A MAID IN MAYFAIR.

Auckland Star, Volume LXI, Issue 21, 25 January 1930, Page 4 (Supplement)

A MAID IN MAYFAIR.

WEALTHY PRIMA DONNA. AGITATING GARMENTS. (By Our London Lady Correspondent.)! With her palace in Rome and summer "paradiso" on Lake Lugano, her eighteen dogs and five cats and a presiding genius of a parrot, Madams Tetrazzini admits that she is a wealthy woman. But what will you? She has worked hard and saved her money. Now she sings for pleasure, but it was rather surprising to hear from her at the Savoy Hotel this week that she had not sung in public since her farewell to England four years ago. To oblige her impressario, Mr. Lionel Powell, to whom she considers she owes so much, she is coming out of retirement, and may—no more than "may" —be induced to go _to the provinces this time if he has his way. Tetrazzini has kept up her practising all the time, but confesses that her remarkable parrot not only mimics her, but can go higher than she. But then she has a way with all inarticulate creatures, as her audiences would, agree;". ' .' AN;IBTH CENTURY FEMINIST; The-latest volume of, the representative women series is a delicate study.by Mr. Francis Birrell of the Duchess de Maine,, the diminutive wife of Louis by Madame; ds Montespan. This inane little lady,' by gathering round her all the bourgeoise intellec- . tuals, unconsciously laid the train of the Revolution. The Duchess de Maine, however, for all her petite stature and empty ;head, "wore the trousers." Her husband never dared contradict her for fear ii might destroy • her reason. She had a diet—roast chicken—and her cook had to.keep one always ready done to a turn. When the Duchess was late the sixth chicken would be on the spit. This recalls Plutarch's story of his •• uncle, shown over Mark Anthony's kitchen by the chief cook, and finding six wild boars roasting at different stages at the call of "the curled Anthony." WHERE DRESS NOVELTIES 60. Everyone who has walked down Regent Street or Piccadilly knows the "novelties" that regularly appear in the windows of men's shops, but are never seen elsewhere. The vivid scarlet shirts, the bright green hats, and the saffron-coloured plus-fours attract the eye of the passer-by—which incidentally is their function —who must often wonder what happens to them. I have learnt this to-day. Apparently there is a regular and considerable trade in these "outrages" for export to the "native trade," and the greater number of them, when they have done their work in London, go out to Africa or India. It is a not displeasing thought that some African chief is able to buy these "exclusive London designs," and appear in the green or scarlet shirt that once agitated polite eyebrows in Regent Street. LONDON'S BAZAAR. A friend took me this week-end to see the Caledonian Market. It has changed vastly, as well as developed greatly, since I last saw it. Nowadays it is London's great bazaar, and has much in common with those of the" East. Huge crowds gather, giving the scene all the animation: of a fpotbalLcup final, and I noted that the patrons of the market are by no means of one class. Rows of motor cars, some of them luxury cars, bring their owners, who mingle with the huckstering throng; while their superb chauffeurs endeavour to look nonchalant amid incongruous surroundings. West Enders put on their roughest clothes, and camouflage themselves in mackintoshes and coats, but the stallowners recognise them, and assert that they ar« tmong the keenest bargainers of all. What did anlaze me was to find that Lady Vera deVere buys even her silken hose at the. market. ICE-CREAM SODAS. Mixing of ice-cream sodas is as much an art as mixing cocktails. The adept acquires a reputation in her profession equal to that of one of the famous Mayfair cocktail shakers. A girl who is a successful ice-cream soda mixer in a West End store can make as much as i£7 to £10 a week in salary and commission, and the prosperity of her "bar" will depend almost entirely on her skill and personality. \ A department .store which opened a fountain imported a well-known ice-cream soda "queen" to preside over it, and, within a month the innovation was paying handsomely. The store then thought it would be a good idea to open another fountain in another department, but cheaper to instal an inexperienced assistant. The second fountain was a complete "flop." The expert was then moved from her own fountain to the new one, and within a. fortnight the latter was making profits. . AN ENGLISH LIDO. A little group of Society women, led by Lady Louis Mountbatten, have on the tapis a scheme for creating an English Lido on the South Coast. They have chosen for their centre a pretty little village near Bognor Regis, on the Craig\Vell House side, which has a. suitable beach. It is called Pagham, and the Queen attended its. church several times while she was staying at Bognor with the King, early this year. Lady Louis has already formed a small syndicate, and it is hoped in the next year or two/to develop the idea and make it a workable proposition. A little colony of wellr known people, with Lady Diana Cooper as the central, figure, already have villas and cottages on the South Coast, and there-is quite a social centre at Angmering But Pagham would be properly organised as abathing resbrt, an_d suitable attractions somewhat similar to those bn. : the Continent^would be introduced.' , .., - / -> MANNEQUIN PSYCHOLOGY. There ifi a profound psychology even in the choice of mannequins, both, tbe living variety and the. dummy mannequins- that adorn our>;shop windows. Some time ago the living mannequin parade made a subtle variation in- its. earlier manifestations by introducing middle-aged and homely-featured recruits to the beauty chorus. Now the West End shops are mostly employing -dummy mannequins, for their windows, who go one better than this. So far from- being merely "homely," these up-to-date, dummies are positively ugly. At / in-fit,eight this seemed rather odd and wrong;; but I hear an expert whisper ■ that; explain and* justifies the change. too S P r« u ld v t0be a Retake to have shopkeeper wychoSV- fl J„T T iem sihmty^^^^^