FEMININE CHIT-CHAT.

Evening Post, Volume XLVIII, Issue 54, 1 September 1894, Page 1 (Supplement)

FEMININE CHIT-CHAT.

The Shut-In Society—.Any invalids who are sh&t in, males or females,_ can be corresponded with on enclosing their names and addresses to "Clio," E.L.C., Evening Post. I have all the names, and addresses of the ladies who so kindly offered to, assist in the Shut-in Society, and will communicate with them when any Shut-ins correspond with me. At present we have only five. Not encouraging, is it ? I had a. visit from the Inspector of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals last week, and was glad to hear from him that th& Society is doing good here. As I told him, cruelty to animals is often frojn mere wont sf thought. A man often does not realise what infinite pain a sore shoulder or girth-gall gives a horse, but if it is pointed out to him in a kindly manner, five men out of six will take it kindly. Of course there axe some human brutes whom na suffering will touch. I should like to see the " cat" prescribed for them. The Inspeotor would like to see a Kind-hearted Brigade started here among children,—that is, get one of our papers to take it up, and give, say, a column's space, and ask children to write short letters about kindness to animals, stories, pets, etc., then whoever takes charge of the column answer their letters. The Canterbury Times tried this plan, and succeeded well. It would be a good idea to oall it The Kindly Brigade, and have it connected with the S.P.O.A. 1 see Mrs. H D Bell did a very nice thing lately. She presented the Boy's Institute with a set of crioket materials. Other ladies might take a hint from her, and give something to so excellent an institution—books, games, pictures, paint boxes, etc To encourage and aid in making the boys good and careful men, should be every true woman's work. Why don't our dress reformers turn their attention to the necessity of devising a comfortable costume for golfing, instead of weakly hankering after those "divided skirts" which must always remain impossible to us ? We cannot dispense with our petticoats; we know too well how much we owe to the graceful lines of our draperies to willingly discard them. She must be a very dull girl indeed who cannot make as eloquent a use of her skirts as of her fan—withont raising an eyelid, with a seemingly careless adjustment of her flowing train she can invite or repel a timid wooer. What is more expressive of scorn than the in-drawing of one's skirt lest it come in contact witft that of another girl?

And can unytkiug be more gracious thau ilia g.ithpiiri ' 'occtlifr of oi'h'n draperies ii. order to '• make room " for ono whose i--nnjrtuy we d< ■ii'-ef' A gir 1 wi:hout frills n.-'^ flounces wmld bo liko a flower without fo'j -<rt». In the present state of keen corapt i- ion in tho marriage market one cannot Hfford to dispense with one single advantage ; but -while a girl lovos her clinging skirt?, and fully appreciates their influence on wily man, she sighs for something more manageable for the lawn and links. A curious and disagreeable custom has been borrowed by our prematurely bald young men from the ladies. They do not wear regular wigs. Somehow a man's wig can be detected at any distance, and it always looks ridiculous, whereas with the ladies it is the fact and not the appearance which is unsightly. The new idea is to have an arrangement of long hairs fastened on one side of the head with spirit gum. Over the join some real hair is brushed and greased down. The long false hairs are then greased and arranged over the top of the head, covering up a good deal of the baldness, and showing gaps just as suoh an arrangement of real hair. The deception is perfect, for so many men allow their own hair to grow long in this way (if it will) to cover the crown, that the effect is quite common. Nor does the uninitiated imagine that such an incomplete arrangement can be false.