INTERESTING ITEMS.

King Country Chronicle, Volume V, Issue 340, 25 February 1911, Page 2

INTERESTING ITEMS.

Japanese inns furnish fresh toothbrushes every morning free to each guest.

R. Wootton, the racehorse trainer, is known as "Old Man Wootton," to distinguish him from bis two brilliant sons, Frank and Stanley, the jot-keys.

The King's jockey always rides in plain black jacket and sacrlet cap, and these colours will grace King George's jockeys when he commences ot run his late father's horses on the turf.

A story comes from Reading, which has been represented in the House since 100-1 by Sir Rufus Isaacs, K.C. During a Scripture lesson a teacher asked "Who was Abraham's son?" To which a small boy promptly replied "Please, sir, Rufus Isaacs!"

Mr J. Gordon Bennett, owner of the "New York Ilerald," lives in Paris, yet keeps in such close touch by cable with the editorial offices in New York that he knows just exactly what is being done in each department. He spends every year what most people would consider a fortune on cables.

P. F. Warner, the famous cricketer, is an enthusiasstic Territorial, and as an ollicer he spends much of his time at this period of the year looking after the interests of his local corps at Brasted. Hon. F. S. Jackson is another cricketer "Terrier," being a member of the Yorkshire Yeomanry. Count Kraft Donnersmarck, the second son of Prince Hcnckel von Donnersmarck, is working as a collier in one of the mines belonging to his father in Silesia. Prince Henckel von Donnersmarck is one of the richest men in Germany, and owns many mines, iron and steel works, and other industrial establishments in Silesai.

The King of Spain has directed that music shall be included in the Government's subsidies to art. The 3um of £2OOO has been granted in prizes—half to the best orchestra on condition that it gives ten concerts in the ensuing twelve months, the programme of each to contain a work by a Spanish composer, and half for the encouragement of native musicians.

It is to Mr Winston Churchill that we owe the wittiest summing-up of a Parliamentary candidate: "He is asked to stand, he wants to sit, and he is expected to lie." Mr Churchill is also credited with the conundrum: "What is the difference between a candidate and an M.P.?" To which he supplied the answer: "One stands for a place and the other sits for it." One day Lord Roseberry was playing golf on the St. Andrews links, and something familiar about his face atti acted the attention of a visitor from the colonies, who was playing not far behind him. The colonial turned to his caddie and asked: "Who's that in front?" "Dae ye no ken him?" asked the caddie in the greatest surprise. "Man, that's Roseberry. Him and me's the best o' freens. This is a pair o' his aul' breeks I've got on the noo!"

The Earl of Hardwicke recently mentioned that he was for ten years engaged in mining engineering, and for two of those years worked as an ordinary miner. Thirteen years ago he was working on the night-shift on a 3 000 ft level, on union wages, in a gold mine at Montana, in the United States, He was known as "Charlie," and as "No. 126" to the management. He added that he knew- a duka v.'ho worked in his garden every day, and who had muscles on him good as a Billingsgate fish-porter. The Duke of Connaught has a peculiar dislike to slovenliness in personal attire. To a"young officer who apologised for the state of his sword upon inspection the Duke said; "Your excuse is so good that you must be an old offender, sir." "Sold tea, eh?" he repeated, in his hard voice, when a subaltern's grandfather's business was laughed over at an officers' mess. "Well, that's not so bad as a grandfather who sold promotions." The words were spoken in the presence of a general whose grandfather had been notoriously venal.

The Prince of Monaco is one of the most interesting personalities in Europe. He is a millionaire, drawing ample resources from the Casino at Monte Carlo, the authorities uf which pay him about £70,000 a year for permission to run the place. And, like the Duke of Abruzzi, he has frequently lectured before learned societies; for the Prince is an authority on marine biology, and over a score of volumes record the results of his deepsea dredging. At Monte C.'arlo lie has built an oceapogranhical museum, at a cost of £;j00,000, which is the largest of it 3 kind in the world.

A3 a boy M. Auguste Rodin, the greatest living sculptor, ran about the streets of Paris unkempt and uncared for, depending for a livelihood on the charity of passers-by, and performing sundry errands for artists of the Latin quarter. His first permanent occupation was that of mixing clay for a new famous sculptor. It was during these days that he developed a love for modelling. lie was twenty-two when he exhibited his first statue, "The Man With the Broken Nose," which was so realistically done that the judges of the Paris Bulon accused him of having cast it from a living model.

In his early days Sir William /utol apprenticed himself to a blacksmith, and it was the clang of anvil and the sight of the sparks which inspired him with that love of engineering which led him to become the world's greatest bridge-builder. Both the Forth and the Tay bridges were the result of his genius. He is the hero of one of the greatest Parliamentary hustles on record. When he was an M.P. he sat in the House all day, travelled during the night to Ayrshire to marry Miss Ilodgart, his second wife, and left Scotland in time to vote for the Government on Mr Chamberlain's fiscal proposals of 100-5.