The Westminster Budget from London, Greater London, England • Page 20

428 SEPTEMBER 7, I894 What's that he says I asked placidly. "You are as troublesome as a flea and as persevering. He will talk no more. He will, go to his Suiting the action to the word, the King rose slowly, and pamfully shook himself, and marched out of the room with head erect. Tawhaio has no claims to fame like Cetewayo.

He has never been a warrior, and has never even eaten long pig:" The Royal whare lies just within the boundary of the King Country, about ten miles from Hamilton. Here he lives a patriarchal with; his his. wives, and his family. He eats his meals in native.lashion. When he feels inclined for a jaunt he jumps into the train and takes a run to Auckland.

His days are uneventful His crown sits easily on his head. He smokes his pipe and sleeps in the sun, or by the fire, until his time comes to join his fathers. The change to has been a rather severe one for his nervous system. He has received many visitors, mostly enthusiastic ladies, who have come to lay their tributes at his feet. The gifts took the form, generally that is, of bonbons and prayer-books, the monotony being varied by a ring or a pipe.

Mrs. Saintsbury gave a reception herself the other day, attended by a number of people anxious to be Tawhaio stood in one corner of the room, in his best frock- coat, his tightest trousers, his shiniest boots, a feather in his hair, the shark's tooth in his ear, a button-hole spreading over his coat, looking dreadfully bored. Then he has been entertained at a long series of evening parties, garden parties, temperance parties, and social gatherings of all sorts. He has shaken the hands of nurhberless ladies and gentlemen, and is getting rather tired of being stared at. Tirohia, he moko," he muttered the other day to a lady who stared at him very hard.

That's right, look at I have tattoo upon my The lady was unconscious. Her face beamed. She shook hands and gushed, Pray say to his Majesty how very charmed I am to have the honour." In spite of his professions of admiration for English ladies, his chief delight has been in the tailor whom he has visited for some time past half-a-dozen times a day, and every day of the week, except Sunday. Indeed, the tailor, we believe, has fitted up a room for his special use. The other day he went to Mr.

Whiteley's establishment and came back with a lovely thing in plaid shawls with which he was hugely pleased. He went to his bedroom just to see the effect in a full-length mirror. But he also wished to be admired. He walked out into the street with the plaid shawl thrown gracefully over his shoulders. He has been farmed by Mrs.

Saintsbury. Before she consented to receive him and his friends, he was a little uncultured. Even now, he forgets himself. The other night, about eleven o'clock, he entered the drawing-room clothed in white, with, a candlestick in his hand, much to the horror of the ladies. A Maori monarch in his nightdress was certainly a startling apparition.

The ladies shrieked at the indiscretion. Mat, mat," said Tawhaio, who could not understand the confusion. He was asking light he was hustled off at once. Besides the Alhambra and the Empire the party have visited the Opera Comique, Drury Lane, the Comedy and the Novelty, all of which they appeared to enjoy. But of the first two they are never weary.

The lights and the ballets and the music make them oblivious of all their troubles. West- monster Abbey inspired them with wonder. Is it not tapu, eh surprised them that we should walk over our sacred dead. The Coronation Chair pleased them immensely. One'day the Guards 5 drag was placed at their command.

They have been taken to the Parks, Regent-street, Pall, mall; the Strand; Your people," they say, "are as numerous as the ants." Mr. Spurgeon has showed them his Tabernacle, St. Paul's they have visited, and.the Zoological Gardens, but Tawhaio refused to say more than ugh to my questions about them. It is impolite, but his train is in a hopeless muddle. "If the King is a little uncivilised, his friends are more accustomed to the usages of society, though even they have their little eccentricities.

They are Blue Ribbonites. They all smoke, and some of them play cribbage. Maories are no sluggards, and are up betimes. Each goes out as it pleases him, and generally alone. Each has a card the name of the house, the number, and the street where it i situated They wander about until they are lost, then hail the first hansom, show him the address, and return home.

Mrs. Saintsbury has more than'one story to tell her guests. The other day, for example, they each consumed at dinner some soup, a plaice, a slice of salmon, pork and veal. and a friend then left the table to smoke a pipe. They went for a little stroll, and attracted by the charms of a sirloin of beef displayed in an la mode establishment close by, entered, and bade the waiters by signs bring them of it, thus dining twice within an hour.

Sweets and kickshaws they.do not care for. Fish is their weakness. Tawhaio used to eat his dinner with fingers, and when no one is present still prefers that method to the knife and fork. He is slovenly in his toilet, and prefers to take his breakfast before his bath. He lilts his hat to a lady.

If he indulges in bad language it is his own, and nobody is the worse for it. He wooed sleep in vain on an English bed. He now slumbers peacefully on the floor. He has developed certain eccentricities during his visit. The other day he came home -with a porter carrying a sack of mussels, his favourite shell-fish.

The King had gone to his tailors. I was compelled to leave without bidding him.gopd-bye. The door was opened for me, and there he was, on-the step. A seraphic smile played from ear to ear. Fire shone out of Eis eyes.

His'hat was cocked on one side. The tattooed lines Curved into all manner of odd shapes. Behind him was a poor little boy staggering under, the weight of a basket offish. He had purchased them in a casual way and brought them in for dinner. He wrung my hand till I was quite sorry that I had not, too, brought a box of bonbons or a Bible.

The party are suffering already from nostalgia. They longed to embrace their wives and their children. The London sights arc paUin-j upon them. Their business over, they will shake the English dust from their-feet and return to their own land. They will be welcomed by their tribes.

"Come, they will and us hear what you have to tell us." And the wondrous things will furnish them with many a strange story will pass into legend, to he handed down from father to son, until the last of the Maoris is laid beside his people, and their rich lands have passed to the gallant colonists. AN INTERVIEW WITH "THE QUEEN OF CHESS." A LADY WHO HAS COMPOSED 650 An interview with Mrs. W. J. Baird, the Queen of Chess," appears in the Woman's Signal.

Mrs. Baird is a young and pretty woman, and was married at twenty to Deputy Inspector-General W. J. Baird, M.D.,R.N. Her husband's prolonged absences from home in connexion with his professional duties have left her with much leisure.

She has devoted it to the rearing and training oi her only to chess. It is very unusual for a woman to devote time to chess it always seems to have been specially a man's game. How do you account for that, Mrs. Baird?" "Frivolous and fashionable women would begrudge the time and thought it requires busy mothers of families could not, of course, spare time for it, and the great majority of unmarried girls have not, I am afraid, the necessary patience. Then, loo, it is, I must confess, an unsociable game.

It is most suitable, for quiet and reflective and for invalids. It seems always to have attracted clever strategists like military and naval commanders, and also great politicians. I wish girls would take to it more, because it is such excellent mental discipline, and brings out one's patience. It would also be a useful corrective to the tendency to jump at conclusions which many women have. The great charm is that it is a home accomplishment.

A woman is not compelled to leave her fireside for the sake of chess. It is a stable kind of amusement for which she never need sully her womanliness or her good reputation. Many of the outdoor sports, innocent and healthful enough in themselves, lead to a great deal of flirtation and general irivolity." "When did you compose your first problem It was not until 1888, some years after I was married. I spent just over 100 hours on one of my first problems." Some sleep in between, I hope, Mrs. Baird?" "Well, yes, but I kept a note of all the time I spent over it, and it amounted to just 100 hours.

I was too wise, however, to tel? the editor to whom I sent it how long it had taken me. Now I can often turn out a problem in half an hour." How many have you composed?" think it must be about 650. I am intending to publish a book of problems very shortly. I have contributed problems to the chess columns in the periodicals of all parts of the globe. Between thirty and forty have appeared in the Illustrated London A ezus, which has the leading chess column.

I have contributed also to the Times Weekly Edition uprn the art of problem composing, also to the Christmas number of the 'British and to many other periodicals." STORIES TWAIN AGAINST MARK. Mark Twain is once more on this side of the Atlantic, and a friend informs the London correspondent of the Manchester Courier- that the great American humorist does not stand very high in the estimation of his bright daughter Clara. Asked the, otheivday about one of her father's books, this young hopeful calmly replied: "Really, I can't give an opinion. Papa's books bore me terribly. I haven't read half of them.

Fapa the nicest thing in the world as papa, but, oh dear, I do wish he was not a famous funny man." This frank expression of opinion has tickled Mark Twain so tremendously that he tells everybody, following it up by this confession: "For years bave derived pleasure from the knowledge that my wo.ks were almost the only thing which Mr. Darwin read during the last year of his life. Now that pleasure has been taken away, for I am told that during the period in question Mr. Darwin suffered from a kind of mental atrophy, and was forbidden to read anything but absolute drivel." A GUIDE TO LONDON AND ITS HISTORY TOLD IN PICTURES, 'S LATEST TOWER RES. See "WESTMINSTER POPULAR No 9 Price One Penny, Half-pence.

GU ST of any at the railway bookstalls, or from the Publisher, vv GAZETTE Office, Tudor-street London, E.C..