SAILORS’ FRIEND SOCIETY

Dominion, Volume 18, Issue 199, 23 May 1925, Page 14

SAILORS’ FRIEND SOCIETY

w Great appreciation was shown by the seafaring guests of the concert provided by the Alisses Shepherd at the Sailors’ Friend Society on Thursday, every item being enjoyed and vigorously encored. The performers were Mrs. Logan. Misses Gwon Shepherd, J. Briggs, T T nia Shopherd and Alessrs. C. Greeir, W. C. Crowes, A. Blackey, Jones and Baines. Aliss Ifnia Shepherd was at the niano. Prizes camo from Airs. If Shepherd. Thanks were tendered for recent gifts of books for voyages before tho men.

The season’s vogue for sports wear from early morning till changing into evening dress has brought a new garment into existence —the blouse-knickers (says a London paper of April 8). 11ns latest example of fashion’s tendency to compromise is a" charming creation in pastel and other shades of heavy crepe de chine, cut with tailored precision and decorated with dainty stitchery and embroidery. In actual wear, of course, it is' merely a smart shirt blouse, neat and practical, but if on the tennis court or the golf course the short wrap-over sports skirt should yield a glimpse of the garment beneath, all that the onlooker will observe is a fold of the same crepe de chine as the blouse. Young singers and instrumentalists who dream of going to London in search of fame mav be interested in the. rather melancholy pronouncement of Sir Landon Ronald that only 2 per cent. of the concerts given in London even pay expenses. Such a warning will probably not prevent ambitious young musicians from trying their luck in London, but it may persuade them to be sure that they have a reasonable amount of monev behind them to tide them over their first few. years when they come. A somewhat absurd state of. affairs is reporied from Alberta, British Columbia, where the newspapers themselves vouch for the facts, states a writer in an exchange. As a consequence of the Government scheme for widows’ pensions, the widowed mothers of this district are so comfortable. and value the glorious privilege of independence so highly "that they resolutely refuse further adventures on the terppestuous sea of matrimony.” As a consequence some municipal organisations are considering a resolution against these pensions. A great case is made out for the widower farmers, who, unable Ito get married again, have to do the housework as well as the farm work, and are losing their property and troing bankrupt in consequence, The resolution asks for an amendment of the Pensions Act, that the municipality be allowed to deny the widow a pension when it is proved "that she refused a farmer on the ground that she was better off with her pension.” All the local sympathvj. it seems, is with the farmers. “Alberta is mainly an agricultural province,” savs one man advocate. “Domestic servants are difficult to procure. Wives, therefore, are essentia] to the edrafort and convenience of the prairie farmers and to the progress and prosperity of the prairie farms.” Savs a woman opponent: “We are not surprised that the widows of Alberta object to be looked upon as a cheap substitute for domestic servants.” WONDERFUL WEARING STOCKINGS. With fair treatment, Silk Sheen Stockings will outlast any other hose. One-third pure silk and two-thirds art silk, with mercerised lisle tops, Silk Sheen Stockings have the pure silk hose appearance and are guaranteed to give hard service. Ladies’ Silk Sheen Hose are priced at ss. lid. and men’s at 4s. 9d.—Advt.

The County of Sussex has nowadays to get on as best it can without its special and particular novelist, for Sheila Kaye-Smith has settled down in the neighbourhood of Notting Hill with her clerical husband, the Rev. Theodore Fry, who has taken up a curacy at St. James’s, Norlands, a church in a quiet backwater off the Bayswater Road, says a writer in an exchange. The novelist’s marriage was a surprise to many of her friends at St. Leonards and elsewhere, as “The End of the House of Alard” had given them the impression that her enthusiastic AngloCatliolicism included a strong bias towards the ideal of a celibate clergy. Her husband, who shares her views on matters ecclesiastical, comes, oddly enough, of a famous Quaker family, being the son and heir of Sir John I’ease Fry, of Woodburn. His present vicar, the Rev. H. L. Haynes, has done a good deal of clever literary and journalistic work.