WOMEN IN PRINT.

Evening Post, Volume LXXXVIII, Issue 23, 27 July 1914, Page 9

WOMEN IN PRINT.

On Friday afternoon Mrs. -Coleridge lent the pleasant drawing room at Bishopscourt to the Victoria League for a. meeting of Kelburn residents, arranged by Mrs. Salmond. A large number of ladies attended the meeting, which passed off moit successfully. Lady Godley, who presided, spoko of the Imperial aspect of the league's work, and Mrs. Salmond and Mrs. Ohatfield explained the working of the league in England and in New Zealand. After the epoaches, afternoon tea was served, and the matter was discussed socially. The guests all Expressed much interest in the- League and its work, and most of them joined as members. Mies Coates, the president, was present, and proposed a vote'of thanks to Mrs. Coleridge for kindly helping the league. This was carried with hearty acclamation, as also was the motion, proposed by Mrs. Salmond, thanking Lady Godley for presiding at meeting.

"A pleasant gathering took place on Saturday afternoon at the residence of Mr. James Ranson, the occasion being that gcntlemtn 3 84th birthday. Despite the inclement weather, the home was made cheery with flowers and fires, and a very pleasant time was spent.

To-morrow Miss Bertha .Tanning*, of New Plymouth, daughter of Mr. W. T. Jennings; ex-M.P., i 3 to be married to Mr. - O'lfelly, manager for Messrs. Callet and Co., produce merchants Auckland. A nuptial Mass will be 1 celebrated at New Plymouth, where the marriage is to take place. Miss Jennings has many friends in Wellington,

• Mother Cecily, the Prioress of St. Dominic'** Convent, Dunedin, celebrated on the 9th inst; the silver jubilee of her profession. The Rev, Mother, for twenty-five years, hag'been instructing the young in the TJunedm Convent and branch houses in Otago and Southland". She received a number, of telegrams and presents.

On Friday,, at the Thames, the death took place of Mrs. Sarah. Sanders, a very old Auckland pioneer, and the widow of the into, Mr. T. Sanders, who was Cleric of the Court, and during the Maori War war correspondent to the New Zer.land Herald.

The engagement is announced of Miss Doris R. Harper, second daughter of Mr. and Mrs. W. J. Harper, of Wellington/ to Mr. M. Gandar, son of Mr. Gandar, of Carterton.

The 15th 'hardware ball takes place next month. The patrons are:—Messrs. T. Archibald, W. J. Bridson, C. A. Briggs, W. G. Duthie, J. M'Lellan, J. F. Mills, A. Odlin, R, A. Wakelirt, and Gr. Winder; the committee, Misses K. Findlay, M. Butler, E. Grant, A. Gough, and U. Simon, Messrs. J. Brodie, E. Herron,- H. Harper, W. Stead, L. Ritchie, D. Poltobk, J. Garnham, L. Avery, L. Zucker, J, Kerslake, and J. Webb • and the hon. secretaries, Messrs. R. Bishop and F. Fauvel.

The Misses Cooper, daughters of Mr. Justice Cooper, leave on Saturday for their future home in Auckland. Mrs. Cooper is at present in Napier, with her daughter, Mrs. Gilray.

Mis 3 Kettle, who has been staying with her sister, Mrs. Watt, returns to Graymouth this week.

Miss Cowlishaw and Miss Humphries have returned to Christcrmrcli. ■

.Messrs. J. Ormond. W. M'Kerizie, G. Pharazyh, and Harold Mussel], and their wives, leave this month for India, to take part in polo tournaments.

Although we are supposed to be oh the top of a wave of great prosperity, covering all classes of the community, there seems. to be in Sydney an epidemic of shoplifting (writes the Sydney correspondent of Tho Post). Perhaps tins is because more shoplifters are detected and brought to book than is normally the case. At any rate, one reads almost daily of women being haled before the Courts of Petty Sessions for thieving from shops. What is truly remarkable is that in eight cases out of ten the olfchders are women who are comfortably off, and when arrested have in their purses enough money to pay twice or thrice over for the articles they have purloined. In case after case a lawyer tor the defence, behind .whom gits a husband ready with money to .pay a fine, gets up and puts forward a plea of unaccountable impulse, which led to a wholly unnecessary bit of thieving. During the Week, too, we have read of the case of a quite well-to-do woman who put forward the excuse that she "lifted" some laces and ribbons simply because she saw other women doing it, and it seemed so easy. In Court, most of tho offenders excite pity with their tears and manifest acute mental distress, but tho Magistrates have - become so accustomed to these cases that they do not now accompany the imposition of a fine with the remarks of regret which were formerly added. Matters have become so bad that the big emporiums keep staffs of special Watchers, some of whom scrutinise .so keenly every woman customer that observant women become intensely annoyed at ( being looked at as if they were possible shoplifters only waiting for a chaftce to smuggle something away. On the ' other hand, the shopkeepers say that they are compelled to take all manner of close precautions to prevent losses by theft from getting to dimensions 'which, seriously cut into their legitimate trade profits.

A prediction uttered the other day by a clever Frenchwoman seems to be nearer fulfilment than the speaker perhaps imagined. "It will not be so very long before people will say in astonishment, 'Just fancy, wka there ever a time when our ancestors didn't consider a woman young at sixty?'" Both in her fascinating book "The Renaissance of the Greek Ideal" atid in her own personality Mrs. Roger Watts teaches the consoling truth that the nightmare once known as "middle age" can be for ever banished from a woman's lexicon. For five years Mrs.. Watts has been practising . and preaching the doctrine that poise or balance combined with elasticity is the secret of continued youth and" beauty. "At forty I was beginning to confront the advancing spectre of middle age, the year's '.when women resign themselves to the gradual 'slumping down' of the lines of the . figure and the loss of youthful energy. Both health and spirits suffered in consequence. Possibly I might have become the nervous wreck that seems to be the fate of bo many women at'that age. Happily, my thoughts were led in the. direction of studying tlio secret of rhythmical movement'and balance. Day by day my studies became ftiord arid moxe absorbing. . Then I gradually found that 1 was acquiring the secret of the Greek ideal in physical superiority. This I must call a state of tension, a condition of the muscles which is quite different from any realised by the athletes since the time of the Greeks." "And how could the ordinary woman of forty-five begin to attain this enviable condition?" J asked Mrs. Watts. "She will tell you she has no time to practise exercises, and that it is impossible to re-create a heavy, ungraceful

It is easier to go down a hill than up, but the view is from the top.—Arnold Bennett.

figure into a model of symmetrical grace. If I mentioned to her that a wonderful condition of almost perfect health had also been your reward, that your skin was of a peculiarly velvety texture as the result of your training, and that your walk was the essence of buoyancy and youth, she would probably heave a sigh of envy and say that you were an exception and that these gifts belonged to you by nature, livery woman who has the inclination to achieve grace and poise can achieve these conditions. It is never the power that is lacking, but tho desire to conquer obstacles is not strong enough. The woman who says she has no time. to follow the Greek ideal of physical training forgets the many odd moments that she wastes during the time of her dressing. She can practise the movements in her bath, when she is curling her hair, when she stoops down to put on her shoes —in short, all her actions'during the day can be brought into use and trained in the acquirement of poise. Her first lesson must be in. the .art of stretching the muscles. She must learn to acqnire a straight diaphragm, and by/straight- I do not mean a tense rigidity. Above.All, she must learn that the secret of balance lies in the right training of the foot. Let her once understand that, roughly speaking, she. must accustom herself to stand and walk on the ball, and not on the heel, of her foot, and She will have acquired the first elements of her training." One of the most marvellous results of Mrs. Watts'fl own 'training is the fact that this following of the Greek ideal has brought about the 1 entire transformation of her own fobt. From the average formation described -by the owner as made more hideous by the big too doubled beneath the first toe and with the joint suffering from a tendency towards the prosaic bunion, the foot has now become the most exquisite model, showing the beauty of the pure Greek outlines'. "Walking on the ■■aide of the foot with the toes planted in straight line with the heel, never turned outwards, and with the weight cf the body balanced on the ball and not the heel of the foot, is, practically speaking, the secret of the transformation," explained Mrs. Watts. "In five years the shape of my foot has completely changed. When I walk I feel literally that I am 'treading on air.' I will show you how agile at least a woman of fortyfive can be," said tho lecturer. And then, dressed as she was in a very elegant evening frock, Mrs. Watts turned an extraordinarily graceful somersault and recovered her balance standing on her toes before her surprised audience could grasp the meaning of what seemed to be the merest flash of draperies in the air I

A French woman doctor is askiug her patients to utilise auto-suggestion for keeping themselves mentally fit. Should yon, for instance, be given to unreasonable tempers you must persviade yourself .you really are quite sweet-tempered and 'self-controlled, and you will soon find the spell working. If, on the other hand, you are lazy, it is useless to convince yourself you are not. Instead, fix your thoughts on tlia tiling you ought to do, and if_ you keep at it long enough you will do it automatically, if only for the sake of getting it off your mind.

The simple-life craze seems still to be proving attractive to people in,the Old Country, says an exchange. . Yet, to the uninitiated, simple-lifers have quaint ways of enjoying life, many of which are apparently anything but alluring. Tho latest idea of "simple-lifing" seems to be living in tents, and Ave read that a society lady in England is making her home in a tent, and that it is quite probable that her mode of existence will be fohowed by many, other women. When one realises how beautifully comfortable and luxuriously "homey" the average English home is, it is difficult to understand how simple-lifers really can prefer foregoing the very real enjoyment and comfort and pleasure to be derived from a well-managed establishment, typical of a real English home and happy home life. Perhaps it is only because the simple life is so general in this new country Of ours that the attractions of English home life seem so tempting and so desirable. It is a little way so many of us have. in this queer old world: of not appreciating to the full the blessings we possess. Still, after all, everyone to her own-taste, and what a good thing it is that we can get along and be quite happy_ and "comfy" even with compulsory simple surroundings.

.In an article on "The Lost Art of Courtesy" in the Nineteenth Century, Miss March Phillipps writes :—"Boys arid girls used to be very .carefully trained in politeness. They learned to efface themselves. Perhaps the ■ thing Was but any such mistakes have been abundantly rectified. Now parents seem to vie with one another to make their children as Selfish as possible. The habit of gratifying every impulse, tho shrinking from all dull and tiresome obligations, the satisfying the craving for. constant amusement inevitably result in a want of self*control and self-restraint.' It i 3 almost impossible to inculcate constant charm of manner in those who are uniformly, bent on pleasing themselves. Young people get un unattractive decision, a sort of slap-dash assurance, a total want of delicate half-tohos. It is the little touches that make, the little flaws that mar, . and urbanity, taught and practised in the home, would not leave so much to learn in intercourse with the world at Large. It is sometimes said.' that democracy is ac-. countable for the decadence in irianners, that in the reaction from servility we find the village girl refusing to 'drop her curtsey,' but go a little way below the surface and you will still find anxious politeness flourishing.' It is indeed to the poor that We must turn for the most exquisite courtesy. How often in a cottage have we not been received with. a manner that is absolute perfection? It is the manner that is the outcome of a mind _ of leisure, full of that presence of mind that goes with entire unconsciousness of selfy anxious to please, and saying instinctively the right .and kind thing. The finished courtesy of a really high-bred woman, innate and instilled, courteous less because of what is due to others than because of old tradiSion and of what is due to heiGelf, is a very perfect thing, but it is not Mor<3 perfect than that of the humbleminded woman who has never thought of herself at all."

We all desire We yearn for it; we strive for it, and we read books about it. And yet it is within the roach: of all of us if we could only learn to make much of little. Any child teaches lis the secret of hnppiness in bis power of "make .believe" in manufacturing sheer happiness .nut of n few spools on a String, a sar.dpile. a- handful oi paper dolls, or sis tin soldiers.- Think of the sheer happiness that a puppy jidt.s from a flutiff stick, and the joy of a kitten in a dangled string ! Some of us )e----quire diverse and expensive means of making fun. But the really happy woman is die who can find pleasure m watching a. plw»fc grow or a bird build its neat, in looking at a sunset, in viewing as, much of this great round world'as can be seen on her evcry-day walks, or j'n listening to the music made by the

stumbling fingers of her little daughter learning to play the piano. The trouble is we do not value the little things; we do .not place the emphasis on the right thing. We hunger for the big things because in them we think that happiness lies. And when we get them we realiso that the biggest things., after all, ar» the' little things, and that the.happiness we have chased lies in them. Ana they ave at our hand !

Lady Salisbury, who entertained the King and Queen at Hatfield recently, l» considered one of the most attractive of modern hostesses. She talks well and reads much, and ia a. close student of politics. Lady Salisbury ie a sister of Lord Arl'an, and was Lady Cicely Gore before her marriage. Both fine and Lord Salisbury are extremely popular with all classes of their neighbours in Hertfordshire. Two years ago, on the Occasion of their silver wedding, the tenant farmers- of the estate presented a beautiful pair of Jacob&an silver candlesticks with the quaint old-world inscription: "Thtt tenant farmers of the Hertfordshire and Essex estate give thanks for the blessings vouchsafed to James, fourth Marqifis of Salisbury, and Cicely Alice, his wife, during twenty-five years of their married life. Hatfield House has collected its share of legend and story, but there is one grim story con* fleeted with it that is true. In 1835, the then Lady Salisbury, an aged lady, was writing in h&r room in the west wing. Two candles were burning on her table, but she found their light insufficient,.and she Vfe»j for a. third. It Was brought, and the old lady continued her writing. Very shortly afterwards the whole west wtiig, was in flames and the aged mistress of the house was burnt to death, a tragic event which bears out the old superstition that three caudles alight together surely foretell a death. GRAMOPHONES AND RECORDS. These should be purchased from thi Dv*sdcn Piano Company, Ltd. That firm guarantees to supply only the very best gramophones and the very latest records. You are dealing with responsible people who are large and advantageous importers. New records, from 3s 6d each, reach the Dresden every mail. The stock includes songs by Melba, Tetrazzini, Kirkby Lunnj. Clara Butt, Caruso j and vocal duets, trios, quartettes, and recita* tions bv every artist of note.. Then there are instrumental solos by Eminent Dlayei* and band _music by the most' famous bands. Visitors are welcomed at the Dresden gramophone room in Wellington, They can hear selections without the slightest obligation .to purchase. The Dresden Piano Company, Ltd., Wellington. M. J. Brookes, North Island manager.—Advt. Violets! Violets! Violets! Mi«s Cooper, floriste. Manners-street, is receiving'fresh daily her well-known beautiful violets. Posted to any address. Telephone 882.—Advt. The many excellences of the Wertheim Sewing Machine should prompt you to inspect before you decide finally. The Wertheim is the smooonest running and most reliable sewing machine on tlie market—for, you must remember the '■"WerTheim" is a sewing machine "pioneer"—it stands upon a big reputation and embodies all the latest improvements. Let us demonstrate its merits. Oscar Hewitt and Co., 56, Cuba-street, Wellington, solo agents. Local agents in every town in Now Zealand.—Advt. . Practical proof is the most convincing argument, and with this in view Miss Bagley, of the "Ideal Home" Chart Dresscutting System, the simplest in the world, will givo free demonstrations this week at 3 p.m. Ladies specially invited. No. 7, Adelphi Chambers, 102, Willisstreet.—Advt.. . ■' v She stoops to conquer, but she doesnH stoop to sweep up the dust if she uses an Ardinco Dustpan, which costs only 2s 6d. If your own ironmonger does not stock it, ring up 'phone 2528. and you will be told one who does.—Advt. Eridnl showflr bouquets ar* a feature of every pretty wedding. The .choicest t.f blooms and most artistic d««ighine are obtained at Miss Murray's, Vice-Regal Florist, 36, Willie-street. Country order* receive special attention.—-Advt. Ex s.s. Rotorua—J. Godber and Co., Ltd., have received a shipment of the latest designs in cOssagues, which are now available at all branches.—Advt. The lit lie lads are well catered for at the Juvenile Department. Geo. Fowld's, Ltd. All boys' overcoats reduced greatly in price this week.—Advt.