OVER THE TEA-CUPS.

Auckland Star, Volume XLI, Issue 16, 16 July 1910, Page 14

OVER THE TEA-CUPS.

A WARNING. Hints conveyed by dreams are occasionally worth heeding. The late Lord Dufferin, when in Paris dreamt that he was in a hearse en route to the cemetery. A few days later he was about to enter the lift of a certain hotel, when he was startled to find that the attendant was a " double " of the driver of the hearse in his dream. He thereupon promptly left the lift, and walked upstairs. The lift ascended ■without him, but as it neared the top something in the mechanism gave way —and fche passengers met their death. Had they also, one wonders, been forewarned in a dream? MEN AND SHOPPING. Man, the terror of his office (says a London writer); man, the unquestioned lord and master of his home, goes into a shop. It has not got what he wants. Indeed, all it offers i≤ grotesquely unlike anything he could possibly use. What does he do? You might suppose that ho would storm at the assistant and shake the dust of the shop from his angry feet. That is what his son or his junior clerk would expect of him. But no. The dragon of the office, the tyrant of the home, buys meekly what he is offered, and slinks out of the shop with a sheepish smile. No wonder that women are indignant when they reflect that tlie destinies of the Empire are entrusted to such creatures as this.

WOMEN'S CDOTHING. Dr. Haig Ferguson, in a lecture at the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary the other day, had some severe things to say about the clothing of the adult woman. It was hampered by fashion and superstition, and nothing could be a greater tribute to the strong , nerves and powerful muscles of women than the fact that their health had survived for centuries their habits of clothing , . A woman's clothing was the despair of the hygi■enis^. Children and girls were more sensibly clad, but when they grew up they were often clothed in a way which made them unable to walk, run or breathe. Weighty skirts, low-nocked gowns, "pneumonia blouses," modern hat, the hig!i J heeled shoe with its pointed toe, were all condemned. But, then, women will havo it so, and so it will remain. QUEEN MOTHER OF ITOKOPE. It is not a little odd how many widowed Queens there are at the present moment in Kurope, and how they all, without exception, occupy very commanding and prominent positions. In the first place there is Queen Margharita of Italy, then tliere is Queen Christina of {ypain, next lAmelie oS Portugal, then the Dowager-Empress of Russia, then the •Dowager-Queen of Sweden, and finally Queen Emma of Holland. In every one of these cases the Queen Mother is exceptionally papular, less for her Royal than for her womanly attributes, and it will be so in this country, too. It is singular, but trne, that in each of these countries the Queen Mother has played a nxuch greater and more appreciated role as widow than as wife; perhaps because they are less overshadowed by the personality of their Royal husbands.

INSULTED IN A LONDON CHURCH. A London editor tells Us he recently went to St. Paula Cathedral for the pur, poso of attending the memorial service to King Edward, but, the building- being full, he went on to St. Sepulchre's, Holborn. When the Vicar ascended the pulpit ; he gazed upon the congregation and observed: "I see there are a number of strangers here. I hope they have not come out of mere curiosity, or just because the King is dead. If tihev have not come to worship God reverentfy, they had better leave directly after the Litany. Prayer stools are provided to kneel on for reverent prayer; don't sit over them and pray. If you cannot pray reverently, you had better leave at once, and not stop here to insult God." The correspondent adds that immediately afterwards three-quarters of the congregation rose and left the church, and that an informal indignation meeting was held outside.

THE XEW COINAGE. ■When the new coinage bearing the head of King G-eorge comes to be minted—it will not be for some six months yet—it will be found that the head looks in a different direction from that of the head of King Edward on the coins no-w----in use. This (says the "Pall Mall Gazette,") is in pursuance of a custom which dates back to the Stuarts. The head of the Sovereign, which all our coins bear, is altered in position at the beginning of every new reign. The coin of Queen Victoria presented Her Majesty's face as turned to the left. The coins of the last reign presented the right side of King Edward's fa£e. Those of King George will in turn present the left side.

A notable tradition in connection with the coinage is that none but freshly minted money shall pass through the Sovereign's hand. This is a tradition not always observed, but it is interesting to record that hosts of King Edward at whose houses he was in the habit of playing a friendly game of bridge for small stakes always had a supply of newly-minted money for circulation at the bridge table.

SATIRE IN THE BAI/LET, "Femina," the new Alhambra (London) ballet, is a pageant of the ages. It is also a satire on woman, gorgeously-woven into a web of gold and green and purple. So brilliant, indeed, is the setting, that one is minded to forget the sting. Bnt the sting is always there. Constant only in her inconstancy, there is one goddess to which woman pays an unwavering allegiance—the goddess of fashion. The Spirit of Vanity—a wayward, elusive, Puck-like figure flits through the sorry drama, and at his entrance all the old ideals of honour and faith and high allegiance disappeai-.

It was so from the first. In Eden woman was tempted, and fell. In the stone age, a wild primitive creature, the companion of barbaric men who are not far removed from beasts, she spurned the warrior to whom she had plighted her troth for the stranger whose furs, the product of the chase, ministered to her personal adornment. In ancient Assyria she dared her frenzied lover to pluck the jewelled collar from the neck of the dreaded idol, and when palaces tottered to their foundations she laughed as she carried off the coveted prize. It is the same everywhere. The story ends—appropriately, symbolically—with, the web of vanity.

"Femina" is ono of the most magnificent productions that have been seen on the boards of the Alhambra. The music of Mr. George Byng and Senor Valverde, the multi-coloured costumes, the sylphlike grace of Mile. Britta, the dreamy mystery of Mile. Leonora, the passionate abandon of Mile. Lγ. Flamenca—these united to form a gorgeous and harmonious Dicture that it is not easy to forget.