MOST EXTRAVAGANT WHIMS.

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Volume XV, Issue 884, 14 February 1907, Page 21

MOST EXTRAVAGANT WHIMS.

A weird form of extravagance was that of a woman named Hiller, who recently buried her husband in a coffin. The coffin was made of< richly-carved mahogany with solid gold mountings (a single knob costing and lined with silk which is said to have cost 3s an inch. The Nizam of Hyderabad-has a set of false teeth for which he paid a Madras dentist /J 700 and Dixie W. Thompson, a wealthy ranches of Santa Barbara, Cal., not long ago spent on a saddle, which is of the finest embossed leather, heavily and most elaborately mounted in silver, Henry G. Marshall lavished on a grand piano, exquisitely

painted by Sir L. Alma-Tadema and studded with precious stones. Jan Van Beers has a piano, a miracle of painting, precious metals, and jewels, which cost him £6OOO. One of the most remarkable cases of extravagance on record was the indulging by the Sultan of Turkey of a child’s whim. One day the Sultan found his small son in tears because though he had been promised to be made an admiral, he could not see his flag hoisted on a particular ship from his nursery windows. The Sultan promptly had the vessel brought up and moored in front of the Dalmabagtcheh, to the child’s great delight. In order however, to bring the Vessel to the required position it was necessary to pull down a newly-construct-ed bridge, which, at the Sultan’s bidding, was done at a cost of £lOO,OOO. —“Good Words.”