Notes and Events.

Manawatu Herald, 5 March 1892, Page 2

Notes and Events.

In the Young Man is an Interesting description of Mri ; Gladstone's daily life. This is how he reads [books: — It is more tsat f pf- the tortoise than the hare. 'He cannot read rapid'j, nor; has he ever acquired the line art of skipping. But he is not slow to discover , whether the book is worth reading, 'andif hot, after a few pages it is east aside, though as a general rule his judgy-y ment is lenient. Scott is still to him king of novelists ;: and /among the modern novels that have struck him, he places Baring Gould's " Mehalah " very high for force" and originality, and Bovrgel> ..., ?.!f Le Disciple " as a p3ychologioal study. " Mark Twain " Mr S. L. Clemen*

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went on the now well known cruise of the Quaker Ci'y. Among his fellow passengers was a young man who became his close friend. That young man had a beantiful sister who in her Western home read in her brother's letters of the wise arid witty friend who was helping fed ruake lite cheerful and profitable -luring hia long wanderings What uioie natural than that when the royage was ended the kind friend should be introduced into the family, and why should he not love the beautiful sister? In a little more "than two years from the time he had declared life a failure and his heart a " burnt-out crater," the announcement of Mark Twain's marriage was heralded from Maine to California.

Professor Walter H. Smith, who has the reputation of being the best and most trustworthy weather .prophet in Canada, predicts a very severe winter in Bnrope. •

Any members of the Bachelors' Club in Jt'ngland Who marries is obliged to pay a forfeit of £25 to the institution, and Mr Wilson, of the Horse Guards, who recently married Lady Sarah Spencer-Churchill, was the last bachelor against whom this quaint; clause was put in force.

Every one (says the Upholsterer) has heard of i^arah Bernhardt's curious bed, which is like no other one to be seen in France or elsewhere. It is nearly fifteen foet broad, and when tha fascinating Sarah is indisposed and receives her intimate* friends, reposing on her pouch, she looks like a rod-plnmaged bird floating on a great sea of white sntin,

The Hamburg Law Courts have n nice question to decide. An old gentleman left 20,000 crowns each to his manservant and cook, on condition that, if either married, the whole sum should go to the one who remained single. The servants married each other, and secured the whole 40,000 crowns. A relative, who disapproves of this 'cuteness, now seeks to overthrow the will and obtain the return of the money, on the ground that by the servants marrying they have defeated the intention of the will. One would imagine that the servants ought to be allowed to keep the money for their ingenuity.

J^ " Whitaker's Almanack "is onmi- ~ potent, ifc seeing as well as infallible, as will be seen by the following quaint note in the Bookseller : — Whitalcer's Almanack, 1892. — In consequence of the indisposition of tho editor, and tbe sudden death oi his sub-editor and chief assistant, the Almanack cannot be issued before Monday, the 21st inst. Arrangements have already been made to prevent any repetition of such an occurrence, and in future the Almanack will be issued the first week in December.