Omaha daily bee., 1889-05-12

case five hours suff1ced Mllais for sitting
for the most elaborate portrait, and this
time is given by Mr. Gladstone with real
pleasure.
"Is Millais then charming companion
when at workl" some one asks.
"Yes," said Mr.. Gladstone. "But not be-
cause he talks. To see him at work is de-
light for the way he throws his heart and
soul into It,"
Mr. Gladstone's memory is amazing, more
particularly for events that took place half
century ago. Oddly enough, where his
memory has always failed him is in the mat
ter of faces, this gift, precious TO princes,
has been withheld from him. He told how,
some fifty years ago. there was man going
about with some theory, now sunk into OBJ
livion, by the application of which, in con-
necIon with electricity, he estimated a mans
character, as phrenologist does by feeling
his bumps ...'''
"There were three faculties, he told me,
in which was lacking" said MIR. Glad
stone, zone of them was that had no men,
ory for faces, and | am sorry to say it is
quite true"
What the other two lacking gifts were Mr..
Gladstone did not say but this forgetfulness
of faces he evidently deeply deplored, proba-
bly, recognizing in it the occasion for some
misunderstanding. Mr.. Gladstone talked a
good deal about the house of commons in old
days, lapsing into that charming tone Of
reminscence which, on rare occasions, on
Tuesday evenings or Friday nights, delights
the house of commons. One scene he re-
called with as much ease as if it had hap
pened yesterday. 1t took place in the year
1S4l.
you were there" said Mr.. Gladstone to
Lord Granville sitting Immediately opposite
to him and perhaps his oldest living friend
You had not left the house of commons then
Didn't you vote in the divisionr' naming the
bill upon which the episode was founded.
Lord Granville deprecatingly shook his
head, and, to Mr.. Gladstone's undisguised
amazcment, could not remember what took
place in the house of commons on u particu-
lar night forty-elght years ago; but at pres
ent as if it had happened at the morning sit
| ting of the house he had just left. The
| question was one on which party passion ran
high, and forces were so evenly divided that
every vote was of vital consequence.
"The whips of those days somehow or the
! other" he observed parenthetically, seemed
| to know better than they do now how divi-
sion would GO" 1t was known that there
| would be one way or another a majority of
| one. There was a member on the conserva-
| tive side almost at deaths door. "He was
| dead" Mr.. Gladstone cmphatically added
| Except that he had just q little breath left
| in him. The question was, could he be
| brought 10 the house. The whips said he
| must, and so he was. He came in bath
| chair, and never can forget the look on his
| face. His eyes were CLASSY and upturned,
his Jaws stiff; we, lot of young conserva-
| tives, clustered around the door and saw
| him wheeled in, and thought at first they
had brought corpse; but he voted, and the
| bill was carried by majority of one"
Mr. Gladstone stayed at the dinner table
| till midnight quite unprecedented thing to
| him in his later years. when he is saving up
his health TO carry home rule; and, after all
| was over, he walked home.
MEMBER OF PARLIAMENT.