A SUGGESTION FOR. AUCKLAND'S UPPER TEN.

Observer, Volume 7, Issue 228, 24 January 1885, Page 3

A SUGGESTION FOR. AUCKLAND'S UPPER TEN.

Tbo great want of tlio lion lan in this community is some aristocratic luminary round which they could revolve in. the effulgence of borrowed splendour. Anyone who could "supply this indispensable want would be entitled to rank as a patriot, and deserve a testimonial, and these are the glittering baits which have tempted a neglected genius to emerge from ob&eurity and to confer a lasting boon on society at large. His idea is that a big company should be started, Avith a capital of a quarter of a million sterling in pound shares, to import one or two indigent dukes or lords in reduced circumstances, who cculd bo hired out for special occasions at a fixed tariff of charges. Thus, for presiding at a public dinner, a temperance meeting, a religious revival, a wedding bi-cakfast, a christening, or a social reunion, there would be a regulated scale of prices, the coronet, ermine, and Court robes counting as extras. The inventor of this brilliant idea is very sanguine of success, and says he only requires a few hundred pounds for preliminary expenses. He has already patented a new kind of eyebrow-comb and a spectacles- wiper, so that he comes forward with an established reputation which will commend this, his latest and most brilliant conception, to public confidence.

The above is a very good likeness of Professor Oswald Hugo, who lias been lecturing -with so mucii success in this city on Physiognomy and Physical characteristics at the Temperance Hall. The Professor was bom in Copenhagen in i.S.IH, and was the son of a doctor of medicine who had distinguished himself in the field of literature and journalism. Doctor Jingo was of German decent, while his mother was a IJussian. The future Professor was educated at Trinity College, Copenhagen ; but at the age of eighteen his father, who had always lived up to his income, died, without leaving any provision for his family. Thrown on his own resources at this early age, young Hugo joined the reporting staff of a daily paper, but after six months was invited to join his uncle — a wealthy planter in Brazil —to whom he acted for two years iv the capacity of book-keeper. The connection Avas, however, severed, and once- more our friend had to look about him for a means of livelihood. Ho returned home, and secured an appointment on the literary staff of an evening- paper. He had from his boyhood taken deep interest in the study of physiognomy and phrenology, and at the age of sixteen ho wrote a series of articles on faces for a weekly magazine. Finding, however, that his own country contained too limited a field for his talents, Hugo applied himself assiduously to the study of the English language, with a view to throw in his fortune with the British nation, which has absorbed so much of the best talent of the Continent in. literature, science, and ai-t. At the age of 20 he emigrated to these colonies, and after two more years of arduous study began his career as a lecturer, in which he has continued for four years with increasing .success. During his travels, Professor Hugo has published his jtutpressions in the Scandinavian Magazine, hl|fpast efforts beingthree articles on "The Maori llace," published in the Zemmct, a Copenhagen journal, and doubtless these contributions have had no small share in directing attention to Australia and ISfew Zealand as a field for prosperous immigration and settlement. The Professor is a pleasing, fluent, and instructive lecturer, and his discourses are illustrated with excellent drawings, which render them additionally interesting and attractive.