People We Hear About

New Zealand Tablet, 27 September 1906, Page 28

People We Hear About

The Emperor Francis Joseph, of Austria, entered on his 77th year on August 17. Lord Brampton— better known as Sir Henry Hawkins, and a most generous benefactor of the new Westminster Cathedral— attained his 84th birth-day recently. The Queen of the Netherlands believes in early rising, notwithstanding that she has not a ' great amount to do. She has been accustomed to be downstairs by half-past seven of a moraine: ever since she was a little child. To be the possessor of a distinct peerage in England, Scotland, and Ire-land, is a rare honor. Only three men can claim it. One of them is the Duke of Abercorn, and the others are the Marquis of Lansdowne and the Earl of Verulam. Mr. J. J. Clancy, M.P., is the latest member of the Irish Party to be called to the Inner Bar. He was called to the Bar in 1887, and goes on the North-east Irish circuit. For many years he was the director of the Irish Press Agency in London, in which capacity he did excellent work for the Irish cause. The agency was dissolved after the Parnell split. King Oscar of Sweden is a poet of no mean order, and his sonnets have been translated into most of the languages of Europe. He •is an accomplished musician, too, his nautical songs, set to his own music, being very popular in the Swedish navy. He has written histories and dramas, translated classics, and is the author of some hymns which enjoy the highest popularity. Finally, as a tenor singer he is always welcome at concerts. The King and Queen of Italy have made rather a remarkable motor journey from the Racconigi Palace, by the Valley of Aosta, and over the Little St. Bernard to the shores of the Lac dv Bourget. The object of this journey was to show Queen Elena the tombs of her husband's ancestors in the Abbey of Haute Combe, at the foot of Mont dv Chat. The visit was made incog. The French monk who did Ihe honors remarked, however, that Madame was very like the Queen of Italy. (So I have been told before,' replied her Majesty < Mr. Gladstone hated any appearance of idleness, and in this connection the ' Manchester Guardian ' relates a characteristic story. Years ago he met the then Duchess of Abercorn in a country house. She was accompanied by her son, Lord George Hamilton, at that time a schoolboy. Not many mornings had elapsed before Mr. Gladstone said to her, ' Duchess,don't you think »it a pity that your son should spend his holidays in entire idleness ? I should be happy to give him an hour's Homer every morning.' The offer was accepted, and the foundation of Lord George's lifelong hostility to the Liberal leader was securely laid. Sir Percy Fitzpatrick, the President of the Chamber of Mines at Johannesburg, and Leader of the Progressive Party in the Transvaal, is, as his name implies, of 'Irish descent. His father, the late Hon. James C. Fitzpatrick, was one of O'Connell's cMef supporters, and the organiser of many a meeting in the Conciliation Hall days. A powerful and effective speaker, and a member of the Irish .Bar, he was appointed to- a West African Judgeship,' and eventually promoted to a puisne Judgeship in the Supreme Court of Cape Colony in the sixties, when these offices were in the gift of the Colonial Secretary. A distinctive feature of the motor" industry has been the generous support accorded to it by 'the Sovereigns of the world. Apart from King Edward, the King of Italy, and the King of Spain, who are wellknown enthusiasts, there are the German Emperor, who has four or five cars, the King of the Belgians' who has three, and the Czar, who at present has only one, but contemplates adding to his ' stud.' The King of Portugal and the Queen of the Netherlands are also of the company. The ' Prince of Monaco, in addition to a very powerful car, has a motor bicycle, on which he frequently arcomplishes very long- journeys ; and, most astonishing of all, the Shah of " Persia has now 1 become possessed of. two s automobiles.