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Evening Post, Volume LXXXI, Issue 113, 15 May 1911, Page 9

WOMEN IN PRINT.

Cirtnty is the kind of charm that attracts the love of 'all, and too much Is better than too little.

Dr. and Mrs. Young and children and Mrs. Birkett left for Auckland this morning to catch the Kia Ora for England. Mrs. Holdswotth, of Wellington, has been visiting her sister, Mrs. ,Wall, at Kauranga. The Misses Haanay ar* staying in the Wairarapa. Miss Butts is visiting Mrs. Twiss, of Petone. There is no danger in these days of having one's bead cut off for high treason or lese inajtete if fault is found with Royalty, so one is free to confess that Qoeen Mary is not possessed of much, taste in drees. The mourning she has* had to wear for the last year was most flattering to her blonde comeliness, for she has beautiful fair hair and a lovely complexion. But when she dresses in colonrs she is not so successful, and, being a woman of strong will, she prefers her own choice of tints and styles. The toques she nearly always wears, and which she has ordered must bo worn by her maids of honour, are not half so becoming to her as tie soft shade and setting of a picture hat. Last year the ! writer was being shown over 1 a woollen mill in England, and ,i the manager brought under notice a special tweed made by them for the Queen, then Princess of Wales. She gave all tie directions for its design, and the colour scheme was got from the feathers of a favourite parrot ! We couW 1 not repress a disloyal exclamation trhen shown the material. It was a dull, heavy emerald, with lines of black, spotted a.% intervals with a raw pink. The effect was appalling, and the quaintest feature of the order v/as that it was to be worn for the first time, at the opening of the Boyal Academy. . A pleasant tea-party "was given by Mrs. Keefe on Saturday afternoon at the Kelbume Kiosk to he/ helpers in the King's ; Festival' recently held in the •Town Hall. At the end of the function Mjeb O'Sufliuan presented Mrs. Keefe with a hand-bag and a cut-glass scentbottle, tie gift of the guests. A Maori du'eftainess, Mis. Mamhsra, died at Te Ore Ore on Friday. A large number of natives from ail parts of the Wairarapa assembled at tie iangL The funeral took place yesterday. ■ A recommendation to the General Synod, that women ehould be eligible to vote for church officers, haa been made by the parishioners of St. John's Church Beathesuton. ' Meb. J. ,T 4 Smart, of Longbuah, near Gre ( y±own, broke on© of her legs through falling on wet grace near her nouee. The engagement ie announced of Miss Doris MarSs, only daughter of Mr. Marcus F. Marks, to Mr. Thomas M'Laren, of the head office staff of the ] Bank of New Zealand. A St. Louis inventor (writes the New- ' castle Herald) has devised a solution of the problem of making electricity do i house work — not cooking and beating, merely, but the manual operations of washing, cleaning, polishing, etc. To do these things by hand needs a great deal , of t "elbow grease," ana elbow grease takes tune. A powerful press of rollers, ' or a polishing wheel revolving at tremendous speed would speed . up every operation.; it would... take semonds where hand work takes minutes. The total cost of power for sewing, washing, and wringing, mangling, ironing, chopping meat grinding coffee,, and polishing silver, the Chicago Electrical Review points ,out, would be a sum that almost any housekeeper would' be willing to pay for a few hoars ,more to call her own. The difficulty ie that the various operations need different* speeds, so that a separate motor would have to be provided for each, and the whole outfit would be very costly. Apparently the different speeds have, all beenj thought out. For example, electric washing machines and. aoe-cxeam freezers must operate ueuaUy at speeds •below 100 revolutions per minute, sew- ! ing machines at 600 revolutions per mm- ! ute, polishing wheels at from 1700 revolutions p_er minute upwards. The new inA'ention enables the housewife to use one motor to drive the washing machine, the wringer, the ironing machine, the ice-cream freezer, -the sewing machine, the coffee grinder, the meat chopper, and the bui&ng and grinding wheel. The outfit consists of an adjustable stand on which the motor is mount- j ed and belted to a- short thiee-speed "counter shaft, from which the machine to be driven may be connected by belt, or through a warm gear for further 6peed reduction. Nothing is said about washing the baby by electricity. Probably this is one of 'the operations for which "further speed rednction" is required. ; Bridge is dead because it lived too quickly (says the Paris Journal Figato). - To auction- bridge alert hostesses have already opened their houses. Go into v the Automobile Club, the Volney or the j ' Epatant and you will $cc four, six, or ► ten tables of auction bridge. At the Travellers' Club, where English and Americans staying in Paris are accusy tomed to go, . the last game <>f bridge was played' six months ago. Contrary to general belief, there are * some large families in France, and they t are being aeked to parade m force in i Paris. -Fathers, mothers, and progeny *' ate (according to a correspondent) to j > muster on the Place dcs Invalidee, I' which it is 'hoped they will fill 'to overH flowing. They will then -march, with j bands and banners, but "otherwise in 1 complete silence/ to the Chamber of 4 Deputies, which they will not, however, j invade- with their children, but pass by, ' tramping on to the -Place de la Con- , corde, where they -will disperse. The "Popular League of fathers and 1 Mothers of Large Families," 1 the president of which is Captain Simon Maire, the sh*e of nine children, all living, wishes to obtain special legislation • granting relief in taxation to prolific IT parents. " I have come about my wife ; I can't stand her conduct any longer;' ah© is most cruel," said a young man, who recently applied to the Westminster magistrate for advice. In reply to the magißtraJt*, the applicant, a man of slight physique, detailed a list of his matrimonial woes. He said that his wife chased him with a broom-handle ; had thrown him across the room ; »ent him anonymous letters ; frightened him with violent, language; had thrown boilmg water over him. "That was a littlo time ago," he explained. "That has gone by, then?" eajd tlie magistrate. "What has happened recently?" The Unluckily married one Replied : " She cornea home late — at 11.30 — and her manner is terrifying. (Laughtec) Last night ehe threatened to shoot me. She eaid that she should like to seeme dead — co that she could draw my insurancemenay." (Loud laughter.) "What aro you?" asked the magistrate, and ths ' young raw answered. 'Tm an invalid." (Much laughter.) The magistrate said ja§ did^eei.^.w^al he could do to

; restrain a termagant wife in her house, but he would send a waaiant officer to caution her. The applicant remarked ac he left the box that ho was really frightened te go home. In the London Opinion there is an article on the hand embroidery of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. A large collection of hand embroidered costumes was recently dispersed from a small village in Nottinghamshire (says the writer). Tho collection belonged te an elderly gentleman who lived at a hall, and watt a collector indeed ! He had furnished the upper rooms of his fine old mansion with Elizabethan and Jacobean beds, chests, coffers, and fur nituro te match, and had taken down all the doors so that the rooms stood en suit*. The better to show off his large collection of old costumes, he had, at tome time of other, bought up the whole stock of a travelling waxwork* show, and he dressed the figures, put them to bed, or set them beside the beda 4s if in attendance on the Bick or dying ; so that ghastly effigies— the wax had not been repaired or re-painted — of celebrated criminak, such as Weare and j Mrs. Manning, all clad in costly costumes of the olden times, stood about those upper rooms, and even by daylight ' made a night-mareish, nerve-ehak&ig show. But all that is over now ! I wonder whitber those beautiful costumes aro gono? "Fine examples of .embroidered coats, long-sleeved vests, bodices, and petticoats, may be seen in the capital little local museum, at Petorborougn, and the Victoria and Albert Museum at- South Kensington is rich in treasures of the kind. In tho latter collection there v is an eighteenth century petticoat, made for a duchess, which is covered with needlework representing branches, leaves, flowers, and fruits growing out of 'fanciful rockwork, and bridges amidst houses, winding roads, and treee; the 'rococo' and" Chinese Chippendale styles at their worst. Sometimes you come across a beautifully needle- worked cover for the sheath of a, dress-sword. For the men of those daye delighted in embroMeries, and had their coate and waittcoatfi adorned in this wise, upon the pockets, and along the edges of the lapels, the front, the tails, and the sleeves. In- the eighteenth, century the fashion for English noblemen ana gentry was to get their silken, cobtumes made and decorated in Paris, just as it is tho fashion in France to get tailored from London, to-day." The writer had- the privilege of viewing a coat of the seventeenth century in Durban the other day, and never ha& he •een a more gorgeous display of needlework. Like the eighteenth century pettiooat described in the above article, this coat, which was acquired recently by ai Durban gentleman, is a feast of beautiful thread work. The sleeves, lapels, tail*, cuffs, and even the buttons, represent magnificent' designs in flowers and fruit, all harmonising with each other. It is evident that over this work much .pains and time had been spent.