Weekly Mail

SOCIETY GOSSIP — JOHN MORLEY. Mr. John Morley was 53 years old on Friday. THE EDITORSHIP OF "THE GRAPHIC." itfr.Artbur Locker has retired from the editor- .dip ef the Graphic. JUST SO. "Because a woman 'figures in society' is no sign Oiat she knows aiithmetic." At least, so says Pick-ge- Uv. A "STRAD" FOR £ 630. A Stradivarius violin, dated 1715, has lately been acquired at Munich, by Herr Sinsheimer, for the moderate sum of R630. • THE EMPEROR OF CHINA'S STUDIES. A Hong Kong telegram says that the Emperor of China has commenced the study of English aiithmetic under two Manchester students, A NEW OPERA. Mr. Isidore Do Lara has undertaken to write aa cpera upon the subject of Amy Kobsart for Sir Augustus Harris, who is also credited with the intention of producing Mr. De Lara's "Light of Asia" at Covent Garden next season. MR. STURGEON'S HEALTH. The condition of the health of Mr. Spurgeon is anything but gratifying to the members of his family, and one who is intimate with the family, and who has only recently returned from the South of France, states tlmt he bus not regained any of the strength that it was confidently hoped would come to him when rcleded from the rigours of the Euglish climate. POSTHUMOUS FAME. When Richard Jefferies died a reviewer in tho leading weekly literary paper remarked that in n few years there would bo no moro recollection of him. At the present day, says the Author, Jeffeiies's books are going up every day higher in vitlue, new editions are being issued, and "there is every sign of such immortality for him as belongs to White of Selborne." AMERICAN LADY LAWYERS. There are now 21 law firms in the United States composed of husbands and wives, and there nre about 200 American ladics who practise law in the courts or manage legal publications. Miss Phoebe Couzins was the first woman admitted to the Washington University at St. Louisg find site has practised with I er father for twenty years. Several women make large incomes by the law in America. A MAN OF PARTS. The late Sir M. W. Thompson was a man who in his time played many parts. He used to declare "I am a gentleman at Park Gate, a barrister in London, a brewer in Bradford." And he might have added a railway magnate of the first order, for to his business aptitude and resource is due in great measure the prosperity of the Midland Rail- way and the successful carrying out of the Forth Bridge scheme. A JOURNAL FOR BARMAIDS. The Barmaid's Illustrated Journal will shortly Hiiike its appearance. There are very nearly a hundred thousand barmaids in the British Isle?, and the promotors naturally think there is room for such an organ. The new paper will aim at instruction 1\3 well as amusement, and the services of a number of writers and artists have been secured. Among the contributors to the first number will be Mr. (ieoige Augustus S,,tla. LORD RANDOLPH'S RETURN. Lord Randolph Churchill has done wisely in determining to come home from the Cape in the Scot. He will thereby get a passage in tho largest and the fastest steamer in the Capti mail service. His homeward juurney is not likely to be longer than fifteen day?, and he will get room to move about in the steamer (,f 6,000 tons which he could not enjoy in the 4,000 tons steamer in which he went out to the C ipe. HOW THEY BECAMB ACQAINTED, One of the curiosities of the Russell case was the revelation as to the manner in which the parties became acquainted. Here we have (says tho Evening News and Post) Lady Scott giving audience to the young man as has come about the electric light, my lady," and the young man turns out to be a real live earl, inheritor of a histo ic title, and grandson of a Prune Minister, himself son of a great ducal house Giv.cious powers! If an CiAdoiii lurks in the elec:ric-liglit man, we may at lenst look for possible baronets in the gas collectors. PRINCE HENRY OF PLESS. Princ; Henry of Floss, who t j-day (Tuesday) will be warriBù to-Mis D,ii,y C >rnwuiiis West, is the eldest 6on of iho Prince of PIe?s, and belongs to one of the oldest, and richest families in Silesia. The Schloss of Furdtenstein, the family seat, is a magnificent streScturo, which has been enlarged and superbly re-decorated by its present owner. The gardens are famous, and the paric is the most beautiful in Silesia. Prince Henry's father is a favourite at. the Cmrt of Berlin, and the Emperor Willum has been several times his guest at Furstansteir.. The present of the bridegroom's father to the bride is a crown" set with diamonds and pearls. THE AUTHORS' CLUB. The Authors' Club, which will shoitly be estab- lished, will have soine, excellent rules. There will be a daily table d'hote dinner at a nominal price, or dinners will be served at sel arate tables. Members can entertain their frunds of either sex. There will be ladies' nights, when the fair ones will be admitted to social gatherings, or to hear lectures, and every member will be supposed to know every other member, so that the lion and the lamb, or, in other words, the author and the critic may meet in peace; a new spiiit will be created amongst men of letter?, and a gcflden age will dawn for the literary profession. Not only writers of fiction, but those who write on mi^ic, science, painting, or architecture, law, medicine, theology, politic! or the s'nge, will bo eligible for member- ship. ABOUT THE ERROL FAMILY. The Earl of Errol, who has just died, was chief of the Hays, one of the oldest and most illustrious of the families of Scotland. There is an interest- ing story as to the origin of the family. In the reign of Kenneth III., the Dines invaded Scotland and encountered a Scottish army near Perth. The Scots on this occasion had to give way, and as they were flying from the fvld pursued by the Danes a husbandman named Hay and his two sons who had been at work near, arinei only with the yokes of their ploughs, stationed themselves in a narrow pass through which tho fugitives wet o hurrying, compelled them to halt, restored the battle, and gained a complete victory. coon auerwarus, according to Hector Boece, Hay and his sons were maid nobil and doted for their singular virtew provin in the field, with sundray lands to sustain their etlt." ABOUT M. MAIUUS. M. Alaiiu-, tho husband of Miss St. John, has <x- perienced almost all the possible vicissit udes of an actor's careor. As a boy (says the Star) he was apprent iced to a h\-go firm of silk manufacturers in Purls, but even then he wns on the btage, for he occupied all his evenings as an unpaid super at the Folie3 Dr;¡I¡¡lltjqs. Eventually, he adopted the stage a his profession. His s,kl--try was exactly 30f. a month, and for six months lie continued to live-or rather not to die—on this. But ut last his chanco came. Theynfero playing an operetta—"Le Canard a Troia Bees "—at the Folie?, which was subsequently produced in London as" The Wonder- ful Dnek." The first tenor fell ill, tho second tenor had to rep'a e him, And Marius was allowed to take the second's pan. In this he made such a success that he was immedintely promoted from the P)."Iti.)Tl of utility man," which he had been holding. Soon after thi, which happened in 1868, he was heard lv ono of the Mansellp, who chanced to be in Paris artauging for the London produc- tion, at the Lyceum, of Chilperie," and from him received an engagement, ill fulfilment of which he came to London in January, 1870. POPULAR IN THE PROFESSION. In 1873 he went to the Strand, and no one is likely to have forgotten his brilliant performances in "Favart," "Olivette," and "Nemesis." Here he remained for the greater part of nine years, becoming manager of the Avenue Theatre in 18B2. Since then 110 has been before the London public constantly as actor and stage mana- ger. He stage-tnanaged for Mrs. Bernard Beere at the Opera Comique, played in "The Sixth Com- mandment" and The Pharisee with Miss Wallis, and ia now the stage-manager of the Gaiety, although before many months be will be en route for Australia, whither he goes to stag# • manage once more for Mrs. Beerc. Alike as man and manager Mons"—as most of his friends affectionately Call liim-is one of the most popular men in the profession, for he is one of the very few stuge-ninnagers who have discovered how "much may be done by kindness." It is commonly said of him that he has never been known to lose his temper with the most stupid of supers or the mO\ttlightJ of chorus girls. OSCAR WILDE. Mr. Ofctr Wilde is writing a one-act French play He is now in Paris, studying his ideas and working up his French. BUFFALO BILL AND IRVING. Buffalo Bill owes his connection with this country to his friend Henry Irving. They both met in New York, and Irving suggested that Cody should bring over his Wild West." The result was that Buffalo Bill crossed to England, aud Irving was the first to welcome him. KING OTTO OF BAVARIA. King Otto of Bavaria struts about the gardens of his prison palace with a wooden musket on his shoulder and takes an imaginary shot at everyone who approaches. The king is 43 years old, and his mental condition seems to grow worse rather than better. "AAMA's" APPETITE. "Aama," the colossal maiden of bashful fifteen (8ft. high and still growing), is an unquestionable draw at the Trocadero, London. But her main- tenance must cost something. "Eve's tallest daughter (says the Star) daily consumes twelve quarts of milk, and her menu also comprises six plates of soup and a dozen cutlets. THE NEW COINAGE. The spccial committee appointed by the Govern- ment early in the year to deal with the question of a new coinage continues, we lenrn, to meet. It has asked cerlain distinguished artistes to send in designs and it is hoped that it will soon now be in a position to make some recommendations to the Government. THE "NEW REVIEW." The publishers of the New Review announce that on and after January 1st the price will be raised to one shilling. The size of the page will be increased, and a number of pagrs will be addei. Among the attractions promised for the January number is the first instalment of an unpublished novel by Thomas Carlylo, DISSOLUTION RUMOUR. The London correspondent of the Glasgow Herald mnkes an interesting statement in-reference to the dissolution. I hear." he writes, and from more than one source which ought to be well informed, that the Government have almost made up their minds to dissolve Parliament in the month of January without waiting for its re-asscmbling." FROM PRINCESS TO PRINCE. The birthday present of the Princess of Wales to the Prince is to be a large painting, by Mr. Halst, the celebrated Danish artist, representing the entrance to the picturesque harbour of Copen- hagen, with the Russian Imperial Yacht, the Danish Royal yacht, and the Osborne in the foreground, and with a view of the English church, which occupies a beautiful site above the harbour. ROSA BONHEUR. Mdlle. Rosa Bonheur has just finished a picture upon which sho hos been engaged for three years at her studio of iSy, near Foataiot-bteau. "Le Depiquage," or "Threshing," as it is called, is the largest animal picture ever painted, and represents ten horses of full size trotting over a threshing floor-a method of threshing still used in several parts of Southern Europe. Mdlle. Rosa Bonheur, it is stated, has already refused £ 12,000 for it. THE TATTOOING FAD." One of the fads of the season threatens to be the practice of tattooing. There are at present in London two Americans—a man and a woman- who are not only decorated nearly all over their bodies, but are also professors of the art. They produce all kinds of pictures on the humnn form divine, in various colours, and with scarcely any pun, and they are already doing a good business in this peculiar form of art. Strange to say, many ladies have gone in for the new craze. LEECH'S HORROR OF NOISE. John Leech's horror of noiso was almost a nervous disease. Mr. Mark Lemon told Mr. Frith one day that Leech had been invited to a gentle- man's house in the country for a few days' hunt- ing. He arrivel there in the evening. He was awakened early in the morning by a grating noise made by the gardener rolling the gravel under his window—noise he could never endure. This had such an effect upon his nerves that he got up, pitcked his things, and was off to town before any of the family were aware of it. "RUNNING" SIR EDWIN ARNOLD. Miijor Pond is just now running Sir Edwin Arnold veiy hard. A newspaper, the Sir Edwin Arnold L'ulletin, is bemg pub.iihed for the special purpose of chronicling every movement of the great man, and preserving every word that he utters. Among these words was one which linked the name of Tennyson wiih his own. The subject was the changes in English vernacular. "Con- versing recently with Lord Tennyson," said Sir Edwin Arnold, "he said to me 'It is bad for us that English will always be a spoken speech, since that means that it will always ba changing, and so the time will come when you and 1 will be as hard to rtid for the common people as Chaucer is to-day. TRUTH" AND THIS HANSARD UNION. A writ has been served upon Mr. Labouchere, M.P., and other?, at the instance of Mr, Horatio Bottomley, claiming damages for libel in connec- tion, it is understood, with certain references to the Hansard Publishing Company and Mr. Bot- tomley in the Christmas number of Truth. "As, curiously enough," writes Mr. Ltbouchere, Truth was printed by the Hansard Union—and I do not quite know whether it is printed now by Messrs. Wyman-he has included in the writ Mr. Wyman, the Registrar in Bankruptcy (Mr. C. J. Stewart), and the chartered accountant (Mr. John Annan). None of us contemplate fleeing the country. We shall await our doom like the Spar- tans at Thermopylae. I do not think that lie could have chosen four men who know more about him than the four that he has selected." REVIVING OLD HKMOKIES. The Countes Russell is the sister of the petitioner in the nullity case, Sebright (otherwise Scott) v. Sebright, which five years ago (says the Fall Mull Gazette) caused a great sensation. The wedding ceremony, it will be remembered, took place under peculiar circumstances at the registry office in South Audley-street. The marriage was annulled by Mr. Justice Butt, the judge who is now trying Russell v. Rusael), on the ground that when it was contracted Miss Lina Mary Scott "had been reduced by mental and bodily suffering to a state in which she was incapable of offering resistance to coercion and threats, which in her normal condition she would have treated with the contempt she must have felt for the man who made them, and that, therefore, there never was such consent upon her part as the law requires for the making of a contract of miri,ia-e." The young lady afterwards mairied a gentleman of the name of Russel1, no relation, we understand, of Earl Rus?e!l. NEW WORK FOR LADIES. An opening is being afforded to young ladies wanting employment in the EpJctro-photoraphic department of observatories. It is found that they ate gifted with keener visual power in regard to minute objects than men, and that they are more conscientious about small things. Miss D. Clumpe, who has just furnished an interesting paper on twin or double stars in the Bulletin Astronomique, is attached to the Paris Observatory, where M. Bouquet de la Grye has formed a stuff of young ladies for the examination of the photographs of the transit of Venus. A new vista, M. Bouquet de la Grye eays, has been opened on the celestial system by the quickness of eye of Miss Maury, of Harvard College Observatory. She noticed in the photographs of the star Zeta, of the constellation of Ursa Minor, a stripe which periodically became double and then single, and then double and so on during 52 day. She concluded that Zeta must be two double stars rcvolvins; round each other, and, so to speak, performing a round dance through spnee. The French astronomers took up her idea, and found that it was formed on a sound basis. THE LATE LADY FALMOUTH. When the late Lady Falmouth made her debut in society as the Baroness Le Deepencer, she was (says the World) the great match of the day, for, beside her ancient title, she possessed a consider- able fortune, aud a largo and valuable estate in Kent. Lady L9 Despencer refused the second Earl of Falmouth in order to murry his cousin, a young barrister, whose succession to the family titles and estates then appeared highly improbable. Lord Falmouth, however, died in a few years, and his cousin succeeded to the minor honour*, tho earldom being extinct. Lady Falmouth was bv no means delighted at her husband's elevation, for she did not like having her own ancient historic title merged in his viscounty. Lord and Lady Falmouth always preferred Alereworlb, her place in Kent, which is famous for its vast woods, to Tregothnan, and for many years before his death their visits to Corn- wall became rarer and shorter. Lord Falmouth was much disgusted at not being appointed Lord- Lieutenant of Cornwall when the late Lord Vivian resigned, and his claims for the office were far superior to those of Lord Mount-Edgcumbe, who was selected. Lady Falmouth was a charm- ing hostess, and her charities, both in Kent and in Cornwall, were most munificent, MRS. PARNELL. Mrs. Purnell—the mother of the late Mr. Parnell -who has just embarked at New York for Europe, is (says the Star) a tall, portly old lady, who bears the weight of seventy years very lightly. She is truly striking in appearance. She has clear blue eye, Roman nose, broad forehead, and finely chiselled mouth. She dresses with great simplicity and elegance, and very old and costly lace is gene- rally a feature in her attire. MR. GOSCHEN'S NEWEST SCHEME. It seems to be understood at the Treasury that Mr. Gosehen is not at all delighted with the recep- tion of his currency proposals. No great body is entirely friendly exc, pt (the London correspon- dent of the Manchester Guardian believes) the Bank of England. All other authorities in the City want change, the proposed changes to be made in some other way than that proposed by the Chancellor of the Exchequer. It is, however, expected that the Bill will be prepared but not passed in the ensuing session. A MAD KING'S FAD. A funny fad of the mad King Otto of Bavaria is mentioned in a New York piiper. "His insanity appears to have taken the form of an illusion that lie is a stork. In one of the magnificent apart- ments devoted to his use at the Palace of Fursten- ried he has laboriously constructed a gigantic nest, every stick and straw of which he has conveyed to the spot in his mouth. In that nest he squats almost the entire day, with feathers stuck in his long thick hair and beard, while he chatters in imitation of the 'clappe ing' of a stork whenevor anyone approaches." PRINCESS MAY'S ACCOMPLISHMENTS. The future Duchess of Clarence has a charming voice, and her lUuied appreciation is evidenced in the taste and feeling with which she siugs. She is a brilliant pianist, and has often delighted the Queen—a stilt better musician—with her executive abilities. Though perhaps a brtter musician than artist, some of her sketches (says the Birmingham, Post London correspondent) reveal the possession of that artistic faculty which seems to be associated with many of the members of the Royal Family. She is a skilled horsewoman, and rides with singular grace. Fond of animals and birds, she has an interesting aviary at her Richmond home, which she shows with delight to her friend-. The finer qualities of her character are revealed in an nrdent desire to aid her mother in her charitable purposes. She is, in fact, regarded by her friends as a charming type of a sweet-tempered, generous, intelligent English girl; and she is the daughter of one who, as Princess Mary of Cambridge and Duchess of Teck, has alike won, and deservedly won, a large shaie of popularity from the English people because of her unfailing good nature, even at most trying periods, and her ready sympathy with every tiling which can elevate ar cheer those among whom she dweIR