People We Hear About

New Zealand Tablet, 20 August 1908, Page 28

People We Hear About

Lord Carrington, President of the Board of Agriculture, tells a good story of his experiences while Governor of New South ' Wales. His first public appearance was at .the Mayor's 'dinner at Sydney. Having committed a few words to paper, he delivered them in reply to the toast of his health, and then sat down. Opposite him there sat an M. P.- who" had suffered long from the abundant eloquence of the j new Governor's predecessor. When Lord' Carrington" sat down the M.P. filled his glass to the brim, and said, in a voice not intended to be heard," '/Thank Heaven, he can't speak!' < - ' ■ ■- , M. Francois Coppee, the famous French poet-dramatist, who died recently, was .called the poet 'of the humble, and it was because he sprang from the. people that- he was able to write with such strength and feeling about them. Forty-five years ago he called on M. Catulle Mendes, another famous French poet. Mendes was living in a shabby little- attic, with grubby window-panes, fireless hearth, and one chair. Coppee looked timidly round, and then said, ' Oh, monsieur ! the room you live in would make a man wish to hang himself.' ' The next day Coppee brought Mendes 6000 lines. The latter read through them. ' Well?' said Coppee, anxiously. ' Well, my «i-;ar friend,' answered Mendes, ' it is unquestionable that you are splendidly gifted, but you don't know the alphabet of your craft.' •' Teach me,' said Coppee, heroically, taking his 6000 lines. of verse and throwing them into the grate. Twenty years later Coppee was a member of the French Academy. Mr. J. F. Hogan writes in the London Daily Chronicle of June 24: — ' Madame Melba, who gives an operatic performance to-day, in, the presence of the King and Queen, for the London Hospital, to celebrate her twenty years' association with Covent Garden, has established a record that" will not be lowered for -a century or two, if ever. No previous prima donna has sung in London for twenty years without missing a single season, and the odds against any future one accomplishing the feat, must be overwhelming. By general critical consent, too, Mmc. Melba's voice, after two decades of strenuous work, is as beautiful, matchless, and unimpaired as ever.. Mme. Melba was christened Helen Porter Mitchell, and her father, Mr. David Mitchell, a wealthy retired builder and contractor, still lives in her native Melbourne at the age of 81. As Nellie Mitchell she was numbered among the pupils of the Melbourne Presbyterian Ladies' College, then presided over by the late Professor Pearson, a distinguished Oxonian, who wrote a much-discussed book on " National Life and Character." Before she was out of her teens Miss Nellie Mitchell became the wife of Mr. C. F. Armstrong, a Queensland sugar planter, and the son of an Irish • baronet. As Mrs. Armstrong she sang, much against her father's will, for two or three years in Australia before sailing for London,' fame, and fortune.' -, Sir Antony MacDonnell, on whom a peerage of the United Kingdom has been conferred, is a Mayo man by birth, having been born at Palmfield House in that county in 1844. He had an extraordinarily brilliant career in India. As LieutenanrGovernor of the North-West Provinces and Oudh, he so distinguished himself that when half through his career of five year-i he was given — the only Lieutenant-Governor who ever received this distinction — the honor of being made Knight Grand Commander of the Star of India.. Furthermore,- his term of office of Lieutenant-Governor was extended for a year, in accordance with the prayer of the people of the two provinces — he won the affection of the native chiefs and people alike — while a statue to his memory, erected by the people of Oucih, was unveiled at Lucknow in March of last year. This is one of the few Instances of statues of public men being erected during their lifetime. Since his appointment as v Under-Secretary. -for Ireland ' in 190^ by Mr. Wyndham, ' as a colleague rather than as a mere~ UnderSecretary,' lie has had a troublesome time of it; but much of the beneficial Irish legislation of the past five, years is due to his energy and determination to be of service to his native land. Sir Antony is a splendid type of the Catholic layman sans jeur _ct sans reproche, and in this as in all other, respects he has , a worthy helper — as many Catholic ' charities know — in Lady 1 MacDonnell.