A VENERARTED NONOGENARIAN.

Taranaki Herald, Volume XXXVI, Issue 7956, 29 August 1887, Page 4

A VENERARTED NONOGENARIAN.

One of the most interesting features of tho World is the weekly Celebrity at Home; now a peer of the realm, anon a distinguished commoner, occasionally aa eminent female, and, it may chance, a worthy royalty. Sometimes it seems to require not a little ingenuity to establish the claim of the exploited individual to be celebrated, and in this case the situation is a little strained, as there are generally three columns to be filled, and the interest to be sustained on, very often, slender material. But the clever biographer is always equal equal to his task, and always contrives to make the reader feel that the Celebrity must be a very good follow,' and that he would like to be personally acquainted with him. There are now two or three bound volumes of " Celebrities," which, in time to come, may provo valuable sources of reference, as enoh particular is given on trustworthy authority, and nil the information has been obtained at first hand. Tho other week the subjeot treated was that living link to vanished sovereignties, the venerable and venerated nonogenarinn, H.R.H. the Duchess of Cambridge, whoso claim to be a Celebrity seems to rest on her accumulated yeare as much ns en her rank. Mr. A. M. Broadley, better known as Pasha Broadlay, who is usually the World's interviewer, gives a bright little resume of dingy old St. James's — its historic tragedies, its courtly circumstance — its hatches, matches, and dispatches, to be intensely modern and commonplace. The last of Royal denizens of the ancient koep is Augusta Wilheltnina Louisa, third daughter of the Landgraf Friedrich Karl of Heßae-Cassel, the wife of Adolphus Frederick, Duke of Cambridge, erst Viceroy of Hanover. The ancient ludy re.memberß the victorious advance of Le petit Caporal at Prankfort-am-Main, and she was almost grown up when she saw him face to face an he rode off with his staff, after the battle of Leipsio, in the direction of Hanau. Three years after Waterloo, Queen Charlotte (six months before her deatb) was present at the marriage of Princess Augusta, in tho chapel of Buckingham Palace, to the late Duke of Cambridge. In the rooms occupied by the' venerable widow tradition has it that Lord Malmesbury firßt presented Caroline of Bruaswick to the First Gentleman In ' Europe. On Jubilee day of her niece, Queen Victoria, in the same chamber, the Duchess received four generations of English Princes, and a gallant train of Royal visitors, who went there to pay their rsspects to their relative. " The Duchess," snys Mr. Broadley, "rests on a chaise longue, ia front of v glass screen, close to tbe central window of the 'Yellow Drawing-room.' A soft cachemire shawl is wrapDed loosely round her shoulders, a single bow of colored ribbon relieves the lace cap, from beneath which one or two locks of snow-white hah made their escape. The only ornament she wears iB a portrait of the Queen set in diamonds as a brooch, and across her feet is thrown an embroidered quilt, which the Duke of Connaught brought her all the way from India. The little balcony,beneachwhichthe band of her husband's old regiment,the Coldstreams, comes to salute her with martial music on the morning of each succeeding 25th July, is crowded with deep red roses, delicate orchids, and scarlet geraniums." The chamber is redolent of the historic and romantic past — rilled with memories in picture, china, and other relics of monarchs, nobles, poets, and great musicians, with all of whom this pathetic personality haß been in touch long, long ago. She loves to look on these things in this, the tranquil evening of her old age. Years have scarcely weakened the sight of her clear blue eye, or the timbre of her voice. Every evening Paolo Tosti sings to her softly some favourite operf tic air, and his own tuneful songs, which have made his name a household word in the land of his adoption. Every day George Ranger, or rather Ranger George, the burly Field Marshal Commander-in-Chief, visits his aged momma, bringing her the latest canard. The ambassador's court is the rallying point of London's great visitora, and Marlhorough House, our eiratic Sovereign, and all her tainily, are constant visitors there also. Her iavourite is the Prince of Wales. For fourteen years the Duchess has borne intense suffering unmurifluringly. Her memory is unimpaired. The Thames police are taking vigorous steps to put a stop to youthful profanity in the public ttreets. It would be a good thiug if the Auckland members of the forco followed the example. The New Zealand Timzs thinKs a curious hankering alter old-fashioned party lines, and even after old-country party names, is very noticeable in New Zealand politics. A native girl has been committed at Wairoa for trial at Napier on a charge oC forgery. The charge is that she personated another native woman, and forged her name to a money order telegram for £3, and got the money. , Two ladies, aged respectively sixty-two and fifty-two, committed suicide on July 2nd, the Daily News correspondent Btates, under the most tragical circumstances. The younger of the two was married and lost her husband some years ago. Sue then begged her elder unmarried sister to live with her. In the course of time the grief of the widow turned her head, and she became mad, and was placed in an asylum. Last Christmas she wa? released as perfectly cured. On July 2nd the two sisters took a cab and drove to the toot of the Kahlenberg, where it rises abruptly out of the Danube. Having dismissed the cab they were seen sauntering along the bank. Shortly after a railway guard saw a female figure floating on the water. He took a boat and succeeded in getting it out. He then discovered that a second woman was fastened with cords to tbe back ef the first, The woman on the top was only unconscious, and soon recovered, but the other was dead. While this wbb being ascertained, the woman who had been saved ran to the river aad threw herBel in again, but was again rescued, Tbe woman saved was the mad sister. The shock has again affected her brain, and she has been Bent back to the asylum.