PERFECT LADIES

Greymouth Evening Star, 6 January 1937, Page 8

PERFECT LADIES

WiiAT. DOES THE TERM MEAN?

A perfect lady in the real meaning of the phrase is delightful beyond expression, but the definition of tins ideal woman varies in a most extraordinary manner, not only in different parts of the world, but. in different social grades, writes Carol Lynn in the “Sydney Morning Herald.” Among those classes that, have to engage in hard manual labour for a living, a perfect lady is generally defined as one who never does anything that she does not want to do of any kind at all, on any occasion whatever.

The Chinese evolved long ago a very similar member of society, in the form

of a young lady of such exquisite refinement that she was entirely unable to do anything for herself, even if she had wished to do so. She had no occasion ever to use her hands even for the purposes of her own toilette, as there were slaves in any number to respond to every wish; but to attain to this condition of helplessness her fingernails were allowed to grow to an extraordinary length till they became like bird’s claws, and to prevent them from getting accidentally damaged or broken, each one was protected by a beautifully-ornamented silver case or shield. One concludes that the possessor of a set of these dainty nailguards on each hand must have enjoyed a very highly* envied position in the feminine world, but at what expense this superiority was attained, who can tell?

The very thought of these long claws at one’s finger ends would be enough for most people, yet what a weary lesson they must have enforced upon their owners in the art of restraining natural impulses, and in adapting themselves to the wonderful and complicated etiquette of the very fine lady of the Celestial Empire of bygone days. The Chinese lady completed her entire physical helplessness by going through the operation of having her feet distorted in infancy, and the mere thought of the agony endured by so many little Chinese girls in the process is too horrible to dwell upon. And. in the fairy tales, they had a very subtle way of discovering a perfect lady or princess, as this story proves. Once upon a time, there was a handsome young prince, an only child, and the idol of his parents, who had decided that he must only marry a “perfect” princess, to which end brides were sought in all the nearby kingdoms without success, ancT the rejection of some of them caused quite a lot of ill-feeling. The usual routine was for a competing princess to be invited to spend a night at the Royal Castle, and at breakfast the next morning the Queen would very anxiously ask her how she slept. Invariably the youjig woman declared that she had slept like a- top, and never woke till they brought her early morning tea. Then the Royal Couple would sadly shako their heads, and as delicately as possible it was conveyed to the damsel that she unfortunately did not come up to the hoyal standard, and she was packed off home again. This sort of thing went on with wearisome monotony until at length the King and Queen were on the point of abandoning all hope, and

were trying to reconcile themselves to the idea of accepting a daughter-in-law from among the ranks of the peerage—a terrible social come-down really—then a beautiful but quite forgotten princess from a very distant kingdom arrived to try her luck. She had not come very willingly, and seemed in a bad temper, but she was pacified' and packed off to bed as usual; and at breakfast the next morning the same old question was asked her. “Slept well?” she said excitedly: “why, I never slept, a wink, the lied was full of hard knobs like bricks and stones, and I'm black and blue all over.” “A real princess at last.” exclaimed the Royal pair, and rapturously embracing her, they presented her to the Prince Charming as his future bride. Then they explained how they had discovered’ that she was really one of the creme de la creme; under the centre of the sixth feather mattress on her bed they had placed a crumpled roseleaf, which would effectually banish all hope of sleep from a princess of the finest quality; although a maid of coarser fibre would not know it was there. Thus the story ends, and they all lived happily ever afterward. ’ J 1