ENGLISH ITEMS.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3144, 26 July 1881, Page 4

ENGLISH ITEMS.

As a member of the French diplomatic body was recently travelling to Teheran to join his legation there, he was seized by a body of brigands, who put his uniform on their chief and turned the fillings of his dreesmg-bag (he was a great Parisian dandy) into useful and ornamental articles of various kinds, according as their fancy suggested. The only thing they could make nothing of was the "Pomade Hongroise." The unfortuuate Frenchman, on being asked what it was, could only reply in Persian, " Butter." The brigands at once tasted the compound, and concluding a practical joke had been intended, they forced their prisoner at a sword's point to eat the whole of the six pots he had brought with him ; and having completely rifled his baggage and pockets, left him to complete his journey more dead than alive. A touching story comes from St. Petersburg, and as it comes from different sources W £ ,? re i led t0 cons ider it partly, if not •wholly, true. It appears that the Princess Dolgorouki was remarkable lor the beauty and abundance of her hair, and the Court legend tells us that, like many other great men, Alexander 11. had been caught in this filet d'amour, which, according to old Marot the poet, captures the souls of men. The Emperor's admiration for the tresses of the Princesa was so great that he often said to

her, " If I die first I shall resb all the easier if that; hair lies with me in my coffin," The impression upon the mind o£ the Princess was so vivid that at the very moment the news of the Emperoi*'s death had readied her, she cut off with her own hands tho rich abundance of her tresses, and enclosed them in a sealed packet directed to the Empress, with a humble request that the late Emperor's desire might he fulfilled. The Czarina's gentle and affectionate heart was moved to the core by the sacrifice and request, and it is well known amongst the ladies of the Court that the white satin pillow upon which reposed tho head of the late Czar contained this last- token of love and romembranco from the Princess Dolgorouki. The Empress of Germany received for a Christmas-box from the Empress of Japan a couple of Japanese dogs, which made a great sensation on their first appearance at court. They somewhat resemble the King Charles spaniel, but their ears are short, their foreheads are very broad, and their noses snubby. Unlike their masters, their eyes are very large and bi-ight, and, what is very remarkable, they grow with their owner until they are are as large as a twoshillirg piece. There hair is long and silky, pure white, with coal-black heads, and a few black spots on their bodies. Their chief food is boiled rice. Their Imperial owner once commissioned the celebrated painter Sperling, to take then* portraits. The members of the Canine Club, Berlin, have held many grave consultations as to the breed to which the little strangers belong, but own themselves fairly puzzled. Tho Russian Imperial family live at Gratschina in almost bourgeois simplicity, the Empi'ess's Danish servants wait upon them almost exclusively, and are the only ones allowed to enter the apartments of the Imperial coupla. A remarkable story in this respect may find a place here to show how the Emperor, formerly supposed to be ultra-Russian, must have changed in his sentiments. A young Danish officer of old nobility, who, when a child, owing to the simple habits prevalent in the royal Danish household, had frequently and freely played with the Princesses Dagmar and Thyra, took a furlough on hearing of the murderous attempt at Alexander 11. and went to Russia in order to offer his services to the young Empress, his former playmate, The Empress received him at the last audience given at the Anitschkow Palace, and with eyes red with weeping, said to him : " I thank you cordially for your kind and well-meant offer, which touches me deeply. Still I dare not accept it, for Russia cannot possibly please you, and I advise you to desist and go home again." But the young Dane insisted nevertheless, and the Empress finally promised him to speak to the Czar. The next day the officer received the Imperial patent as officer attached to his personal suite, not to the Court, because a place at Court is too dangerous for faithful adherents just at present. Alexander 111., since bis accession to the throne, has more than once, by word as well as deed, acknowledged his trust in the honesty and reliability of his subjects of German origin, whom for years he was supposed to detest. The following smart answer to a swell of yachting fame was given by a young lady while the pair were having a quiet row up the Thames one fine evening last week. He asked her if she would be willing to row with him in the same boat for life. To this the lady replied, "Yes, on one condition—that I steer, and you do all the rowing." It is stated that the Grand Duke Mtchael possesses estates in the province of Pultova exceeding 150,000 acres, and yielding a net income of £40,000 a year. This sum is largely due to the exertions of a model German steward, who pays the farm labourers fifteen copecks for working fifteen hours a day, or at the rate of one copeck per hour. The value of the rouble just now being twenty-five pence, this represents exactly a farthing an hour, or 3f d a day. N"o wonder Nihilism is rife among the Grand Duke's starving farm labourers, and that the steward has to be protected wherever he goes by Cossacks and police. The reason for Mr Gladstone's hesitancy to relinquish the office of Chancellor of the Exchequer is suggested by the talk about the conversion of Consols into 2§ per Cent. Stock. The price now verges on 103. If they maintain their disposition to keep at this tiptop price, the temptation to lower the interest will become a necessity, and this is one of those operations which Mr Gladstone would undoubtedly desire to be associated with. The difference between 2| and 3 per cent, in interest means several millions, and it suggests the manner in which the income-tax might be abolished. A correspondent in a communication to the Daily News, encloses a letter from a gentleman who accompanied the sons of the Prince of Wales on their recent visit to Cetewayo. In his account of the visit this gentleman writes : —" With the two young princes he was more direct. After the usual formal courtesies and change of photographs, the two boys rose and expressed a wish to see Cetewayo's wives. ' Stay, my children,' said the ex-King, with a dignified wave of the hand, ' I have a word to say. Do you see that picture ?' pointing to a print of the Queen. c I think much when I look on that. You are the gi-andsons of that lady. I wish you to give her a message from me. I have been long down here ;no one has yet told me what wrong I have committed, nor given me an opportunity of answering for my conduct. Ido not know that I ever committed any wrong against the English. Yet they have taken me prisoner, and keep me here, and give no reasons. Tell your grandmother this, and say that when this war is over (the war in the Transvaal) I would ask her to let me visit England.' "