FEMININE CHIT-CHAT.

Evening Post, Volume L, Issue 36, 10 August 1895, Page 1 (Supplement)

FEMININE CHIT-CHAT.

ThhShot-1n Society. Motto— "Help One Another." The object of our Society is to enable "Shut-in" invalids to receive a little brightness and comfort from the outside world in the shape of letters, papers, and books. I have a number of kindly " Free-holpers " ready to help in this work, and any /'Shut-in" may be corresponded with on communicating by letter to " Clio," E.L.0., Evbnino Post. There is no subscription, no committee, no fuss, and no publioitv. Several persons have asked me to send for papers, magazines, etc., for Our " Shutins, but, I regret to say, lam unable to do so. They can be either left at the Evening Post, or " Clio," c/o Mrs. Innes, No. 20, Oriental Bay. Baby Prince Edward of York is now within a few weeks of completing his first year, and his mamma has been ordering some new garments for him that are not quite so infantile. There is a fashion in children's clothes as in those of their elders, and young Edward of York must have pelisses with broad and full capes on the shoulders, like the ones worn by children of a larger growth in these be-frilled and befurbelowed days. Many smart mammas put their little ones into nightgowns with puffed sleeves even ; but our tiny future Kingis nottricked out in such ultra-fashion-able night-gear, for his maternal relative is addicted to the good old simple homely ways of the nursery, such as were maintained by her mother and Queen Victoria in days of yore. As the Now Woman has not yet obtained the Parliamentary franchise, politically speaking she does not count, and the right royally descended " Historicus " might have added to his legislative popularity very considerably had he substituted a tax upon ladies' hats, instead of retaining the impost upon the poor man's beer. Suoh a measure would have been merely a revival of an old State expedient for raiding the national wind, as the stamp duty upon hats, enaoted in 1784, was not finally repealed until 1811. The word "hat," by the way, is only once mentioned in the Bible ; in connection with "Shadraoh," &o , and the " burning fiery furnace," some six centuries before the Christian era, and it is more than doubtful whether such a term should have been used in our version ; the Groek gives " tiara "or turban, while in the Latin (Cambridge version, 1652) there is no precise mention of any head-covering in connection with those persecuted gentlemen at all. " There is, perhaps, nothing so variable in nature as a lady's hat," as Addison remarked in 1711, and added that in his time he had known it " rise and fall above thirty degrees," The term itself is of pure Saxon derivation, 'and simply meaus a head covering ; but Saxon girls did not render themselves so supremely ridiculous as their descendants have periodically done since ; a portrait of Etheldrytha, preserved in the '• Benedict ioual " of St. Ethelwold, shows that this Princess wore a simple hood, in continuation of her mantle, almost presisely similar to the hoods which are now commonly attached to ladies' cloaks and waterproofs. In the fourteenth century the head-dress was built up in a couple of cones, was poiuted like a church spire, and had long loose streamers fringed and hanging down the backs of the wearers. A popular parson of the day preached strenuously against the prevailing fasnion, and with such success that many of his lady wearers threw Jdown their coiffures in the middle of his sermon, and made a bonfire of them in front of the altar. The French word " bonnet " became anglicised in the reign of Richard 111., and since then, and not before, we read of ladies' bonnets. The ladies' bonnets of 1483-85 were very becoming, fitted the head olosely, and usually had a feather at the back or side. By an Act of Parliament of 1671, it was enacted that every one above seven years of age should weajr on Sundays and holidays a cap of wool, knit, made, thickened, and dressed in England, under pain of a fine of three farthings for every neglect. The price of hats was not to exceed one shilling and eightpence ; that of caps or bonnets two shillings Rnd eightpence, by Btatute of sth Henry VII., 1489. Lords and gentlemen in 1671 were relieved from the operation of the Act, and so were all maids, ladies, and gentlewomen, but not ordinary matrons. An American correspondent writes ;—; — " The domestic servant question is becoming more than ever of vital importance in the States, and especially in the West, whither drifts the scum of European countries. It is almost an impossibility to procure a respectable and competent maid-servant, and the majority of women employed in domestic service are raw Irish, or nnt aught German or Swedish peasants, many of the latter not understanding a single word of any language but their own. The exorbitant wages and stringent conditions exacted by competent, well- trained servants make them an impossible luxury to the ordinary middleclass housekeeper ; and it. therefore goes without saying that life to her is not always roseate in hue, and the following anecdote from real life is by no means exaggerated. Jones: 'Hollo, Brown! You look' very excited and jolly to-day. What's upr Brown : ' I am happy to-day, old fellow. We've got a girl at our house.' Jones : ' Well, I do congratulate you ; though, I suppose, you'd be happier it it were a boy.' Brown: 'Not much. She's the only girl of all the thirty- seven we've had this year who knows her proper place and keeps it, and knows her business and attends to it, and we only pay her four dollars a week.' Jones : (with deep fooling) : * Then, indeed, old boy, I do congratulate you {more than ever.' ' , ' A Boston gentleman, whoilately returned from a tour in Florida, had a mogt disagreeable experience among the orange groves of that salubrious State. Being belated , one night, having wandered far from hiahotel,he obtained shelter in a rather superior looking farmhouse. While molting his toilette the following morning he espied on the mantelshelf a small box, apparently containing tooth-powder, to which he helped himself liberally. When paying for his aocommodation he apologised to the farmer's wife for having used some of her tooth-powder. 'Tooth-powder,' she queried, ' we have not such a thing in the house.' ' Yes, my good

lady, it is in a small round box on tht mantelpiece,' he replied. ' That !' she screamed, 'luatu.isn t tooth- jiuwder, tha 1 was Aunty ! ' (Auuty had been cremated.)' RECIPES. [In my recipes Jor }ast -week nn error occuried. lutherooipefpi " Cookies" three pounds of sugar isAKj\^Uantity given; it should have been half: a pound of sugar. — Ed.L.C] ' Diplomatic Pudding. — Butter a plain mould. Slice a stale sponge cake into rounds half an inch thick ; dip esoh slice into sweet wine, lay it in the mould, placing between each slice strips of thin candied peel, sultana raisins, and a little desiccated coooanut. Make a custard with sweetened milk and eggs (allowing two eggs to a pint of milk) sufficient to fill the mould. Leave it to soak for an hour, then bake until set firm. Turn out when cold, and pour round it more boiled custard flavoured with almond essence. Sugar- water flavoured with vanilla will do instead of wine. Boned Leo op Mutton. — Get your butcher to bring you a boned beg of mutton ; make a stuffing of .bread crumbs, thyme, chopped parsley, pepper and salt, and mix with a bit of butter ; put this into the hole in the leg, and tie the leg with tape into a neat round, sew the hole at the bottom bo that the stuffing shall not escape ; put into a pan with plenty of dripping, and bake for one hour and a half ; serve with good gravy made from the bone, and thickened with browned flour. Minced Beef. — Get one pound of beef steak ; put it through your sausage machine; put it in a saucepan with flavouring of pepper and salt, a clove, a little chopped onion, and any sauce you prefer; add a little water, and simmer for half an hour, siiiring occasionally; when done, thicken with a little flour aud butter ; serve with poached eggs, and sippets of toast. Rice and Ciieese. — Boil some rice till tender, then grate about half the quantity of cheese iuto it, pepper, salt, a little oayenne, some tomato sauce ; put all into a pie-dish, grate bread on it, with bite of butter, and bako in a quick oven 1 5 minutes. Italian Pastet. — The weight of three eggs in butter, flour,- and sugar ; rub the butter in the flour, add the sugar with a teabpoonful of baking powder, add the beaten eggs, with a flavouring of vanilla ; make into a dough stiff enough to roll out, add a little flour if not stiff enough ; roll out to about half an inch thick, ana bake in a flat tin ; when baked spread jam on half the pastry and cover with other half ; out into strips. ____^^^^____