smart paper to interview Mrs. Weldon when she was on her theatrical tour. He found her amusing herself with her pet monkeys, and was exceedingly discomfited by her giving him her specially pet monkey to mind while she went upstairs. No one, perhaps, wastes much sympathy over interviewers, and no great regret would be felt in the fact that "the subsequent proceedings interested him no more."
"Golf."
One thing, however, should not be lost sight of. The continual harping upon one point by caricaturists as well as chroniclers is apt to mislead. Mr. Balfour, for instance, is often supposed to be devoted to nothing but politics and golf, whereas he is best known as the greatest metaphysician of the age. The Edinburgh University conferred on him their degree in recognition of his mental philosophy. Mr. Gladstone's tree-felling, too, has assumed an exaggerated importance in the eyes of the masses, from a similar cause. As a matter of fact, and especially of late years, his wood-chopping feats have been few and far between. He himself only recently claimed, as his chief recreation during the past forty years, the study of Homer, for which he is, perhaps, more famed than any of his other achievements. With him recreation has been change of employment, just as Louis XVI. turned from cares of State to making locks, the Buonapartes to literary pursuits, and Prince Rupert, the discoverer of mezzotint, to practical engraving. Lord Sherbrooke, too, though an ardent cyclist, found recreation also in poetry, as testified by his "Poems of a Life," while Smiles' self-help series is one of the best instances of useful recreative study. It is even doubtful, on his own authority, if Mr. Chamberlain's leisure is wholly absorbed in the immense gardens of his palatial residence on the outskirts of Birmingham, for he himself is recorded to have said at a meeting he addressed in that town, that he would far rather have been at home romping with his children than addressing his constituency. This is the only available authority at the moment for the statement that he shares the weakness of Oliver Goldsmith and the historian Macaulay for juvenile rompings—a weakness with which his political opponents have not been backward in twitting him. Lord Salisbury's chemical experiments at Hatfield have already been spoken of.
"A grand old feller."
Mention has also already been made of the idiosyncrasies of celebrities as manifested in their playtime. It has also been pointed out that in the case of many recreation is only another source of useful employment. If any further illustration were needed on this point, attention might be called to the benefit
