People.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXIX, Issue 49, 5 December 1901, Page 10

People.

Tho ex-Empress Eugenic is said to have finished her memoirs, which will not, however, be published durikg her lifetime. Professor Virchow, the aged German savant, celebrated his • 80th birthday recently, and received a gift of 50,000 marks from his fellowscientists, as well as an address from the Royal Society of England, presented by Lord Lister. , Jeremiah Curtin, to whom we are indebted for the translation of ' Quo Vadis,' ist introducing another Polish writer, Madame Orzeszko, a novelist who deals with contemporary Polish society. The book on whose translation Mr. Curtin is now engaged will bear the English title of ' The Argonauts.' One would think that the identity of the architect of such a superblydesigned building as Cologne Cathedral could not possibly be lost to the world. But it is. The Cathedral took centuries to build and many architects have modelled parts of it according to their own ideas. In the main, however, the original grand idea — an idea which simply astounds every modern architect, but the origin of which is absolutely unknown — was carried out, and the result is the most beautiful cathedral in the world. The ascetic character and habits of the late Cardinal Manning (says the London ' Free Lance ') are still well remembered, and by many people highly venerated ; but few know how oddly averse his Eminence was to accepting presents. Ln the Archbishop's palace, at Westminster, is a large storage cellar, and some time after the death of the prelate an enterprising priest undertook! to ' hunt up ' its contents with a view to cataloguing them. There he found, wrapped in sacking, pack,ed in great dusty cases, hiden away in deep mounds of lumber, a perfect Aladdin's cave of the most costly and exquisite articles, jewels, inlaid clocks, pictures, statues, rings, and priceless lace, all bearing inscriptions showing them to be presents from some of the greatest crowned heads of Europe. The good Cardinal had thankied the kind donors, as was his duty, but had ordered the splendid gifts to be consigned to the cellar, where they lay completely forgotten. The death is reported of Misß Eliza Allen Starr of Chicago, » widely-known Catholic writer. The reliirioua faith of her parents was Unitarisnism, in which she herself was reared and schooled, surroundtd by the many noted New England pnets and philosophers who made that State famous for its outpouring of talented men and women. The academy at which Miss Starr received her early education — an education broad and comprehensive — was, in her native town, but afterward she received in Boston special instruction iv a)t from the beet teachers who could be procured. It wns in 1845 she went to Bnt-ton, and the first phock she experienced to wnverher confidence in the doctiiral b?li->f of her father occurred that year when attemlirp a lecture by Theodore Parker in Musiu Hall. The eloquent reasoning: ot this 1 arned man cotr - pleteiy overtbiew Miss Starr 'b former chunh view. j , cauHneran uphenval in her mind that finally resulted lorae ten years later in her reception into the Catholic Church. Some of her first poems received publication during this time, h' pc and support in her work being kindly given to the young 1 writer by Archbishop Kenrick, and her litt-iary talent developed apace. In the quiet little village of Honilles, in the Department of Seine et Oiso, France, there lives at the present time, hale and hearty, one John O'Keenan, who first saw the light by the shores of Lough Island Reavy, in the parish of Kilcoo, County D6wn, in the spring of 1810. He

was born on the same day as Leo XIII. When a lad of 10 summers he emigrated to Caen, in Normandy, and has lived in France ever since, so that he has spent 81 years in exile. During all that time he has followed with the keen interest of the student and the ardent enthusiasm of a born Nationalist, the varying fortunes of every political movement that was started in Ireland for Ireland's welfare. John Martin, John Mitchel, and Smith O'Brien were amongst his intimate personal friends, and his house in Paris in the middle of last century was a home for many of the '48 ' men, who always received a ' ceud mile failte ' from this warmhearted County Down man, who recounts to this day some thrilling adventures narrated to him by the good men and true who did and dared for Ireland and her cause. Although 80 years have passed by since he bid adieu to the companions of his boyhood under the shadow of ' the Mourne Mountains, his love for the old spot is as green as ever.