AROUND THE TEA TABLE.

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 112, 14 May 1929, Page 11

AROUND THE TEA TABLE.

MATTERS OF GENERAL INTEREST. (By SHIRLEY.) The shop is to woman what the hunting held is to man. "All's fair," once within its walls, as was discovered by that husband who was dispatched by his wife to purchase some buckets going extra cheap at a sale. All within were sold out, but with masculine desperation he dared not return without those buckets; lie insisted on having the samples in the window removed, and would hear of no refusal. His triumph was short-lived. Xo sooner were they out, than two women seized them, and from the shopman he had no sympathy. The habit of women shopping on the late night without their hats is also causing trouble, both here and in Australia. * * * * If a lady saunters from the emporium with one hat on her head and obviously no other concealed about her person, which isn't good at' concealment these days, can the shop people assume that she came in without headgear?" * * * * One such official did make such an assumption, based on a certain discrepancy between a five guinea model and shoes down at heel and stockings, one of which had one of those sudden holes which seem commoner nowadays than in days of old. When the fearer produced the receipt the shopman had a lesson, and other ladies also—to keep their receipts. * * * * There had to be ample, apologies, as in the case the other day in Australia, when a number of well-to-do ladies kindly made gifts for the poor people at a certain depot. A sprightly reporter came along, and enterprisingly snapshotted some half dozen heavily coated figures as "poor women gratefully receiving donations," when these were really the donors themselves; arranging their gifts. * * • ■' ' • There won't be any apologies on such an occasion, some day, if recent Auckland lecturers on the good time coming, prove correct. Then we will "all be workers," which raises, however, the more fearsome thought, only no one dwells on this, that we shall all have leisure; loads of leisure; too much of it. And not those enjoyed moments that Ave steal from set hours of labour, knowing we shouldn't. There will be so little work time, three hours a day that we won't have this fine old pleasure. * * * » , Instead of ordering us a rest cure, doctors will order a work cure, and indeed, they could well do this as it is, in many cases. Incidentally, will it give women even more time to be a little more morbid about their dress than even is the case now? What is that belated story going,-through the feminine world about the lady who nearly swooned because,'entering a.room where stood the Duchess of York, she found that she was wearing a replica of that lady's dress. With "great tactfulness," the newcomer retired and disguised her "lese majeste" by means of a shawl. Why do women leave trams or receptions because someone else is wearing a something resembling their own attire? I doubt if it was so in the past, when we were' supposed to be so ultra feminine? We-seem to be getting worse. » * * • In one thmg, however, there is hope. The modern'girl is alleged to be getting tired of novels wherein the heroine is always changing her costume. It may be envy oh her part, but anyone,,., the Younger Generation, now pronounces it with that simple classicism that one can only quote, never imitate, as "sickening." A' man's observations on a book of this j'type, wherein the heroine was continually in her dressing-room, were of a kind not quite reproducible in a family/paper, but, until lately anyway, girl readers have enjoyed this sort of thing,'which suits the novelist, who can fill up pages by just having a dress catalogue in front of him, but now, even she has a desire to get on with the plot.

That dogs have consciences we all know. They have been known to bring the means of chastisement to their masters when this has been demanded of them. I saw one rather disturbed in his mind the other day as to whether he were about to commit larceny or not. It was a chop lying on the pavement, quite freshly there, the certain means of some small child presently getting into trouble. Unbelievably red and white in its newness it was quite evidently no treasure trove of dustbin or gutter. For quite a minute the dog surveyed it, his wagging tail and lifted eye questioning the gods who passed by for assistance in his moral difficulty. Then I said, "Yes, Carlo, you may have it," and he forthwith, conscientious objections removed, seized it and ran off with the usual instinct to convey his food somewhere e|s| before devouring it. I have a cat vniich thinks it is doing wrong when it catches a mouse. The mouse was within doors, and she is not allowed to touch food indoors. Between animated food and quiescent what difference "if Only, why must I want every mouse to myself? She flies with it, and returns when she thinks the trouble has blown over, instead of parading it as other cats do. Yet, cats can die in the cause of public service and conventional ideals. One in a Colonial department was found deseased, and an autopsy revealed that it had swallowed pieces of red tape.