Anecdotes and Sketches.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XLIV, Issue 10, 9 March 1910, Page 71

Anecdotes and Sketches.

CRAVE, GAY, EPIGRAMMATIC AND OTHERWISE.

Mrs. Flora Annie Steel.

LIKE many another successful novelist, Mrs. Flora Annie Steel, who has been making some severe comments on electioneering costumes, took to writing as the average child takes to toys. Her first venture was a hymn, which found favour with one of her aunts, who eagerly inquired for the composer, but shyness prevented the young author from acknowledging her identity.

Then she took to writing stories; the manuscripts she would affectionately treasure in her pocket, finally, common sense prevailing, consigning them to the flames.

It was while in India, however, that Mrs. Steel took to authorship in real earnest, and this came about in a somewhat peculiar way. A hard-worked editor, constantly down with fever, sought her assistance. She was then only twenty-seven, and it frequently happened that a whole issue—“leaders” and all—came from her pen. All this time, it should be remembered, Mrs. Steel was filling the responsible post of provincial inspectress of Government schools in the Punjab, and was also a member of the educational committee.

Curiously enough, Mrs. Steel first gained fame in India not as a writer of fiction, but as a compiler of a cookerybook, which has had an enormous circulation among housekeepers in the East. Few authors have more passion for accuracy than Mrs. Steel. She studies her plots for months, sometimes yeans, ■before she puts pen to paper. Even then it is laborious work, for she has also a passion for neatness. Three erasures mean a fresh page, and so it frequently occurs that chapters are written four an<i five times over.

Sat On His Hat. Sir Gilbert Parker has given a most amusing account of his maiden speech in the House of Commons. He says: “I had been waiting the opportunity for two days to speak on the Budget, but when the instant came, although the House was more than half empty, I would gladly have run away. I have been under fire more than once in my life, but I never experienced anything like that; not because I had not something to say— was deeply anxious to say certain things, but my throat got dry, my sight got dim, and my senses got confused. "Then some on the opposite side made interruptions, not wholly unfriendly, and that threw me off. Next morning the newspapers treated me in a friendly way, although believe one of the most important of the Opposition papers said I was a great disappointment.”

The most noticeable feature about his second speech was the fact that he was called to order by the Chairman of Committee five times, and then sat down on his hat!

Bonar Law's Retort. Probably more good stories are toid of Mr. Bonar Law than of any of the politicians of first rank on either side of the House of Commons. At the time of the last General Election, Mr. Bonar Law was speaking in Glasgow and happened to refer to the attitude Mr. Balfour then took on the fiscal question. He pointed out that the "English people love compromise,” and instanced the course taken by Henry VIII. at the time of the Reformation. Whereupon the following question was handed to be answered: "Is the candidate aware that Mr. Balfour is a bachelor, and that Henry VIII. was much the reverse?” “Yes,” replied the candidate—“but possibly Mr. Balfour might not be a bachelor if he could be sure of getting rid of his wives as easily as Henry VIII.! ’ As a platform orator, Mr. Law is undoubtedly one of the best half-dozen speakers in Britain to-day. In appearance he is a spare, upright man of average height, with reddish brown hair, a moustache, and kind eyes.

Although a Scotsman by parentage, he was born in New Brunswick, Canada, in the year 1858, the son of the Rev. James Law, Presbyterian minister in that province, and of Eliza, daughter of the late Mr. William Kitson, an iron merchant of Glasgow. His boyhood until the age of twelve was spent in Canada; and this partly accounts for the keen interest he takes in all that makes for the welfare of the

I - .Dominion. At twelve he came to GlasgowS presently to attend the commercial section of the High School, being destin■efffbr commerce. Of this stage of his career. Mr. Bonar Law himself gives an interesting note. “As a boy in the High School I remember being told by one of the masters: ‘You have every kind of sense except common sense!’ — a character sketch which I hope now could be reversed with more truth." Story of the Late Grand Duke Michael. The Grand Duke Michael, who recently died at Cannes, was one of the best known figures on the Riviera, although for some years he seldom went beyond the limits of his own garden. He used to take the air in a little village cart, drawn by a grey donkey, and the stately old gentleman, with the "grand air" and the great white beard, in his strange equipage, had only to be seen once to bo always remembered. At one time the Grand Duke used to frequent the rooms at Monte Carlo, but he seldom played. Once, when he was watching the little white ball roll round the cylinder, a noble lord who was with him remarked: “Do you never play?” "It is such a silly game,” he replied. “They only accept such ridiculously small stakes; it disgusts me." "How much would you like to stake each time?” “A handled thousand francs." “A hundred thousand francs! Four thousand pounds!” exclaimed his lordship. who was fairly rich. “Well, if it will amuse you, I’ll be the bank. I'iek your number; you can have a hundred thousand francs on any number you I‘ke.” "All right," said the Grand Duke, “I’ll have it on No. 7.” Les jeux sont fait? Rien ne va plus. The croupier turned the cylinder and sent the little ivory sphere upon it* wav. It fell into No. 7. “I.e sept!” announced the croupier, and tbc coup cost his lordship £ 144,000. But it is said that the Russian insistefi on giving him his revenge, and lost bnc* the bulk of the money.