WELLINGTON GOSSIP.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 10, Issue 619, 16 June 1866, Page 3

WELLINGTON GOSSIP.

Mr. J. C. Richmond, having suddenly arrrived yesterday, the gossips have been putting this and that together, and looking to the confirmation that his presence gives for the rumoured induction of one of Mr. Weed’s Ministry into the present one, pronounce him the coming man. I need .hardly say to you that the gossips are at sea, as Mr. Richmond comes up from the South after a lengthened visit, and is on his way home. Mr. Richmond will go strong into Opposition. I looked into the Assembly Houses this morning, and find the alterations will still take some fortnight or three weeks to complete. The lodging-house keepers are furbishing up, and to all appearance lodgings will be less difficult to obtain this year than last; but prices rule high. Some rather high rates were given last year by those of the members who had left their accommodation to chance, and were glad to get what they could at any figure; and these high prices have given the cue to the rates now generally asked. A little mishap has happened to the Government printing office, where the work was to be done by steam, machinery for that purpose having been ordered from home. The machinery, however, arrived without the engine, which has had to be sent for from Melbourne. Cor. of ‘ Otago Daily Times.’

SHAM HEROES AND THEIR WORSHIPPERS.

It has not yet been proposed to erect a statue to the clever gentleman who recently spent a night in the workhouse, and who did a most disagreeable piece of journalistic work with credit to himself and his employers. Readers of that article will of course remember “ Daddy.” One of the chief facts in relation to “ Daddy” was, that after the journalist had “taken” the bath—much as a -man might “ take” an awkward fence or a dose of physic — “ Daddy” told him that he need not have done so—advice which was judicious, but out of date. One also trembles at the very thought of that famous plunge ; old JLtwne in all her annals recounts no braver deed. Curtius jumped into an ugly gap ; but the bath ! No ; Curtius and the noble animal in his possession would both have shied at the Lambeth man-trough. “Daddy,” however, was good enough to give the Amateur Casual some valuable hints as to hisconduct. It is not explicitly stated whether the Amateur Casual gave “Daddy” anything in return ; but every cynical believer in human nature will think it probable that he did so. On the whole, seemed rather a.decent kind of old pauper, with some human instincts that had not been quite choked out of him by his workhouse life. Had he been lef tto himself he might still have been ofsomelittle’useand meaning in the world—at any rate in Lambeth workhouse. It was not so decreed. “ Daddy” had no sooner become* a public character than ho was “gotat.” The poor old creature was informed that people were anxious for his photograph ; and swift and sure was the fall of “ Daddy ” Last Monday he discharged himself from the workhouse, and tramped into the City. There —it is impossible to help pitying the poor old “ hero” —he was “ engaged in business” —we believe that is the correct expression—with an enterprising photographer. When he had done—when he had ceased to blink his unfortunate old eyes at the word of command —ceased his dreadful endeavours to appear natural—it is said that he was paid five shillings. We hesitate to believe the statement. As the photograph was immediately advertised all over London, it is scarcely credible that respectable tradesmen —wo leave philanthropy out of the question for obvious reasons —should not have given the distinguished original more. Whatever he may have received, however, lasted him right through Tuesday and Wednesday. Meanwhile, he had become doubly famous. Pretty eyes glanced at the photograph—pretty voices murmured “ poor kind old dear !” and a large quantity of benevolent feeling was, as usual, utterly and dismally wasted. Half the sympathy evoked for “ Daddy” might have rescued a dozen families in Bethnal-green ; but Bethnal-green is not, for the moment, “sensational.” At length “ Daddy” had spent all his share of tho results of the hero worship. On Thursday, accordingly, he went back to tho workhouse, and applied for re-admission —a decidedly broken down and uninteresting pauper, this time. He was, at length, allowed to enter the house, and on Friday morning he again “discharged himself.” Let not the tender public bo too anxious about the* “ kind old man.” He has a splendid opportunity before him ; even if nature has not endowed him with—even if time has bereft him of—vocal or Terpsichorean powers, he has but to shew himself on the stage of an East-end theatre or a minor music-hall to earn a living.— ‘ London Daily Telegraph.’