People We hear About.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXVIII, Issue 46, 15 November 1900, Page 29

People We hear About.

Lord Brampton, of England, recently celebrated his eightythird birthday.

Mr. E. A. Rennie, Auditor-General of New South Wales, oelebrated his eightieth birthday on the 16th October. He has been continuously in the Audit Office since 1846.

Dr. Nioholas Bjerring died on September 10, at his home in New York. He w*« born in Denmark in 1831, was educated at various European universities, arrived in America 35 years ago, was for many years a clergyman of the Greek Church, then a Protestant minister, but finally found rest in the Catholio faith. He left on record his conviction that ' our entire United States will some day beoome Catholic'

Sir Wilfrid Laurier has been making an electioneering tour in Nova Scotia. Alluding to his decoration at the time of the Diamond Jubilee of the Qaeen he said : — ' Titles and badges do not make the man, and I myself would prefer to be called plain Wilfrid Laurier. I commenced my political career under plain Alexander MoKenzie who began life as a stone-cutter, and who lived and died plain Alexander McKenzie.

There recently arrived in Dublin Mr. Felix McGill the wellknown American philanthropist. Mr. McGill, seeing the necessity of a higher education for poor boys, endowed a college for their education. This school is known by the name of the MoGill Institute, and has been the means of laying the foundation for boys to rise to the priesthood. His sisters, Misses S. and M. McGill are also with him. Miss May S. McGill is the authoress of the romance found* d on facts. Little Orphan Annie, the title of the book, has been written for the sake of charity, and it has received the most flattering comments from the Press. Thiß book has already been used in a number of colleges for premiums.

There are some interesting recollections of a brilliant Irishman in Mr. Sutherland Edwarda's recently published autobiography. Edward Michael Whitty, the Irishman referred to, was the author of two remarkable books — one a novel, called Friends in Bohemia ; the other, a book of sketches of prominent Parliamentarians of his time. He had a genius for coining phrases that have ' stuck.' Perhaps his two most notable descriptions in brief are those of the House of Commons as ' the beet club in London,' and the hansom oab as ' the gondola of London.' These phrases are constantly used in conversation and in the Press, and it is well to know their author.

The Catholic Newt gives this instance of plucky and commendable resistance to unjust discrimination : ' A young Jewess of South Carolina, who. because of her race and religion, was discriminated against by the public school authorities has shown Catholics who are similarly treated how to assert their rights. la Florence, S.C., Miss Gertrude Jacobi, after a competition with a number of other young women, was chosen as a public school teacher. Some time later several of the school trustees held a meeting and rescinded their former action. They did this, they admitted, simply because MiBS Jacob' was a Jewess. But that young woman knew what were her rights. And so she promptly brought suit for £r>ooo damages, charging conspiracy for the deprivation of her right 9as a citiaen on account of her race and faith. This c^se will be watched with interest, nays our esteemed ooi temporary, for if Miss Jacobi wins, Catholic teachers who are kept out of public positions solely because of their religion will have been taught how to get justice. 1

If thiß has been truly called the biographical ape (-ays the London Tablet), Mr. Thompson Cooper may fairly claim to be a man of his time. He has c ntributed no fewer than 14 42 of the ' lives' appearing in The Dictionary of National Biography — the record number. A man who has written bo many excellent biographies of other people naturally provokes an interest in his own. The fact that he himself edited Alt-n of the Time down to a recent edition accounts for the absence of his name from its pages, and also from the pages of books of the same class following: on the track of Men of the Time

and depending in part for their information upon it. In another lint of names, however, Mr. Thompson Cooper's does appear — the list of Rome's Recruits, issued many years ago in the pages of a weekly paper ; for Mr. Thompson Cooper, now la veteran in the ranks of journalists, is one of the many members of that prof esaion who hare been added to the Catholio Church.

Many of the potentates of Europe derive their incomes not solely from the royal treasury but from some large manufacturing interests. The Czar of Russia, for instance, is one of the largest vine growers in the world. His wines, equal to the best whioh France produces, are exported to the Orient or sold throughout his kingdom. His near relatives, the Grand Dukes of Meckienbourg, are celebrated home breeders ; the King of Saxony derives a yearly income of £100 000 from his porcelain factory. The Duke of Coburg adds materially to his resources by selling fruit, while the Prince Regent of Bavaria has found a fortune in cheese and tobaoco. The Duke of Slesviar-Holstein-Augustenbourg, brother-in-law to Emperor William, runs the largest starch factory in Germany. One of the moat famous horticulturists in the empire is the Duke of Saxe-Weimar-Elsenaoh, his bulbs and plants being sold all over the world. All the silver coined in Germany is produced by mines belonging to the Prince of Stolberg. Prince Herbert Bismarok owns large paper mills and factories at Sachsenwald, which brings to him annually hundreds of thousands of dollars. The Emperor himself, not to be outdone by the princelings of his realm, owns a poroelain factory at Charlottenbourg, whioh furniahea no small part of his income.

Of the British writers that are more or less prominently in the pnblio eye, we find that Henry James is an American— an old Harvard man. William L. Alden, the novelist, is also American by birth and training. Max O'Rell (Paul Blouet) is a full-blood Breton. Swinburne .claims a mingled French and Scandinavian ancestry. So, in his day, did Lord Tennyson. Richard Le Gallienne's blood is ' mostly Frenoh,' and his family were from Guernsey. The gifted Rosetti family were Italy's gift to England. Marie Corel li is half Celt, half Italian. M. de Blowitz, the noted Paris correspondent of the Times, is an Austrian. Israel Zangwill, the Jewish writer, is German by immediate descent, though probably not by birth. Coventry Patmore also claimed German blood. And Robert Browning is described as ' a strange admixture of English, Scotch, German, Dutch, and Creole. 1 Among the honored beadroll of strangers that have added a lustre to British art, Mr. Alina-Tadema is a Hollander by birth and education ; Mr. Briton Riviere is of French extraction ; Mr. Whistler is American by birth and training ; 90, too, is Mr. Abbey, R.A. Of the famous living singers that have made England their temporary or permanent home, Made Albani is a French-Canadian ; Madame Melba an Australian ; Christina Nilsson (Countess de Miranda) is a Swede ; nnd Adelina Patti is of Italian extraction, but was born in Madrid. Of the men who have added a lustre to British science, Siemens, the great metallurgist and electrician, was born and educated in Germany. To the Fatherland also the Right Hon. Fried rich MaxMuller, the famous Oxford philologist, juat deceased, owed his birth ami education.