MAINLY FOR WOMEN

Greymouth Evening Star, 1 June 1928, Page 10

MAINLY FOR WOMEN

ITEMS OF INTEREST

(Notes by

Marjorie)

DRESS, ANCIENT AND MODERN.

NOVEL COMEDY DISPLAY. There was a shock for the shareholders at the annual general meeting of Wolsey, Ltd., of Leicester, which was held at the Piccadilly Hotel. London. No sooner had the normal business ended than a girl, clad only in the silkiest and daintiest of undies, ran in a terrified manner across the hall. After her, dressed in a bright red flannel petticoat, white stockings, corsets, and with hair done in a Victorian bun, came Mrs Grundy herself, determined to chase away the flimsily-garb-ed girl of to-day. This little comedy was part of a novel display of undies through the ages which traced feminine fashions in intimate garments from the pantalettes, worn with the crinolines to the fed flannel petticoats and corsets >f a later day, and ended with a. shimmering panorama of modern lingerie, which evoked exclamations of admiration from many of the women shareholders.

Miss 1928 was able to see how her great-great-great-grandmother looked in the privacy of her boudoir.

“If this kind of thing is to be introduced limited company meetings will soon be among the biggest attractions in London,” said one male shareholder jocularly.

“ v After seeing these appalling examples of ancient ‘undies,’ the girl of to-day ought to tljank her stars that she was not. born 100 years ago,” was a. feminine comment.

Pink nightgowns with lace frills, the very latest things in silken pyjamas, suits and other feminine allurements were displayed. Period costumes showing the contrast of fashions to-day with those of 1750 onwards were one feature. There were the much-abused wasp-waists, velvet bustles, many coloured ribbons, trailing skirts, and spacious hats of pretty but unwieldy design. Wigs, with long curling ringlets and high masses of hair were worn to give the correct effect. Beside these stately figures of bygone ages the trim, neat, boyish-like costume of the sports girl of the present time brought home vividly the practical unencumbered atmosphere of to-day. A WOMAN VICE-CONSUL.-The first “self-made woman” in the United States diplomatic service will leave soon for her initial post in Valparaiso, Chile, where she will be viceconsul (says an exchange). This new member of the diplomatic service, ip Miss Frances Willis, who was born in Tennessee, lives in California, when she is at home, and is the third successful aspirant of her sex to the United States Government foreign service. Miss Willis prepared herself for the foreign service examination, which annually floors dozens of young men who have been carefully trained by extensive tutors or foreign service schools. In November, 1926, she first saw a. State Department booklet announcing the qualifications required, giving example lists of questions asked. In March 1927, she passed the examination. Meanwhile, she had done no preparatory work under any tutor or in any foreign service school, but had primed herself for the examination. Moreover, at the same time she was holding an instructor’s position at Vassar College. If it had not been for this, Miss Willis says, she probably would not have been able to qualify for the foreign service without tutoring. She is a graduate of Stanford University of California, and also had done graduate work after taking her degree. At Vassar she was teaching subjects connected with the science of government and diplomacy. This newest femjnine acquisition of the foreign .service is young and attractive. The consular service is the commercial end of the State Department’s foreign duties, but since there are no American diplomatic officials in Valparaiso the social side may be prominent there, too. One other girl has broken into the service—Miss Pattie Field, who was appointed several years ago. There is also one American girl in the diplomatic service— Miss Lucille Acherson, who was appointed shortly before Miss Field.

GYMNASIUM FOR ’PHONE GIRLS

A report of the statistics of illness among the 300,000 persons employed in the German Post Department shows that German telephone girls change into “gym” clothes and do physical exercises twice a day because it has been proved that they do more accurate work after exercise (states an English exchange). The girls are allowed twenty minutes—ten minutes for changing before and after the exercises and ten minutes in which to do them. It. seems that in consequence of the physical exercises there are fewer days off for illness and fewer wrong numbers! RHEUMATISM AND CONDUCT. “Naughty children are usually rheumatic,” said Dri A. Dingwall-Fordyce, the well-known specialist, who is Lecturer on Children’s Diseases at the University of Liverpool, speaking at the Bath Medical Conference. “They are generally sensitive, mentally alert, and exuberant, and should be treated firmly, but sympathetically, and with unending patience.” If there were more beds in country hospitals and suitable residential schools, he added, rheumatic heart disease might be eliminated. Dr. Richard L. J. Llewellyn, President of the Balneological and Climatological Section of the Royal Society of Medicine, said that the skin is the first line of defence against rheumatism. He recommended cold baths, but sufferers might also try alternating hot and cold applications.

One of the most important technical departments of the great Cruesot ironworks in France, where most of the guns and munitions for the French Army are made, is now managed by a woman, Mlle. Nourit, who was previously on the metallurgical staff of the works. She has many men under her control, and is frequently entrusted with official information of the mast, confidential nature, concerning munitions.

HONEYMOON ISLAND. GIVES BABY ITS NAME. :• The christening took place recently 5 in London of Hie baby daughter of i Lord and Lady Hastings, who. spoilt :- part of their honeymoon in Australia on a journey round the world. s The baby was named Moorea after :- one of the South Sea Islands, where u Lord and Lady Hastings spent a romantic time. I Before her marriage in 1925 Lady •- Hastings was the daughter of the u Marquess Casati of Italy, and while ■- in Melbourne she became associated »- for a time with “Georgette,” a society frock shop. e DISTRICT NURSES. n i- District nursing is now well estab--3 lislied in England. Each village has s its nurse who goes to visit the poor i. in their own homes. When the friend- , ly societies entered into a contract. ’ with the Queen Victoria. Jubilee Institute for nursing their sick members, the price was fixed at one shilling r a visit. The number of visits paid I by a nurse each year naturally varies a good deal. It depends largely on whether a. popular nurse has got the j people into the “nurse habit.” but in thickly-populated places, like the coal-mining areas, a nurse may pay from three thousand to three thousand and fifty visits per annum. Some r have even reached five thousand. This t is, of course, merely for ordinary nursing. The weakness of the system lies in the fact that, the village nurse a cannot, of course, be expected to go ~ out. at night. As a result the rela- " five, a. hard-working person herself, 3 who may have to sit up, does not, feel as if she gets much return for her '. subscription. Again, the medical man very /naturally, is not quite friendly 3 to the district nurse, because through ’’ want of funds they are given less com- £ plete training than others. For in--1 stance, they are trained by nursingassociations instead of in the hospi--1 tals. Another difficulty is the inter- ’ val between the time a girl leaves 3 school, at sixteen or less, and the time 3 when she can take up this work. Miss * E. Millicent Jackson, writing on the 3 subject, considers that such young people should spend those years in the hospitals, in the kitchen or pantry, thus earning something until it is time for them to take their course, which should be in the hospital itself. As things are. many capable 3 women drift into other work. NOTED BY A TRAVELLER. Dr Stone, one of the pioneer wofn--3 an doctors of Melbourne, has return- ’ ed to her home in East St. Kilda after ' a holiday abroad lasting for two and ; a half years (says “The Leader”). . She spent most of her time in Italy. ' and in England. She loved Italy, and thought that Mussolini was proving a 3 wise dictator. The people liked him, 1 though there were certain men who J regarded him as a tyrant and destroyer of freedom. They made Sequent at- ’ tempts to take his life. Ones Musso- ' lint went for a ride in a perk after breakfast every morning, but this was ’ attended with too much risk, and now b he rides in secret. His home is also I kept a secret, and it is- said he . changes residence frequently. In England, Dr Stone was impressed with ■ the popularity of the Royal Family, ’ and their gracious manners. She tells of a delightful incident about the ’ King. Two young girls from Australia. ' had waited to see the King riding into , Hyde Park one morning, and as he ' passed they attempted to take a snap- , shot of him. They were stopped by I one of the men in attendance on the King, who said that such a thing was not. allowed. The King saw what, was happening, and. motioning his ’ equerry to one side, he pulled up his horse and smilingly told the girls to go ahead. Dr Stone found the London policemen the kindest she has ever met. Time and again she saw them stop the traffic and conduct a row of nursemaids with their prams across the street to the park, while one one occasion the policeman on duty held up the trafic to allow a cat to carry her kittens safely across the |road. HANDKERCHIEFS AND SHAWLS. The silk handkerchief is rife in Paris just now, and so also is the shawl, says an English paper. The handkerchief is a large square, generally in checks or plaids, and very often in very bright colours. It is worn as a. fichu, as a. Boy Scout’s tie, or knotted on the shoulder, ft is used to give colour to a. black or other dark dress, and is also one of those little shoulder wraps for which the French have always had a weakness. Handkerchiefs are generally unhemmed, and, being folded triangularly, fall into becoming pleats almost of their own accord. Shawls are of every kind, including Chinese and Spanish embroidered shawls. Some very handsome silk shawls imitate the Paisley patterns and have long fringes in whatever is the ground colour. Gold shawls are very much worn, and these are often made of a. very fine jersey. Some of the prettiest shawls now seen are made of a very simple lame. This must be in very gorgeous colourings, generally on the dark side. The shawl is about a yard or so square. With so sumptuous a material fringe might seem trivial. The lame shawl, therefore, is bordered with a wide band of gold or other metal. The gold must be as supple as the rest of the shawl, and ’ the extra, weight at the. corners makes the whole thing hang well. OUTPOST OF EMPIRE. Writing in an exchange, an Australian who is Resident Magistrate for the south-eastern part of Papua, describes the position held there by Mi’s Elizabeth Mahony, one of Papua’s < best-known and most highly-respected 1 pioneers. “In the course of my of- t ficial duties,” he states, “1 have had .’ the pleasure of visiting Slides! and the I neighbouring islands, and am well ac- < quaintod with Mrs Mahony. She is indeed a wonderful woman. The last ( occasion on which I saw her was at :

sea off Sudest on her ketch Mekara. She was then returning from a fishing and trading trip, and had with her some 30 or 40 natives, mostly boys who had been fishing for her. She was the only white person aboard the

vessel, and had been out for about a fortnight. The natives of Sudest and other islands in the vicinity had the greatest respect for Mrs Mahony, and many of them referred to her as ‘Mother’; indeed, she has acted qs mother to many of them. Mrs Mahony was a great hostess, and was famed for her hospitality to ‘white’ visitors. Newspapers are daily chronicling the wonderful achievements of our women folk, and in the lady above mentioned we have one whose deeds of kindness and . self-sacrifice would fill volumes. She truly helped to blaze the trail in an ‘outpost of our Empire.’” PROFESSOR BAPTISED. 'l'he Bishop of Rondon, on March 31 last, (says the “Sunday Times”), baptised Professor Dorothy McDaniel Sells, Professor of Economics at Bryn Mawr College, Philadelphia, at St. Peter’s. Great Windmill Street, Piccadilly, W. “1 regard this as a rather historic, occasion,” said Dr Ingram in a. short address, “and I hope, that the baptism here of one of America’s most distinguished young women philosophers may lead to a succession of young Americans linking themselves up—the young Church with the old historic Church.”