M. A. P. (Mostly About People.)

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVI, Issue 2139, 14 March 1908, Page 1 (Supplement)

M. A. P. (Mostly About People.)

That charming and delightful ingenue, Miss Phyllis Dare, who has just established a literary record by publishing her autobiography at seventeen years of age, confesses that in tho last three years, slio believes she must have signed close upon 100,000 picture-postcards. This is scarcely surprising when one considers that, since sho made such a "hit” in “Bluebell” at tho Vaudeville Theatre, sho has been the most-photographed young fatly in London. As Bluebell s youngest sisterj Mab, sho exhibited a daintiness and cleverness which, immediately caused the public to fall in love with lier; and when she took the place of Miss Edna May in “Tho Bello of Mayfair” last year, thus becoming a “star” at sixteen, tho reception accorded her confirmed her position as one of London’s favorite young actresses. Miss Dare, by the way, has one great ambition—namely, to play Juliet, and if earnestness counts for anything she should win distinction in the higher branches of the drama.

London’s Lord Mayors may come and London’s Lord Mayors may go, but Sir William Jameson Soulsby, private secretary at the Mansion House since 1875, goes on for over—at least, the City hopes so. For thirty-two years Sir William has been the real Lord Mayor of London. He has been the right hand of every man whom tho public lias imagined to be holding the office during the past thirty-two years. Two or three hundred people call at the Mansion House every day to see the Lord Mayor, and Sir William, with that smiling courtesy which nobody who has received it ever forgets, sends them all away—-satis-fied. Several hundred people send letters to the Lord Mayor every twen-ty-four hours. Some are from lunatics inside asylums, and some from lunatics outside; but none of them are cast aside.as too mean for attention. Sis William SShlsby has received more foreign potentates, perhaps than any living Londoner. From the German Emperor and the Czar down to King Jacques of Sahara, they come to the great City of London, and Sir William receives them with the concentrated courtesy of ' over thirty years of City life.

There is just now being exhibited at the Bruton Galleries a collection of drawings and paintings of extraordinary interest. Their fascination lies in their remarkable originality, weirdness, and gloomy beauty, each picture showing those rugged, rich effecte only attained by the old masters. And yet they are the -work of a youth, Austin Spare, who two years ago, at tlie age of sixteen, won tho distinction of being the youngest exhibitor at the Royal Academy. Austin is the son of a retired constable, and, although his parents are .very matter-of-fact people, he has showed artistic genius from childhood. At fourteen he won a £lO scholarship, followed by one for £6O. Ten of hie drawings were exhibited at tho St. Louis Exhibition, while another was selected for inclusion in the British Art section at the Paris Exhibition.

All tho drawings are signed “0.N.E.,” and there is a peculiar reason for this. One day Austin picked up a queer looking ornament. It was shaped as a death’s head sot in the wings of a. butterfly. The eyes, nose, and mouth were set with opals so placed as to spell the word “O.'N. E.” The same night Austin Spare dreamed that good fortune would come to him as' long as ho treasured his “find.” He has done so and the goklen ornament never for one moment leaves his possession. “My dreams always come true,”, he informed the writer on one occasion“l have dreamed I shall do better still, and have no doubts as to tlio future.” This was said with no boasting spirit, but in the quiet, confident manner of one who believes in himself.

Benjamin Radleigh, who died near Boston the other day, aged ninety, was regarded as America’s champion miser, and he gloried in tho claim. As a business pursuit he accumulated property estimated to be worth £300,000, and for a pastime hoarded such valuables as buttons, shoe-laces, pieces of chalk, string, and in later years old tram tickets. In ninety years he was only known to have taken one day’s holiday, and for weeks lie reproached himself for the extravagance. He boasted never to have purchased a ticket for an entertainment, or bought ft drink from anyone qfffitlng the same. He gave up shaving to save the expense of a barber; and twenty years ago, when lie had more than enough money to suffice for the desires of most men, he suddenly surrendered tobacco, which had been costing him abont four-pence a week,

Like many oilier great musicans, M. Ysaye, who has just had a famous “Stead” stolen from him, has had to endure many hardships in the cause of his art, and in these days or prosperity he is fond of telling his pupils of his struggles. “Ah,” lie says, “at your age 1 practised in a garret and only went out when too hungry t« go on playing.” Times hpv<j changed,' however, and IVir pile American tour of fifty concerts lie received the enormous sum of £25,000, With so princely an income at his - disposal there is little womTer that Ysaye has a unique and fabulously expensive collection of violins, the gathering of which has been one of his hobbles. The instrument which has been stolen cost Ysayo £24ot)',' but is valued byexperts at £OOOO or £7OOO. Another hobby of the violinist is that of cycling, while the “gentle craft 11 ’of Izaak Walton alsq yxerciscs a spell over lpm v