people we Near About.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXVII, Issue 48, 30 November 1899, Page 21

people we N ear About.

► Mr. Sims Reeves, the veteran vooalist, entered on his eightysecond year on September 26. An Irishman has been chosen Chief of the Winnebago tribe of Indians, in succession to Black Hawk, who recently died The new chiefi Thomas Roidy, of Chicago, will be know as ' White Buffalo.' Mary Harriet Columbo Robinson, a direct descendant of Christopher Columbus, died lately from old age. She was in her eighty-first year Her maiden name was Colambo, which family had died out and has no representative now. A pretty story, told of the Queen of the Belgians, is going the rounds of the Press. As is well-known, her Majesty has a particular liking for her summer residence at Spa, for there she is surrounded by a few faithfnl old friends and servants, and is free from all the restraint imposed by strict court etiquette. It is well-known, too, that her Majesty is a skilled horsewoman and walker. Despite the precarious state of her health since her almost fatal illness last winter, the Queen keeps to her old habit of going out on foot or on horseback every day, no matter how inclement the weather may be. Quite recently, during the first September showers, she set out on foot accompanied by one or two faithful friends, to walk through the country towards Chaufontaine. A heavy shower of rain came on and obliged the party to take a temporary refuge in a peasant's cottage. Inside sat a poor old woman, all alone. Tn rising to welcome the visitors, she turned towards her Majesty and murmured : 'It strikes me that you are the Queen,' and with rustic sincerity she added : ' You don't look young, how old are you ?' The Queen smilingly replied : 'I am sixty-four.' 'In that case,' answered the old peasant woman, ' you owe me respect ; lam older than you, I am seventy.' Her Majesty smiled good naturedly, bowed low before her rustic elder, saying : ♦ You are much older and muoh prettier than I, so I admit you are right. Ido owe you respect.'

Among the war correspondents now in South Africa is Mr. R. J. M'Hugh, who represents the Daily Telegraph, Mr. M'Hugh, who is a Galway man, had been for some time on the reporting staff of the Dublin Freeman's Journal in the gallery of the House of Commons. The new Prince- Archbishop of Prague, Baron Leo Skrbensky von Hristie, will be a very young bishop and unusually young metropolitan, for he was born as late as 1863. Having studied theology in Rome and Olmiitz, he was ordained priest only ten years ago, in 1881). His first few years were spent as a curate, and it was not till 1895 that he became parish priest at Meltsch, in Silesia, and very soon after was made Canon of the Chapter of Olmiitz It seems to have escaped notice that (says the New Era) Mrs. Catherine Parr Traill, whose death in Canada was announced a few days ago, was a sister of Agnes Strickland. It is now nearly seventy years since she married and went to the New World. In the Life of Agnes Strickland, by another sister, Jane Margaret, there is an odd story of Mrs. Traill's sister-in-law, who from an austere Presbyterian had become an equally earnest Catholic, and was eventually prioresß of St Margaret's Convent, Edinburgh. This lady is probably the only person who ever seriously set out to convert the Pope to Presbyterianism. Miss Traill, being * deeply versed in controversial divinity,' imagined she could not only confute the Pope — it was Pius IX. — by her convincing arguments, but could convert him to her own tenets. She actually went to Rome for the purpose ; but Pio Nono. who was instructed as to what was in store for him, declined the audience for which she asked, on the ground that ecclesiastical etiquette did not permit him to grant private interviews to ladies. But the Pope's keen sense of humour got the better of him to some extent, and he deputed a Scottish priest to hold the disputation. When Miss Traill endeavoured to show that Rome was the City of the Seven Hills of Revelations this astute dialectician proved that it was Edinburgh, and that not the Pope, but John Knox was the Man of Sin. The result was that the lady became a Catholic in a fortnight.