WOMAN'S WORLD.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 8674, 14 July 1906, Page 3

WOMAN'S WORLD.

"It is «. brand-new idea," says Dorothy Diix, " that if you want girls to Btay at home you must make home- interesting to them, but it is one with which mothers will have to familiarise themselves." The average woman is, doubtless, tht> moat needed woman in modern civilisation. She is much more capable and more lovable than 300 years ago. She makes better bread and better soup than she used to make; she reads more books and bettor ones; .she has a firmer hand and a. more understanding heart with children; she gives more discriminatingly in charity; hex household is better oxdsxed. Men continue to ory that marriage is a failure, while the world is full of women who would make good wives, and who never get a ohance to fill the destiny for which they were created. The reason for this may be found, I think, in the inconsistency of man, writes Miss Beatrice Fairfax, in the Edinburgh ""Weekly Scotsman." Man's inconsistenoy, she says, is shown in that what he most commends in woman he seldom marries her for. Tho only pleasure of' a Chinese woman seems to be in dressing her hair. This is arranged with extraordinary care and most elaborately. The hair is always black and very Ion?, and is drawn tightly from the face, stiffened with gum, and then piled in coils, wing, and loops that remain in position without the aid of hairpins or any other appliances. Not a single haiir is out of place, and the dressing is done to last for a week, when the hair is taken . down and rearranged. To prevent the hair becoming disordered during sleep, the only pillow al-lowed-is a small leather cushion, which fits in at the bock of the neck and keeps tire head in a settled position. The Queen has sat her face against the practice of wearing aigrettes or ospreys in her millinery. Lately the following letter from her secretary -was read at the annual meeting of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds hold in London. " The Queen desires me," it ran, "to say in an- j swor to your letter that she gives you, as president, full permission to use her name ' in any way you think best to conduce to the protection of birds. You know well how kind and humane the Queen is to all living creatures, and I am desired to add that her Majesty never wears osprey feathers herself, and will certainly do all in her power to discourage the cruelty practiced on these beautiful birds." The- Dowager-Empress of China was a child of poor parents, who lived in the suburbs of Canton. At an early age, following a common practice in China, she was sold as a slave by her parents on account of their poverty. She became the property of a famous general, who, enchanted with her great beauty, adopted her, and offered hor as a present to th« reigning Emperor, Hsien-Fing. She so charmed the " Son of Heaven " by her looks and intelligence that he made her 'his secondary wife, and, on her bearing him a son, the future Emperor Tung Chih, he raised her to the first rank. On his death she beoame the Regent of the Empiro, administering the national affairs for fifteen years with more vigour than any of her predecessors. According to rumour, she was the cause of tho death of the last Em-pe-ror's mother, her own sister, the Marquis Tsing, and Prince Chun, and many others who stood in her way. As Queen of Spain Princess Ena finds herself mistress of no fewer than half a dozen magnificent palaces, veritable " castles of Spain." There is, first of all, the splendid royal palace at Madrid., a great pile similar to Versailles, which was built by Philip V. It is a massive huilding some 500 ft square, and its most striking feature is a magnificent marble staircase. Some distance outside the capital, and standing on a hill which is some 3000 ft above the sea, is the ancient palace of the Esourial. It has rooms and corridors totalling 120 miles in length, 8000 windows, 86 staircases, 69 fountains, and 1300 doors. At Aranjuez there is a, brighter and more pleasant dwelling-place, much more often visited by the Spanish Court, while near San Ildefonso is the palace of La G-ranja. Then Sing Alfonso has » delightful shooting-box at El Pardo, and a beautiful seaside home, the Miramax Patece, at San S»o*»ti»tt.