SOCIAL AND GENERAL ITEMS.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXXVII, Issue 3480, 4 November 1913, Page 7

SOCIAL AND GENERAL ITEMS.

Tho education of tli-o Prince of Wales in foreign, travel is; to bo nothing of not thorough (writes a London correspondent on September 10). He has already done France and Germany fairly well, and next Easter will go to St. Petersburg, from whence lie will visit the principal towns of interest in Northern Russia.

Prince John, tho youngest son of the King and Queen, has now happily recovered from tho severe cold which he contracted at Balmoral, and his parents have decided to postpone his entry to St. Peter’s Court School at Breadstairs, to which he was to have accompanied his brother Prince George next term. Instead ho will proceed in charge of his governess to the soothing air of Lausanne, and will not return until the Christmas holidays.

Work is being pressed' on with all possible speed at the new residence in Mount Street that Prince Arthur of Connaught has purchased from the Earl of Plymouth. The Duchess of Fife is taking a lively interest in tho furnishing and decoration of her new home, which will in future bo known as Fife House, or Connaught House. In all probability her Royal Highness will choose the former.

Simplicity is to bo the keynote of the entire bouse, and when it is completed there will be little or nothing in it to denote the Royal status of its owners. The drawing-room suite and tho liandsomo dining-room will bo left, so far as the ceilings, walls, and windows are concerned, in much the same condition, as they are at the present time.

Th" Princess Royal has for many years past made modelling in metal work one of her favorite hobbies, and i - preparing some'beautiful specimens of this work for the fireplace of the London house of her eldest daughter. So soon, as their Royal Highnesses settle-down in Mount-street they propose to give a dinner party by way of a “house-warming,” and this will bo attended by the whole of the Royal Family then in London, headed, it is hoped, by the King and Queen.

The health of the German Empress still continues to cause some uneasiness, and it is quite possible that her Majesty will retire entirely from the Court and that the Crown Princess will act as lier representative in tho future. Perfect rest and quietness have been enjoined upon the Empress, who now passes little of her time in Berlin.

When Mr Bernard Shaw sat himself down to compose his latest masterpiece for the stage, did he recall that patent medicine booklet which brought him his first £5 out of tho inkpot? It is a long cry from that waiting upon quacks (as Mr Shaw himself lias recalled) to the applause of St. James’s and the columns of notices concerning “Androcles.”

What was the patent medicine on which G.B.S. blooded his pen? It would be interesting for the public to learn, and a splendid advertisement for the patent medicine proprietors to make known.

Until little more Than a century ago humanity had to rub along without false teeth, of which: nowadays one fine alone claims to sell over 12,000,000 a year. Tho first successful maker was Giussepangelo Fonzi, an Italian dentist, who started practice Paris in 1798, and thanks to his skilful treatment of Lucien Bonaparte scon made his wav.

After years of experiment he discovered tho substance from which artificial teeth are made, and received tho gold modal of .the French Academy of Science.