CLIPTOMANLIA.

Te Aroha News, Volume II, Issue 86, 24 January 1885, Page 5

CLIPTOMANLIA.

There ara in England 11,376 women who teach music, and 14,170 men. The dude contingent has increased in numbers at Koster * Bial's, San Fraaciico, since the arrival there of Miss Marie Loftuf , The Nbvellos, owners of, Gounod's •• Re-. demption," have bought " Mors e# Vita," Gounod's latest work, for £4,000, Mr Philip Armour, the Chicago Pork King, is credited with a fortune of £25,000,000, just enough to by the entire kingdom of Greece. From the diary of Lord Malmesbury — "Disraeli was at table breakfasting, and seemed rather low. When asked what was the matter, he said the Queen had sent him her last book." It is stated that the private fortune of the late Duke of Brunswick— forty-eight million marks (£2,400,000)— wi1l go to the Duke of Gumberland. If Mesdames Ristori and Fanny Kemble look into Lord Malmesbury 's diverting memoirs, they must, as two old actresses possessing a keen sense of the ludicrous, smile at the ex-Minister's blunt opinions as to their personal appearance when they were comparatively young women. Perhaps a feminine revenge has been forestalled by them in their memoirs. Possibly la I Marchesa del Grillo has pended her estimate of Lord Hardwicke's guests. " Are you the Rev. Dr. B. ?" a young man inquired of a citifcen in me street. Vj " No, sir j but I am frequently taken forhinu' We resemble each other closely. I am a lawyer, and make a speciality of divorce cases. Has your object in finding' the Rev. Dr. B. any connection with matrimony ?" ' " Well, yes," the young man blush irtgly acknow-' ledged. "H'tn, I thought 'so. Jutt put that card where you won't lose it." * The Waldteufel whose death has juat been announced in the papers, is not the Waldteufel, but his father. In this case, however, just as when a few months ago the great waltz- writer'" brother died, we have been treated to long obituary notices of the composer of the " Manolo." Itcloea not often fall to the lot even of a musical celebrity to be killed off by the press twice in the space of six months. "Truth" is surprisei that no mention has been .made in the numerous notices on Sir Moses Montefiore of an act which did him the highest honour. Many years ago, owing to circumstances over which he had no control, he failed in business* Havtag subsequently made money, he called together all his creditors, and presented them with the amounts due to them/with interest at the rate of 5 per cent., calculated from the day on which the debt was incurred. The awful death of the celebrated American actor, Frank Chanfrau, has been but briefly alluded to here. He was just about to begin dinner at an hotel. He had .w ith a party of friends been discussing the calamity which had befallen John McCuilough, and had just remarked with a high, 14 Ah, well, boys, my turn will come next," when he fell down stricken with paralysis. He di.d during the night, three hours before his wife could arrive to take a last farewell. — " Figaro." Yet another country has got the start of us in th 6 matter of telephonic communication. A service of public telephones was opened la?t week bet\* een all the principal towns in Belgium. All in Brussels, for instance, can tilk with others in Antwerp, after seven o'clock in the morning, at the rate of twopence for five minute?. From nine in the evening till ?even in the morning the tariff is doubled — out of consideration, no doubt, to (he greater importance of conversations carried on between those hours. The Crown Princess of Sweden's newly, constructed dress is worthy of special description. It is a gown of soft pink satin, veiled in long folds of tulle from the wnist. At the edge of the skirt is a thick ruche of | waving "tipped" marabout feathers, and the tulle over all is bestrewn with small plumes of the same shade, placed singly, The pointed low bodice is of plain satin, and the berthe is a cordon of feathers, which also border the sleeveless armholes. On each point of the basque at the back a | looped tab of satin rests straight on the full gathered folds. The effect is most ethereal. Mr Oscar Wilde has written to say that he should like ladies to leave off stays and dress improvers, and take to clogs. He does not- as one might at first infer— mean that they are to be the only article of apparel, for he advises Turkish trousers, but he would like to see them form part of every lady's dres3. He would like, also, to see men adopt the dress of Charles I. If Mr Wilde could get bis great admirer, Mrs Lan<rtry, to take to doge, while he donned the doublet and hose, there is no knowing how large a following they might obtain. '•A Duke of Brunswick never dies at home !" This German saying, which hr 8 almost become a proverb, has again received corroboration by the death of the last Duke, who thus follows in the footsteps of five of his predecessors : to wit, his grandfather, who died at Ottensen from wounds received at Auerstadt ; his father. who fell at Ligny ; his brother, who died at Geneva, where he lies entombed in the well-known piece-montee ; his ancestor Julius Leopold, who wa3 drowned in an inundation of the Oder ; and William, who died in a hanclet remote from his estates, though nearer to them than the deathspot of any of the others.—" World." One of the upper ten thousand, who was visiting America, accepted the hospitality of a gentleman in New York . When taking farewell of his host, the latter asked him what he thought of the American people. " Well," answered the nobleman, " I like them immensely, but I miss something." "What is that?' asked the Yankee. " I miss the aristocracy," replied the Englishman. "What are they," naively asked his host. "The aristocracy!" said the nobleman, in a somewhat surprised tone of voice, "why they are people who do nothing, you know ; whose fathers did nothing, you know ; whose grandfathers did nothing, you know— in fact, the aristocracy." Here he was interrupted by the American, who chimed in with, "Oh, we've plenty of them over here ; but we don't call them aristocracy— we call them tramps." In the forthcoming account of their travels by the Prince of Wales's two sons, will Prince George remember an amusing mci» dent which cccurred at the ball given at Melbourne in honour of the young Princes ! Early in the evening Prince George, having stiayed from the rest of his party, was strolling listlessly round the ballroom by himself. A youn^ lady, seeing a boy in midshipman's uniform wandering about alone, went up and offered to introduce him to any ladies present if he wished to dance. The you q Prince accepted, and the lady asked his name. "George," re. pUed he. ' ' But George what ?" she asked him. Rather taken aback, the boy again answered, "George." "Don't you know. your own name ?" the lady was on the point* of asking, when it suddenly occurred to her that this was one of the guests of the - evening; so, taking him under her own wing, she was not as general in her intro* ductions as she had a,t firgt} MJtoutfexh--., l«WQ*ld^ ' * *