People We Hear About

New Zealand Tablet, Volume 14, Issue 24, 14 June 1906, Page 10

People We Hear About

General Funston, on whose shoulders fell the heavy task of looking after the ruined city of San Francisco is the son of Donegal parents and has many relations living in Ireland. The appointment of Madame Curie to the Chair of Chemistry at the Sorbonne, Paris, is an adequate recognition of her services to science as co-discoverer of radium, with her late husband. She is herself the daughter of Professor Sklodawska, and is thirty-nine years of age. She has won high distinction in i'hysics, mathematics, and science, and has published valuable books on her researches', especially in regard to radioactive substances. According to a calculation made by the ' British Temperance Advocate,' there are 118 English, 26 Welsh, 21 Scotch, and 29 Irish members of the House of Commons who are total abstainers. The greatest proportion is amomgst the WeU-h M.P.'s, of whom the teetotallers form 86.6 per cent, of the total population. The Scotch percentage is 29.1, the liish 25.1, whilst England shows the smallest proportion, which is 25.4. Altogether the 194 teetotal members are 29 per cent, of the whole assembly. A curious version of the origin of ' Uncle Sam ' has been discovered in an old almanac published in Lesangton, Ky., in 1814. The phrase is explained in the following words : ' " Uncle Sam " is a cant phrase significant of the United States, as John Bull is significant of England. The origin of it seems to be this : In the yearj 1807 there was authorised by law the raising of a regiment cf ligjht -dragoons. When the company first appeared their caps bore the letters U.S.L.D., 'signifying the United States Light Dragoons. A countryman, seeing the company on dress parade, asks a bystander what the letters stand fos. " "Why," was the answer, " that means Uncle Sam's Lazy Dobs." Since that time the use of the term has be'Jome general.' The Baroness Burdett-Ooutts, uho is still hale and hearty, on April 21 entered en her ninety-ihird birthday. She is one of tho few persons living — and certainly one of the few well-] now n pers< ns— who were born before the year of Waterloo. She was only 23 when she inherited what was regarded in those days as untold wealth from her grandfather. She was a beautiful girl, and it was thought that her riches would, perhaps, turn her head, or simply make her the wife of some needy nobleman. She kept her head as well as her heart, and from the first used her money most judiciously in every philanthropic and charitable cause of which she apprcved. ' For many years (says a writer in an English paper) the Baroness was counted by Queen Victoria as a friend. Indeed I ha\e always understood that the peeraee, conferred in 1871, was suggested by her Majesty, though the offer was made through Mr. Gladstone, who was then Prime Minister.' Through tho late Father Davis she was the good ?n<2;el cf the fishing village of Baltimore,, in,i County Cork,' which, aver 20 years ago, shei lifted cut of poverty by giving the inhabitants a chance of carrying on their industry with some hope of success<by lending, en easy terms, the necessary money to buy proner modern boats and to start a net-making and technical school. The Most Roy. Dr. Murphy, Archbishop of Hobart, will enter on his 92nd year on Monday. His Grace was bern at Belmont, County Cork, on the day of the battle of Waterloo. He was ordained priest in 1838, and at once volunteered for the foreign missions in India, proceeding with Bishop Carew to Madras in 1845. Subsequently he was appointed Coadjutor to Bishop Fennelly stuccessor to Archbishop Carew, translated to Calcutta,' and was consecrated by the Most Rev. Dr. Murphy Bishop of Cork, in October, 1846, in the parish church at Kinsale, of which his brother was parish priest. In 1848 Dr. Murphy was anpointed Bishop to the newlyerected Vicariate-Apostolic of Hyderabad, Deccan, India. During- the Mutiny in 1857 he manifested great prudence, and secured from the Nizam several stands of arms for the boys of the Catholic college, who were drilled in ■expectation of a mutiny arising in the State. In conseq/uence of failing health Pore Pius IX. transferred him from India to Tasmania in 18455, appointing him Bishop of Hobart in succession to the late Dr. Willson. He arrived at Hcbart in' April, 1866. He attended the Ecumenical Council at the Vatican in 1869, and paid another visit to Rome from Hoihart in 1882. In 1888, on the occasion of the golden jubilee of his priesthood, Hobiart was eredted into an archbishopric, and he became the first Metropolitan. Cardinal Moran invested him with the Pallium on May 12. 1889. His Grace, who is the oldest Drelate in the world, is still in excellent health.