People We Hear About

New Zealand Tablet, Issue 17, 25 April 1907, Page 28

People We Hear About

It '• appears that not only is General Botha, mier ol Transvaal, married to' a lady of the Emmet family, but he is also a distant ' kinsman of the late Isaac Butt. Bubt's grandfather was of Dutch origin", the name Botha becoming Butt in Ireland. The Dowager Lady Bute, whose birthday occurred recently, kept it in the East, as she is at present staying in Jerusalem with"" her daughter, Lady Margaret C>riehton-Stuart. Lady -Margaret inherited property from her late father" both in,. J erusalerri itself and .in the imimedia.'te vicinity ; and the residence of the French Consul-General outside the Jaffa Gate belongs to her..; The death of Sir Francis Plunkett, British Ambassador at "Vienna, removes the representative of a distinguished Irish Catholic family. It is interesting to recall that Sir Francis's grandfather (says, the •' 'Catholic Weekly ') took a leading part in the Catholic Emancipation movement. A more illustrious member of the family is found a century earlier in the perscn of the Yen«. Archbishop Oliver Plunkett, who'was martyred " at Tyburn in 1681, and the process of whose canonisation .is engaging the Roman authorities^ The of the martyr, which first rested in St. George 1 s-in-the-Fields, London, was afterwards taken to Germany, and in 1803 was brought back to England, and interred at Downside College, near Bath. " " . "' . Right Hon. Sir Nicholas o' Conor, the British Ambassador at Constantinople, was born in Ireland - in. 1843. He is a son of Mr. P. H. o' Conor, Dundermott, County Roscommon, and jhe was' educated at Stonyh'urst. He mariied a daughter of the late- Mr. J. Hope-Scott and Lady Victoria Howard, daughter of the 14th Duke of Norfolk. They have three daughters. It was .in 1866 that he entered the Diplomatic Service, and for the following years to . 1870 he was attached to H.M.s Embassy at Berlin. Subsequently he became Secretary at the Hague, then Madrid, Rio de Janeiro, Paris, and Pekin-. From 1892 to 18U5 he was". Minister at Pekin, and from'9s to '98 Ambassador at St. Petersburg. He represented the British Government at the Coronation of the Emperor of Russia, Nicholas 11., in 1896, and was created a C.B. and G.C.M^G., and a Privy Councillor. - The story of how one of Pad&rewski's most popular compositions, came to be written was told recently in London. It was' in those earlier days when the master - pianist was a professor at the Warsaw Conservatoire, and the scene was the home of the Polish poet Swietzochowski, who had just exp r essed. the. ppinjon that no living composer could compare in beauty;. a*i.d simplicity with Mozart. At the moment Ig'nace (( pajlerewski merely shrugged his shoulders, but the following, evening he appeared, asking permission to Vl&JTefoik the poet a i'ittle Moz ( artian thing which perhaps -fie d;id " not know. Then he played his- own now famous 'Ah !' exclaimed SwieTztfchowski triumphantly, as the -'last note di&d -away, 'now you mustAacknowledge that a composition like that could not have been writ- ■ ten in our time.' 'Perhaps,' came the quiet reply,; " only it • happens that I composed it this ve-y forenoon.' " - ' - ! Few, if any, of the world's millionaires have -had a-more romantic career than- Mr. J.ohn Wanamaker, - .the ' Department Store King,' who J has >lost so many treasures of art in the fire' which has done such havoc' to his -palatial home" near Philadelphia. Half a century or so a>go the boy who was destined' to win millions and a seat in the United States Cabinet was tramping barefooited in the Philadelphia streets. His father and grandfather were both struggling brick-mak-ers, and it was a proud day for the family when.- ' young John ' found work in ■ a book-store at six shillings a week. Later, he secured a situation as' clothing salesman, and proved himself so capable that bis salary was rapidly raised until, in 1860, was able ■ to open a shop of his own on his £400 savings. Thus modestly- was cradled the gigantic business which has made the name Wanamaker known the world over. To- ' day the ex-street-boy can scarcely count his millions - on the fingers of both hands, and he pays premiums on life-insurance policies for 595,000.

It is 70 years since the first railway- in s the world was. finished, and now some 400,000 miles are in existence. t Woods' Great Peppermint Cure for Coughs and Colds never fails. Is 6d and 2s 6d.... «