People We Hear About

New Zealand Tablet, 20 December 1906, Page 27

People We Hear About

T-* .The'dealtliMs' "'announced of Dr? 'Lappbni,' -the 'Holy Father's physician: "_' * V ;" „',.. "t" -'- "^ : \ The Dublin 'Freeman's Journal-, congratulates -Mr. " Standish O'Grady on- the well-deserved tribute of.a."literary pension of £Js__a jear v which -has just been con r f erred upon him, by: tlie' Government '^as an inadequate recognition* of his -splendid services _ to- Irish- literature. The pension is less valuable for - the amount than —for the distinction it confers, for - politics are unfortunately stingy to literature; The many -readers' of Mr.- Stah■dish O'Grady's works -will heartily .'-rejoice in an honor which they know to be well deserved. It would serve - no purpose and it • would need - much"" space to > even ". briefly "recapifculate-his brilliant 'contributions to current c, literature. i , ' ' ' * -_ •- -' • ■ : " r .„ " In his lifetime,--, prince HohenlQhe, whose 'memoirs have" caused ra" "sensation, - seemed "''tbe -embodiment ■= of discretion a«d' silence:: He. was" not-gopd.at.speechmak-iug, - and he used to read' what ' The* hid itfo say -to the Reichstag— it Was seldom more" than - from ten to -twenty 1 laconic sentences — from a piece-- of - blue papery He once gave" a youn>g official wlio" wanted to know how" ~to ' get on ' the advice to ' wear a black coat and hold his tongue.'" This .good counsel he himself- followed „ all through his life. - He -was 'far more silent' than : Moltke and fully as sententious - in- wbat .he did say when he opened . his lips.. The Prince^ was the head of " a well-known Catholic house. His second son, Prance : ; Alexander of Hohenlohe-Schillingsfuist, ..who was respon- '- sible'for" the publication"' of 'the;; memoirs ;" has tendered his resignation as President of Upper Alsace, and it ' has .' beeif, accepted by the Emperor.- - . - The ' Irish World ' tells ah extremely interesting

story about. Mr." T: P. O'Connor and" an Irishman he met in Philadelphia. The incident took place -in the lobby of the New Willard Hotel" - The man' was Patrick Clarke, of Spok'ajie. ~ Mr. O'Connor "recalled to his memory the" fact that' he'- had : met. him seventeen years . previously, on -his, last visit to. America,-^ and that at that time he wasu a very enthusiastic supporter of Home Rule. ''Mr/ Clarke.,' we read, ' shook both hands of the Irish' Parliamentary envoy for several minutes. He.J>old. how he 'had a-dvanced,, in- prosperity,, until he is now "one of the wealthiest mine-owners in the NorthWest. "I am stronger for Home Rule' -than ever before,

and better able to show my he. said. "In proof of this statement, I am going to write out my "'. cheque to Mr. Ryan for 1000 dollars for the good 'cause." '- The memory of the Irishman, and the gene- ., iosity and patriotism of the Irish-American, are ttqjually remarkable. . . ' Ijj'"' Sir John . Madden, Chief Justice of Victoria, has been telling a Cork interviewer that his visit to Cork is the -first after fifty years' absence. -He lived in . Ireland till .1851. In". my. "early youth, said Sir" John, I was the play-fellow "of Dr. Tanner, o>f the Irish Parliamentary, Party, whose father lived next. door to my father at Black-rock,. but my father "went t6 Ehg- . land in -1851, and I went there to. live with- him for a, little while, but was sent to school to Beauchamp, near Lille, in France, where I stayed for two years. At the . end of 1856 I left for Australia with - my father, and, mark you, he was a Tfouhg Irelander,:and an intimate friend of the gifted and eloquent Thomas Francis Meagfoer— Meagher of the Sword*— and, indeed, you .will get .an idea of his . political predilections and of his patriotism when.^l tell you that he secured and cherished as hjs deares^'possession" the swond' of Edward Fitzgerald, a relic that is still kept by my family in Australia. v - , As a member of the House of -".Commons at the end of tbe nineteenth century, The O 'Gorman Mahon was .' a romantic anachronism. In his early days be had been a., great" duellist, and' Mr. Justin M'Caryiy" tells" a story in the « Pall Mall Magazine ' of his way of look- '" ing at duelling. ' During his later years, the years in which I icnew him, .he was , one nt, the, guests- at a , London ' dinner party where something happened which compelled Mm to assert -himself:' One of the company rather unluckily said to him, '" I suppose, Colonel, you .must, have received a great many challenges in your time ? " •« Sir," replied The O1O 1 Gorman Mahon, with cold dignity, "'I never a challenge in all my life— l never gave any gentleman the slightest reason to - challenge me>-but I regret to" say that I had to send many ..challenges to other men-..' t' Mr. M'Carthy observes that he never knew The" O'Gormaif Mahon's exact " a^?A oo au effectu al Part in- getting Daniel OConnell into Parliament, and himself entered the House of Commons in the same session as Mr. Gladstone. „". ,~y, -