Ladies' Column.

Clutha Leader, Volume II, Issue 83, 10 February 1876, Page 7

Ladies' Column.

In " Last Leaves from the Journal of Julian C. Young," occurs the following curious paragraph : " Sat for two hours with Lady Brownlow and Lady Marian Alford. The latter told me — we were talking of Shakspeare's plays — that her brother, Lord Northampton, had in his possession a document making over, on certain conditions, a grant of land in

Fifeshire to the thane of Glamis and Cawdor, given by Duncan, and signed in a vigorous masculine hand by Lady Macbeth, to which was appended Macbeth's mark "

OfaiMhe love affairs in the world, none can surpass the true love of a bigboy for his mother. It is a love pure and noble, honorable in the highest degree to both. . I do not mean merely a dutiful affection. I mean a love which makes a boy gallant to his mother, saying plainly to. ' everybody that he is fairly in love with her. Next to the love of her husband, nothing so crowns a woman's life with honor as this second love, this devotion of the son to her. And I never yet knew a boy to " turn out " badly who began by falling in love wit-h. his mother. Any man may fall in love with a freshfaced girl, and the man who ib gallant to the girl may cruelly neglect the worn and weary wife. But the. big boy who is a lover of his mother at middle age is a true knight, who will- love his wife as much in the sere-leaf autumn as he did in the daisied spring. There is nothing so beautifully chivalrous as the love of a big boy to his mother.

Jenny Lind, though her voice has lost much of its old richness and power, is still a delightful singer, and delights in doing good, as she always did. The Hon. Lyman Tremaine, writing from Garlsbad, Germany, relates the following : — " On Sunday before last, quite an interesting little incident occurred at the conclusion of the services in the English church. As there was nc regular organist, the rector had requested that if any lady present was willing to play on the melodeon the next Sunday, hewould.be obliged if she would inform him. At the close a lady, who was a stranger to him, volunteered her services. Discovering that she spoke in broken English, he said, 'Do you think you are competent to play upon the melodeon V Said she, •' 1 think I am, Perhaps you may not doubt it when I tell you my name : it is Jenny Lind Goldschmidt.' He cheerfully acquiesced, and propounded no more questions as to her capacity. She appeared to be a woman of 'fifty or upward, with nothing about her to attract attention, and was dressed with great plainness and simplicity, without ornament of any kind. Her countenance, no longer beautiful, seemed to me plainly marked by sorrow, sadness, and care."

Ida Lkwis has renewed her heroism by rescuing* another man from drowning. Her first exploit was in 1866, when, in one of the roughest days, she saved the life of a soldier who had ventured out in a skiff. In 1867, while a gale was raging, two men set out to cross the harbor with several sheep, and, in trying to rescue one that had fallen overboard, -came near swamping their boat. Seeing their peril from the window of her father's lighthouse, Miss Lewis went to their aid, and, after landing them safely, went back and rescued the sheep. But her greatest exploit was performed on the 29th, March, 1869, when a boat containing two young, soldiers and a boy was struck by a squall in the. harbor and overturned. Though ill at the time, Ida rushed out of the house, launched, her life boa*y, sprang in, with neither hat on her head: nor shoes on her feet, reached the -wreck just in time to, save the two soldiers, as .they were about 'losing their hold' from exhaustion, the boy. ,having meanwhile; perished, and rowed them to the Tight- : .house.

The Unguarded Word. — It 'is the unguarded word 'which oftenest proves a root of bitterness in married life — the want of a proper discipline of speech which destroys family happiness. ;

It is said that the Queen of Holland speaks with fluency every language spoken in Europe • and oh one occassion, on receiving the Hungarian delegates of some learned society, among many others who attended, her Majesty addressed the gentlemen in Latin, pleading* as an excuse that she had not studied the language pf Hungary. She is able to speak with equal fluency the German, French, English, Danish, Italian, Spanish, Russian, and Sweedish languages,

An extraordinary piece of embroidery was recently exhibited at the Washington County (New York) Fair. It was six feet long, four broad, contained twenty figures of men, women, and horses, and was composed of 1,857,600 stitches. It represented the death of George Douglas on the battle field after he had aided Mary Queen of Scots to escape .from Lochlevin Castle. This embroidery, wrought in worsted, was the work of Mrs ' Keach, a venerable woman, whose husband was killed in the war of 1812, and she had spent upon ie ten hours a day for 18 months.

Morbid Sensitiveness. — People who are blest with robust health and strongnerves are apt to regard with wonder, if not with distrust, the complaints of delicately -organised persons, whose feelings are wounded by sources of pain wliich -to- others seem utterly trivial and undeserving of notice. Such complaints are often met with expressions of impatience, and with exhortation to suppress them and to exhibit more self-control and common sense. But, in truth, this excessive sensitiveness is in many cases a disease, for which the sufferer is no more accountable than a person. would be who was afflicted with weakness of the eyes, or of the lungs. A remarkable and affecting* instance of the suffering produced 'by this cause has recently been made public, in the case of a young lady who lately died in a hospital in Paris. It is stated that she early displayed an excessively sensitive disposition, the slightest emotion producing a nervous attack. As she grew older, this urifortunatetendency increased. The recital of an affecting story would utterly overcome her. A short time ago a disappointment in love caused a temporary derangement of mind, and after this her sensitiveness grew pitiably acute. t( An insect would become to her an object of intense anxiety. She would watch the flutterings of a butterfly with anguish, and Would only regain composure on. seeing the insect alight upon some floweret." Finally under medical advice, her family caused her to be placed in the hospital of Ville Evrard, where she died soon afterwards, the immediate cause of death being the mental suffering* produced by the sight of a cat devouring a little bird. The story of this poor girl is merely an extreme case of an affliction which in its lighter stages is very common. The exhibitions of suffering which it causes are to be met, not with expostulation and argument, but with sympathy and judicial medical treatment. Sensitiveness is weakness, and weakness of the nerves can no more be healed by reasoning or reproaches than, weakness of the stomach. On the other hand it is equally true that in both these affections the sufferer may do much, by a proper regimen and mode of life, to avoid pain, and regain comfort and strength.

A Training School for Governesses.— A college specially designed for training ladios for the profession of teachers, and having attached to it a "modern school " for practice,, is one of the best modes in which a benevolent person.' desirous of accomplishing much good at moderate expense, could invest a spare fortune. The following paragraph from an English, paper gives a very encouraging account of the good success which has attended such an institution : — Mrs Louisa Hubbard, wife of the High Sheriff of the county, has issued an appeal on behalf of the Otter Memorial College at Chichester, where young women were trained , for governesses She says it at present accommodates only twenty-seven n students, and is quite inadequate to meet the applications for- admission. It was left unfurnished at the time of its erection, and is now proposed to .complete the original design by. building, .a. wing which will connect the college with the chapel, and afford accommodation for fifteen additional students, and provide a'large lecture-room, much needed, with a chaplain's room arid three, small rooms, wbich can be perfectly isolated^ and used as an infirmary in case of illness. The cost will be large — over £2000 — but it is urgently needed to enable the college more fully to answer the ' two purposes ' for which it ' was opened. The model school for girls^ built last year at ' a cost of £1 000, affords sufficient scope -for the practice in teaching of forty students. It may interest the friends of the college to know that those, who have, completed their course of training have success-, fully passed all their-examinations, and are, n ow- in- charge of school s r at- salaries averaging oyer £80 per annum, happy ia their work, and evidently valued by their employers. •No difficulty has| been found in: placing them out in] schools"; on stheAContrary, thirty appli-l cations ait least have been refused. -■' fori every one that could be supplied," ,