitelaw Reid has already proved in England, when he came ever as special Envoy from th& President at Queen Victoria-; Diamond! Jubilee. Of wealth lie has enough of his own. acquisition. But ho La- further fortified his position by his marriage with the* only daughter of Mr D. O. MilU, who is an American multi-millionaire. Mrs Reid is well known as a hostess in New York, where hei Madison avenue mansion is a social centre, and she is equally at home in Washington. Paris, and London. Mr Whifcelaw Reid, in a speech t'iK» oilier even- _ ing, faid that his digestion is good^ and he * thought that he .should be able to stand tho dinners which would fall to his lot here. They do not seem to ha\e hurt his predecessor. ! ====== — The inhabitants of Aboukir. near Alexandria, were recently treated to a wonderful sr.ectaclp. It became necessary to destroy some 16 tons of powerful dynamite, and" .ike-explosives — sufficient to blow up a town — were taken to sea and placed beneath the water. Something like a submarine earthquake followed the explosion, which was heard for miles around. A waterspout shot into the air to a height of about 2000 ft, and fell back in dazzling spray. Simultaneously the sea became a v.hirlpnDl of seething water, as if agitared by a hurrs cane.