People We Hear About

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXI, Issue 31, 30 July 1903, Page 10

People We Hear About

Colonel de Coubertin, the French officer who resigned in connection with the recent expulsion of monks of the Grand Chartreuse, has been placed on the ' retired ' list.

General O'Connor, who has been distinguishing himself as a servant of France in Algeria, is a Parisian born and is at present about 56 years old. He originally belonged to the crack corps of the Second Empire called the ' Guides,' and fought in the Franco-German war.

When the last mail left London Mr. Michael Davitt, who had been in Russia investigating the facts surrounding the persecution of the Jews for an American paper, had left Warsaw on his return journey to Ireland. He succeeded in visiting Kishineff, and his adventures in Russia are said to have been full of interest.

The Great Western Railway Company of England has decided upon the appointment of a traffic manager in Ireland, which position has been conferred upon Mr. E. J. OB Croker, general manager of the Cork, Bandon, and South Coast Railway. The salary attached to the position is £1000 per annum.

Miss Agnes Clerke, author of ' Problems in Astronomy ' and other scientific works, has been elected an honorary fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society. She \, as born in the west of County Cork. Her father was a member of a well-known family there. Her mother, a gifted and highly-cultured woman, was a sister of the late Lord Justice Deasy. Miss Clerke is a noteworthy example of home education, all her early studies having been carried on under the direction of her parents.

The Emperor Francis Joseph of Austria is a very simple-living, hard-working old man. Always appearing in uniform, he does not go in for either good clothes or good eating. His meals are more details than necessities, and often luncheon is served to him at his desk as he Sits working at State papers. Even on hunting trips he cannot escape from official business, and it is necessaiy for him to rise about five o'clock in the morning to get through a day's work.

It has taken four years for the Colonial Office to publish a despatch from the Governor of the Gold Coast relating to the heroism of a Dublin doctor in sucking a poisoned wound caused by an arrow. The wound was received by Captain Pamplin Green in fighting against a savage tribe in the northern territories of the Gold Coast in September, 1899, and Dr. Garland, amid a hail of arrows, sucked the wound for seven or eight minutes, and saved the Captain's life. Dr. Garland is well known in Dublin.

Sir William Harcourt has pleaded guilty to absentmindedness, and tells a story against himself. He suspected a man-servant of stealing money, and at last resolved to set a trap. Taking a' handful of gold coins, he laid them down on his writing-desk and went out. Presently he sent this servant to the room to fetch some article. When John had returned he promptly went to his room to see if the coins had been touched. On the table, in the place where he had left them, were gold coins. But were there as many as he had left ? He did not know, for he had neglected to count them before he had laid them down. 'By this incident, you see,' said Sir William, in telling the story, ' that I was born to be Chancellor of the Exchequer.'

Mr Edward Martyn, who figured so prominently in the scene caused at the Mansion House meeting by Mrs. Mcßnde, is a member of an old West of Ireland family who preserved the faith in times when the Catholic leligion was proscribed and outlawed. He is a man of marojd literary tastes, and is much devoted to music of the true ecclesiastical order, maintaining out of his own purse a Paleetnna choir in the Pro-Cathedral, Dublin. The Martyns, of Tillyra, County Galway, and the Martyns of Curraghmore, County Mayo, are kinsmen. A member of the latter family, the Rev. J. A. Martyn, is a. priest of the diocese of Westminster, being at present recto- of the mission of St. Francis of Sales, Tottenham In the time of O'Connell, Geoffrey Martyn, of Curraghmore, was deprived of the Justiceship of the Peace for joining the Loyal National Repeal Association. It was shortly afterwards restored to him. He was a landlord of great culture and popularity in the county.