PERSONAL NOTES.

Otago Witness, Issue 2929, 4 May 1910, Page 86

PERSONAL NOTES.

—ln memory of Dr Thomas Arne, who wrote the popular setting to " Eulo, Britannia," it is proposed to erect a tablet and coloured window in St. Paul's Church, Covent Garden, where he was baptised. Colonel Sam Jennings,, a Texas "cattl© king," has presented a half intarest in his ranch to Mr Strome, who saved the colonel's six-year-old daughter from death beneath an engine. —Mr William Spencer, an ex-mayor of Beverley, and head master for 39 years of the Wesleyan day school, left £IOO to the mayor, aldermen, and burgesses of Beverley" upon trust to invest and 1 distribute the income annually in oranges on his birthday among the children attending his old school. —Mr James K. Caird, jute manufacturer, of Dundee, sent a cheque for £IO,OOC to Mr Winston Churchill to be applied towards promoting the objects of the Budget League, of which Mr Churchill is president. Mr Caird laet year declined an invitation to contest Dundee before the adoption of Mr Churchill. Mr Caird states in a letter that Mr Churchill's speeches in Lancashire have induced him to give the money. One of Mr Carnegie's best thropic schemes is the Carnegie Hero Fund, which makes money awards for conspicuous a,ets of bravery or devotion to duty. This fund has lately made an annual grant of £35 to the widow of the late Dr Herbert Wells, who made pioneer investigations into the treatment of glanders, but, after saving the life of a patient, himself contracted the disease, and died in October last.

—Mr Andrew Carnegie has given the munificent sum of 3,000.000d0l (over £600,000) to establish a fund for the benefit of teachers engaged in the 10 leading cities of the United States. It is understood that the interest accruing from the fund is to b*e utilised for sending selected teachers abroad to study educational methods in other countries, and for other purposes beneficial to teachers. —Mr Anthony Hope Hawkins, the " Anthony Hope " of novel-readers, tried the* Bar before he took to writing novels. Briefs did not flow in at a desirable speed, and his energies were turned into literary channels. To begin with his . efforts were hardly encouraging. His first book was a failure, and the MS-S. which he hurled right and left returned boomerang-like. Then came "The Prisoner of Zenda," followed by a long series of successes. —Mr Alfred Tennyson, a grandson of the late Poet Laureate and stepson of the Right Hon. Augustine* Birrell, has a- dramatic short story in the current issue of tho Woman at Home entitled "Waiter!" Mr Tennyson, who was formerly a clerk in the House of Lords, is at present in Canada pursuing his literary work, which will no doubt in time be the means of causing him to lend additional honour to an illustrious name. Mr Tennyson is a great golfer, and is 'keenly interested in all forms of sport. Hugh Cannon, author and composer of the celebrated "Bill Bailey" and other popular songs, has been discovered' by a. Detroit journalist in fcbs workhouse at EJoise. Michigan. Like many others whose works have attained notoriety, Gannon made very little profit from his songs. "Bill Bailey" he practically gave away, and he only got £5 for "Good-goo eyes," a song which attained perhaps greater popularity in America, than the former. In the height of the "Bill Bailey" craze he received £7O for an indifferent song which he wrote, but that was the most be ever had. Although he has jusfc entered upon his eightieth year, Prince Christian still hunts twice a jveek and walks two miles before breakfast. He hunts with the Garth Hounds, and is in the saddle from four to five hours at a time. Cumberland Lod.<re abounds with trophies of the chase by tho Prince. For in addition to hunting he is very fond of stalking when in Germany. It may be remembered that the eldest son of the Prince was that gallant soldier, Prince Christian Victor, who died from fever contracted in Pretoria while he was on service in the South African war. —Mr S. F. Edge, the most famous of English motorists, who has been predicting the total disappearance of the horse in a short time, once indulged in an even more striking phophecy than this bearing on the same subject—namely, when he expressed the opinion that before many years are passed motor cars will be so common that no one will be able to afford to do without them, not even the humblest. Just as many working men find a bicycle indispensable nowadays, so in times to come, Mr Edge suggests, they will nearly all possess their cars. It is certainly an alluring thought. The Rhodes Scholarship attached to the Diocesan College, Rondebosch, for 1909 has been won by Mr Kenneth C. M. Hands, whose name has been submitted accordingly for official confirmation to the Rhodes trustees. The winner is a son of Mr H. Hands, Talana, Claremont, and his success probably constitutes a unique record in the history of Rhodes scholarships for one family, as two of his brothers have previously won the same distinction, and are already at University College, Oxford, as Rhodes scholars from the Diocesan College. Mr Kenneth Hands has been at the Diocesan College and School since 1902. Mr Labouchere tells a diplomatic story, but it is not cleat whether he is the hero or_ not. A young gentleman, who submitted himself for the examinaion for diplomacy, knew nothing about the subject, and treated it in a highl}- imaginative manner. Ho thought that the cheek of hia answers was enough to plough any man, but, instead, he was head of the list. Later he had an opportunity of asking one ot the examiners the reason of his success. "Oh!" replied the examiner; "of course we saw that you knew nothing of your subject, but you took the matter so calmly, and replied with so much resource, with such an entire freedom from any embarrassment, that we all said, ' That's tho sore of man for diplomacy !' "

Having lived alone for years on a few shillings a week while he was in receipt of an income of £6OO a year —and had, it is believed, £50,000 worth of property —John Clarence Hudson sought better shelter in a Salford hospital. For a considerable time he had tenanted a small house in Railway terrace, Salford. There lie lay ill, until at last he was driven to ask for assistance. By his bedsVead was found a stick to keep the rats from .his food. He declared that he had not been bathed for 20 years, and yet amid all the squalor of his heme' the officials found a touch of a long-dead romance. A table was laid in one room for two people to dine. It had always been kept like that, they were informed by the woman who attended the miser. Hudson, who practised years ago as a solicitor, is said to have been "crossed in love."

President Taft gave a dinner at the White House in honour of the Speaker, " Uncle Joe" Cannon, and after the repast a fashionable company, numbering 50. was highly delighted by a friendly " dancing competition" between the President and the guest of the evening. The company had adjourned to the " East Room," and Mr Cannon began to chaff Mr Taft about his dancing exploits. The- President replied good-humoredly, and l suggested that at any rate he had done more in this line than "Uncle Joe." The Speaker promptly volunteered to dance a Highland fling, which he did, amidst the applause of everyone, 'including Mr Taft. Challenged to beat this, the President replied with a negro jig, which was eqrJSily successful, and appreciated by those present. Some recollections of the new Solici-tor-general as a schoolboy are supplied by a contributor to the Jewish World who was at school with him. He was, it seems, pre-eminent as the very worst of boys from the school master's point of view: " Lessons he left unlearnt, class work he shirked, and mischief was his only devotion. Nor was he mischievous only in himself—-he delighted in inspiring others in his ' wicked ways.' Indeed, my recollection of the Solicitor-general is always associated witn a demoniacal young mischievous imp with sparkling eyes, who was always in disgrace or being caned, and yet withal was ever merry and deliciously humorous. . . . It would be interesting to see how anyone could, in the case of the Solicitor-general, justify the child being father to man legend: the theory of ' Sand*ord and Merton' he has exploded." " Isaacs ■Secundus, you will go to the devil,"' was the prognostication oft repeated by his school masters. Instead of that, says the authority we have quoted, the "devil" (of the legal sort) comes to him, and is aught, glad of the privilege. —Mr J A. Pease, the new Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, who has just been returned for Rotherham, tells this 6tory. Two or three sessions ago a member who, though at every division during an all-night sitting, was snatching sleep at intervals in one of the recesses of the House was missed by the Chief Whip, who thought he was absent. Accordingly Mr Pease sent a telegram too his house at .7 o'clock in the morning saying, " Come down at once." The hon. member turned up at' his house at 8 o'clock in the morning, expecting to receive a good deal of sympathy for having been in the House all night. But when he mentioned where ho had been his« wife promptly replied, " Now, it's no vise your telling me lies," and straightway produced from under her pillow the Chief Whip's telegram.

There is no more earnest advocate of "muscular Christianity" than Lord Kinaiaird, who recently attained his sixty-third birthday. He played twice in international football matches for Scotland against England, and was five times in the team which carried off the Association Cup. Those were the days of rough-and-tumble football, when the rules allowed of hacking and tripping. Here is a story of Lord Kinnaird's football prowess: "I am sure Arthur will come home with a broken leg some day," once observed his mother to that gallant soldier and footballer, Sir Francis Marindin. " I think that's very likely, Lady Kinnaird," replied Sir Francis, dryly; "but you may be sure :t will be somebody else's leg/'

The Prince of Wales and the Czar provide, of course, the best-known example of present-day doubles. But doubles are really not uncommon. The Dtike of Norfolk and the late Mr Manville Fenn were almost exact duplicates in feature and expression. Mr Anthony Hope and Mr Edward German look very much alike, though not, perhaps, so much so as they did several years ago. Cecil Rhodes had a double in the late Sir John Stainer, while of Disraeli's many doubles the best known was Sir James Stansfield. Politicians are generally amply provided with doubles. They are one of the inevitable results of success. * A newreputation, and the doubles appear in flocks. It is a pity that in the days of the Fourth party no statistician computed the number of Randolph Churchills. Those almost perfect doubles, George du Maurier and Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema, were nearly indistinguishable. The story goes that a lady, sitting beside Du Maurier at dinner, started conversation by pooh-poohing all idea of a resemblance, "You know, Mr AlmaTadema, I think it's absurd to say that you and Mr Du Maurier are so awfully alike. There is really no resemblance at all. Don't you agree with me':" "Quite," was the polite answer; " but,' you see, I happen to be Mr Du Maurier!"—Chronicle.