OVER THE TEA-CUPS.

Auckland Star, Volume XLIV, Issue 28, 1 February 1913, Page 15

OVER THE TEA-CUPS.

"IDEAL" GIKL" CO__P_-_-T_o-\ T . The ideal young girl should be neither ; blue-stocking nor a housekeeping fanalie, says a Frenchman in an -Excelsior ' 'ompetition. She should combine the jualities of mother, friend, and sister, . .ays another reader. , She should not be too intelligent. She hould have read "iXietzsche."' but ougnt . lot to mention it; should be able to play j i. -melody of Schumann without studying , T for six months: to make cushions tor jj jazaars. arid, if necessary, to darn socks, j , ■ I , GARDEN CITY FOR WOMEN. | , Each yeaT sees, more and more women workers in London, and each yar the*c | ivorkcrs find difficulty in findin_: suitable | lodgings. All m_-rmer of plac.s arc I erected, but so great is the number <d applicants that these are but a drop in .1 ; i bucket, and at any rate the old quw-tion j . of cheapness is still far too often forgot- j j Uen. At Acton, where a lady. Miss Since, I , is chairman of the Public Health Com-I . mittee. a scheme wliich will, if carried] ] through, benefit four thousand women j j workers, is being discussed. It is, proposed that numbers of work- ' ; men's c-cottages shall bo buit on gar-len j city line-,, the rent of which need not Ih* I , more than half of that now to be raid. These and a large lodging house to be for single women, widows, and widows with children. BRIDAL SId'ERSTITIONS. It is interesting to note the number of shrines in Brittany dedicated to inarria_e. At Plounianach, a village on the | northern coast (a correspondent of . "Country Life" says), there is a shrine . picturesquely situated amid the rocks ! which the sea washes round every day. Only at low tide can one clamber over the rocks of the canopied figure of St. | Guerin. When a Breton girl desires to j marry, she sticks a pin in the nose of . this saint: should it drop out within tbe I year she believes her desire will be fill- j filled. On another occasion, near Douarnenez, in the Finistere district. I came | across a small shrine decorated with j orange blossom in a hedgerow, where a I young girl whom I had previously seen tending her flocks was kneeling in prayer, j after which she rose and dropped a pin down tbe well. By questioning her I found it was the custom there to drop a pin down the well before the saint, and eventually, after the wedding ceremony, the bridal blossoms were brought and hung round the shrine. DAKCERS' BEAUTY SLEEP. Drastic reform is the keynote of New Y'ork's most ex.hisive ballrooms, where last season the younger votaries of fashion persuaded hostct-ies to establish the custom of all-night dances beginning with champagne suppers and ending at six o'clock in the morning with breakfasts of ham and eggs, coffee, and muffins. At a ball given recently by Mrs Stuyvesant Fish, who has taken the lead in the campaign against the "turkey-trot"' craze and all the queer and vulgar dances to which it has given rise, such as "chicken dip.'* "jelly roll,"' "crab crawl." "tortoise tango."' "angleworm wriggle.'' the musicians ceased playing and began packing their instruments as the clock chimed twelve. The dancers gazed in amazement at seeing their bostees standing smiling near rhe door ready to bid them good-night. '"So glad you came." was Mrs Fish's i farewell to her guests. ''Xow go home ! and get your beauty sleep." Mrs Fish, profoundly impressed by the "wildness and frivolity of many of our fashionable leaders.*" determined to oppose terpsichorean excesses which do rot enconra_-e refined styles of dancing. Her example has been followed by the Junior Cotillon, | an all-powerful organisation of the younger "smart set." which has just de- j creed a revival of the waltz, polka, and I old-nr dancps in conjunction with a rule that dancing should erase at midniirlit, I followed immediately by supper, so that j everyone cotdd bo in bed by two o'clock, j WOMEN AND SPORT. '"No woman is too old to play games j up to the age of seventy at least, and no ; woman is assuredly too busy. Lack of ! exercise is often the cause of premature '■ old age," writes Dr. Elizabeth Sloan j Chesser this week in a capital article on ! "Winter Sports for Wives." | The best game for women not in their I first youth the doctor considers to be golf, since it is not too violent, yet is full of exercise and calls for judgment and self-control. But for those who can't afford time or money for it. she recommends badminton, which should be : played with the left band as well as the right hand, as "one-sided game.* are apt Ito develop lateral curvature") fencing. I hockey, bag-pimtliing—which will give a 1 slim and erect carriage—cycling, tennis. . lacrosse, net ball, skating, rinking ipre- ! sumably when the temperature of the j rink is not at the level it generally is in 1 London!!, and skipping. Hockey she condemns as anything but 'beneficial for growing girls, but excel- : lent in every direction for robust youn" I women. i On one point Dr. Chesser is very cmi phatic. *"it is the women who Work j hardest, either in the home or in the j world outside, who t:ost require to set I apart some definite hours two or three times a week for physical exercise in th*' • fresh air. . . . Every woman, whatever , her sphere, or her work, or even her age ! should take up some sort of wint £ | game if she wants to keep healthy "' I ! .SLTFRAGETTES. IN TROUSERS. j Mrs. Carry Chapman Catt, an Amcrij can suffragette, has begun a vigorous I agitation, in which she appeals to suf- | fragLsts to throw away their hats, to j bum their stays, and to replace skirts I with trousers. "It is high time," she I says, "that American women freed Lhemj selves from the slavery of fashions. The | modern clothes are not fit for the modI crn woman. China is more advanced in that respect. Chinese women's dress could, by slight alteration, be made suitable for American and European women. I Undoubtedly, it is the most healthy. j hygienic, comfortable, and at the same j time artistic dress." The American j woman, in the opinion of Mrs. Chapman Catt, is already disfigured, her spine already a little bent, her hips deformed - by stays and dresses which do not cori respond to her figure. "We think- our- . selves beautiful," she continues, "but we are not if we compare ourselves with ! the natural grace of our sisters from 1 China. Their dress enables them to move . with ease and grace. They are sleek and mobile, and can bring into play every I muscle of their body without any strain. , The modern American woman or her r European sister is, on the other hand. > only a mannequin on which tailors and ; dressmakers hang their inventions." Mrs. i Chapman Catt also makes a strong appeal r■ to women to cease wearing hats, which - j only hide the natural charms of women. ,-1 The money thereby saved ought, she -1 says, to be devoted to the suffrage movejment.