The Irish standard., 1898-05-21
brought together In the correspond
ence Of a single man. Women wrote
To him great daal and when ho was

| ONO leltef lrOM unIOrtunate girls, tell-
ing ptiful stories, and appealing to him
| for assistance. Letters of abuse,
threatening letters, fierce objurations,
| and insane proposals were as thick as
| blackberries. During the height of
the lingo fever it was no pleasant task
to go through the letters which the vo-
taries of war used to send to Harley
street.
| Sometimes dozen rufiians would
sit down and write post cards to Mrs.
| Gladstone expressing in the foulest
language the most revolving wishes
| for her destruction. That Mrs. Glad
stone and her daughters might be
subjected to the last extremity Of out
rage at the hands of Bulgarians and
! Cossacks was so common form OF
communication that the letters and
post cards at last ceased to excite even
surprise. The roughs who broke tho
windows of his house in Harley street
| had comrades who substituted post
cards for brickbats. ITO Mr.. Gladstone.
Russian Agent" was the favorito form
i of address.
| Mr.. Gladstone never appeared to
| greater advantage than when taking
| walk In the country with a congenlal
friend whose physical powers were
| equal to the task of keeping up with Il
| pedestrian whom no distance could
| tire II was not until he was we'll ad-
vanced In life that he took, partly as
an amusement and partly for exercise
| to the practice of telling trees. In this
| difficult art he attained skill which
was the marvel Of professional wood
| men, and of which the muscles OF his
arms, wiry and spare like the rest OF
his body, gave little promise.
| III his youth he often spoke of HIM
self as being good upon any day for
forty mile walk, and although he never
| accomplished the feat, performed moro
| than once by his second son. the Rev.
| Stephen Gladstone, rector of Hawarden,
of walking up from Oxford to London
| In a day, 1t was from no defiance of pe-
destrian endurance. No ordinary
frame was. indeed, requisite to carry Mr.
| Gladstone through the superhuman Ia
bors which he imposed upon himself
| "Gladstone.' remarked Sir James Gra-
hum, III 1852, "can accomplish in four
| hours what 1t takes me sixteen to do,
and he works for sixteen hours every
day"
The extreme subtlety OF Gladstonc's
f., mind, the almost casuistical method Of
| his reasoning, has boon a frequent
source of amusement to his foes. Dur
| ing Gnribaldi's visit to London it was
| suggested that a richly jointurcd wid-
ow, who was about much with him,
| should marry him. To the objection
| that he had a wife living, the ready
| answer was, "Oh. he must get Gladstone
| to explain her away"
Nearly every second hand bookseller
In London habitualIy sent Mr.. Glad
| stone his catalogue. Sometimes he
| would repair to the shop, list in hand
and look at the books he had marked,
| giving II check at once, which he some
times wrote in the shop. for the amount
| spent. In moro than one Instance Il
amount has been kept and framed by Il
| bookseller. At one time the most in
innate relations existed between MIR.
Gladstone and Mr.. Weston n bookseller
ct ~, Ia,
ham Court road Sometimes Mr.. Glad
stone, when about to dine at Il public
dinner III the city would send his
clothes to Mr.. Wcston's house, and there
parts of the city Mr.. Gladstone would
be occasionally observed entering Il shop
by men and women liz he street. They
would gather round tnc entrance and
exit save by the rear. About half
dozen years ago he entered a book shop
in the EdgeWarc road, not far from
Edgeware road underground station.
In a few minutes dense crowd
gathered on the pavement ana blocked
all egrcss, interfering with pedestrian
traffic, and even intcrruptlng the Om-
nibusscs and vehicles in the main
street. The three or four policemen
near at hand were wholly unable to
control the mob and to make a lane
through which Mr.. Gladstone might
pass to "groWler" called for his accom-
notation. One policeman ran around
to the police station hard by and return
ed in half an hour with 20 or 80 consta-
bles, who soon managed to secure tho
premier's release, after detention OF
more than an hour.
The famous American horse tanner,
Rarey, when he was In England, spoke
Of Gladstone as one of the finest and
boldest riders he had ever SEEN Once
when Chancellor Of the Exchequer he
was taking his usual ride in Hyde
Park on ii spirited young horse the
horse plunged and ran away, got off the
ordinary track Of riders and came along
a spread Of turf divided by rails and
gateWays Of slender iron. 1t went
straight over one of the gateways.
Gladstone WAS determined 10 pot tho