LADIES' GOSSIP.

Otago Witness, Issue 2815, 26 February 1908, Page 73

LADIES' GOSSIP.

— An exceedingly interesting couple are I Lord and Lady Craven. The former, who has just celebrated his thirty-ninth birthday, is not only a first-rate shot, but also a poultry fancier, a breeder of game-cocks, and an expert ivory turner. It is possible that Lady Craven, who was formerly Mies Cornelia Martin, a daughter of Bradley Martin, the famous American lawyer, first interested her husband in poultryfarming. \ In fancy water-fowl her ladyship is a connoisseur. Her birds have won the favour of the most expert fanciers. Every ornamental duck-breeder fears conipetition with Lady Craven's multi-coloured

mandarins, Carolinaa, and Bahamas. She was the first exhibitor of the handsome buff-laced Wyandotte, a variety that leaped into celebrity during the first 12 months! of its existence.

— Mrs Russell Sage, wife of . the late millionaire T is a victim of one of the i worst social plagues known, in America. Under one- pretext "or another, persons seeking money keep up a perpetual siege of .her home, so that it has become unsafe for Kar to step outside iher own door except under the surveillance of a guard. Secretly rebelling against her enforced incarceration, she went out early one morning to take a stroll in her garden. She was' startled by the voice' of a 6trange woman, who stepped from behind a tree. Talking rapidly* and In wild tones, the visitor appealed to Mrs Sage to assist her with a novel scheme of her own invention to make a fortune. Mrs Sage's servants quickly appeared on 4ne scene and dissuaded the stranger from further importuning. %r Every published mention, of Mrs Sage's name, even the slightest," said ail intimate friend of hers the other day, " brings a perfect flood of letters and begging requests. Mrs Sage is simply driven to keep refuge lit, -the safety; of her hojn« continually. Even driving about the quieb, beautiful country roads of her home is qnite out of the question/ j So jpersistent are the visitors to the little town where she* lives that a guard has been posted at the statiofl. Whenever he hears anyone inquire for Mrs Sage's home |te promptly inquires their business, thus heading off •would-be Intruders. "I£ J^ certain," said Mr* Sage'f fnenJ, v tha> the ranaindes at her Ufe wilt be th solitary confinement in fiet country of town/vomev Her eapstencd i$ rendered mW*ablf_ whenever she ventures outsit ?f .tfc. Wecef sfiofo travel 4 {£ would be ust the same. .Persons Watch her every movement and lie La wait for any, possible opportunity to ge* a w.ord with hep, never seeming -to re^tfee how -utterly bopeless tueu mission \s* Mns Sagefe Jteaiti <lif pocket-book c&ft never be) xeacbea 61 tlus tfibnted ovef iw? tP'TU^Tyjt m| £liari&i€3" ejaoi Jair. hue.6an4s o«athj*