M. A. P.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVI, Issue 2230, 24 October 1908, Page 1 (Supplement)

M. A. P.

(Mostly About People.)

Before Sir Charles Santilev attained fanie lie had many-experiences which were common to the artiste of earlier days. He made his debut at Dublin as Valentine in Gounod’s “Faust.” After-the duel, the lady who personated Martha rushed on. the stage and raised the head of the dying Valentine. There was a tense silence; then a voice from the gallery rang out, sharp and clear: .“Unbutton his weskit, ma’am” —an exclamation that evoked loucl laughter and made Sir Charles forget that he was supposed to be mortally wounded.

That genial Labor Whip, Mr. J. ißams.iy Macdonald, knows from practical experience wliat it means, to live on 6d a day. One of his first jobs in London was that of making out invoices for a City firm at 15s.per week. On this meagre basis life was liberally supported, for Mr. Macdonald will tell you he fed and clothed himself, paid college fees at the Birkbeck, High-’ bury, Institute, and the City of London College, and took an occasional holiday in Scotland ! Plow did he do it? He bought his food in the markets on wheels, eschewed such luxuries as te;i and coffee, and broke in his palate to the nectar of the needy (which lie will recommend you), hot water and imagination.

Both the young Queen of. Spain and her husband are early risers, and usually breakfast together in their private room, the meal being substantial and after the English style. Her Majesty’s correspondence, which is extensive, is dealt with in the interval between breakfast and luncheon, when also she carefully reads the English and Spanish newspapers. The midday lunch is served en famillo. Afterwards the Queen devotes a short time to reading or answering her private letters, and pays visits to public institutions. After five o’clock tea the Queen spends an hour at the piano—her fayorits pastime—and also devotes some time to working for the benefit- of the poorer classes. Tho Royal dinner menus, which used to bo in Spanish, are now written * in French. The family parties, with which most evenings conclude, break up at 10.30 or 11 p.m.

Mr. Montague Holbein,-who is making another attempt! to swim the English Channel, indulges in no exacting forms of training (says an English writer). He is table to skip much of other men’s preliminaries, for he never drank spirits nor smoked. “The groundwork for my feats of endurance has always been walking,” he recently remarked. “Until this year L used to walk to and from my business in the City every day. It is seven miles from my house to Cheapside, so you see that by the time I reached home again I was well on the way to my twenty miles a day. Now 1 do my walking in tho direction of Hayes Common and Iveston instead. Tho great secret,” Mr. Holbein, concluded, “is not to start for anything unless you are fit. It is the" half-trained man who breaks down.”

Lord Alyerstono, who, as Lord Chief Justice of England, presided over the sensational trial of Mr Bob tSievior, is in his sixty-seventh year. For years it was his invariable'rule to rise at liaif-past four in the morning. In the winter he would light his own fire and make himself a cup of tea -before settling down to four hours’ hard work. Even after he had won fame and fortune at the Bar lie still kept to his practice of rising early in the morning, but lie altered his hour from half-past four to six. The income of Lord Alverstono—Sir Richard Webster, as lie then was — was for some years £20,000 a year while lie was at the Bar. He threw a good slice of this income away when lie become Attorney-General, for tho pay of that officer only amounts to £S,OOO a year. Lord Alverstone was Attorney-General for twelve years, and then ho became Master of the Rolls, at £6,000 a year. The salary of the Lord Chief is £B,OOO a year, which works out at a trifle more than £l5O a week.

The most expensive baby in the world is little Alexis, the three-year-old son and heir of the Czar Nicholas. 'On the day of his birth the Council of State conferred upon him -an appanage of £400,000 per year on condition that- with this sum “all running expenses” must be paid until the boy reaches his fifteenth year. After that a further appropriation will be made. -A considerable part of the money goes to pay for .life- insurance premiums. The Crown Prince of Russia is insured for £500,000, and pays higher premiums than any other person in the world on account of the many dangers surrounding him. Tho sums expended for special guards, detectives, and secret police in the. interest of the Russian Crown Prince are likewise very considerable, “enough to keep a hundred families,” slid an official connected with the Ministry of Finance recently. It i-s not fear that anybody would be cruel enough to hurt the beautiful and lovable child, hut what the Czar and especially the little boy’s mother feai is kidnapping.

Lord AValsingham, who. has just celebrated bis sixty-fifth birthday, has the reputation of being the finest shot in Great Britain. Ho holds the record, amongst many others, for the largest individual bag of grouse ill a single day—42.l brace to bis own gun or guns/ He is .also an .enthusiastic entomologist, as well as 'sportsman and agriculturist. Llis collection of ■moths "ami butterflies is the finest m the world. A large part of it is in the Natural History Museum at South Kensington, and it is a curious and little-known fact that ladies’ fashions are directly indebted to Lord AA alsinghain and his collection. Dressmakers and. designers of iCourt .gowns often go to the drawers and cases of h ufrfeerflies a lid moths to study licw combinations and contrasts m coloi. How many people, by the way, aro aware of the curious fact that iMei ton Hall, Lord Walsingham s~ placo .near. Thetford, Norfolk, is supposed to •have been the scene of the immortal story of “The Babes in the AVood ? The wood where they laid down and died is—-they say—-still haunted by their ghosts. Anyhow, it is a tact that for many years a. stuffed robin was given to every visitor to Merton in memory of the episode, Jcgeucl Of Vraditiout