HERE AND THERE

Evening Post, Volume CXV, Issue 15, 19 January 1933, Page 13

HERE AND THERE

Valedictory.

A pleasant f unction, took place in. the editor's room of the "Evening Post" yesterday, when members of the Literary staff assembled to say farewell to Mrs. M. H. Chatfield,lady editor for the Past 20 years, who has teen granted leave of absence in. order to make a tour abroad. The editor, Mr, J. Parker referred in terms of high praise to the excellence- of Mrs Chatfield's work for the paper and to her social service activities, and, in presenting her with a Duchess'^ travelling rug from the staff wished her a pleasant holiday and a safe return. Cheers wero given for 5J™- Chatiold, who suitably, replied Mrs Ohatfleld will leave by tie Wa£ ganella for Sydney to-morrow en route ' 10 bputh Africa. Mrs. Roosevelt's Shop. Near h or country house on the Hurlson Biver, Mrs. Eoosevelt, wife of £ President-elect of the-United Stated has a furniture "shop" (states a corre spondent). Here copies of early American pieces aro made by hand under her supervision. The enterprise serves tho double purpose of providing employment and preserving the tradition of the original; colonists' craft Another of Mrs. Roosevelt's interests is the toaching of history. During her husband's governorship of New York btate she has found time, amidst her arduous duties as a hostess, to Visit' Now York.City regularly to give history lessons in a girls' school. Eighty-eight-year-old Heroine. Tho best-kept birthday of any public woman not of Eoyal blood is undoubt-edly-that of Mrs. Charlotte Despard the famous Irish suffrage leader, sister of Lord French, states an Knglish writer. Mrs. Despard was tho-founder and first president of that remarkably hvo body, the Women's Freedom League. In what may be called the 'killing times" of the British Suffrage struggle, Mrs. Despard took her place in tho storm-centre in London and threw herself into the negative militancy of tax-resistance- where taxes touched feministic- principles. Again and again her apartments, simple to bareness at the best, were raided and her possessions distrained upon until like Hood's heroine, she could have thanked her own shadow for falling on the blankness of her walls. At one juncture, one pallet, destitute of blanket or mattress^ was all that the law loft her. These strenuous days have gone; but the grand old leader still "carries on" for complete freedom. Hor birthday is the contre of a women's week of celebrations, Mrs. Despard, crossing from her home in Dublin, being not only the recipient of honours, but tho chief speaker at these rallies of reformers. The last anniversary ations which make> it impossible to use week was duly kept thus, the climax being tho General Birthday Party at Oaxton Hall, attended by leaguo members from England, Scotland, and Wales. Mrs. Despard confesses to 88 years. ' Unusual Wedding ■ Music. A gramophone supplied thp music at a recent wedding in Wales, and so well amplified ivere the records that most .of the guests were deceived into think-

ing that tho peal of bells which rang out after the ceremony came from the tower above them. In reality, they were the bells of Westminster's most fashionable church, St. Margaret's, states a correspondent. The records which took the place of an organ inside the church were just as effective, and the whole experiment was most satisfactory, for all tho music was very beautiful. It was at the cathedral of St. Asapli, in North Wales, that this unusual music was ' provided. This cathedral is very old—it dates back to 500 A.D. There is none of the original building left now, and at the moment tho church ia undergoing restorations wghich make is impossible to use the organ. It was for this reason that the gramophone was brought into action. A Fine Record. Dame Janet Stancomb Wills, a muchbeloved figure at Ramsgate, where she was the first woman Mayor, died recently, states a London exchange. She devoted her fine life to works of charity. She was the first woman to receive the freedom \of Ramsgate. 'She laid out ornamental gardens for the public use, bought the land for the town's largest sports ground, aid built pavilions on it, provided money for a maternity ward, and a nurses' home at the,general hospital, and gave the town a motor ambulance and modern fire-fight-ing appliances. She worked on committees in the war,, and had always )>een keenly interested -in women's hrork. She was a member of the National Union of Women Workers and of the Women's Local Government Society. She was created a Dame- of the British Empire in 1918. .

Umbrellas which look like bouquets of silk flowers when closed are a fashion novelty /: iri Paris (states a correspondent). ..