AHARD-HEARTEDGENERATION

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 972, 12 November 1910, Page 11

AHARD-HEARTEDGENERATION

Some writers aretapt to deplore modern failings, and lament the ways of the "good old days," now long since over. Lady Dorothy Nevill's new book of reminiscences throws some curious sidelights on the past. Although wo aro now declared to be more extravagant in dress than when Queen Victoria went to a ball at Stafford House attired in a simple muslin dress embroidered in colours, and when £45 a- year was Lady Dorothy's own dress allowance, slio adds that we aro moro in sympathy with the poor, and that "in old days a good many of the wealthy had no more heart than a stone peach on a lodging-house chimney-pieco." !?lie declares, too, that "the physical side of life is far more natural and healthy to-day than ever before since the days of primitive man." In one particular, however, our ancestors seem to have had nicer methods, for she tells us that the older generation rarely spoke of two things—their financial affairs and their digestions. Both aire now favourite topics."