The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1896-02-27

In one of Robert Louis Stevenson's letters
he says: II am a fictitious article and have
long known it."
The Rev. John Watson, Of Liverpool, Eng
land, who has written over the nom de
plume of Ian MacLaren. has been chosen to
deliver the Lyman Beecher course or lectures
at Yale.
Cecil Rhodes. when asked by an inter
viewer In London TO mention point or two
as to his private life replied: II never had
any private life, always having been TOO
busy to stop for one"
Gabrielle d'Annunzio, an italian novelist,
is accused Of having stolen wholesale from
Baudelaire, Flaubert. Shelley. Longfellow,
Paul Verlaine and Maurice Maeterlinck.
Max Nordau, whose work Degeneration
caused so much comment, has printed a
highly laudatory estimate Of Alfred Austin.
the poet laureate He says he considers Mr.:
Austin to be the most perfect embodiment or
Ang,o-Saxon in the literature of our time.
The Car has amnestied his cousin. the
Grand Duke Mchaelovitch, who is now in
France That Prince incurred the hot dis
pleasure of the late Car by making a love
match. The Grand Duke is to be reinstatcd
in all the privileges Of which Alexander Ill
grades and to figure at the coronation.
John Stemme. the New York millionaire.
whose purchase of a granite obelisk for a
mortuary monument was noticed some time
ago. has had his name translated into Egyp-
tan Pharaohonic hieroglyphics. 1t takes
fourteen ancient characters to represent Mr..
Stemmes name. The obelisk, when set up,
will be sixty-fve feet high, and Is to be
capped with gilded pyramid.
When the picture of the Russian Grand
Duchess Olga whom he later married, was
shown to the late King Charles of Wur-
temberg. he looked at the portrait carefully
en qryy f ss nsay
too brilliant and the skin too fresh" But,
your Majesty. you do not know the Prin-
Sc tne Tha Is
said the King, but 1 know court painters"
Miss Shipper. Of Chicago. has made a
study of entertaining children, and is now
making her gift of some account. She as
ssts at children's parties. arranging before
hand something suitable to the age and
tastes of the little company. Last season
she was engaged in this way at twenty-five
private houses and aided to the pleasure Of
no less than eight hundred children. Givers
of children's parties are, no doubt, often
glad to have such valuable assistance; the
spirit of hospitality is sometimes checked
through inability to be interesting.
George p. Bidder, Q. c., died recently at
Manchester, England. He was the son of a
civil engineer. who was known in the early
part Of the century as "the calculating boy"
For many years Mr.. Bidder had been one Of
the leaders of the parliamentary bar. The
extraordinary calculating powers of the
fathep were inherited to a marvellous degree
by the son, who could mentally multiply If
teen figures by fifteen figures, and perform
with apparent ease, many similar feats. He
was also successful as a cryptographer, and
published, some years ago, what is, perhaps
the only attempt at a scientific method Of
analysis OF cipherS.
A boy can climb slippery tree
Where men would surely fail,
The dog who barks at you and me
Will let him pull his TAIL
He takes a swim where it's so cold
We'd never reach the shore.
He's capable of feats untold.
But he cannot shut door,
With rubber and a woode., frame
He makes gun. His skill
Enables him to bring down game
Your rifle cannot KILL
Your fishing tackle lands a few,
His bent pin catches more,
All, wondrous things boy can do,
But he cannot shut a door.
-Washiugton Star