People We Hear About

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXV, Issue 42, 17 October 1907, Page 28

People We Hear About

M. De Papparent,- the celebrated French geologist and mineralogist, who has just been elected secretary of'the Academy of Science, is a member of the Central Council of the Society for the Propagation of the Faith in Paris. Sir Jenkin Coles has been Speaker in the House of they South Australian Assembly for over 17 years, and he has never been absent from his place in the chair on a single day of session during that period. Sir Jenkin, is a Catholic. The "activity of the Kaiser is well known. He looks after the music, the painting, literature, and the morals of Germany ; but that is only his diversion, for above all that, he is the 'German Emperor. As Kaiser his work falls under three heads— foreign affairs, home affairs, and the army and navy. He never signs any despatch without reading it, and generally blue-pencils his remarks in the margin. In this way, many a State paper has been rendered useless, and it is calculated that since the beginning of his reign, he has signed at least 31,000 documents. He has also a great number of verbal reports made to him, and it is probably this over-work that renders him so nervous on occasions, and -leads him to speak out things, that he had better have confined to his thoughts or to his confidential correspondence. His Eminence Cardinal Moran is now in his 78th year (says the ' Catholic Press '-). His working day commences shortly after 6 o'clock in the morning, and his Eminence is "hard at it until bed-tfrne, and docs not appear to feel the heat wave half as much as young Australians. Vigorous old age, however, is characteristic of the Irish, the world over — in hot climates .as well as cold — and usually when some country boasts of possessing a remarkable old man or woman you find that "the sprightly veteran hails from the old sod. Sir Frederick Darley, Chief Justice of the New South Wales Supreme Court, is only two days' younger than the Cardinal, and he still takes his seat on the Bench, and only vaguely talks of retiring. He, too, was born in Ireland— 'in* W.icklow, to be precise. He is not so strong now, but -is still tolerably erect, and many an Australian of 60 might envy his activity. A cable message received last week, 'informed us of the death of Lord Brampton, better known as Sir Henry Hawkins. Lord Brampton was a convert to the Catholic Church, and gave evidence of his faith ,^by contrib>uting £10,000 to the building fund of one'of-the Chapels of the Westminster Cathedral. Lord Brampton, who had reached the venerable age of 91, "had had a professional career covering nearly seventy years, and it is nearly fifty years .since he ' took silk.' The son of a solicitor, he was . one of the few cases of a greatly successful jman', who, at the very start of life, struck the line in which his natural powers best fitted him to excel. His success was not, however, rapidly attained. During the earlier part of his. career, his income for many years did not exceed £100 per annum. It grew slowly and steadily until, on his election to the rank of Queen's Counsel, it reached the huge figure of £«16,000 His elevation to the Bench cost him overN £10,000 a year as his official salary was only £5,000. Readers of his memoirs will remember some of the many excellent stories concerning him. Here is one of the best of them. A prisoner pleaded guilty » then withdrew his plea* and declared himself to be innocent. Said Baron Brampton: ' Prisoner, a few minutes ago you said you were a thief. Now the jury say^you are a liar. Consequently you are discharged.' , Equally good was his retort to a Bishop, who claimed that the episcopal office was superior to the judicial, inasmuch as the most a Judge could say to a man y«as ' You be hanged ' while, a Bishop could say, ' You be damned.' ' Yes, 1 replied Lord Brampton, ' but when T say to a man ' You be hanged ' he is hanged. Lord Brampton was a humorous character, despite his reputation for judicial severity, and was hail-fellow-well-met with all sorts and conditions of men. He was wont to tell a tale at his own expense of how he once joined a party of countrymen at a wayside tavern in a game, of skittles. Getting warm, he Jook off his hat,' so revealing- the fact that he wore his hair unfashionably short. One of his temporary acquaintances refused to continue the game. 'I" like to he neighbourly,' he remarked, ' but I dont play no skittles with no ' bloomin' ticket-o Weave man.'

You wish you were rich. This is not so hard. He who is satisfied is rich. He wRo-is dissatisfied is poor, no matter what his possessions.