People Wee Hear about

New Zealand Tablet, Volume 07, Issue 23, 7 June 1900, Page 30

People Wee Hear about

Mr. Mark Lemon, n son of tbe Mark Lemon who wan for 40 years editor of London Punch, is at present a resident of Adelaide. Lady Gilbert (Miss Rosa Mulholland) is engaged in writing the life of her late husband, Sir John Gilbert, the historian of Dublin. Am American Catholic paper tenders its congratnlatiors to Mr. Patrick Donahoe, founder of the Boston Pilot, upon having reached the ninetieth year of hie age. May he live to be a centenarian. Mr. Clement Wragge, the Queensland weather prophet, has been granted leave of absence for six months to attend a conference of kindred souls in Paris. In the meantime cyclone* — young and old, playful and destructive — will be allowed to play pranks and rnn their course on the broad Pacific without even a nursemaid to see that they do not get into haim. The Earl of Fingall, who went to South Africa with the second contingent of Imperial Yeomanry, is a relative of the Very Rev. Father Plunkett, of the Redemptorist Order. His Irish home is Killeen Castle, County Meath, which has claims to be the oldest inhabited building in Ireland. At Killeen Castle King John visited a Plunkett in 1210. Lord Fingall, who has just turned 40, is not by nature a homestayer ; and he has already seen a good deal of rough travelling in the oolonieq, chiefly in West Australia. According to an Australian contemporary the Right Rev. Patrick Vincent Dwyer, D.D., Coadjutor Bishop of Maitland, was the first Australian to be. raised to the Episcopate. Dr. Dwyer was educated at St. Stanislaus' Oolltcre, Bathuret, N S.W., and was afterwards president of the Sacred* H6art College, West Maitland. He was consecrated on June 6, 1897. Australians have reason to be proud of their young prelate, for Dr. Dwyer is a very learned Churchman, and, moreover, is of fine physique. He stands over 6ft in height, and is proportionately broad and well built. It is said that the first Australian raised to the priesthood was the Very Rev. D*-an O'Connell, 0.5.8., who waa born in Tasmania, and who is still living. This venerable ecclesiastic (says the Southern Cross) is a member of » worthy Irish family, in whose beautiful retreat of Qlenoonnell, the Irish political convicts of Tasmania used to assemble oftentimes by stealth to spend a few hours together. Thomas Francis Meagher and John Mitchell were among those who partook of the open-handed hospitality of the generous O'Connell family. The Pope's Noble Guards are being reorganised. They are the personal guard of the Pontiff. The corps takes its name from the fact that formerly the 50 or 60 young men composing it were noblemen. A commission in this body is much sought after by the younger sons of those families to whom the salary of £6, rising to a maximum of £16, a month is a consideration. Their commandant is Prince Altieri, whose family gave the Church a Pope in the person of Clement X. in the sev nteenth century. This offioe has been hereditary in the Altieri House since the end of the eighteenth century.

The other day three brothers, tbe Messrs. Ryan, whose heights respectively are 6ft s<n, 6ft 6in, and 6ft 9in, might have been seen walking the street of Kyneton, Victoria (save a local paper). The trio hail from the Baynton district, where they are engaged as rabbit trappers. The family of the late Mr. John Ryan, to which these young men belong, comprises four sons and five daughters, who average a height of 6ft 2in. The sons' measurements are respectively 6ft 9in, 6ft 6in, 6ft s£in, and 6ft 2in, whil«t one girl measures 6ft 2in, another sft lOin, and the remaining three just a fraction short of the last figure. For several ye&rd tlie Queen of Romania has given private talks on subjects of interest to young women in her palace to the daughters of the Roumanian .aristocracy. The-e lectures have, however, recently become bo popular and attractive, and the requests to attend theoi so many and so persistent, t^at the Queen now lectures in the public High School for girls, and has obtained the necessary official professiona diploma, which is signed by the King and by the Minister of Public Instruction. But Qieen Elizabeth is as deft with her fingers as she is olever with her brain. At a doll show recently held in Berlin the leading feature was a collection of dolls exhibited ' by the Queen of Roumania,' every article of dress and decoration of which was made by herself. A gem of the royal handiwork wm a charming reproduction in miniature of the carriage used at the Roumanian coronation, drawn by eight tiny horses, whose silver harness is a marvel Of workmanship. The group was valued at £3000, and was to be sent to the Paris Exhibition this year. The great doings at Arundel (says the London Tablet) on the going-out of its Earl have had many ohroniolers. One preliminary, however, that did not come into the publio programme may well have a special record. On the day of his leaving London for Southampton, by way of Arundel, tbe Duke, after receiving Holy Communion in the Private Chapel at Archbishop's House, Westminster, presented his sword for blessing by the Cardinal. The rite is an ancient one, such as might well have been said over the sword of the first Duke of the line before he fell beside King Richard at Bosworth Field— deaf then as his descendant has been to-day, to those who pressed him to be a home-stayer — ' Jockey of Norfolk be not too bold.' When the kneeling soldier of fortunein % new sense of the phrase — was abjured to aoonpt no greater reward for his services than was their just due, the injunction was reminiscent of past times rather than capable of any present application. Tbe same ceremony of the ßword-b)e«injc, it may be add-d, was performed at an earlier date for Lord Edmund Talbot by the Bishop of Southwark. Apropos, it is very curious to recall that till a very recent date the Duke was in receipt of a military pension. It dated from Flodden Field, and it amounted to £40, to ne paid annually to the heirs of the Howard hero of that fight, for ever. When perpetual pensions were made cause of war in Parliament the present Duke commuted the yearly payment for a sum down.