People We Hear About

New Zealand Tablet, 7 December 1911, Page 2485

People We Hear About

■ 1 1 ttj Something like ten thousand concert-goers assem- . bled at the Albert Hall, London, on October 14, for Madame Albani’s farewell. It was clear, too, that it was not the many stars who had promised their services who had drawn the great proportion of the huge audience. Madame Adelina Patti and Sir Charles Santley both emerged from their retirement in honor of the occasion, but it was Madame Albani’s day, and everyone seemed to recognise the fact. Floral tributes were many, and the whole audience rose to her when she stepped on the platform for her first numbers. But the great scene came at the close, when, with obvious emotion, she came forward to sing Tosti’s * Good-bye.’ There were tears in her eyes as she sang. Amongst the letters which Madame Albani received, wishing her happiness in her retirement, was one from the Queen. Bernard Saint Gaudens, the father of the sculptor of the Parnell statue, recently unveiled in Dublin, was a native of France. He settled in the Irish metropolis in the thirties,’ and worked at his trade as a shoemaker in that city, where he married Mary McGuinness. Augustus Saint Gaudens was born on March 1, 1848, and when six months old the famine compelled his parents to go with him to America, eventually settling in New York. When a youth he was apprenticed to a cameo-cutter, and attended drawing classes in the evening—the future sculptor having expressed a desire to become an artist. Having attended the National Academy of Design, New 'York, for some years, he was sent to Paris, where he entered the School of Fine Arts. Later he journeyed to Italy and worked and studied in Rome for some years, during which time he had modelled the Statue of Hiawatha, now at Saratoga, New York. The Parnell Monument was one of the last works the great sculptor touched. He died in 1907, a fortnight after the statue of Parnell and the bronzes were delivered in Dublin. It is of particular interest to know that he fully intended to be in Dublin to superintend the finishing of the monument, and had inserted in the specification that he was to ‘set’ the statue in tripod. The remains of one of the best known Scottish Catholics, Mr. Joseph Monteith, J.P., D.L., were interred on October 14 at St. Mary’s, Lanark. His death was unexptced, and came as a shock to all those who knew him. Among those who took part in the funeral, in addition to his near relatives, were General Stevenson, Sir J. King, Bart., Sir Simon MacDonald Lockhart, Bart., Mrs. Edmondstone Cranstone, Sir J. Hanbury Williams, Colonel E. B. Herbert, etc, A large number of floral tributes .had been sent, among the senders being Lord and Lady Dunedin, Lady Baird, and Lord and Lady Newlands. • Mr. Monteith, who was 59 years of age, was the only son of the late Robert Monteith, of Carstairs and Cranley, and grandson of the late Henry Monteith, M.P. for Lanark Burghs and Lord Provost of Glasgow in the early part of the last century. The deceased gentleman had a distinguished course at Stony hurst College, where he received his education. He took a special interest in scientific studies and was the inventor of a number of successful labor-saving appliances. He was the first to introduce the electric railway into Scotland. Mr. Monteith was married, in 1874, to Miss Florence Herbert, daughter of the late Colonel John Arthur Herbert, of Llanarth Court, Monmouthshire, and granddaughter of Lord Llanover. Fourteen children were born of the marriage, and these are all still living. In 1884 Mr. Monteith succeeded his father as Laird of Carstairs.