People

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXX, Issue 29, 17 July 1902, Page 10

People

It is said that there are several Irishmen in the German Fleet which recently visited Ireland, and that they can speak Irish, and Genman fluently. Mr Robert J. Wynne has been appointed First Assistant Postmaster General of the United States. Mr. Wynne is a convert to the Catholic Church. President Roosevelt is reported to have said when appointing! him : ' If I hit upon the pjroper man, other qualifications being equal, I shall certainly offer a pontfolio in the, Cabinet itself to one of your co-re-ligionists.' Mr. Neal O'DonneWi, o*f New Yoi-ky, died on May 12. His brother Hugh died less than a month before. Both were octogenarians, and in the course of their long lives, had' given thousands to Catholic institutions; throughout the world. They had organised a cooperage manufacturing business, and it is stated thati after they had gained large fortunes, they, began distributing the profits, which exceeded £10,000 yearly ; and this, course they followed for 18 year's.. Florence Nightingale, the worldfamous army nurse, recently celebrated her 81st birthday at Claydon House, Buckinghamshire, England. It is interesting, to recall that this; noblo woman completed her preparation for her lifework oryer 50 years ago, as a volunteer assistant in the great hospital of the Sisters of Charity in Paris ; and that her most val-< ued assistants during the Crimean War were Sisters of Mercy from Ireland and England. Of the new President of independent Cuba, an English writer says :—: — 'In personal appearance President Palma is unassuming. He is 66 years old, and almost 40 years of incessant toil have left their mark upon him. The dominant chin and the firm lines of his mouth denote tenacity of purpose and strength of milnd. He has the forehead of a statesman, and his eyes, overarched by his 1 br.ows, show the man of thought arid intellect. The dominating expression' is that of a strong man with a kindly nature. He is well-read, beihg familiar with the literatures of five countries, and these ho has studied at fujst hand. Patniot, statesman, jurist, soldier and student — it would be impossible to find a man better qualified for his onerotis and r<esporvsible position than Thomas Estrada Palma.' The following account of Sienkewicz at work is from a German source : The great historical romances, " The P'olanecki Familyi " and " Quo Vadis," first appeared in the newspapers of Warsaw. Sienkiewicz wrote both in great haste. The manuscript went piecemeal directly] from the workroom to the press.. Sienkiewicz produced every day just as much as the journals printed the day following. This exhausting manner of writing imposes the greatest demands upon the strength of a writer, and renders it impossible for an author to make any changes in his manuscript. Sienkiewicz rarely alters or corrects! anything. While working he seldom pauses, but sits at his desk writing with great energy. Never has an editov received a complete manuscript from him — only single chapters. While writing his novels and tales Sienkiewicz is very nervous, and often is overcome with great restlessness. Then he generally} changes his place of residence and travels with his manuscript from Russian Poland to Austrda. Then he goes to Southern France, and so on. The change of surroundingsi benefits him, and his Wanderleben lasts fon weeks or months until his, work is completed.'

Lady Bellew (says the ' Candid Friend ') is the wife of Lord Bellew, of Barmeath, County Louth, the head of one of the most ancient AngloNorman Families in Ireland— a family, however, which has retained the ancient faith through ail the, pe-, nal laws and persecutions! from which, in the eighteenth ceniury, i*eW land suffered so greatly., The pres<e»& Lord Bellew and his wife are batK c4> rather small stature ; they are most agreeable people, and very popular in both London and. Dublin society, at either . of . which . places they are very well known. Lady Bellew was by birth a De-Trajf-ford, being a sister of Sin Humphrey, De Traffordi. Her mother was. i the, daughter of that once -well-known' lady, Mrs. Washington Hibbettf w-hose first marriage was with a Colonel Talbot, who, had he livedclong enough, would have become- Ear lubf> Shrewsbury. Lady Annette.De^Traiford's bnother, however, was LordShrewsbury for a few years 1 ;•. and^atjhis premature death, in, 1856, -thatl ancient earldom became, extinct' in', the Roman Catholic, line and i the, ■ Earl of Talbot, a distant cousin, ano* ceeded to the historic, title.-, of <. Shrewsbury, an,d became premier earß of England. A most unique record has just been decided in the London Law Counts, and is all the more remarkable" as 1 concerning, a musician whose' ii'ame' rests principally on. the composition * of an Anglo-Irish song, ' Kathleen Mavourneen,' which still' has a.'cer-" tain popularity. The case under .nb^ tice is that, of Frederick Wjftliani Nicholls Crouch, who' became. bairtk-" rupt in 1837, and whose creditors (more correctly their sunviv,o£S)'< were recently called together, 65, years after his failure, with, a view! of proving their claims and > discu'sr f sing matters, resulting in' the* very substantial dividend of 11s 9d in the pound. Cnouch, in the bankruptcy returns of 1837,- is described, as ' Professor of Music,, Felix terrace, Liverpool road,' and ho was the son of Frederick Cro.uch, a fain violinist and comppser, who died.,' a pauper in 1840. Born, in London, in, 1808, the younger Crouch, who w.asr a 'cellist, leaped into fame in 1835 as the composer of ' Kathleen. Mavounneen,' and died at Baltimore, U.S.A., in .1897, aged 89. It was not, however, by music that the lata. Mr. Crouch acquired a property" which has now resulted in a belated, dividend, but from a garden in Pentonville, originally only worth 6s a .year, but now extremely valuable".