PERSONAL NOTES.

Otago Witness, Issue 3148, 15 July 1914, Page 77

PERSONAL NOTES.

- The Bishop of London, speaking at ' a meeting of the Bishop of London’s Fund, said churches did not drop down from heaven any more than bishops," although a little girl in his congregation, evidently under that delusion, had recently said to her mother during a tiring sermon, “I am tired now, mother; can’t the bishop go back to heaven?” Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the creator of Sherlock Holmes, tells that he wrote his first book at the age of six. It appears to have been a story of adventure of the most exciting kind. '‘There was a man in it and a tiger,” Sir Arthur says. ‘‘l forget which of the two was the hero of the story, but it didn’t matter which, because about the time the tiger met the man they became blended into one !” The venerable Duke of Grafton once registered a vow that he would never enter a motor car. However, at the age of 84, eight years ago, he confessed at Kettering that he had broken it. In his capacitv as magistrate, his Grace was on co corrected by a poacher, whom he had fined five guineas and 16s costs. “You’ll pardon mo,” said the culprit, “but you can’t make mo pay more than £5. You see, I know what I’m talking about. I’ve been up before.” The fact that the late Mr Joseph Chamberlain was of Puritan descent was recalled by the selection of his wife to unveil the Pilgrim Fathers’ memorial Yt Weymouth. “I boast a descent of which I am as proud as any baron may bo of the title which ho owns to the smile of a King,” Mr Chamberlain once declared. “I can claim descent from one of the 2000 ejected ministers who, in the time of the Stuarts, loft home and work and profit rather than accept the State-made creed which is was sought to force upon them.” A London correspondent says there is authority for_ stating that another Connaught romance will be announced at no distant date in the betrothal of the Grand Duke of Mcddenburg-Strelitz and the popiv lar Princess “Pat.” The Grand Duke has long been an admirer of the Princess, as no one doubted who observed the very marked attention ho paid to her Royal Highness when visiting this country last summer. It is reported that the illness of the Duchess of Connaught delayed any formal understanding between the young peopje. The wed-

ding is not-expected to take place until early m next year. —Mr Rudyard Kipling, who has been taken to task by Liberal papers _ for an oratorical attack upon the Government, makes his appearance on public platforms but seldom. But ho is an excellent speaker when he is in the mood. He once preached a sermon. He was crossing the Pacific on a liner when a seaman died. The man left a widow and a large family, and in order to raise money for them it was anounccd on the ship’s notice board that there would bo a “sermon by a layman at 9 p.m.” The layman proved to be Kipling, and ho fjreached with such eloquence that his colection from a congregation of less than 200 amounted to more than £7O. There is no more popular sportsman in England than Lord Hawke, and the choice of the famous Yorkshire cricketer as president of the M. 0.0. has given general satisfaction. In Yorkshire Lord Hawke’s name is one to conjure with. Once at a village cricket match the umpire had given a decision which displeased a batsman, and the two went at one another hammer and tongs. “What do you know of cricket?” asked the umpire at last. “More than you do, at any rate,” was the batsman’s scathing reply. “I’ve shook ’ands with Lord ’Awke !” The umpire admitted defeat. Mrs Bernard Shaw, who has been stopping in the United States, says the Americans have strange opinions of her husband. “He is a great man, a dreamer of wonderful dreams, an idealist and an individualist, who is always striving and ■ working to lift others to thehigh place of his own thoughts and beliefs,” she says. “He is not the blatant, bombastic person of the popular conception. He is bashful and retiring, quiet and reserved But he docs‘not let this part of his nature overrule him. Ho sweeps it aside by might of will when he must and when he thinks it is the only way to propagate his ideas and beliefs. At al other times —most of the time, too, and because it is natural, ho is a man the direct opposite of what the world thinks.” The Right Rev. Franc’s Aidan Gasquet, president of Ihe English Benedictines, who has been promoted to the Cardinalato, bears a foreign surname, but is an Englishman by birth and education, being a son of the late Ur Raymond Gasquet. He was born in London nearly 68 years ago, and educated at Downside, of which he became Prior. Abbot Gasquet has made many important contributions to the history of the Reformation period, and his researches once brought him into collision with Dr Bright, the late Regius Professor of Ecclesiastical History at Oxford. He was president of the Commission appointed by Pope Loo to examine the validity of Anglican Orders, and is at present engaged upon the revision of the Latin Vulgate translation of the New Testament. The Earl of Lisburne, whoso engagement is announced to a wealthy South American heiress, Scnorita do Bittencourt, is one of a small group of present-day peers who came into their titles while still either in the nursery or the schoolroom,, some of the others being the Marquis of Donegal, who was only a few months old when he succeeded; Lord de Clifford, who was two years; Lord Romilly, who was six; and the Earl of Shannon, who was nine. Lord Lisburne himself was seven when, on the death o f his father in 1899, ho came into the earldom. The Vaughan family, of which the Fail of Lisburne is the head, is a very old one, going back to the eleventh century, hut the title is of more recent origin, dating from the year 1776. The Viscounty of Lisburne, which ho also holds, goes back rather farther, having been created in 1695 along with the barony of Fethers. The first holder married Lady Malet, daughter of Charles IPs Rochester, and it is her name that is perpetuated in the family nomenclature. Sir William Lever was one of the first men to recognise the value of the profitsharing system, by which employees participate in the prosperity of the firm. All employees, both men and women, who are not lees than 25 years of age, and who have given satisfactory service for five years, receive annua’ly a certificate enabling them to draw a dividend on an amount equal to about" 10 per. cent, of their wages. The employee accumulates these certificates' year tv year, and receives dividends on them all, the dividend being 5 per cent, less than that paid to the ordinary shareholders. “Join hands with me to make the profits of this business sure and increasing.” says Sir William to his workpeople. “Fill your business hours with work for the business, increasing the quantity of the product, increasing the quality of the product.” Edmond Rostand, the well-known dramatic author, was lately the hero of a little episode which might furnish him with the material for a scene in a future play. During a visit to a friend in the country, M. Rostand was requested to accompany him to the Mavor, in order to register the friend’s newly-born infant. The adjunct of the Mayor, a conscientious little man, booked the infant, and then turned to M. Rostand, as the first witness, and said: “Your name, sir?” “Edmond Rostand.” “Your vocation?” “Man of letters and member of the French Academy.” “Very well,” said the official, “you have to sign your name. Can you write? If not. you - make a cross.” The witness, though deeply impressed by the solemnitv of the ceremony, burst into a roar of laughter, in which the father joined, much to the scandal of the pompons official, who to this hour cannot see the joke of suggesting to a member of the French Academy the alternative making his mark,