OVER THE TEA-CUPS.

Auckland Star, Volume XLII, Issue 155, 1 July 1911, Page 15

OVER THE TEA-CUPS.

THE APPENDIX CSARM. Miss "Vera Cornell, of the Cathedral Parkway, is the first young lady in New York to wear her own appendix as a watch-charm. After a recent operation her surgeon had the little souvenir plated in gold, and now it swings Jauntily at the end of a long golden chain. Her envious girl friends are steadily swallowing orange pips and grape seeds with an eye to an appendix brooch or a vermiform watch-charm. This is certainly a "charming" cut for the surgeon. SOCIETY PIG BREEDER. Says a London "Weekly":—"A wellknown Society lady who is blessed with plenty of this world's wealth has recently developed a craze for the breeding of pigs, which is giving some concern to

her friends. She has had elaborate pig houses 'built quite close to Tier stately mansion, and most of the leading pig dealers in the Kingdom have 'been doing a roaring trade with her at, it need hardly be said, very fancy prices. She takes the view that the pig is a much more intelligent animal than the public have ever realised, and seems to regard her mission in life to demonstrate this fact to all who may take exception to her views." WOMAN'S BEST AGE. Madame Sarah. Bernhardt and Jane Hading were recently asked to give their opinions as to when a woman i 3 at her best, and' they decided that it was at forty. The question arose when a colleague was pelted off the stage, and lost her contract because certain critics considered her too old. She gave her age as thirty-nine, pointing out that she looked less than thirty 'behind the footlights. I trust that no London audience would

be so scandalously ungrateful to a former favourite. PRINCESS' PEARL PARASOL. The Princess of Ples3, the daughter of Colonel Cornwallis-West, who is a favourite in Berlin society, has set a new fashion in sunshades, writes a correspondent, with a pearl parasol. The parasol, which was first seen at Monte Carlo, has the skeleton covered with soft white silk, over which there is a delicate tissue of tulle studded with glittering pearls, while a broad silver i border runs round the edges. The handle is of polished white wood and decorated with a long tassel of white and silver threads. WOMAN'S MENTAL PROCESSES. "It is not what woman knows that worries her; it is what she does not know that proves the irritant in her otherwise smooth life." .So moralises Elizabeth of H. in the "World," in a I searching article on the mental idiosyn- | crasies of her sex. By way of illustrating her contention, she tells the following interesting story: — A man was killed in a railway accident a short time ago; in his pocket was discovered an unaddressed letter. It turned out to be a love-letter written by himself to someone whom he called Lulu —his own

wife's name ■was Mary. The letter fell into the widow's "hands. Her first thought, instead of being one of indignation, or grief, or anger, was summed up in the half-unconsciously uttered thought, "Now, who was Lulu?" Unless the poor thing can discover who Lulu ■was, not £rief. but unsatisfied curiosity, is likely to kill her. Like a puppy dog with a slipper, so is woman with a piece of news; she likes to shake it and twist it, and tear it to pieces, and find out just exactly why and how and when and where. CRUELTY OF WOMEN. Here is another example quoted by the writer of an article upon the above subject in this column recently. A lady I know (I will call her Gertrude) spent a summer term at the age of seventeen. Her experience is instructive, as it fully reveals the existence of the instinct, so widespread in women, which led "Lady Jane," "Ada," and the shop girls, among countless others, to take up the line they did with such pitiless thoroughness. Gertrude had never been to a boarding school before, and she was surprised to find that the elder girls bullied the mailer in the most pitiless and ingenious way, one child, called Fan, being a regular victim. Gertrude was very strong and athletic, and she tried to protect the victims. But she could not be always on the spot, so at last, to save the children, she OFFERED HERSELF A VICTIM On condition that 'the bullies promised never to touch the "kids," she promised to let them bind and torture her as they pleased without offering any resistance. As she said: "You will get more fun from mc. You could not do anything to mc if I did not submit, and I am older, and you will find it harder to make mc cry." Once they were sure that she meant i it they accepted her offer with delight, and for ten weeks, night after night, to save the little girls, Gertrude was tortured and humiliated. The procedure was as follows: —When ! all was quiet she had to go to the ringleader's bed without her nighty. Her I hands were tied tightly together be- • hind her back, she was blindfolded, and , had to kneel thus in the middle of the room while they deliberated as to what ■ punishment she should have. I Running the gauntlet was a favour- • ite pastime, for which her ankles were ■ hobbled in addition, and brushes and [ shoes were used vigorously on her. At ■ another time she would be tied to a I beam so that she could move a certain i amount, and flicked with wet towels . till her tormenters were tired and she • was covered with weals from head to i foot. Later the elder girls bought [ whalebone cutting whips, and she was i tied up, her hands to the beam, her feet , to a bed, and given two or three dozen ion the bare back till she bled. Some- > times she had to go round carrying a whip in her bound hands to each bed, . kneel down, and ask its occupants for ; a certain number of cuts. This, she i said, was the worst of all, but no worse • than having to go round and ask to . have them spit in her face, which they r did without sparing her. And all this 3 she had to endure, not on one or two t occasions, but every night for ten 1 I weeks. Her tormenters never showed - the slightest signs of relenting, ibut rather increased her punishments as r they grew more skilful. And every ; night when they were done she was put - to bed, her feet tied tightly to the bot- » torn rail, and her hands tied behind her '. back.

When girls on the verge of womanhood can find unceasing enjoyment in thus inflicting pain for sheer love of it, is it a matter for surprise that women of the older growth should not hesitate to employ the same means to gratify revenge or inflict aa often well-merited punishment?