MAINLY FOR WOMEN

Greymouth Evening Star, 11 December 1929, Page 9

MAINLY FOR WOMEN

ITEMS OE INTEREST

(Noles by

Marjorie}

“BACK TO RINGLETS.” LADY TOWNSHEND’S WISH. LONDON, October 20. The Marchioness Townshend sang the praises of the days of “ringlets and romance” when she opened yesterday, at the White City, the Hairdressing Fail' of Fashions. “I wish wo could return to that period,” she said. The two go together, and we lost something of romance when women cut their hair r.hort. Samson lost his strength when he had his hair shingled, and I wonder Avhether women, too, have not lost something of their strength in cutting their hair.” The Marchioness added that if she appeared ’to be a little jaded it was owing to the fact that as Mayor of King’s Lynn she had attended a func i.ioir at midnight, and had motored up to London at five o’clock yesterday morning to perform the opening cere-' mon* and was therefore just a little tired. The fair exhibits all the latest methods in beauty culture and hair-dress-ing. Experts assert that all through the social scale practically every woman from the Countess to the costergirl undergoes beauty treatment in one form or another. It is said that 12,000,000 women in this country have their hair permanently waved every six months, and nearly three-quarters if this number undergo some form of beauty treatment at regular intervals in addition. MOTHERS SHOULD KNOW’. It is a curious fact that' boys are almost invariably more backward than girls in commencing to talk, and that only children are more backward than children who have several brothers and sisters. A child of three, who only says a few words, need not cause his mother very much anxiety, as long as he walks well, and is obviously intelligent in other ways. These two things are far more important than the actual talking at this age.

Enlarged tonsils and adenoids often make children backward. You know the look of a child, who is obviously suffering from adenoids. The child always has his mouth half open, and rather a vacant expression. He is ■low to understand what is said to him, and generally stupid. The reason for this is, of course, that the adenoids are blocking up the back of the nose passage so that the child is forced to breathe through his mouth. The complete removal of tonsils and adenoids often works wonders for an apparently backward child-

ISHBEL AND PUBLICITY. Miss Ishbel MacDonald’s trip to America with her father should do her a deal of good. Since Mr MacDonald took office this y*ear his daughter has tried to avoid publicity. It has become almost an obsession with her and, although she is a very charming personality and most people sympathise with the difficulties of her position, the obsession is a pity, and will spoil her, says a writer in an exchange. If she is in a crowd and’ there is any stir, she immediately thinks it is because she has been recognised. I remember noticing her in a theatre queue a little while ago when she and. two of her friends made something like a scene because they thought a cameraman was trying to snap Miss MacDonald. \ As a matter of fact he had no intention of doing so, and had not even spotted her. In America she had so much publicity that she learned to look upon it as all in the day’s work. Perhaps, like Mr J. H. Thomas, she may even come to like it.

[“EVENING DRESS & BARE LEGS.” • MELBOURNE GETS A SHOCK. MELBOURNE, November 22. Several girl visitors in the Malolb made history last night, as far asd Melbourne was concerned, by appear fig at the English-speaking Union Ball in evening dress and bare legs. Tho fact that these smartly dressed visitors wore no stockings was hardly detectable, and only a, few of the Melbourne guests at the ball noticed them. A San Diego visitor,, asked whether bare legs were the usual fashion in the U.S.A, said that in California, at any rate, very many young women had discarded stockings for ceremonial, occasions, as well as for picnicking and sports. Other women passengers in the Malolo do not regard the stockingless mode for evening wear as being quite the thing. Said one (she came from an Eastern State): “Californians will do things that people from the other States will not do. It is contact with Hollywood that makes them take up extreme fashions which are not seen in the other States of America.” Other American women aboard the Malolo upheld this view, and one, discussing Hollywood fashions, said: “The latest fad there is to go barelegged, but to cover the legs, face, and arms with a sun tan powder which makes you look like no Red Indian or Chinese or coloured race that ever was, but even in Hollywood, which is so blase, this fashion is stared at with disfavour.” WOMAN’S QUEER TASK. RECONSTRUCTING STATUES. One of the most unusual tasks ever tackled by a woman is being undertaken by Miss C. K. 'Jenkins, an authority on Greek sculpture. She is collecting photographs of heads, arms, and bodies of famous Greek statues from all parts of the world, in order that she may piece them together. Miss Jenkins, who recently addressed the members of the Soroptimist Club on her work at a luncheon held at the Washington Hotel, stated afterwards that she was at present engaged on reconstructing the groups of the Greek sculptor Myron. “When possible, I travel myself to other countries in search of scattered limbs and heads,” she said, “and at other times I am able to get photographs sent to me. “In the centuries which have elapsed since Myron lived the group statues for which he was famous have become damaged and broken and fragments are scattered all over the world. In previous attempts to restore them, many of them have had the wrong heads and arms fixed to them.”

A WOMAN AND A BULL A bravo Welshwoman has been awarded a certificate of honour by the Order of St. John of Jerusalem. Janet Edwards works for Mr. Thomas Owen, a farmer of Clynnog. One day he was attacked by his bull, who tossed and mauled the man and would have killed him. But the bravo woman rushed in and diverted th© bull’s attention to herself, so that the injured man was able to crawl away to safety. Luckily she is as nimble as she is plucky, and both man and woman escaped with their lives. SCHOOL OF MARRIAGE. NEW YORK’S CRUSADE. They have founded a school of marriage in New York. The. members of tho State Federation of Women’s Clubs have come to the conclusion that if marriage ,is not to be a failure men and women must be specially taught how to bear it. So all those about to be married in New York, and all those who have not been married so long that their cases must be hopeless, are invited to attend this new institution, which will provide courses of instruction in conjugal efficiency and bliss by special teachers.

It is explained that the experience of the State Federation of Women’s Clubs marriage generally fails through the unpleasantness “that follows the ever-spending of a poorly-planned budget.” This has high authority. Mr Micawber, who had thoroughly studied the subject informed David Copperfield that to spend sixpence more than one’s income, means misery, to live sixpence inside it is happiness. But his own conjugal career belied his teaching. He lived within his income, if any, yet the Micawber marriage was anything but a failure. Happiness, we must confess and deplore, is compatible with tbe most, unsound finance. The Women’s Clubs, however, are con. centrating on the budget. With a '■oudinoss to own the errors of their sex which we cannot sufficiently admire, the clubs put the blame for extravagance on the brides. It is the brides who are to be taught how to “buy for value and to discriminate between necessities and luxuries.” The men in happy New York are all economical. Yet we forsee infinite possibilities of trouble when the trained bride points out to her husband that his luxuries are not necessities.

CUSTOMS IN WEDDINGS. REGISTRY OFFICE KNOTS. People have flocked to registry offices in Britain for their weddings to the extent of nearly half the total number of marriages solemnised this year, according to figures obtained by a Sunday Express representative recently. Many present-day brides no longer bother about the wedding dresses they will wear, or of the bridesmaids who will accompany them to the altar. Even the honeymoon habit is fast dying, and the majority of newly-married people seem to prefer to take a day oft’ from business and “postpone tlie honeymoon indefinitely.” This changed outlook on marriage is now more marked than ever. Wedding ceremonies in the churches of the populous districts of Lambeth, for instance, only exceeded the> civil ceremonies fn June by 372, no fewer than 1467 couples out of a total of 3306 preferring a. registry office wedding. The growth of the registry office ’habit is w’ell illustrated ,by the fol-

The decline in church wedding cere-' monies, which began at the close of the last century, was given tremendous impetus during the war years, while the lower figures foi' 1924 are accounted for by the general drop in marriages. * One explanation was offered by the Rev. Hugh H. M. Bevan, vicar of St. Paul’s, Hammersmith, who said: — “There are an incredible number of people to whom the marriage service is so much Greek, and for these the registry office performs a useful service. The marriage service is beautiful, and I will not have it gabbled through at express speed. I do not want to conduct it for the benefit of people who do not appreciate its meaning and beauty. It is better that such people should go before a regis trar, and so avoid embarrassment on both sides.” The Rev. “Pat” McCormick, vicar of St. Martin-in-the-Fields, staid:—“The increase in registry office weddings is, I think, partly due to the of churches in populous areas. “I am afraid, also, that many young people to-day are brought up, -with little knowledge of the value of religion, and there may be a natural shyness at the publicity which a church wedding so often brings.”

lowing figures compiled at Somerset House: — Church of Civil Year England Marriages 1839 . . 177,896 39,403 1904 . . 165,519 46,237 1909 .. 159,991 53,505 1914 .. 171,700 70,880 1919 .. 220,557 85,330 1924 . . 164,982 70,604