OVER THE TEA-CUPS.

Auckland Star, Volume XLI, Issue 37, 12 February 1910, Page 16

OVER THE TEA-CUPS.

FROM "LON3X)N OPINION." A children's branch of the Women's Aerial League is to be instituted. We fear the nursemaid who is used to dalliance in the park will not welcome the aeropram, WORTH NOTING I Doctor Elizabeth Sloan Chesser, writing in a well-known daily, says that it may be when hygiene becomes a compuleory subject in the schools, the public will begin to appreciate the evils of impure air. People will no longer submit to temporary suffocation on a railway journey, A WOMAN BTJILDER. A weekly magazine has a. short article about Mrs. Henry Pollock, of Cincinnati. This lady is quite a remarkable parson in that she has not only designed, but has actually built, the house in which she and her husband live. It is of wood on concrete, and is built to withstand earthquakes. The only things in the construction of the house that she did not do were the plastering and plumbing. UP-TO-DATE EGYPTIAN WOMAN. The first Egyptian woman to demand women's rights is the wife of a Bedouin tfheikh, in the province of Fayoum, who, after writing for some the subject under a pseudonym, has now publicly given an address in a newspaper office on the woman question in Egypt. The audience consisted of 200 ladies from the most distinguished harems of the capital, who listened attentively to hei demand for monogamy, reform of divorce laWj higher education for girls, and legal equality of the sexes. PAID MOTHERS. Tbe distressing question of providing for young widows left with little children, almost destitute, has been solved In a Vray that deserves mucn sucfcess, in Scotland. As an experiment, and instead of insisting that the children, if there &re more than one or two, be sent to a workhouse, it has been decided that widows shall be constituted guardians of their own children and paid for this, under the same rulee as if they were strangers. A lady inspector calls regularly, and the children's health is looked afteir. THE FIRST FAN; In lir. H. W. Khead'e "History of the Fan" we find an incident alluded to that is supposed to have led to the invention of the first folding fait A Japanese fanmaker who lived near Kyoto was one night subjected to much abuse from his wife, because, on a vampire flying into the room, he did not immediately get up and throw it out. There was a light in tlie room, and, going too near it, the little beast burned itself and fell to the floor. The jap picked it up, ard it is said that the method of the btt in opening its wings suggested the folding fan that be afterwards invented. VEGETABLES AS FLOWEES. It is not generally known, perhaps, that capers are really the unopened flowers of a shrub, like a bramble, that growe on the shores of the Mediterranean Sea. The plant bears beautiful pinkishwhite flowers, with long tassels of stamens; and the tenderest of the buds form the finest capers.

Cloves are the immature blossoms of a plant of the myrtle kind, which grows in the Molucas. The plant is an evergreen, and glows sometimes to a height of forty feet. The buds, when gathered, are bright red in colour, and the clove is a eort of kernel in the unexpanded blossom.

In China the dried leaves of a lily are used aa a relish with pork.

MANNEQUINS CINJEMATOGBAiPHED.

- From the Paris "Daily Mail" comes news of a costume promenade held in the Bois, when, posing as fashionable ladies in costly furs and hats, for the bene&t of a cinematograph company, a troupe of dressmakers disported themselves. They were driven up in luxurious motorcars; then, alighting, they greeted each other gaily and strolled to* and fro. When the operator whistled they repeated the promenade. All went well, we are told, while the models were being photographed in furs, but when these were taken and the furs had to be discarded while their indoor frocks underneath were photographed, the cold was so intense that the halffrozen models wer<s glad to return to work. A DELIGHTFUL PRESCRIPTION. An eminent physician 13 prescribing for his young women patients a delightful medicine of pure chocolate for the complexion. There is more in thiis than appears to the eye, however. As food, the chocolate holds beneficial qualities, but the secondary reason is that for which the doctor recommends it t<s be taken -without stint. It makes the consumer So thirsty that she wants to drink a great quantity Of Water, and it is water that is the be.% e medicine in the world for a bad complexion. No less than twelve tumblersful of w.it6r daily are considered absolutely necessary to keep the bddy thoroughly cleanSed inwardly and in good Working order. The body itself requires one and a-half quurts to supply its 6wn waste, without taking into consideration the cleansing demands.

SAXiADS AND SOAP AND WATER. Speaking of the now famous Professor Metchmikbff and his microbe theories, a weekly paper piiblishes the following'— "There has ibecn a good deal of talk about dangerous industries. We have been asked to admire the miner in that he carries his life momentarily in his hands. And we do admire him. But a cursory reading of the newspapers and magazines has convinced us that the miner is not the only hero. By descending into the bowels of the earth; he mandges to escape the perils that hover round the unconscious head of the man and woman in the street, talk of perils! In one week we have learned that alcohol is deadly, that mineral waters are poisonous, that tea, coffee, and cocoa are destructive of the nerves, that malicious microbes still lurk in the most highlyfiltered water, that most foods are la<.' for us, arid that clothes are the cause of short life and neurasthenia."

The microbe is called the porteus and his favourite residence is on apples am) other fruits, salads, and the rind of cheese. The professor assures us, however, that the proteus can be killed. The way to do it is to wash the hands with soap and not dry them, and then to plange your fruit, salad, and che.ese in soapy water. "The protens," lie says' "does hot like soap water." And if we may be permitted to say so, we emphatically agree with the proteus. Anyhow, it is rather late in the day to warn mankind against apples. Tbe mischief is done I"