INTERESTING ITEMS.

King Country Chronicle, Volume V, Issue 326, 7 January 1911, Page 6

INTERESTING ITEMS.

The Duke of Bedford is one of the largest landowners in England. In addition to his vast country estates he owns most of "the little back rooms in Bloomsbury," where so many young men find convenient lodgings. At Woburn, where his place is situated, the Duke, of course, is a very big man. It is said that it> the time of the Duke who died in 1802 it was the custom for the curate at Wobuin, on reaching the prayer for the nobility, to turn to the ducal pew and add with a profound bow, "more especially for the noble Duke to whom I am indebted for my curacy." A story comes from America about John D. Rockfeller, the famous millionaire. As is well known, Mr Rockfeller is exceedingly careless about his personal appoarane, and his clothes are a scoff and a by-word-in New York. One day a friend of his took him to task about it and suggested that he ought to try and dress better. "I am surprised," he said, "that you should allow yourself to get so shabby." "But I'm not shabby !" protested the millionaire. "o'n, you are, you know. Everybody says so. And yet your father was always neatly dressed. His clothes always looked nice." "Why," cried Mr Rockfeller, triumphantly, "these clothes I've got on were my father's!"

Concerning the time when he was singing in " Tannhauser" with the Moody Manners Company in Birmingham, Mr Joseph O'Mara, the wellknwon singer, tells an amusing story. Two young folk, apparently lovers, were heard to speak in high terms of the pcvi'evmancc of Mr O'Mara on hi;-; dummy lr.rj> with the five strings. Neither hail the leant notion that the music came from the prosaic person '*in another place," and rO the wordy ran from the lips of the girl: "My, 'ow beautiful he played that 'aip!'" To which tiie young man, who had to maintain his position as a niptrior person of information, replied: "Yes; 'e is reckoned one of the best 'arpers in England"' Regarding Senhor Theophile Brag a, thentw Portuguese President, some say he is a strong man and others that he is wt-iik, possibly because he is a savant and poet. lie lias written four volumes of poems, and a fete was held in his honour in Pairs some three or four years ago, at which Anatole France presided. When two of his daughters died some lime ago he composed a poem which has become a classic in Portugal, tie is noted aa t'ne most shabbily-dressed man in Lisbon, anil is said to still wear a coat his grandfather wore. Although a staunch Republican, Senhor Braga detests violence. He is novV sixtyseven years of age,