OVER THE TEA-CUPS.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXIX, Issue 141, 13 June 1908, Page 14

OVER THE TEA-CUPS.

BEAUTIFUL "SUFFRAGISTS." Anti-euffrage newspapers are circulaV ing an anonymous statement that there is not a single good-looking woman among the English "Suffragists." Lady Dorothy Howard, a daughter of the Countess of Carlisle, visited America a year or two ago, and turned everybody's head with her beauty and her title. She has since carried a banner in one of the London processions. Mrs. Cobden Sanderson, though ■ the mother of grown-up children is a beautiful woman still. And among the 10,000 who bought tickets for that Albert Hall meeting the other night, there were probably as many pretty women as among any equal number of women chosen at random from the general public. —"Women's Journal," Boston, U:S.A.

LONG ENGAGEMENTS. The happiest marriages are generally those that are made in the full'ardour of love, and not after it has been cooled by long waiting. Young men propose, and are -accepted in many cases, several years before there is any probability of their being married. It is 4 a boredom to the couple - themselves," considerable inconvenience to the parents, and possibly ending after all not in marriage, but in estrangement, and the loss of many years on the part of the woman. What business man would engage, at the most promising period of his life, an employee for a post that would not be vacant for years, the employee to think of no other career, and to await the convenience of the employer, the engagement to convey no emolument, the employee to be reserved for the employer —beyond that, all to be a blank?

QUEEI? ALEXANDRA AND PARLIAMENT. Queen Alexandra is the first Queen Consort who has ever accompanied the Sovereign in State to open a British Parliament, and when the King, shortly after his accession, declared his intention to his Minister of taking the Queen •with him in the famous gilded coach to the Palace of Westminster there was some demur, as no precedent could be found for the act. His Majesty stood firm, however, and carried his point, further declaring that the Queen should sit by his side in a chair of State exactly similar to the splendidly gilt and embroidered seat provided for him. It was thought impossible that so elaborate an armchair could be got ready in the very short space of lime before the opening of Parliament, and it was only when His Majesty threatened to use a plain chair himself and resign the chair of State to the Queen that the ladies of the Royal School of Art Needlework, who had been entrusted with the embroideries, made such diligence that the work was finished, though only just in time.

WHAT WOMEN SPEND. American women may be the greatest spenders in the world for dress, if they have the money, and various estimates have been given to show how much a woman needs a year to dress on. These vary all the way from a few dollars up to "many thousands. But a fact not well known is that 90 per cent of American women spend less than 50 dollars a year for their dress, including all kinds of clothing.

Then, too, we may have a wrong idea as to her extravagance in household matters. It is a fact worth noting that 82 per cent of American housewives em-' ploy no servant whatever, and of the other 18 per cent not'half of them employ more than one servant.

In conducting her household expenditures the American woman spends a little more than in any other nation; fiut that may be due to the higher cost of goods here. The average American woman spends for food 50 dollars a year; a Frenchwoman, 48 dollars; a German, 45 dollars; a Russian, '40 dollars; a Spanish, 33 dollars; and an Italian, 24 dollars. Altogether, it may appear from these facts that the American woman as a whole is not so extravagant a helpmate as many people seem t osuppose.

FRIGHTENED BACHELORS. The young, happy, married man often unconsciously induces his bachelor friends to follow his example through his own contentment and cheerfulness. A "girl can work such a change in a man that his own relations hardly know him. The most doleful specimen of manhood undergoes a delightful transformation if good fortune has bleesed him with a wife of the right sort. This desirable change has the power to bring bachelors more to their senses than anything else; co it rests with the married women In their making or marrying of a man whether they establish ■the future happiness or misery of their unappropriated sisters. Every morose married man frightens dozens of young men into remaining bachelors all their lives.

So that a responsibility rests on the young married woman that should not be disregarded, benefiting, as it does, themselves and the whole community, men and women alike.

CHOOSING WALL-PAPER. The essential problem in the correct and artistic furnishing and finishing of any home is the choice of the wall decoration. A good deal depends upon ( the selection of the colour scheme, and the selection of the colour scheme is dependent upon the location of ttie room as well as its size and use.

If the room faces south or east, naturally it will have but little sunlight, and we must, so far as we can, create sunlight, or the impression of sunlight in the room. This is best done by the use of soft colours, colours such as the tans, the buffs, and occasionally an orange tone. Those will suggest light, and, more, they will reflect back to the occupant the largest percentage of light brought into the rooms through windows.

A light buff wall will reflect back 85 per cent, of the light thrown upon it. It will save eye strength, it will save nerve racking and the tiresomeness that comes from endeavouring to use the eyes in an uncertain an limited light.

The size of the room, is important in the selection of a correct colour, A room that is small, narrow and boxlike has its smallness modified by the use of light colours and the bozlike appearance apparently increased by the use of dark colours.

If the ceiling is too high, and there is a barn-like appearance to the room, the side wall space can be broken into horizontal lines, not by prison like stripes, but by carrying one colour up two thirds of the side wall, and then adding a lighter tone for the upper third, and a still lighter tone for the ceiling. This breaks up the high, perpendicular appear•ince of the side wall.

On the other Hand, suppose the room 's largo and the ceiling is low—«. soft, velvety tint with a dull mat finish will •modify tho apparent bigness of the room nnd give it a cosy, habitable, livable appearance.