WOMAN'S WORLD.

Evening Star, Issue 12067, 12 December 1903, Page 9

WOMAN'S WORLD.

[Bt Viva.] ."Viva" will in this column answer all reasonable questions relating to the home, cookery, domestic economy, and any topic of interest to her sex. But each letter. must bear the writer's bona fide name and address. No notice whatever will be taken of anonymous correspondents. Questions should be concisely put, and the writer's nom de plume be clearly written. ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS. "Gilda."—Remove all dust with a soft fcrush, then wash the gilding lightly and rapidly with warm water, in which an onion »r two has been boiled. Dry by rubbing '; lightly with soft cloths. "Iron."—lron rust can be removed by salt mixed with a little lemon juice. " Dirt."—Sal ammoniac will remove all the fur. Fill the kettle with cold water, add a little ammoniac to it, and boil. All the foreign matter collected round the sides will dissolve. Well rinse afterwards. "Rae."—When making your beeswax and turpentine polish for floors, the wax will dissolve without beating if a little spirit of ammonia is mixed with the turpentine. "Noni."—l should advise you to carry out »11 necessary instructions given. "Marguerite."—First put whole cloves in them if stored away, and if in use rub the floor under with strong turpentine. Second, try "putz-ade." HOUSEHOLD RECIPES. Lemon Hearts. —Cream one half-cup of butter, and mix with it gradually one cup of sugar. Add two well-beaten eggs, one tablespoonful of milk, and one full teaspoonful of baking powder in a cup of flour. Stir this in, and add as much more as will' •nable one to roll them out. About two cups are required in aIL Roll very thin, handling as little as possible. Just before cutting." press it in gently with the roller. Cut with a heart-shaped cutter. When cold put in a tin box, and they will keep perfectly for weeks. Curry Puffs.—Mince one pound of mutton or beef: slice one small onion into a pan with a small piece of butter, and fry brown. Add the mince, a sprinkle two dessertspoonfuls of curry po.vder, with a little salt. Mix well, and cpok for fifteen minutes. Have ready some puff paste, roll out thin, and cut into squares of four inches. Put one tablespoonful of the mince into each square, wet the edges, turn over, and press together with a fork. Bake for about twenty minutes in a moderate oven. Can be eaten hot or cold. Mint Vinegar.—Put into a wide-mouthed bottle nice fresh mint leaves, enough to fill it loosely, then fill up the bottle with good vinegar, and cork the bottle. After it has stood from two to three weeks, pour off the mint vinegar into another bottle, .nd cork well. Ibis mint vinegar will be foiu d most «seful when mint is not to be had.

Cherry Charlotte.—One and a-half pounds stewed cherries, with a little sugar, for ten minutes; line" a pie dish with slices of bread-and-butter. Pour in the cherries, adding as little juice as yon can, then cover with bread-and-butter, and bake in a good oven for nearly an hour. Turn out on a dish, and sprinkle over with sifted sugar. This is delicious eaten with milk or cream. Marzipan.—Made in ten minutes. Half a pound of fresh butter, six ounces of castor sugar, quarter of a pound of ground almonds, white of one egg well beaten. Melt the butter in an enamel saucepan or dish. Add sugar, ground almonds, and white of egg. Mix well together. This sweetmeat does not require any cooking. Make up in any neat little shape as liked. Fruit Blanc-mange.—Taka one pound of any sharp, fresh fruit, currants, gooseberries, or rhubarb. Stew it with half a pint of watsr and two ounces of sugar till lender ; strain through muslin. Measure die liquor, put a pint into a stewpan, moisten two tablespoonfuls of cornflour with cold water. When the juice comes to the boil, pour it into the cornflour, which should be quickly stirred. Return all to the stewpan, and stir while it boils for a few minu , 'es. Pour into a wet mould. Can be served with custard or cream or eaten alone.

Cabbage Stewed in Milk.—Slice a small cabbage "into shreds, cook ra boiled salted water "with a pinch, of soda for fiiteeii minutes. Turn it into a colander, add one pint of TnflTr to the cabbage and a grating of nutmeg. Cook until very tender, uncovered. There should be very little milk remaining. Add bits of batter and a little pepper. To Fry Plaice or Flounders.—First sprinkle the fish -with* salt, and let them lie two or three hours. Then wash and clean them well, wipe dry, flour them, and wipe them with a clean cloth. Dip them in egg and fine bread-crumbs, and fry them in plenty of lard. When done, put into a hot colander, drain well, and send to table with parsley and butter or plain melted butter, ssrved in a tureen.

Bourchees a la Cecil.—A quickly-prepared :old savory. Required: Brown bread (Hovis or similar make), eight sardines, two hard-boiled yolks of eggs, one ounce of fresh butter, bunch of watercress, salad oil, Tarragon vinegar, salt, pepper, one truffle. Cut thin slices of bread and butter, stamp those into rounds the size of % five-shilling piece. Skin and pound the sardines with the yolks and butter, seison, and rub through a hair sieve. Wash, chop, and sprinkle watercress with oil, vinegar, salt, and pepper. Spread half the bread-and-butter rounds with the paste, put a little cress on the top; then another round of buttered bread and cress together. Chop the truffle and whites of the eggs. Spread a little butter on the top of each round. Put a little wreath, as it were, of white of egg, round the edges, and fill in the centre with truffle. Arrange on small dishes on lace-papers. HINTS, If a kettle or pot boil dry, pour boiling water into it at once. This will prevent its cracking. Frequently wash toilet sponges in ammonia and powdered borax put into warm water. Flour thrown on burning oil will extinguish it. Spare neither soda nor hot water when washing up greasy articles. Should the oven get too hot whilst baking a. cake, put a basin of water on the lower shelf. The great secret in wmdow-cleanme: Cloths, and plenty of them, and never make the windows over-wet. Squeaking Door-hinges.—Tf you have no ml handy, take a lead pencil and rub it on Ike hinge, and it will stop squeaking. If grease is spilt on the kitchen table, sprinkle the stain at once with coarse salt. This prevents the grease from soaking into the wood. When washing sateen put a little borax in vour last rinsing water. This will cause the material to be glossy when ironed. The paraffin can should be kept tightly corked; the admission of air will cause the nil to evaporate, and also weaken it 3 power of giving good light. Sometimes a knife with which onions have been cut will keep the odor in spite of scouring. Thrust the blade into the earth a few times, and it will be perfectly cleaned. To keep mattresses! and pil'ows clean, cover them with unbleached calico cases. The rases can be taken off and washed occasionelly, and the mattresses will keep clean for years. When sweeping do not use one side of the broom all the time. Change it about often. This will keep it straicrht, and as lone as it lasts it will sweep well. To Keep Parsley Fresh.—-Instead of keep, ing parsley in water, which often turns it yellow, put it in an airtight jar in a cool place. This will keep it fresh for some rime. Cleaning Cooking Utensils.—To brighten tins and other utensils, put them in the wash-boiler with plenty of boiling water and a liberal amount of washing soda. Let them boil for about twenty minutes, then leave in the water for about two hours. At the end of that time they will be, when sra<hed, bright and new-looking. To remove tea stains, pour boilrng water arefullv through the stain ; this prevents it fpreading over the rest of the cloth. Beneoin does not. as a rule, take out tea stains. An interlining of asbestos paper in the -".rving cloth or in doyleys, etc., used on ■vclished tables will protect the tabletop. A ROYAL DIVORCE. Princess Victoria, daughter of the late -*nke of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha (the Duke of Edinburgh), is once more in evidence, snd v»:der circumstances whieJi threaten to -"""■ a txcmbla. She was marrkux. &* mou*

aU her sisters, ab a very early age, her husband being the Grand Duke of Hesse. Owing to incompatibility of temper, the union was a very unhappy one, and huvband and wife lived apart More than once the late Queen Victoria interposed, and brought about a temporary reconciliation. Finally, in December, 1901, there was a divorce, and Princess Victoria and her daughlei left the i grand ducal court for good aud all. It is now announced that she is to be married to her first cousin, the Grand Duke Cyril, whose father is the Grand-Duke v"ladimir of Russia, and an uncle of the Czar. As there are only three lives between 'Le Grand Duke Cyril and the Russian throne, this engagement is invested with unusual •interest. The Czar's immediate heir is the Grand Duke Michael, who is extremely delicate, and next to him comes Cvril's own father. Queen Victoria's granddaughter has, therefore, a good chance of becoming Empress of Russia. But she is likely to meet witkmany difficulties, for the Grand Duke of Hesso has two sisters at the Russian Court, one of whom is the present Czarina, and they will most probablv boycott their blather's divorced wife. Besides, and apart from the boycotting, it is not unlikely that the Czar wid banish Cyril from Russia altogether, as he has done with, other Grand Dukes who have married contrarv to his wishes. A SPLENDID FEAT. The example of Mrs Yates, formerly Mayoress of Onchiuiga. has be*n surpassed in the case of a Mexican girl, who assumed control of the municipal affairs of the yellow-fever stricken town of Linares, Mexico, after all the officials had either died or become incapacitated. Miss Mmuela Florez Gomez, the eighteen-year-old daughter of the mayor of the city, acted as n-ayoress for several weeks. Surrounded by dying victims of the terrible disease, and with her father, the mayor, lying at her home stricken with the malady, she capably directed the affairs of the city. When death entered her own home she remained at her post of duty. She saw the population of the city reduced from 12,C(X) people to less than 500 as a result of death and the panic due to the epidemic. When her associates were fleeing to the mountains to escape the scourge, Miss Manuela was directing and carrying out plans for improving the sanitary condition of the city, and using her .utmost- efforts to prevent the spread of the disease. All the city officials were stricken with fever and died. As they dropped off, one by one, Miss Manuela took up their respective official duties. President Diaz and the Mexican Congress have taken note of the young woman's bravery, and some honor will be conferred upon her. ABOUT INVITATION CARDS. Notes of invitation are invariably in use versus cards for small dinner parties—written in either the first or third person; inI deed, the third person is often employed, | even between intimate friends. In the one case, where a dinner party is actually a small one of from six to eight guests, the first, person is always employed, but when it is a comparatively large one the third person is used. Invitations to luncheon are issued in the same way. With the exception of public or semi-public or official luncheons, cards of invitation are not in use, and notes take their place. Invitations to dances and ball?, to receptions and evening parties, to " afternoon at homes" and garden parties are all issued without exception on at home cards, and I the words "At home" appear on each and all. For a dance, whether it is really a small dance or large enough to take rank as a ball, the words "At home" beneath the hostess's name; date and hour of arrival again beneath. The single word " Dancing " in one comer, and the address in the opposite one, form the regulation invitation. Coming of age balls, or balls given by mayors of towns, and so on, are so designated on the invitations. These arc the exceptions, however. Invitations to " afternoon at homes,*' if large functions, aro invariably issued on the usual-sized at home cards, and. if small and unimportant, upon visiting cards, or on small at home cards, but the visiting cards are considered-much lessi formal. ' .t home" beneath the hostess's name, as at home cards, with the day, date, and h0u..., is the regulation invitation form.

Invitations for garden parties are always issued on at home cards, and never upon visiting cards. The words '"tennis" c-r " croquet" in the> comer of the cards indicate that it is o, garden party invitation, the words " garden party" not being used as an ordinary rule. The exception comes in when the garden parties given are on a very large scale, and by some prominent person or some official, in which case extra large-sized cards are used, and the pleasure of the company of the guest at a garden party is requested, the words " At home" on theae occasions not being used. The words "r.s.v.p." have ceased to figure on any invitation cards; they have practically ran their course, and are regarded as obsolete. The only invitations to which acceptance or refusal is accorded are dinners and luncheons, but ''r.s.v.p." is not put on these invitations, as it is tl«e unwritten law to reply to them as soon as received, and the inconsequent "r.s.v.p." would not meet the case. For all other invitations no acceptances are required, for people will not pledge themselves to go to this or that party, but leave it to circumstances to decide the point. The length of the notice given by invitation is also a matter of personal convenience. A month may be given, three weeks, or a fortnight, premising that the larger the function •dielonger the notice of it.—The 'Queen.' A SEARCH FOR A MISSING HtSBAXD. A romantic stcry is told of how an American lady found her missing husband in London. It appears that Dr Wiiiam Bates, who had a large and nourishing practice at Newport in the United States, disappeared suddenly about six weeks ago. He is about thirty years of age, and has gained some reputation as an eye and ear specialist. One day he was engrossed in his usual work, and next day ho disappeared. His books and papers were uatouehed, and he was knowa to have less than £2O in his pockets. Failure of memory was suspected, and, greatly distressed, his young wife made inquiries in various quarters. She at last discovered tjat someone resembling her husband had sailed from New York "for England (says the 'Mail'). She immediately took passages for herself and her boy of nine, and arrived in this country last week. With the help of friends she" set to work to prosecute the search. On Thursday it was oiscovered that a Dr Bates was known at an address in Gower street, and inquiries there sent the searchers to University College Hospital, where it was found that the missing man was taking a course of medical study. It was learned that he was attending lectures, one of which took p'ace next day at three o'clock. ArcordUi.iy. next day Mrs Bates, with her little boy, was at the hospital. Here it was that she found him at? the conclusion of Jjie lecture. It appeared that the doctor's memory had partly gone. There were a few hurried explanations, and then husband, wife, and son passed out into the street together. A PERFECT-FIGURED WOMAN. M. Paquin, the famous Paris dressmaker, writes in the London 'Daily Mail' the following article of feminine interest:— There is, I suppose, no point of general interest upon which opinions differ so much as they do upon the question of whit is trv.a beauty. As one who has devoted years of careful study to the subject, I feel that I may speak with, some authority upon the special form of beauty with which this article concerns itself—the beauty of the perfect figure in a woman. The chief components of true beauty in the female form divine are order and proportion, unity and variety. Beauty demands the co-existence cf these attributes, the former for the satisfaction of sensibility, the latter for the satisfaction of intelligence. There is one thing for which, we dressmakers seek more than all else in the perfect figure for a woman, and that is line. A woman may have a perfect bust, a perfect waist, perfect hips, and the right length of figure, and yet be imperfect if these several perfections do not agree with one another. Let me make myself clear. Suppose broad shoulders and a well, though, not too well, developed bust, and a slim waist, above esthetic hips. The waist per se may be a thing of beauty, but it may be, and very often, is, too small.and out of all^Mooctiust

to the bust, tie shoulders, and the hips, and strikes uncomfortably as an ensemble on our consciousness* because the line is "wrong, as wrong as are the pothooks of a child' at his first writing lesson. In fashion, as in aU else, proportion and the line are the two prime factors, and if I am to state my own opinion as to what » perfection in a woman's figure, I will without hesitation vote for a woman neither tall nor short, a woman perfectly proportioned, not tall enough to be considered tall, nor • short enough to be considered small. What Frenchmen call "une petite femme mignonne " is to my mind exactly the same distance from the perfect figure of a woman as what is rudely known as " une grande perche da femme."

The ideal figure sketched by me is a long one. The head is small, upon a not too slender, neck. The shoulders faiilv broad. The bust is 36in round—fairly well developed, that is, but not too full; the waist 21in in circumference, and the hips 37in round, well covered, but not what we in France call too " saillante," for raiHante hips divide the body most ungracefully, and are one of the great difficulties with'which the artist m dressmaking has frequently to cope. The skirt, the measurement from waist to foot, that is, should bo 41in, and the entire height from neck to foot sft 2in. Arms should be 14in from the shoulder to the elbow, and 11 in from the elbow to the wrist, and this should measure, just din round. I need not say that such absolute perfection is, if perhaps not absolutely nonexistent, yet extremely rare, and it "is the object of the art of the couturier to correct with as- gentle a hand as is possible such imperfections as nrust necessarily exist It is a popular mistake that a well-made corset necessitates neither padding nor tight lacing; that is to say, that its only object, is to correct mistakes in the development and fulness or want of fulness in the bust and waist. That is by no means so. The corset, which is the Gordian knot of each successful dress, should so be cut, and is so cut, by every artist as to set right what mistake there may be in the length of the figure as well as, or, I may say, even more than, in its development, and in nine cases out of ten a well-made dress is quite dependent on a well-made corset.

I have, for instance, in my own establishment, mannequins or models of different sizes, whom I and my assistants have chosen with the nJ.most care for the perfection of their fisrures, which are types of the nearost attainable exactness in complete beauty of form. The dresses which these ladies wear on duty are perfectly plain fourreaux, and are no more dresses than is the sheath of an umbrella. They merely, as it were, contain the mannequin's figure, which is put into the dress for the purpose of showing it to its; ultimate purchaser. But underneath this simple sheath or fourreau each mannequin wears a perfectly-made corset, which corrects any deficiency in her figure, and over which a perfect dress will look perfection, while the imperfect one will show its faults.

I think, then, that I have shown prettyclearly that to eay that any self-respecting artist in costume attempts to impose toll women or short women as the fashion is absurd, and consultation of my diagram will show exactly my own notions as to what- a woman's figure should be to attain perfection. In conclusion, the perfect figure of a woman should be of medium proportions, and perfect as to line, for without perfect figure no line can be. pleaeing to the artist's eye. RULES FOR MEN'S GUIDANCE. Don't choose a wit. She may be fuimv at your expense. Don't marry a woman who won't be able to get in and out of doors easily by the time she's forty. Choose a girl who is in time to breakfast and is well groomed. Don't choose an untidy girl, or you'll "o short of buttons. A few other valuable hints are thrown in •frhieh may be more readily followed than more Serious advice. In proposing, a man should not tell a girl he '• not like other msn," because it means he is conceited, and girls hate conceit. Don't propose in a train, or it there is a high wind blowing, because nothing sounds nice if it r> shouted. Don't tell the girl you want to marry that yen admire ber brains, or her talents or her common sense. Tell her she is sweet and lovable and a true woman. All women like to be told that. Don't eror-s-exanrine a girl while proposing to her is to whether hhe is fond of sewing and children or housekeeping, becavse no modern girls are. SLAVES TO FASHION. " Fi*v' writing in ' Chic,' says that to anyone possessing artistic feeling, the pievailing i'uformity in women's dress is an e~«-»ce a.s -neli as an absurdity. Natrae {.■-. W, i-7,-; s women varying styles of and fig!ire> Tq c , otke & -*-- , MONT 'fcoming manner, to give grace, lii.. • jirtssion to one's personality, is reuly ,_ .y as well as a pleasure to any intellectual woman. Yet the duty is too often subservient to the intelligence, and desecrated by the abominations of a style hideous in itself and only adopted because it is the fashion. In the good old days (continues "liitu"), when class dresseo as da:?s, the public streets were' both pie turcsimc- and distinctive. Now, they ciijL play a uniformity of hideousness that it would be hard to beat, because the moment a fashion is "in," it is imitated and exaggerated by every class.