People We Hear About

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXV, Issue 4, 24 January 1907, Page 28

People We Hear About

When the late Mrs. Craigie,- -the noted novelist, was in "America last year, she was" ; invited to make- an address at a certain meeting. The chairman, a rather . stupid person, introduced before her some- speakers who were not on the programme .at all. It was close on ,11 o'clock when the chairman, with a pleasant smile,-' .bowed and said : ' Mrs. Craigie, the eminent author of ■" Some Emotions and a Moral," will now give us tier address.'- Mrs. Craigie rose and said calmly : 'My address is No. .56 Lancaster Gate, Hyde Park, W., London, and I now wish you "all good night, for I ami far from home. ' The Dublin correspondent of a London newspaper, writing on the proceedings of the Royal' Commission on ' the Congested Districts, ■ says the Under-Secretary . for Ireland :—' lt- is Sir Antony who- dominates the Commission. - The whole bearing of the man is significant of- immense strength. Blunt featured, heavy of jowl, with keen, penetrating eyes that are' almost buried at moments when the high forehead puckers and wrinkles' "behind bushy eyebrows. He' sits listening alert and intent even when witnesses, encouraged by sil-

ence, have wandered into trivalities. When the moment comes, r a -few questions q-uetly asked, the supreme knowledge and infinite capacity of the administrator are revealed.'

The recent; death of the Shah of Persia recalls an-

anecdote of his predecessor during his visit to Bngland. It is giyen on the authority of his late Perrsian Majesty's body, physician. According to the story, the Shah was dining with his present Majesty the

'King, then Prince of Wales, and '_ asparagus was served. Now, the " Shah had never seen asparagus, and was as much at a loss how to eat it as the Chinese Em-

to sit in the first

peror is said to. have been where

brougham ever offered to him. He made a ' shot ' for- it, and after eating half the stalks threw the . .other half on the carpet behind him. The story adds, "that to keep his guest in countenance -the Prince, did the same. ■ To complete the consternation of the servants, the other guests, like good courtiers, imitated

the Royal example.

Lord Kilmorey wrote as follows to the London ' Times ' of November 19 : ' This day 49 years ago Charles Santley made his first appearance as • a public singer, since which in his career as a professional vocalist no Englishman has given' more real pleasure to our" music-loving masses. Of Charles Santley during half J&. century of famous engagements it may be

safgjy said " lie never disappointed the public," ami now in his old age I venture, as one of his innumerable friends and admirers, to ca^ll attention through . the medium of the press to -the undeniable propriety of paying a public tribute Lo his Aalenit and services - by organising a jubilee concert at the Albert Hall in his honor afc- some convenient day next May. To begin with,. ISJiave already secured . the patronage of many members of the Royal Family, while a great and growing number of ladies and gentlemen have consented -to allow their names lo appear on a general committee, to which 1 have offered ' my services as hon. secretary and treasurer.- I shall be glad to hear from any one desirous of joining 'the movement, ' if: they will kindly communicate with me at the address given.'

In our last issue we referred editorially to ' the tonveiliiVg ceremony ou November 2-1 at th<e" Churchyard of Bromham, Wilts, England, of the memorial— a' Celtic crosa erected by the subscriptions of admirers over the grave of the poet -Thomas -Moore. The incident reminds the" Dublin ' Freeman's Journal ' of the^ illustrious Irishmen whose last resting place has been found .for them ' far from the land ' in, English "soil, (ioldsmith sleeps in the Temple Churchyard in London, in a spot which is not precisely . knowii. G rattan -is " interred, not at Moyanna, in the Queen's County, as he wished, but in Westminster Abbey. Burke is buried in the aisle of the church at Beacomsfield. Sir' John Parnell, the -• dismissed' Irish Chancellor of the Exchequer, because he would not join in the destruction of the Irish Parliament, lies in the vaults underneath St. George'sy Hanover square. Curran, who was .struck down when a guest at Moore's table in London in. the spring of 1817 with paralysis, and died in the following October, was buried at Paddington. His remains in 1834 were removed by public subscription to a tomb in Glasnevin 'designed by Moore, over whose own grave a suitable memorial, has, after he lias been for more than half a century gone from us, at last been raised.

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