PERSONAL NOTES.

Otago Witness, Issue 2808, 8 January 1908, Page 86

PERSONAL NOTES.

— Francis Joseph, the aged Emperor of Ausfcria,-Hungary, Is the only living sovereign who can boast of having led' an army in actual combat with an enemy. It was a few months before the accession of Francis Joseph, in 1848, that he turned the fortunes of the day at the bloody battle of Santa Lucia by a magnificent cavalry charge led in person by the ' then 19-year-old Archduke. His dragoons crashed through the squares of the Sardinians, and captured the guns which all the day long had poured a murderous fire into the Austrian rarks. He escaped without a scratch, though men fell like flies around him. —It is probably not universally that the King is a Presbyterian in Scotland by law. The Act of Union stipulated that in Scotland the Sovereign must be a member of the church established there. On the Scottish side of the Border everyone who is not a member of the Church of Scotland is a Dissenter. To obviate this most members! of the Scottish aristocracy who are Protestants or Anglicans in England worship according to Presbyterian formula while residing on their Caledonian e6tates. The family of Lord Strathmore is an exception, being strongly High Church, and so is that of Lord Aberdeen, which is ardently Church of Scotland. Lord Haddo, it may be remembered, afforded almost the only instance of a future peer who married according to Presbyterian rites in London.

—As one watches Mr Oscar Asche in the character of Jacques at -His Majesty's Theatre, London, where Shakespeare's "A 6 You Like It" has been so splendidly produced, it is difficult to imagine the popular actor earning a. livelihood by rounding up cattle in the Australian bushr Yet two years of his life were spent on an Australian cattle station after leaving the Melbourne Grammar School, where"* he -was educated. Afterwards Mr Asche tried to settle down to the humdrum life" of a clerk in a wine office in Sydney. Two weeks of this was sufficient, and it is probable that he would have gone back to the cowboy's saddle had not his mother, who was a Norwegian; allowed him to go to Norway to study for the stage under Hansen, the producer of Ibsen plays. From there Mr Asche found hh way into Mr Benson's company, where he first met hie charming wife, Miss Lily Brayton, the new Rosalind. — The Crown Prince of Germany has become a junior clerk in one of the departments of the Ministry of the Interior. He to<* his seat one morning on stool at a desk at 9 o'clock, like other clerks in the department, and remained at work with the regulation intervals until 6 o'clock in the evening. For 12 months he will apply himself to a thorough etudy of .the work of this important Ministry, and will be subject to exactly the same discipline as the civil servants who share his labours. This step has been taken at the Crown Princess personal request. During the year of his apprenticeship he has been absolved from all military duties. The intricacies of Prussian internal administration are the despair of German statesmen, but the Orown Prince has set liimself the task of mastering them in all their details, and for this purpose has started in the lowest rank. He will work his- way up through all the grades of the Civil Service. — There is no-more ardent disciple of tho simple life than General Booth, whose health has been causing so nruob. anxiety of late. He neither" smokes, nor drinks, md for several years he has been practically a vegetarian, not as a matter of principle, but because he find 3 that it suits him. He always, if possible, takes a. short rest after his midday dinner, but apart from this siesta the old General is constantly at work from 8 in the morning till about 11 at night. While, however, he lives 'a life of Spartan simplicity, the General devotes a certain amount of attention io personal details which would surprise some. He is careftil that his clothes are dry, and that he docs not stand in a draught while speaking at his meetings. An assistant has travelled with him for many years, who sees to it thai when the General goes on the platform the conditions are right in all respects. General Booth has learned by experience that it is the little trials and nerve strains that take more out of Him than the big — Aihough the old office of King's Jester has been abolished, there are still several privileged friends of his Majesty who may presume to be merry on almost any occasion, and the King rarely travels unless one of tnem accompanies him. While in Balmoral, Sir Hedworth Williamson was almost his constant companion, and he kept

him thoroughly amused. Sir Hedworth has a "pretty wit," he knows every new story on the tapis, and has a way of seeing- things that is quaintnese itself. He never turns up on a visit to- the palace without bringing a budget of new yarns. Sir Hedworth, who is a well-known figure at' Boodle's and Brook's, where he gathers much good ma.terial, is the eighth baronet of a creation, /of 1642. He was the life and soul of Eton during his residence,, and he was extremeiy popular at Christ Church, Oxford, where ho took his M.A. He is also a D.L. He has tried "Volunteering, the Diplomatic service, and the exacting duties of Parliamentary representation, distinguished himself in each. x — Although the various members of tho Vanderbilt- family have little more to do than spend the fortunes founded for then* by the famous "Commodore," they aie by no means lacking^inthe keen, business acumen v^Wch that gentleman showed during his lifetime. Here is a story about Mr W. K. Vanderbilt, jun., the elder son of "W. X.," tha present head of the Vanderbilfi family, which- goes" to prove this assertion:. Near his New Hampstead residence ha coveted a little lake, for which he offered the town authorities £10,000. The authorities declined the offer, however, and, „no£ unnJndful perhaps of whom they, were dealing with, stuck out for £20,000. Where-; upon Mr Vanderbilt quietljr bought up all the land immediately adjoining the lake, and so cut it off from its astonished owners. They may look across the intervening strip of soil at the mocking waters, but they cannot reach them without trespassing on Van- - derbilt land — or -employing a balloon. 1 — The King, prior to leaving Balmoral on his last,, visit,' sent for his Edinburgh jeweller, and laid in a large stock of .Sootr, tish gems'. Cairngorms of lustrous golden hue And amethysts of perfect violet attracted his attention for the most part, and he bought * many brooches, pendants, and— pins ,of these, set about . with fair-sized. ' diamonds. There were .other jewels to be given to those railway and other officials whose duty and delight it was to show the Sovereign attention on his arrival and departure. The King is an exceedingly generous giver, and never acts upon the idea that any present from him is certain to be valued, however small its intrinsic worth. The Scottish pebble jewellery is' very pretty, and set as only "Edinburgh jewellers know how to set it; ft is greatly valued by the King's relatives abroad, and even more esteemed by his American friends at home. His Majesty makes a point of never forgetting birthdays, the comings of age of his god-children, and the marriage of such young people as /are fortunate enough; to enjoy his friendship, '"and a respectable annual income — aome £10,000 or so — is swallowed" up by these and his Christmas offerings. ■ —Mr T. P. O'Connor, M.P., writes in P.T.O. of October 26:— Mr BirreJl is mv the Chief Secretary's Lodge in Phoenix Park, Dublin. I was only /once in thg Chief Secretary's Lodge — it was -'n the days when Mr Morley ,was Chief (Secretary. Ife .is a pretty residence, in a nook in that beautiful Phoenix Park — the one real rural park in. the cities. of the world where for miles you can wander without catching -a glimpse of the town^or its streets or/emoko or tumult, with great spreading trees and magnificent' spaces and distances, and here and, there a building belonging to some member of the Government, and. eloo]uenc with some memorial of the tragedies of Irish annals. And yet when I sat in the dining room of the Chief Secretary's Ledge, with all its oharm of silence and' retreat! and rusticity, I could not help feeling that it was a. building which had seen sadder and more anxious hearts than most real-" dences — even of officials and sovereigns. The same thought occurred- simultaneously to Mr Morley, who spoke Tny thoughts aloud' in saying that many a man must:' have paced that room with sickness and despair and forebodings in his heart. at this moment, dwells one of the kindliest and most charming o f men, the nresen'ti Chief Secretary, bringing to his difficult, if not impossible, task openness of mind, readiness of sympathy, and the goodwill of everybody, not excluding his strong poll* tical opponents-. -With all his keen sense of humour and 1 his inclination to look at the 6unny side of life, Mr Birrell takes his politics if anything too seriously. Ho has grown a good deal thinner and" a good deal older since he became Minister and. often he looks as if his- nervous systenx could scarcely bear the strain. The real truth is that he has never quite recovered the terrible prdeal of steering the abortive Education Bill through the House of CV-n-mons. . It may seem an easy thing to carry a /bill through the House of Commons. Nor" body thinks so who ever did it, or -tried to, do it, especially if it be a bill on whicbi, there is so much 'divergence of opinion among friends as well as- foes &a the Education Bill. There was -not a', night when Mr Bifrell was not' worried much more by tho extremists of his own eide than by his ot;en v political enemies on the other, and oftea lie found himself in the position of having: to defend what he knew to be difficult to. defend. ' And then the alternations of liopa and despair which, came in such rapid succession and in such bewildering confusion^ at _the end of the struggle— all this must have been a terrible drain on the nervous strength, and I am not cure that Mr Birrell has ever quite shaken off the incubus of these trying hours. It was only his courage and his strong sense of public duty which could have induced him .to take upsuch an office as that of the Chief Secretaryship. I am sure I wish him well u» his task. - „