MAINLY FOR WOMEN

Greymouth Evening Star, 1 September 1934, Page 9

MAINLY FOR WOMEN

ITEMS OF INTEREST

TENNIS' CHAMPION

NOT A ‘‘MODERN MISS” Meet Dorothy Round—the girl who burst into tears in the moment of her triumph at Wimbledon over Helen Jacobs, with the plaudits of thousands ringing in her ears; the girl who will tour Australia and New Zealand, feted and admired as the woman tennis champion of the world. I have just visited Dudley, Dorothy Round’s home town (says Nell Murray, writing to an Australian paper from London). When I arrived there, the whole place was seething with suppressed excitement. People had come from neighbouring Black Country towns, dressed in their sober Sunday best, to catch a glimpse of Dudley’s most prominent citizen. But they waited in vain. In her shy and retiring fashion, the heroine had chosen to remain quietly in London over the week-end, staying at a secret address with friends. She refused to be interviewed, and delayed her return to Dudley in the hope that she might escape last year’s ordeal. For in 1933, after her sensational fight for the championship from Mrs. Wills Moody, she made an entry into Dudley concealed on the floor of her brother’s car, her head covered by a handkerchief. In this way she passed through the crowds unrecognised to the haven of the quiet old-fashioned house, set in its beautiful garden. Like the Rounds themselves, their home has an atmosphere of dignity and reserve. For generations, the family has been staunchly Methodist, and to-day, in an era that tolerates Sunday sport and gaiety as a matter’ of course, it takes the stern stand of the Puritan Nonconformist. The daughter of the house has been brought up to be the direct antithesis of the “modern girl.” Although she has lived a cosmopolitan life within the last two years, travelling in luxury trans-Atlantic liners and staying at the smartest hotels all over Europe and America, she still buys her clothes in Dudley. She loves to crochet and knit, and makes all of her own jumpers—but in the main street of the town there is a shop kept by two ageing spinsters. As a little girl, Dorothy used to be taken there by her mother to buy her simple frocks, and now that she is world tennis champion, she goes there just the same for tennis frocks and party frocks and most of the rest of her wardrobe.

Since she was 19, she has concentrated on one day winning at Wimbledon. Social service has played a great part in her young life. She speaks at sportsman’s religious services in various parts of the Midlands, and takes the platform too, at meetings of the Youth Movement. The baby welfare centre of Dudley receives a good deal of her attention when she is at home between tournaments. You see her there in the afternoons, helping mothers undress and weigh their babies. Small wonder that she has won the hearts of her own home town!

The Oxford Group has claimed her as one of its earnest students. She never misses a meeting if she can help it. Its members sit in silence, and when the spirit moves them, they rise and speak. This is the girl whom Australia will meet—the girl who throughout her tennis career has resolutely refused to play tennis on Sunday and has stuck to her convictions throughout persuasion and even ridicule. Dorothy Round is devoted to the care of the home. She helps with the cooking and the housework, likes to sew and arrange tire flowers which she has cut from the garden. She and her mother arc very much alike in looks, both tall and dark, and very slim. They share a passionate liking for the novels of Jeffrey Farnol, and together have read his every book. Dorothy Round likes books that are “sincere.” The bulk of her reading time goes to religious books. You see this religious vein running through her whole life. Yet she is definitely not narrowminded.

VALUE OF SALT. Apart from flavouring food, salt has many and varied uses in kitchen craft. A pinch of salt added when making the icing for a cake will ensure that the mixture does not grain or turn sugary. Another pinch of salt added to the dry flour when mixing a batter will prevent the mixture from turning lumpy. Sprinkle some salt into the frying pan, and the fat will not splutter. It will also prevent fish which is being fried from sticking to the pan. Some salt rubbed over the hands when handling fish will prevent them slipping, and make them much easier to handle. As a cleanser salt will remove grease from the stove, even milk which has boiled over; and when knives have been used for cutting up onions first wipe them over with a damp cloth, then rub some salt over, and rinse with warm water. Salt applied to even obstinate egg stains on plates removes them easily, and a little salt should be added to the water when poaching eggs, as it sets the white. Add a tcaspoonful to the water in which a cracked egg is being boiled, and none of the contents will boil out. Add rather more salt than usual to the water in which green vegetables are being cooked, and leave the ijd off the saucepan, and the green colour should be retained fully. Though most people know to add a little salt to coffee to bring out the best flavour, not everyone knows that a pinch of salt added to the milk when making custard greatly improves it.

NEW TRIMMING.

CORK, TWINE AND STRAW. The thing to remember these winter months is not to throw away any old pieces of cork, string, twine, straw,'or patent leather. You will need them in the spring, for trimming your summer frocks. Wc have not yet seen a design suitable for using up old beer bottle caps, but wc did see a couple of inverted brass dooi knobs used to fasten a neckline.

A fashion preview is a stimulating sight. You realise that what is new in 1934 was old in 1.904, but is still good. For instance, who would have thought we would come back to taffeta petticoats to give us that rustle of spring? Or ruchings and knifepleatings of jade chiffon under split skirts?

They’re with us again. In the city yesterday (says an Australian woman writer) we saw the cork, the straw, the twine, the patent leather, and the petticoats. We saw also a delightful garment with a starched linen traycloth folded on its front as a collar. We saw tailored net mounted on taffeta, and a reckless hat with a really four-square crown.

PRINCESS MARINA OF GREECE. The announcement of the engagement of Prince George to Princess Marina, of Greece, has aroused general interest. Princess Marina, is the youngest daughter of Prince and Princess Nicholas of Greece, and since the abdication of King Constantine in 1920 the family has lived in Palermo and in Switzerland, visiting England regularly. Her eldest si ter is married to Prince Paul of Yugoslavia, wh was at Oxford, and who is said k speak English without the trace of an accent. Her mother was the Grand Duchess of Russia, and her time is still given up almost entirely to the organisation of her Russian charities. Of Prince and Princess Nicholas’s three daughters, Grace Ellison wrote in her book on Yugoslavia, published last year:—“Princesses Olga, Elizabeth, and Marina are sweet and gracious, as well as very beautiful. My servant described them correctly when, looking at Zarokilli's drawings of them on my wall, she asked me ‘Are these English or foreign angels ?’ ” Princess Marina is tall, slender, and dark, with the real Greek nose. She is an extremely good linguist, speaking nearly every language. Of her family, King Alexander of Yugoslavia once said, "1 don’t believe in the whole world you could find a more united family than the Greek Royal Family.” Her father is now’ a professional artist, and a very successful one. He not only works hard at his art, but reads seriously, sees many plays, all art shows, and is an excellent critic.

A STITCH IN TIME. When a hole in any kind of fabric or in a stocking has to be mended it’s a good plan to tack the hole right side upwards over a thin card ‘(says the Glasgow Herald). Use tine thread appropriate to the material. The upright strands should be laid first, then these should be crossed evenly. Be sure to start darning well away from the hole for the sake of firmness. Don’t cut away the frayed edges, as these work in with the darning and make it less conspicuous. If treating washing material leave long loops of thread at each turn to allow for shrinkage. If a hole has been burnt in cloth, cut away around it in a circle or a square, using a knife, not scissois. Cut a patch about a hair’s breadth larger all round than the holo and matching the surrounding part, exactly in grain. Tack the material around the hole to a card, then tack in the patch around its edges. Darn over the edges as for the threecornered tear and press in the same way. A patch may often be cut from the material beneath a pocket, or from the collar lining or skirt hem. Drawn thread borders on a ti’ciycloth have a habit of breaking. r l o repair them tack bias cambiic bind ing over them, cutting it down to the required width. Mitre the corners carefully, then stitch along both edges by machine. The corners of sheets or tablecloths are inclined to wear first. To .strengthen them take a 4in strip of I linen tape and fell it around the coi- . ner. Another plan is to cut a t.ril angular piece of fine linen and turn in the edges all around. Tack this into the corner, seam the outside edges, and fell the diagonal edge. Invisible mending is an art. which the average housewife considers quite beyond her. Do not be defeated, however, without a try. Worsteds may be invisibly mended with a little skill and a lot of patience. Cut out a piece of self material, place over • hole, and fray out the edges for about an inch. Then with a fine needle take up each individual thread and darn in with the tiniest of tiny stitches. Lastly, to give the professional finish, press with a damp dloth ' arid hot iron.