People We Hear About

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXIII, Issue 39, 28 September 1905, Page 10

People We Hear About

Cardinal Gibbons was 71 years old on July 23. Despite his advanced age the Cardinal is still an active man, and is as strong mentally as he was a score of years ago.

Tho rumor set afloat by the London ' Globe ' that Lord Pimraven was about to enter the Catholic Church would, if true, go to show that he is only following in the footsteps of his father, who, with other leading Lojnty Limerick men, such las Aubrey 'de Vere and th« late Lord Emly, was numbered amongst •' Rome's Recruits/

„ llhero are few men in England who take such an

actho interest ia matters affecting the welfare and progress of the Catholic Church as the Marquis of Ripon. His st-eecjh in the House of Lords the other day with regard to the powers and responsibilities of the Viceroy of India, which have recently been encroached upon by tho Commander-in-Chief, reminds a contemporary or tho many offices which the noble convert has filled in his day. Ho has been Secretary of State lor War, for the Colonies, and for India, First Lord of the Admiralty, Viceroy of Irotha, and Lord President of the Council, so that his knowledge of iris country's administration is based: on profound experience. •

Mr., T. P. O'Connor, M.P., is 57, but he does not 1001 l ity notwithstanding that he has been engaged for fully forty years at that most la'boricvus of occupations'—press work. When he commenced the battle of life in- tho world's metropolis years ago his only capital was a good education, coupled with a large fund of undeveloped talent, yet he has succeeded in establishing h\o publications, all of which he put upon a paying basis. These are the ' London Star,' the ' Sun,' 'Weekly Sun,' ' M.A.P., 1 and ' T.P.s Weekly.' In a newspaper way, whatever he touches seems to turn to gold. Such a man, cno would think, should be an optimist, yet T.P., notwithstanding his genial disposition and invariable cheerfulness, has in him a tinge of cynical sadness that sometimes seems to plumb the depths of melancholy.

Everyone- has heard of the power of the Rontgen rays, but Professor Rontgen, tho inventor, or rather the d'sco.eier, of this wonderful aid to modern surgery, is i he least lmown among modern great men. Doubtless th>s h owing' to the fact that instead of living in Berli i or X.e'uia, Professor Rant 'gen is now attached to tho Lniicioity of Munich, Avhile for long his beloved hnmo was at Vvurt/.burg, an okl-woild Bavarian university town, where, some se\ en years ago, her greatest £>1 iinn'ia discovered the Rontgen rays. In one matter tno Pr<Jj-«or was indeed fortunate — the importance of this wonderful disro\ery was at once recognised by his fellow-scientists He has a horror of self-advertisement. Ho has never teen interviewed, never been banqueted, and he has c\ cm refused immense sums of money offered him by American publishers for a book on what he himself has moJc-stly styled ' anew kind of ray.'

The Marquis d'Hautpoul is himself a French subject, but since his marriage he has lived much in English f-O' lety, where he is as popular as his charming wife. The Mar<jiuiJ.e (writes a correspondent) is a member of one of tlr* oldest and noblest English Catholic families, h-a< H'.fi L'ccni born* I loin. Julia- Sto-nor, sister of the fm'ith Baron Camoys, and aunt to the present Peer, who came of age last year. An intimate friend of (,H'Cen Alexare'ud, she is thought to bear considerable resemblance to her Majesty. Stonor Park, the home of her cluM<ho<o'd, near Henley, has belonged to her family for Cf nh.ries. It is a long, low Tudor house, with two winajs and a {mate chapel, encircled by what old Lcland described as a ' fayre park and a warren of conies ?nd a favre wood ' Luxuriant becchwoods crown tho two hills between which tne deer-park extends. Mon-f-ign'or Stonor, the venerable Archbishop of Trebizond, so well Known to fc\ery British Catholic visitor to Rome, is the Marquise d'Hautpoul's uncle.