PERSONAL NOTES.

Otago Witness, Issue 3306, 25 July 1917, Page 47

PERSONAL NOTES.

Tho Londesboroufjh family, ono of whose members is marrying into Royal circles, owe.} its wealth to Joseph Denison. who was born at Leeds in 1725. Hia parents had no money to pay for schooling, so ho taught himself to read and write during the intervals of his work as on errand boy. Ho then went to London, and secured a clerkship in the counting-houso of John Dillon, a fc>t. Mary Axe merchant. Ho worked his way up to a partnership, and, John Dillon failing, began business for himself, taking his old master as a clerk.

Tho Russian Minister of Justice (M, Kerensky) is tho only member of th* Executive chosen from the Labour party. He is a young advocate (born in 1882), ana one of the most eloquent speakers of the Duma. One of his first measures has been tho abolition of the death penalty, and it may be largely due to him that bo far no excesses have soiled tho banner of the revolution. To conciliate the peasantry he has already committed the Government 46 a colossal polioy of land expropriation. He is tho spokesman of the extreme parties, is an ardent Republican, and a consistent Anti-imperialist. The future course of the revolution will, therefore, largely depend on the restraining influence which he may. exert on his followers. t _— Charles M. Schwab, tho American steel king, in his recently published book, relates that ono morning many year 3 ago a young telegraph operator on the Pennsylvania railroad was confronted with a dilemma. Colonel Thomas A. Scott, his superior, was absent and could not bo found. The road was tied up by a scries of wrecks. Right then the operator disregarded one of the road's strictest rules, and sent out a dozen telegrams signed with Colonel Scott's name, giving orders that would clear tho tracks. The colonel punished him by making him his private secretary. At 28 the young operator succeeded Colonel Scott. This operator was Andrew Carnegie. General von Bissing was not wh.olly rcspon« sible for the murder of Edith Oavell, and that some, if not all, of the blame should have been laid at the door of General von' Krachrutz, the Military Governor of Brussels. Bo that_ as it may, the adminte. tration of von Bissing, a combination of brutality and repression, naturally led to tha last tragic event. That he knew thai he was not guiltless in the matter is bornfl out by a diplomatist, lately returned from Brussels, who says that von Bissing had never been the same since that night hi October, 1915, when Nurse Cavell was executed. He lost his power of sleep and became a nervous wreck, frequently imagining that her ghost was haunting him. Probably ho was haunted by the knowledge of his own evil deeds, though they may have been commanded front Berlin, tnan by the heroic spirit of the woman he sent to death. Shortly beforo tho _ war ' broko out Prince Leopold of Bavaria paid a private visit to the Kaiser. The Prince had a great appetite, drank red wine extensively, smoked strong cigars incessantly, and sat Up half the night playing poker with officer* of the Prussian Guard, or with any menv bers of the Imperial Household who were willing to gamble heavily with him, the result being that ho lost about £SOO. He was not the kind of guest the Kaiser liked. and, also, his respect for the All Highest was not _of that fineness that would recommend him. In the exuberance of good spirits, induced by deep draughts of Rheinish wine, he would joke with the Emperor in a manner that placed his Majesty in a rather ludicrous position before his entourage, and there was nothing that roused the Kaiser's anger as much as the fact that he was being laughed at. One night at dinnet the Prince suddenly burst out laughing without any apparent reason. The Kaiser looked at him severely, whereupon the Prince at once apologised, saying, " I have 6een the point of that jest your Majesty told mo this morning, and I could not help laughing." The Kaiser was furious, and not the less so because the company could not restrain its laughetr, knowing so well how deeply hidden the points of the Kaiser's jests sometimes are. On the last night of his visit the Prince proposed thd health of his. host. He did not make a speech: he simply stood up and said, "1 have the honour to propose the health o| your Majesty, and may God confound all your enemies." When he eat down he said to an elderly officer siting next to him, " For his Majesty will never be ablo to do so himself. He had but the poorest opinion of the Supreme War Lord's qualities as general.