MAINLY FOR WOMEN

Greymouth Evening Star, 2 December 1926, Page 8

MAINLY FOR WOMEN

NEWS AND NOTES. . Schoolmistresses in Britain attached to military schools are new forbidden by the War Office to marry soldiers below the rank of sergeant. It is officially explained that married Army schoolmistresses must have accommodation equal to that of a warrant officer, Class 2, and no soldier with fewer than three stripes has quarters suitable for her dignity. The Westminster Gazette says that the wives and daughters of Wallasey (Cheshire) businessmen have formed a dub to popularise cigar-smoking tor women,, as symbolic of thei'r imiependeuce. Members discuss politics over tea and cigars. They must smoke publicly if challenged, lots being cast lor that duty. Several are already funking it, but nobody dares to back out. Four out of every ten women smokers are being poisoned by nicotine, states a specialist in the .Daily Sketch, who explains that lie is not indulging in hypothesis, but that his statement is based upon facts. Four out of every ten women consulting him, he says, exhibit unmistakable symptoms of nervous debility, lack ’ cf vitality, head noises, throat troubles, and palpitation of the heart as the result of cigarettesmoking.

“If a young man looks upon a young lady in church with, shall we say, questioning eyes, some people hold up their’ hands in horror.’ said Professor J. Sh’elley, of Christchurch, during the cou'se ol a lecture. “But that is just what the church is for,” he added, “much more so than the average dance hall or picture show. It is the duty of the church to control those instinctive forces, ano. not repress them. “If,” he said amid laughter, the Church gets the human race properly married off it has done as much as it can!”

•Switzerland is becoming exercised in its mind about low necks and short skirts, and in one district even tourists are liable to be seized if their garments are considered too brief or too transparent for the satsisfaction of the city fathers, states the London correspondent of the “Australasian.” Some wi/t suggests that an enterprising travel bureau should buy up a stock of overalls, to be issued to all travellers with their tickets for Switzerland. Certainly’ the latest summer frocks would not please these critics of good form, lor they are of the thinnest and lightest flowered chilfon. and weigh so little that one of them may be posted i'n a letter with a tluee-half-penny stamp.

Probably the oldest woman in Hie world to travel by air, and . ce>tainly the oldestJierson who has.,ever journeyed from London to Paris by aeroplane, is Mme. Esther Ixodrigrues who was born in France years ago. She was a passenger j>y cue of the big air liners of Imperial Airways, Limited. Mme. Rodrigues, who has been staying with at Millbrook, Montpelier Lane, Highgate, since 1919, is going back to France to spend the remainder ol her days with her people. “She has never flown before,” a friend told a representative of the Weekly Dispatch, “and w.e thoguht for a woman <-f her vears it would be much more comfortably and. much quicker for her to travel by air than to undertake the strain of a train and boat journey.”

A 60 yard's “love-letter race” was an amusing innovation at the Hastings and St. Leonards Amateur Swi'inniing Club Galas lately. Sit' girls who entered swam half way up the baths, grasped the letter from the partner whose number corresponded with theirs, and finished the course- with it in their mouths I Miss Dorothy Farrington won the race, and also received the prize tor bearing what was judged to be the best love letter, which was written by Mr A. D. Thorpe, President of the Club. It read :--“Dovecot, Hastings. Darling Amphibia,—How * love you. Dive into the depfhjs of mv heart and bring up the treasures of my affection. My head swims and my heart sinks when I think how unworthy I am of your slignvest regard. My" earnest ‘porpoise’ is to ‘crawl’ hand-iii-hand wiit-h you down the channel of Ifie to the realm ol bliss. Do take the plunge, dearest, and join me in the waters of affliction. I mean affection.—Always yours and willingly, David .iiuckstroke.”

Tiaras are no longer the prerogative of the jeweller. A woman at a recent theatre matinee was wearing a hat which had obviously been modelled upon this becoming piece of jewellery. The milliner’s creation however, was considerably more viewobstructing than is a jewelled tiara, for besides the jewels, black" velvet and feathers are used in. the maKing of this new head decoratToh. ihe tiara hat is distinctly a “dress hat, ’ designed for afternoon reception and matinee wear. It could not be wc» k < with a tailored morning suit, but .it -threatens to. become extremely popular with women for matinee wear. It is a real .threat, for the tiara hat may create a new theatre grievance, and -a. topical matifnee-hat song, if it becomes too pffpular. Ji does not obstruct the view of the stage in the way that the old, widebrimmed Merry Widow hat did, but the tiara hat rises to a cnosiderable height above the wearer’s head, so that a short person, sitting behind a. tall woman wearing such a hat at a mati-nee, stands a fair chance of seeing a good deal of waving feather and very little of the play.