People We Hear About

New Zealand Tablet, Volume 27, Issue 21, 27 May 1909, Page 828

People We Hear About

Madame Melba entered on her forty-fifth year on May 19. She held a reception in honor of the occasion at the Grand Hotel, Auckland. A short time prior to his death,, the Municipality of Sorrento conferred upon Mr. Marion Crawford the distinction of honorary citizenship, and named ' one of the chief thoroughfares the Corso Marion Crawford. There are in the Cabinet of Sir Wilfred Laurier, tho present Prime Minister of Canada, who is for the third time holding that high office, four Catholics, four Episcopalians, two Methodists, one Baptist, and not one affiliated with any religious denomination. The Cleveland Catholic Universe states that a Catholic priest was the first to give the title Father of his Country to George Washington. It quotes from the Pennsylvania Gazette of February 22, 1800, these words : ' Father Carr has given General George Washington a name that will live for ever, " The Father of His Country." ' The Very Rev. Father Murray, the newly-elected Superior-General of the Redemptorist Order, is a comparatively young man, having been born in 1865.^"" He was educated at Maynooth, and on concluding nis college course entered this Order, and was ordained priest in 1890. He became Provincial in Ireland about three years ago. Mr. Andrew Selkirk, who, died at Cowdenbeath, Fifeshire, Scotland, recently, was a descendant of Alexander Selkirk, the original of Defoe's 'Robinson Crusoe.' Mr. - Selkirk, who was an engineer, had .himself led a roving and adventurous life, having travelled extensively in Australia and New Zealand and taken part in the early rushes to the Australian gold diggings. Lord and Lady Roberts celebrated their golden wedding last week. In 1860, whilst stationed in India, and just a year after his marriage, Lord Roberts was very anxious to be sent to China, where there was some trouble. Lord Clyde, however, chose someone else. Afterwards Lord Clyde met Lady Roberts at dinner, and told - her that he had purposely passed- over her husband because he thought they would not like to be separated so soon. Instead «,f thanking Lord Clyde (as the latter had expected she would do) Lady Roberts, who had been anxious that her husband should be sent, was very much concerned, and replied that he had made her feel that she was ruining her husband's career. ' Well, I'm hanged if I can understand you women!' was the astonished nobleman's blunt comment. Sir Frederick Darley, who has just retired from the Chief Justiceship of New South Wales, was called to tho Irish Bar, at which he practised for some years, before emigrating to Australia in Hilary Term, 1853, on the .same day as another eminent judicial personage, the Right Hon. Christopher Palles, now Chief JBaron of Ireland for nearly five-and-thirty years. Sir Frederick Darley is a grandson of a Lord Mayor of Dublin in the days of the old unreformed Corporation of that city, and his first cousin, the- late Mr. F. W. Darley, an Irish County Court judge, had a distinct recollection of being taken by his father, a Dublin Corporator, to witness the reception of George IV. by the Corporation in 1825. The King had forbidden political allusions. The' moment his Majesty retired the toast of ' The Glorious, Pious, and Immortal Memory ' was drunk. King Leopold of Belgium has unconventional manners, which have ingratiated him with his people. Several good stories are told of his characteristic bonhomie. Once, while in Paris, on seeing a large crowd assembled before the private entrance of the Hotel Bristol, ~he approached an idler, and asked what the people were' waiting for. -' To see Leopold,' was the reply. ' Well,' said the King, 'take my advice and go away. He's not worth waiting for.' And with that Leopold 11. betook himself to the boulevards. During one of King Leopold's many rambles incognito, he found himself when" darkness was setting in near Enghien, in Hainault, and he sought shelter at a small wayside inn, where he was hospitably entertained. When, however7~his host presented him with his very modest bill of three francs on the following morning, the King found to his horror that his purse had either been lost or stolen. The landlord was furious at what he regarded as an imposition, and threatened to hand his guest over to the law. ' But lam your King!' Leopold exclaimed. 'That is very unlikely,' Boniface answered, with a smile of derision ; ' kings don't wander about the country with empty pockets. Ah, no!' The matter was finally arranged by the King. depositing his watch with the host, and for long afterwards he would humorously speak of himself as the ' King without a franc."

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