People We Hear About

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXII, Issue 35, 1 September 1904, Page 10

People We Hear About

An affecting circumstance connected with the recent, deal* of Clement Scott, tihe veteran English critic is that only two days earlier his theatrical and literary '"^ had tendered him a matinee benefit by which £1250 was netted.

Judge Alton Brookes Parker, should he eventually become President of the United States, will be yet another brilliant example to be added to tihe lengthy list tof ' seK-ma'de > men, his father having been a small farmer, while he himself received but a scant education.

Sir Henri Taschereau, the brilliant Chief Justice of Canada, is, like tine Dominion Premier, a French Canadian,, but he went out of public life long ago, and has been on the Supreme Court Bench now for over a quarter of a century.

Sir Thomas Grattan Esmomde, M.P., who introHuced a deputation of Irish bankers to the Chancellor of ehe Exchequer the other day, is best known as the Chief Whiip of tihe Irisjh Party, and is Member for North Wexftord. He is the only baronet in the Irish Party, aJnd is also a landlord, his mother being grand-daughter of the illustrious Henry Grattan. In 1808 he was made, a Chamberlain of the Vatican household, and he has spent a considerable portion of his time in tours abroad in the interests of the Irish Party.

A cable message received lasrt week stated that another attempt had been made to ewim the English Chan-. nel, the feat being attempted by Holbein and Haggerty. who started from Dover on Saturday evening. Both were unsuccessful. The latter was seized wiui cramp after being over an hour and a half in the water. Jack Haggerty was the champion* chosen "by the ' Weekly Dispatch ' out of thousands of claimants for the honor of emulating the exploit of Captain Webb,. He is in his early forties, and a Catholic, having been educated at the Catholic schools at Staly bridge, England. He is a man of splendid physique, and from a child has beejn devoted to swimming.

'A' number of London school children, it appears, have been put in correspondence with American sichool children,, in order to exchange ideas. An extract is quoted in the current issue of the ' London Teacher ' from an American boy to one of his new friends. ' I wish to thank you,' ne says, ' for the picture of Lincoln Cathedral. The name of the sixteenth President of our United States- was Abraham Lincoln, and I suppose the Cathedral was built to commemorate him. , If it was I wi^h to thank the English people for erecting such a great Cathedral to commemorate one of our Pre.sidentis.' This is surely delightful, and as worthy of the schoolboy as it is of the American.

Lord Justice Mathew, whose 74th birthday was celebrated in the early days of July, is reckoned by many as being 'by long odds the ablest Judge on the Englisn Bench. A man of the simplest manner, gentle, and unobtrusive, even on the Bench, where his innate dignity enables him to dispense with the affected pomp of minor men, the Judge is beloved alike by clients and Bar. He has a commonsense knack of getting to the heart of a thing,' in a trice, and litigants with the expenses of an array of witnesses to pay bless his direct action, which cute away formality fend gets to the merits of a case without delay. An Irishman— of course, he is the nephew of Father Mathew, he is the father-in-law of Joihn Dillon, and the uncle of Frank Mathew, the novelist. If he were not the uncompromising Catholic he is, he would have won his way to the Woolsack long ago. As it is, he is unreservedly esteemed by all who know his worth— just as much a 9 if he kept the King's conscience.

Many heroic deeds, as well as some that were shamefully selfish, mark the history of the awful disaster to the ' General Slofc)um ' excursion steamer in New York Harbor, hut no work was more heroic than thalt of young Mary M'Cann, 16 years old, an Irish emigrant, who, upon her arrival in America, had been sent to North .Brother Island Hospital, opposite where the burning ship brought up, because she had scarlet fever. A convalescent, she sprang from her bed, plunged into the water, and, being, a good swimmer, brought at least a dozen drowning women and children to the shore. In their struggles they tore off her clothing and bruised her, but she returned again and again to the water, Persisting in her efforts until dragged back to the hospital- by friendly hands. She forgot that she was just recovering from a serious illness ; she thought not of a possible and even probable relapse. Fortunately her health has suffered no injury. The city of New York will give 'her a medal.