The Portland daily press., 1885-02-16
Personal Paragraphs.

Inc Margins OF Salisbury last week cele-
brated the fifty fifth anniversary of bis birth.
Wilkie Collins, the novelist, has just cele
brated his sixty-frst birthday anniversary.
Mary NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS., Bay
City girl, has been sent to the Adrian (Mich.)
Reformatory.
Edmund Yates says Col. Burnaby was
despised by his brother officers because he
read books and learned languages.
Mrs. Spencer, wife of the Alabama ex-
Senator, and author Of that spirited expos
ure of Mormon iniquities, .sSalt Lake Fruit,''
is notable figure in Washington society this
season.
The statement that Gordon's defence of
Khartoum ended in the failure on the fifty
second anniversary of his birth is not quite
correct. Khartoum Is reported to have fall
len OF January ~, Gordon was born Jan
uary 2S 1888.
A New York Judge recently gave lesson
in independence TO school teacher. 81 had
the pleasure of your acquaintance when we
were equals" said the teacher. 'It is the
same STILL" replied the Judge; ga school
!eacner holds as high position as any man
in this country"
The following anecdote will interest the
many friends of the genial Autocrat: Dir.
Holmes honored recent visitor by reading
aloud several of bis poems. After flushing
The Nautilus he naively remarked, with
no suspicion of vainglory in his voice.
There, isn't that fine? No poet, alive or
dead, could improve thatp'
Senator M c. Butler of South Carolina is
the handsomest man in congress. His wife
is beauty, too. She has Titian-red hair.
lovely features, aperfect figure and exquisite
hands and feet, and is the daughter of a
house whose race has been distinguished for
generations in politics, as in the social world
-blue-blooded, rich and talented.
The grave Of Charles Dickens in West
minister Abbey is visited more than any
other. Flowers, bouquets, sprays of holly,
and evergreen are placed there, says the
Pail Mall Gazette, almost daily Americans
even, carry With them from This country
sprays OF pine, oak, and ivy to leave upon
the grave OF the universally lameIted au-
thor
'on that grave where English oak ard holly
And laurel leaves entwine.'
Prof. Simon Newcomb, ia reviewing the
performances of the Georgia Wonder Girl,n
Lulu Hurst, Ia the current number of Sci
ence, says that her success affords striking
example of the unreliability Of human testi
mony respecting rne pnenomena OF Torce
and action He points out that her mani
festations were purely physical and the re-
suit OF force exerted under favorable condi-
tions.
AIR. D. L. Moody's mother, born Betsy
Holton. who was eighty years old last Thurs
day. is a small, slight woman. but as active
and energetic now as in her younger years.
She is lineal descendant of William Hol-
ton, who in 1884 came from England and
settled at Hartford, Conn. Betsey Holton
was married to Erwin Moody in 1928, and
In lS4l was left widow with no property
but nine children. She brought them all up
WE'LL
The real hero of New York society the
present season is the leader of the cotillon,
who has achieved this distinction by devils
ing new combinations in that popular dance
His name is Liapenard Stewart. He is
rich young fellow, of ready address, graceful
carriage aud alert brain. The beaux envy
him and the bellies dote on him. His pres
ence at ball or reception is joy and his
absence sorrow, SO completely has be en-
tranced the fashionable world by his Terpsi-
chorean abilities.
Mr.. John Morley thinks that Gas mere
letter writer George Eliot will not rank
among the famous masters of what is usu-
ally considered especially a woman's art.
She was too busy in serious work to have
leisure for that most delightful way of vast
ing time. Besides that, she had by nature
none of that duency, rapidity, abandonment,
pleasant volubility, which make letters
amusing, captivating or piquant. What Mr.
Cross says of her as the mistress of q salon
is true of her for the most part as corres-
pondent Playing around many discon-
nected subjects, in talk, neither Interested
nor amused her much. She took things too
seriously; and seldom found the effort of en-
tertaining compensated by the gain.'n
Gen. Gordon, before his departure on the
mission to the Soudan. told apersonal friend
who now makes the story public, that he
entertained presentnent that he would
never return from Kartoum. Gordon said
the presentment was distinct and intense
and he could not push it Off Through his
entire life, he said, he had always been
strongly and correctly affected by present
ments. During his military career in China
he was guided by them, but never, even in
the most critical moments of that eyentful
period, had he expected death. The friend
who now gives these facts to the public as
serts that in pursuance of his belief in the
presentment, which covered him with its
shadows before he started for Khartoum,
Gen. Gordon actually bestowed upon his
chosen friends all his trinkets and memen-
tos