Personalities

Alexandra Herald and Central Otago Gazette, Issue 356, 5 March 1903, Page 2

Personalities

HISTORY UP £*fE&T a school examination in/the preSims) vinces recently one of the teachers jk2k received this paper from a fourteen-year-old boy: Hannibal. Hannibal was the first man that ever Grossed the Alps. When he got into Italy he lost one eye and had the greatest ox roast that ever happened. Hannibal was the greatest general the people of those days ever knew, except Napoleon and Grant. Whan he first got there the bther army was too strong for him to attack, so he waited a great many years tilbmost of them died of old age Then he wont in and won the fight. That was the first time they ever rased strategy in war. Ho was the founder of Hannibal, bnfc w Yen he got home nearly all his people were dead, and being robbed of home ties he thought he might as well carry the war into Africa.

DEMOCRATIC JAPANESE EMPEROR. There is no barbaric splendor about the Japanese Emperor's court, nor does he insist oh fantastic forms of homage.. He is just a plain individual! His guests he receives standing, and he enters freely into conversation with all. There is scarcely a subject that does not interest him or one in which he is not well informed. A delightful host, it is his custom to Burround himself with clever men —men who are the shining lights of their professions. Engineers, artists, musicians, writers, soldiers, scientists—every class of person who has won distinction is welcome at the royal table, for it is one of the characters of his majesty that in the distribution. of his favors he is thoroughly impartial. Twice ajyear he and the empress give a large garden party, and on these occasions his majesty makes himself personally known to as many people as possible. HONOURS FOR PROVINCIAL LORD MAYORS. On' receiving the freedom of Dundee Sir John Leng, M P., regretted 'the nn- 1 justifiable slight passed on distinguished beads of great municipalities by entire withholding of titular honours from all except the Lord Mayors and Sheriffs cf London.' Sir John believed that 'at one time there were different intentions and proposals, but embarrassment arose from the number of applicants. Mr Laboucbere is good enough to tell us that he feels for the mayors who get nothing 'but a medal to hang round their necks, like prize oxen at'an agricultural show.' Perhaps (says 'The Outlook') the municipal knighthood has been overdone. But the decoration of provincial civic dignitaries has never reached the ridiculous so completely as has the customary distribution of titular largesse round the Mansion House. The Lord Mayor's ancient pocket-borough has not the slightest claim to rank with the far-reaching activities and complex efficiency of such a modern municipality as Glasgow, and it would be affectation to claim that the intellectual and administrative eminence of its head is as a rule of the same calibre as that of the men who rule the more progressive provincial cities.

ETIQUETTE OBSERVED. When Mark Twain lived in Buffalo he made the acquaintance of some neighbours under peculiar circumstances. Emerging from his house one morning, he saw something . which made him run across the street and remark to the people who were gathered on the verandah, 'My name is Clemens; my wife and I have been intending to call on you and mike your acquaintance. We owe you an apology for not doing it before now. I beg your pa-don for intruding on you in this informal manner, and at this time of day, but your bouse is on fire!' GLADSTONE AND IRVING. , • Mi Gladstone was a great admirer and never missed an opportunity of seeing Irving in one of his great characters. It chanced c that after being present at the first night of ' Ravens wood/ presented in September, 1390,1 bad occasion to post cff to Edinburgh to chronicle the proceedings in the penultimate Midlothian campaign. At dinner on the night of my arrival I had the good, fortune to find myself seated next to Mr Gladstone, says a writer m Chambers': Journal. It was a time .of great storm and stress in the political world. Mr Gladstone was leading . the attack upon the Government which resulted in their defat at the general election two years later. When he heard that I had been at the first night of 'Ravenswood' all other topics were set aside. He overwhelmed me with a torrent of questions as to how Irvmg had worked out particular episodes. I remembered he was particularly anxious to know how the final scene, where the hat of the drowned Bavenswood is found forlorn on the sands was staged. He told me that of all Ssott's novels he most admired • The Bride of Lammermoor.'

A POET'S COMPLIMENT. To move a poet to compliment a beautiful woman does not seem to be a difficult task. To move a Quaker to compliment the pretty gown of a pretty girl is a diffent matter It was rarely indeed that compliments of either kind were extracted from the poet of the Friends, Whittier, .fho, with all his keen appreciation of beauty, retained a Quakerly preference for simplicity in attire, and a Quakerly BhyneßS and reluotanoe to indulge in personal praise. Nevertheless, says the Youth's Companion, it waß recently related of him that onoe, seated on the piazza of a summer cottage, he was a silent listener to a discussion by a group of ladies of the coßtume worn by a girl who was crossing the lawn not far away. She had but just returned from abroad, and were one of her new Paris one. of those apparently simple^ * creations,' which to the knowing feminine eye are complex indeed. Many were the comments and admiring remarks upon its elegance and style as she floated past among the greenery in gauzy cloud of rose and faint bine. J " ' At length, to clobs the conversation, one of the ladies laughingly appealed to Mr Whittier for his opinion} adding. how : ever, i hat she supposed he would disdain to have one on such a matter. ' •No,' said the poet, looking benevolently after the radiant young beauty 5 and with a poetical reference to the flower-like fade, he added,« Truly I think that young lady's petals are exquisitely fringed {and tinted.