Personalities.

Alexandra Herald and Central Otago Gazette, Issue 386, 1 October 1903, Page 7

Personalities.

MUSICAL PRODIGY. SHPKHE Kaiser and Kaiserin were much §sm interested in a musical pridigy (JS&* who has arrived at Berlin from Madrid. This child, called Pepito Arriola, is six years old, and is said' to be a complete master of the piano and deeply versed in harmony and counterpoint. He has personally presented the Kaiser with a march of bis own composition, his Majesty having accepted the child's dedication. The Kaiaer says the march is admirable, and has promised Pepito that his trumpeters shall practice it. The Kaiserin has also been presented with a Spanish dance composed by Pepito. Musical Berlin is in raptures over the child's precocious peniu?. FAMOUB LITTLE MEN. The following are a few of the men of small stature who have done great things: Napoleon, Hannibal, C«c*ar, Charlemagne, Wellington, William of Orange, Earl Roberts, Dawey, Admiral Nelson, Alexander the Great, Frederick the Oreat, Shakespeare, Pope, Balzac, Keats, Voltaire, Wagner, Mozart, Chopin, Beethoven, Rubinstein, Schubert, Liszt, Paderewski, Haydn and Weber. THE PENALTy"oF FAME. Mr. Rudyard Kipling was so pestered with sightseers at his house at Rottingdean—people used to climb on to the wall to peep into the author's garden—that hj has had to move to a more secluded part of England. Hi? house is in the Barwash Valley, near Tunbridge Wells. The house Is called ' Bateman'B,' and it is three miles from a railway station. This should suit the novelist. The house dates from 1834, and is a good specimen of the Jacobean period, with mullioned windows, a handsome paved hall, and massive oak staircases. THE OLDEST LEGISLATOR. Senator Wark, who is a member of the Canadian Parliament, and who expects this year to attend his legislative duties, as he has annually for over half a century, is probably the oldest legislator in the world. He is in his one hundredth year, and has been one of the legislators for the province of New Brunswick for upwards years. He was an old man when the provinces were confederated into the Dominion. 'SUPERIORITY WITHOUT PATRONAGE. Dr. Thompson, Master of Trinity, was walking with Mr. Merival one day at Kisaingen when a befurred and most dis-tinguished-looking personage passed them (writes Mr. Merivale in his volume of reminiscences), and saluted the Master with a courteous freedom. ' Just what I was saying,' D*. Thompson remarked when he was gone. ' You and I couldn't have done it like that. Superiority without patronage. So thoroughly affable' 'What is he?' I said, 'a Russian nobleman ?' * No; he's my courier.' A DAVIDSON STORY. A good story of the new Archbishop and his father-in-law, .the late Archbishop Tait, to whom Dr. Davidson acted as private secretary for some years, is going the round. Dr. Tait, who never wrote a letter without consulting somebody about it, spoke with unconscious frankness to Dr. Davidson as to the exact help which such alvice really gave: 'I have been more than twenty years a bishop,' said the Primate, ' anfl I have never, if I could help it, written .a single letter of importance without giving it to someone to pick holts in. And the silliest people are often the best critics. S> pray take the draft I have'given jou, and let me know in half an hour what you think of it 1' Dr. Randall Davidson once remarked that he possessed no special preaching gifts. He was a great admirer of Spurgeon's powers in this direction. His own sermons are sometimes read, «nd at other times entirely extempore. THE SULTAN OF MOROCCO. In an interesting article on the reigning house of Morocco, the ' Heraldo,' of Madrid, points out that Malai Abd-el-Az : z the present Saltan, has seven uncles (his father's brothers) living, and no fewer than 51 half-brothers of his cwn. Mulai Hassan, his father, had, it seem 3, 21 wives and slaves, who bore him 57 children, the present Sultan being the youngest of them all, Abd-el-Aziz's comparatively gentle, refined and inquiring nature is ascribed to the Circassian blood he has inherited from his mother. She was a slave of the Circassian race, named Laila R'kia, and was purchased in Constantinople in 1875 by some dignitary of Tetuan, who presented her to Malai Hassan. She was then scarcely 20 years of age, extremely beautiful, an expert dancer and singer, and possessed of much acumen, if one may judge by the great inflaenca which she soon acquired with her master, and the elevation of her son to the throne, in his 16th year, over the heads of 51 elder brothem , .

The rightful heir was, of coarse, the famous 'one-eyed' Khalifa, Mnlai Mohammed, who appears to hava been lately released from confinement and placed in command of the troops at Fez. Mohammed the eldest of all Mulai H issau's children, is said by the 'Heraldo' to be a remarkably good soldier, bnt in his earliest years, prior to his confinement in which be was placed, not by his brother, the present Sultan, as has been currently stated, but, for peculation, by his father, Mulai Hassan—he repeatedly gave proof of a cruel, sanguinary and corrupt disposition, in such wise that bis failure to secure the" throne was really a blessing for Morocco. It is held that a reign of violence and bloodshed would certainly en£U9 if he should ever replace Abd-el-Azlz, Dub some Spanish authorities incline to the opinion that if the latter were to die at the present time several of his brothers would rise as pretenders, and that Morocco would be plunged into perfect Anarchy.

big black Bei;hbcms aud raakcß fun of them after they hare gone. Evidently the writer is angry with the United States for Bending the cakowalk to Europe, for he says:—' Last: year there was exhibited at the South Kensington Museum the. art treasures which Mr. J. Pierpoat Morgan bought of Mannhoira, the collector. There were thirteen cases fu T l of these magnificent pieces of silver, enamel, and faience. At the same time one could see at the Guildhall other works of art for the Morgan police, while at Cherbourg and at Havre priceless pictures were being transported to America. And for theao treasures what does America bring us P The cakewalk.' A USEFUL TREE. : The Australian eucalyptus tree "hat been naturalised in America, and there are now towering groves of oucalyptns in Arizona and Mexico as well. The great value of the eucalyptus lies in its remarkably quick growth from the seed to the full-sized tree. • Traveller a in Australia have brought back accounts of enormous native eucalyptus. There was a record of one prostrate ancient forest giant of the blua gum variety, measuring, with allowances for the lost top, 550 feet. There are more than 150 kinds of eucalyptus which resemble each ether though differing widely in size, height, general outline, and in appearance of leaf and bark. This tree is planted for forest cover for naked hill-sides, as wind-breaks and hedges; the -timber is valuable, the wood and leaves make excellent fuel, and from the latter 3B made the drug which is so extensively employed in medicine and surgeiy. The blossoms, too, supply honey, supposed to possess specially hygienic properties. PRESIDENT CASTRO'S HUMOUR. i Recent occurrences in regard to Venezuela give point to a little story told by President Castro, who teems to hVve a keen sense of humour, A certain wealthy South American died without a will. His disappointed heirs expeetant thereupon conspired with a notary. A string was tied round the dead man's neck, and the notary proceeded to requ'st his assent to the bequests agreed upon by the c n■spirators. 'You leave your cattle to Maximo, your house to Marie, your coffee to Jose ?' At each of these questions the string was palled, and a nod was obtained from the corpse. Then the notary mentioned a bequest to himself, but tho holder of the string did not pull. The authentic story was nairated in Caracas the other day by President Ca?tro. ' The notary's exclamation/ concluded the Venezuelan President, 'accurately describes an existing international situation. Threatening to tear up the document, he cried, ' Oh! the string must be pulled for everybody, er there will be no will.' DIVORCE IN TURKEY. The wives of the Turks erj iy certain prerogatives. Here is one of taem. Bath money forms an item in every marriage contract, the husband engaging to allow his wife a certain sum for bathing purposes. Should it bo withheld, she has only to go before the cadi and turn her slipper upside dowu, and if the complaint has not been redressed it is a ground for divorce. The want of a bath-tub as pretext for divorce would be laughed out of the courts of our own enlightened country. TO SCHOOL BY MOTOR-CAR. Parisians are sending their children to school by motcr-car nowadays; at least, the 'Side' tells us that the motor-car has been experimentally in use for that purpose in the French capital for some months past. Ever since last summer the Esole Lacordaire has been running an automobile omnibrs daily to bring people to school and to take them home again. Altogether, the daily run has averaged about sixty miles, and the results have been so good that the system is to be extended to other schools.