The Lafayette gazette. [volume] (Lafayette, La.) 1893-1921, 1895-05-25
PERSONAL AND LirERARv.


much energy and endurance. in spite
# the fact that he is a great cigarette
smoker. He is fond of outdoor sports,
and has warmly encouraged the intro
iuction of football into Japan. He Is
q hunter and fisherman, and is quite q
good shot with = rifle. His devotion to
lawn tennis Ii marked, and he wields q
very clever racquet.
The late DR.. Oliver Wendell
Holmes left an estate appraised At
So, 117.32. The personal estate is esti-
mated at &67, 1873; the real at IS, 600.
copyright owned by the deceased is
put in as of IN unknown value. The
personal property consists principally
of stocks and bonds. The value of the
books in the library and reception
rooms of the resid ence is fixed at
$500. SO.
Kate Field says she thinks that
Worth made for her the only dress
that he ever made of American ma
terial. She took him Il piece of Ameri-
can satin for the purpose and at first
he refused point-blanl< to touch it.
1.-THE manufacturers at Lyons would
never forgive me-" he said. ''They
would accuse me of treachery." But
eventually Miss Fields persuasion pre-
vailed.
That nursery tale which has
charmed generations of children and
their elders, known as ''Blue Beard"
was written by q French author. The
original of the character of Blue
Beard was a marshal of France, who
lived in a Brittany, and who was
charged with numbering several wivea
and over one hundred children. Being
convicted of sorcery. he was burned.
A singular popularity of his hair and
beard was it's inl<y glossiness, which
in a certain light appeared of an indi
nd hi thn
ton which has rendered him immortal.
"A story of Rochefort is revived on
the occasion of his return from exile.
When Victor Hugo was in exile in
Brussels he asked Rochefort to stand
godfather to his son Charles. Roche
fort accepted, and in looking for q
suitable present saw in a curiosity
shop window q silver table ornament
which attracted him and which hc
bought, though the price was $4,000
francs. When after 1870 Rochefort
was sent to New Caledonia and l,i:'
property confiscated, Victor Hugo sold
the ornament for the benefit of Roche
forts family. 1t turned out that it was
the work of Benvenuto Cellini, md it
brought in zoo, 900 francs.
Ben Franlklin's morals and religious
belief have been the subject of much
A letter written by Frank
lin to his sister, Mrs. Mecum, dated Oc-
tober 10, 1859. indicates the writer's
firm belief in the goodness of God. 1t
is one of the last letters written by the
great philosopher. and the following
extract will show the state of lis mind
1T the time: ''As to my Health it con-
:inues as usual, sometimes better. some
times worse, & with respect to the
Happiness hereafter, which you men,
lion, have no Doubts about it, confid-
ng as I do in the Goodness of that
Being who thro' SO long Life has con-
lucted me with SO many Instances
# it,
"A definite critical edition of Dante
las been undertaken by the Societa
)antesca d'Italia, the first based on the
of all accessible manuscripts. |
rs nearly 600 manuscripts of the divine |
are known to exist, the lab |
ill be enormous. In its publication,
he Giornule Dantesco, the society as
umes as settled certain questions: |
The historical reality of Beatrice, now |
almost generally; the date of |
he Vita Nuova, now determined to be- |
ong to the first years of the last de- |
ade of the thirteenth century; the sup
'osition that some part of the Convito |
vas written before Dantc's exile, now
hown to he without foundation; the
of the De Monarchia, now
generally held to be later than that of