People

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXX, Issue 26, 26 June 1902, Page 10

People

At Paris a few Sundays ago -the Passionist Fathers celebrated Mass in honor of Madame Marchesi's golden wedding. A reception which took place later was notable owing to the fact that former pupils of Marchesi (the Marquise de Castrone) were present from several parts of tho world. Madame Melba was one of the singers of the occasion. Most Rev. John Lancaster Spalding, Bishop of Peoria, in the Archdiocese of Chicago., who presided at the enthusiastic meeting recently held in his episcopal city in honor of Mr Win. Redmond, in his capacity of United Irish League representative, is widely and favorably known in the States as an author and lecturer. A prolific writer, he has published numerous works on moral and social subjects. Though a native-born American, he is of English descent, a fact which, perhaps, makes his advocacy of Irish National aims all the more significant. An American exchange states' that Prince Eugene of Sweden has decided to renounce all right to succeed to his father's throne in order to wed an American girl. The bride-to-toe is Miss Helen Gorman Wild, of Baltimore. The Prince is the fourth son of King Oscar of Sweden and Norway. The renunciation of all rights of succession to the throne is necessary, not only because Miss Wild is not of royal rank, but because she is a Catholic. She is related to the famous Carroll family of Baltimore. At first King Oscar objected strenuously to the match principally on the ground of the young woman's religion. In the annals of Sweden there is not a single instance of an alliance of a scion of royal blood with a Catholic. The mysterious case in France of a woman who has been lying in a state of catalepsy for nearly .nineteen years, taking neither food nor drink, and which is agitating the medical faculty so much, had its counterpart in Ireland over fifty years ago (says the ' Freeman's Journal '). The ' Irish Penny Journal ' of August 15, 1840, which was a very.- careful journal in stating matters of fact, reported that a man named Bernard Cavanagh, of Swinford, County Mayo, had by that time existed four years without tasting food or drink of any kind From September 2, 1836, to July 2, 1840, he lay in bed, with his hands fixed on his breast and his eyes fixed on the window. He was visited by thousands of persons,, and his continued abstinence from food was a source of great perplexity to the medical faoulty. Religious mania was described as the cause of his catalepsy ; while a shock of violent/ emotion is ascribed to the present case in France^ *~-

' Novel,' ' sensational,' ' interesting,' such are tne terms (says the ' Freeman's Journal ') in which some of our contemporaries have described the claim of the Austrian nobleman, Henry Count Taaffe, to beTelSbgnised by the House of Lords as Viscount) Taaffe and Baron Ballymote in the Peerage of Ireland. This is all nonsense. Count Taaffe will hand in a simple affidavit verifying the notor-. ious fact that he is the eldest son of his father, and his claim will be forthwith admitted. It is simplicity itself. In the Jacobite wars the Taaffes, Earls of Oarlingford, Viscounts Taaffe or Lords of Ballymote, fought valiantly on King James's side. Nicholas, second Earl, fell at the Boyne. His brother Francis went to Austria and became Field Marshal Count Taaffe, who filled the highest posts in the Austrian State. He was a great friend of William of Orange, who had clauses inserted in the Forfeiture Acts of the English and Irish Parliaments, setting, out! that ' nothing therein should attaint or convict of high treason Nicholas Earl of Carlingford or his heirs.' It is pleasing to come across in a secular paper (says the ' Sacred Heart Review ') a tribute to thatl sorely-tried woman,' the Queen "Regent of Spain, whose character had been so much misunderstood and malinged since first our relations 1 with Spain grew strained. Immediately before our war with Spain, and during that struggle, the Queen Regent as the head of the Spanish people was the target for many foolish and malicious slurs on the part' of that section of the American Press which boasted that it caused the war. The thinking people of the country, however, respected the woman who did so much to avert a calamitous war, and whose position was anything -but one to be envied. The ' Transcript ' speaks of her thus : — ' Her domestic virtues and strength of character have won respect ; her thoughtfulness for the poor and needy has enshrined her in the love of her son's subjects. Her sweet charity has been diffused continuously, it appears. The Queen, it is stated, js a leader in all goodworks in Spain ; and her sympathy for the distressed has become proverbial. Her private purse is open to all calls upon it, whether for the' relief of misery, or, as several years ago, when the State was in danger., Naturally it is the wish of all interested, thoughtful students of the world's progress and the advancement of that particularly fascinating part of it at the south-west corner of Europe that the youthful king, may at least prove worthy of his mother.' "