People We Hear. About

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXV, Issue 40, 3 October 1907, Page 28

People We Hear. About

One of the. most accurate storm prophets of the world is Father Laurent G-angioti, - director of the BerlinGtoservatory, Havana. He has for the last thirty-six years been supplying the people of Cuba with timely warning of every threat of a dangerous storm. Seven years ago Father Gangioti forecasted the storm that <levasted Galveston. It was in September, 1900; that a cyclone of little foice appeared in the eastern part of the Caribbean Sea, crossed the island of Cuba, passed • south of Florida', and on September 8 swept down on the helpless city of Galveston. Father Gangioti traced in advance the very hours at which the cyclone would reach various points such as Tampa, Georgia, Louisiana and Texas. He was right almost to the letter. An interesting octogenarian is Mr. T. D. Sullivan, ex-M.P., the doyen of Irish journalists, who is best known in this country as the author of Ireland's National Anthem and the poet of the Parnellite Party. It was as editor and proprietor of the ' Nation ' and during his year -of office as Lord Mayor of Dublin, that Mr. Sullivan was imprisoned for press offences twenty years ago under Mr. Balfour's Coercion Act. While immured for two months in Tullamore Gaol he wrote a little volume of ' Prison Poems, ' which obtained wide celebrity at the time. An earlier volume, ' Green Leaves. ' contains his best work. Mr. Sullivan has pub^ lished several works in poetry and prose, the latter including his •' Reminiscences ' and a life of his brother, A.M. Sullivan, a distinguished Parliamentarian, wrfter, and orator, who died in the early eighties. The most sudden leap into fame among singers of the year has been that of the young Irish tenor, Mr. John McCormack, who is to taVe important roles in the Autumn Italian Opera season at Covent Garden. Mr. McCormack, born 23 years ago, at Athlone, studied for the Civil Service. It was not until 1902 that he seriously turned his attention to music, having in that year,, at a friend's^ advice, taken part in the National Irish Festival, where he won the gold medal for tenors. In 1903 /lie entered the choir of Marlborough-street Pro- - Cathedral, Dublin, and next year Miss Marie Narelle engaged him; to sing at the St. Louis Exhibition. A benefit concert given in Dublin, helped him to go to Italy__two years ago, where he studied in Milan with ' Sabatini. His forthcoming apperance will signalise him .as probably the youngest tenoi to treai tie Covert Garden Boards in Italian opera. Mr. J. Patrick Murphy, K.C., who died recently vas for upwards of twenty, years a leader at the English bar on the Common Law side, from which he retired in 1897, having realised a large fortune. He was the son of Mr. Patrick Murphy, Q.C., a leader of the Irish Bar . in the forties of the last century, <and was born 4n ' Dublin on St. Patrick's Day, 1831. He was one of the counsel for the ' Times ' in the Pigott Commission of 1887-8, and his portly presence was the subject of some of the wittiest pf thie cartoons of the late Sir F. Lockwood, Q.C, and are generally designated by the description of ' The Murphy Corporation. ' Many of Sir Frank Lockwood's cartoons during the Pigott Commission of Judges, counsel, witnesses, and l incriminated ' members of Parliament are preserved in the Mansion House, Dublin, and as the, late Mr. Murphy was a ' favourite involuntary ' sitter ' for Sir Frank Lock-, wood his form and features are frequently represented in the series, so that his .memory will not be wholly obliterated in 'his native. city. Mr. Murphy, who was a zealous Catholic, was an old Stonyhurst boy. , The fact that Sir Henry Campbeli-Bannerman, who celebtated his seventy-first birthday last month, is not only Premier, but also Father of the House of Commons invites comparison with the ages of other Prime Ministers of the past. Mr. Balfour is only fifty-nine, at which age, curiously enough, Mr. Gladstone first succeeded to the Premiership. It was not until nearly thirty years later that the ' G-.0.M. ' passed away, and broke the record which had been held by Lord Sid"~mouth, who died at the age of over, eighty-six. Other, octogenarian Premiers were Earl Russell, who nearly completed his eighty-sixth year, and- to the last, stren. uously advocated popular measures, in spite of the nickname of ' Finality- Jack •' which was bestowed upon- him and his declaration in favor of l resting and be thankful ' ; the l Iron Duke, ' who lived to celeb rate his eighty-second birthday, and Lord Palmerston ' and Earl Grey, who both died at eighty-one. Of the other Prime Ministers of the Quern who are dead, Disraeli's age was seventy-seven, the Earl of Aberdeen s seventy-six, the Earl of Derby's seventy, ' Viscount Melbourne's sixty-nine, and Sir Robert Peel's sixty^-two.