OYER THE TEA-GUPS.

Auckland Star, Volume XLIII, Issue 167, 13 July 1912, Page 15

OVER THE TEA-GUPS.

A FOOLISH SUGG__STION. At a dressmakers' convention in Eng 1 land a startling novelty in millinery was f announced. Tiny electric lights will be ' worn in the hair, and these will be supplied from a small flat battery "conceal- i ed in the corsage." It would have to < be very small and very flat to be con- : coaled there. This must be a figure of speech. Nothing can be concealed in i the modem corsage, except the wonder- . ful works of God, and even in that re- < spect the concealment is inadequate. EDISON ON THE SF.XES EQUALITY. "It will he 3000 yearsat the shortest . 2300—before women are the intellectual equals of men. Such an assumption is ridiculous now." It was Thomas A. Edison, speaking in . the library of his beautiful home in Llewelljn Park, N.J. He had consented to spare a few minutes from h.s busy life; and I was there to make the most of them. "Haven't women any brains?"' I asked him. "There's some there; a little, not much. But women haven't any cross fibres. That's our fault! We've held you down. But now you are beginning to evolnte." THE YOUTHFUL, MRS. ASTOR. -Irs. John Jacob Astor. who, at the age of 10, has been widowed by 'the Titanic disaster, will wear white instead of black as mourning for her husband. Mrs. Astor wished to wear the deepest mourning, hurt Mrs. Force; her mother, believes she is too young to drape herself with black cloth and black orepe. So Mrs. Force overruled her daughter's wish, and ordered widow's weeds of while for iher. The gowns aTe cut on the simplest lines, and, like the mUlineiy, are being made at a faehioneblo New York estab__'h.m.nt. Such dresses as are worn out of doors are of white crepe, While the indoor and lounging robes are of the finest lustreless silks and lou_vines. "Tho very -colour of Mack is depressing," Mrs. Force told a friend recently, "and I do not, consider a young girl like Madeleine should wear black crepe, art a time w_eu, with all ber sorrow, her greatest joy is to come to her. White will have a ibefcter and more soothing effect upon her spirits and health, and seems to mc to be far more appropriate for so young a girl." A BOUDOIR OF KISSES. Princess Abamelek-Lazarew, of Florence, who belongs to the Russian house of Demidofi", has the strangest boudoir in the world, a.nd has chosen the most unusual sort of embellishment for her private retreat. This tiny room is in the famous villa of Pratolini, outside Florence, near Finsole, and all the pictures, furniture, lights, and ornament? represent the art of kissing. In th. backs of the chairs are cherubs in the act of kissing each other; in the chandeliers are pairs of doves with their beaks touching. Even the electric bell on the table near the princess's, couch is made of two little peasant figures, and the sound comes only when their lips -touch. There are dainty pictures of all the great love scenes in history and romance—the leave-taking of Romeo, the farewell of Mary Stuart and David Rizzio, the Huguenot lovers. "Launcelot and Guine- ! vere, and their unhappy followers, Fran- i eesca d.i Rimini ami Paolo. The cushions of fine embroidered silk or tapestry show rustic love scenes wherein the actors are saluting each other in vigorous fashion. The princess has passed years in gathering her Cupid trophies, and her room in that wonderful villa is filled with the treasures of the Medici. THE SCPERWOMAN. Mrs Gertrude Atherton, the American novelist and sociologist, in an address to a New York audience (says the '"Daily Telegraph" correspondent) remarked: "The English suffragist i* the highest type of modem womanstrong, sane, with a powerful complex brain, with a tendency towards sexlessness, and an obsessing desire 'to stand alone in complete independence. She i. at the top of the earth at the very acme of feminine development. It is" the Englishman, the 100 per cent. male» who breeds this type; we have not such men in America, and this is the reason why we have no such' women. The Englishman 'lias always been the master in his. own household: down to the smallest trifle his mastery has made possible this woman, as strong as death. There is one type of American woman who is the silliest woman on earth, not, perhaps, because she is incapable of being interesting, but because she laedes education. She is the type one meets so frequently when travelling, or at watering-places. On the whole, American women are unprogressive. because they are spoiled and pampered by their men, and 'they are apt to be less 'interesting, if you take the average, than European women, for they are not so highly educated. The suffrage will improve them, for they will begin to study the political and social questions of the day, to read those parts of the papers and magazines that men quite naturally read, for their daily interests lie in .hem. They will, in this way. gain more knowledge and learn to think a little about "serious questions."' THE BEDOUINS QUEST FOR WIVES. From the time that a Bedouin is IS years of age he is more or >?« looking for new wives. By law Mohammedans aTe never allowed to „_ve more than four at. the same time, but they easily evade -his regulation by divorcing one, which simply means sending her hack to her parents. This is often because she lias borne him no sons. So :t happens that the old sheiks almost always have young wives. It is considered effeminate for a man to show the least affect-inn toward his wives, at least openly. One of the young sheiks of the Ad wans, Moutafy, who recently lost his young and only wife, acknowledged to be the prettiest girl in the tribe, shed tears at her grave. For this he was much laughed at, -by his companions, who said, '* If a man's wife die he can easily .rocure himself another." But for .1 .le-e-cased father, brother, or i-v-en *c mother, they think it does not show we.tkn.'-s to mourn, because from where c.tiM lis get another? This seeming indifference: to woman has inieititibtedly _rown <..'..t of the false idea the men cnicrl_iri ti.st Jto express appreciation of them would lie weak and unmanly. From personal j observations I know that the Bedouins, in private, treat their wives with more j consideration than is generally shown ; among Orientals, especially so if they i have home sons. Bedouin women can 'go about alone and no one dare molest i ihem on pain of death. Immorality is , -scarcely known among them, for should I a girl go wrong her own relatives would I put her to death. European women are not likely to be. subjected to any indignity at the hands oi these roving sous .«_ ._« desert. ■ " .- - . f -