LADIES' GOSSIP.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CI, Issue 11873, 24 April 1899, Page 2

LADIES' GOSSIP.

["Cantkrbuuy Times."] The people of Victoria are beginning to rouse themselves to the fact that domestic training is a weak point as far as their girls are concerned. Some time ago a member of the Legislature remarked in the Legislative Assembly that he considered ignorance of cookery on the part of Australian wives to be largely accountable for tho increase of divorce. Since then Victorian parents have felt far from easy in their minds, and a highly-trained lady from the Kensington School of Cookery has been engaged to teach cooking in the Government schools of Melbourne, and also to train teachers for the same work. ,A college of housekeeping and cookery under Government auspices will probably p be the next step, and one that is quite as necessary for the progress of a country as a school of in ; nes and engineering would be. But we are only just beginning to recognise the supreme importance iff wellnourished, vigorous bodies, if a people is to make any solid advance in the arts and sciences. ■

It mav be news to some to learn that the Queen hn.s n right to every whale or sturgeon captured on the coast of the United Kingdom and brought to land. The custom "is a very old one, dating back to the Norman kings. h\ the case of the whale the king used generally to take the body, thoughtfully giving the head to uis consort, so that she might utilise whalebone for stiffening her dresses. The Queen's magnificent Cashmere shawls _ are quite historic, since she has made it a pratico to present one of them a,s a wedding present to every young girl in the aristocracy, in whom she is interested. These shawls, .which vary in value from £6O to £250 each, are sent every year to the Queen from the Kingdom of Cashmere a« a perquisite to her Majesty. Another class of royal purveyors is called upon to present annually to her a table cloth, while, troin other sources again she is entitled to an annual contribution of such varied " tips " as white doves, white hares, currycombs, fire tongs, scarlet hosiery, night caps, knives, lances and crossbows ■ Moreover at the coronation, the Lord ot the Manor of Addington must present to the Sovereign a "dish of pottage composed of " almond milk, brawn of capons, sugar, snices, chickens parboiled and chopped At the same ceremony the Lord of the Manor of Haydon is obliged by virtue of his tenure from the Crown to present the monarch with a towel, the Lord of the M-nor of Workshop giving the Sovereign * •' right-handed glove." These are only a few of the various perquisites to which Queen Victoria is entitled by tradition and usage. ' ,■ . , . One exquisite beauty of Greek embroideries, and the demand that exists for beautiful needlework, has led to the happy ex- ■ pedient of opening a shop in, London where goods made in Greece are sold for the benefit' of those who have been impoverished during the late disturbances. Many of the gold and silver gauzes, embroideries, laces, silver and leather work, such as can be found in no other shop in Great Britain, are mode by the Cretan refugees, many or whom have been reduced to great poverty, besides having their homes razed, to. the ground. The committee is well satisfied with the first year's work, and lias remitted to Greece, as the result of its sales, no iess a sum than £728. It is said that Waiter Crane found the old Cretan silver-work and the embroideries very delighting to his artistic soul, while pots of "Honey, from Mount Hymettus" were no less interesting from a dietary point of view. It must be verv comforting for the lady who does not keep a maid to learn that housework is beautifying to the hands. live massage system illustrates the truth of this, and shows that every soft of exercise, except actual rough housemaid's drudgery, improves and beautifies the hands, thus cooks who make the bread at home are noted for having white, plump hands, the dough and kneadinjj affording excellent exercise for the muscles. The Queen, it is well known, possesses wonderfully beautiful hands, well-shaped, plump, white and unmarked bv those wrinkles usually seen on the hands of a woman of her age. lhis absence of disfiguring lines is atributed to her fondness for knitting. She is rarely, without her knitting needles, and since the action of plying them keeps the muscles in continual plav her hands retain their elasticity and'her flesh its plumpness m a way that only, constant massage could effect. That so-called improvements in industries do not by any means make for the wellbeinf of the public is •exemplified in the case°of glazed paper. This has been found bv doctors to be bad for the eyesight, and consequently a crusade is being started airainst the use of this pretty, but eye-nun-rw, paper. The reason is given that a reflection arises from the polished surface, which produces a number of shades and lights that are most trying to the eye. In the earlier part of the century old-rag papers were in use, both for writing and printing These were mostly of a dull grey or blue colour, and coarse-grained, so that thick letters had to be used. When more modem paper was invented it was given a amoother surface, and steal pens could be used, giving a finer character to the writing. The needs of the.illustrator have been satisfied by a highly-glazed paper, that has proved destructive to the eyesight, owing to the strain caused by the reflections. The doctors, therefore, propose that the public inspectors of schools should order the use of sanitary or unglazed paper for all school books. Thev even advise that no white paper should "be used, but rather one of a pray or light blue tone, while the type should be clear and simple, but not too thin. It, is said that a few years of such a pohcy would soon improve the eyesight. While ; they are about it these doctors should point out the great, danger attending the perusal of the cheap editions of the poets and novelwriters—books whose print is so small and, in mariv instances, so badly spaced as to be •absolutely ruinous to the sight, Such, books should simply be prohibited from sale. No one who values his eyesight should permit himself to be tempted with this penny literature, and certainly should not permit any child to'risk blindness from reading these "cheap" editions, which, in reality, are far dearer than editions de Luxe could could ever b p - Photographs are inconvenient things sometimes, especially when, in their faithful way, they tell things one' would rather not have known. For instance, a keen observer of photographs representing Royal parsonages holding their cliildren. has come to the conclusion that queenly parents know very little of the proper way or even the natural way of holding t.heir own. babies. As a rale, he says, the little ones in these family groups look exceedingly uncomfortable, and several of them seem yo imminent peril of tumbling to the ground. Tho little bodies are held awkwardly, as if they were then nursed for the first

time, and simply for effect. Certainly the fond father or mother seems at a lo'ss what to do with the child. It is said that the Emperor of Germany has been photographed during his life more than 7500 times. Many of these are family groups, and the public has therefore certain proof that he has held his various children on his knees for a few minutes at least on each:'of ; the'four' hundred or so occasions on which he and they sat to the photographer. He has not yet, however, learned the art.

Mrs Langtry has "broken silence," as sho calls it, on the subject of her. life, and the early part of it is certainly interesting, .showing that the girl was mother to the woman. The only daughter of Dean Le Breton, of St Saviour's, Jersey, she enjoyed a singularly free and unhampered girlhood. She never went to school, owing to the fact that her father bad advanced and peculiar ideas on the way in which girls ought to be educated. Hence a governess at home initiated the future actress and sportswoman' into the mysterious elements of education; but not for long. She was soon supplanted by tutors for German, Latin, Greek, music and drawing. In those days the'future actress •had her girlish dreams of being a singer or a painter-'-never an actress, the mere notion of which would have shocked the Puritanical islanders greatly. By her six* robust and athletic brothers, Lily Lo Breton was initiated into every boyish game and sport. Five were older than herself, and .all .were full of animal spirits and a keen love of mischief. "To this very day," she says, " I shudder at the thoughts of the kicks I received at football, the dangerous position of wicketkeeper I was invariably forced into at cricket, and the blows on the nose that made my mother insist upon my giving up boxing, much to the disgust of my brothers, who were doing their best, as they proudly observed, 'to make a' man' of me." But they went even farther, and "haunted" tho* churchyard as ghosts, she and her brother being mounted on stilus, enveloped in sliests, and rendered ghastly to view by having phosphorus smeared on their faces and hands.

The turquoise is the stone on which our changeful fancy has set the seal of fashion, and in spite of the ease with which this gem can be imitated, we feel it our duty to admire it whether we like it or not. As most people know, i: is greenish-blue in colour, but it does not come"from Turkey, as might be imagined from its name.. 'lhe true Oriental stone comes only from Persia, from the province of that KJtorassan which Thomas Mb re immortalised in Lalla Rockh. Ihere are not many famous stones known to history, but the costliest is that which belonged to Nadir Shah. It was two inches long, and was offered for sale at Mcscow during lust century for £780.; There is a fossil turquoise called odontolith, which is nothing more than the fossil ivory of the Mammoth, coloured blue by phosphate of iron, a blue which seldom fades, and for this reason it is frequently used in jewellery instead of the mineral turquoise. A good deal of superstition attached to this gem in the middle ages. Queen Elizabeth wore a very beautiful turquoise ring which had been given her by a youthful lover. She believed that the turquoise took upon itself its owner's accidents, and so sometimes saved him pain, or even life itself. But in order,to do so the stone must have been, given as a token of pure affection. When she lay dying, one of her women drew the precious ring from her helpless finger and dropped it from the bedroom window into the waiting hands of Sir John Harrington, who carried it post-haste to Elizabeth s cousin, James of Scotland, in token that the great Queen was dead and that he was King of England. A rather interesting story is related by an old chronicler of a turquoise ring which had been given to a knight by his father. Twice it saved him from' death by taking his pain upon itself. The first time he received a severe blow, and the faithful stone cracked, but remained in its setting. The second time he wa.s thrown from Ms hoise, and the turquoise burst into piece?, and apparently became useless. But the knight carefully gathered up the fragmentsj had them all re-set, and ieit safer than ever because Ins preservers had increased in number. They had splendid powers of imagination in those good old days. Nowadays the novel- writers use up all there is, and dilute it greatly at that, but in mediseval times the chronicler had it all to himself, and a very good use he made of it too! In Russia "no v betrothed maiden would consider her engagement ring complete without, a turquoise, and this superstition obtains equally in palace and hovel. The betrothal ring of the present Czarina contained one of the finest stones in the world.' The poorest Russian peasant girl must, have one also, without it she believes that no happiness, safety or good luck could come her way, so she has a cheap stone taken from the refuse of the mines to Nijni-Novgorod, where it is set in tin. With such a ring on her finger she feels that she can defy adverse fates, and is happy accordingly. English'women are making a great effort to obtain the franchise before the dissolution of Parliament, and at a meeting held just before the departure of the last mails, a number of suggestions were made as to the best method of going to work. Mrs Wolstenholme Elmy presided, and urged the ladies present to write to the members of the constituencies in which they liyed, and ask themfto ballot for a good position for the women's suffrage resolution. She also recommended them to work on the "snowball" system —each, lady enlisting another, and that' one a third, and so on. In that way, she said, they would soon have a splendid army taking an active interest in the franchise. Another lady took Idgh ground, but not by any means too high when she moved a resolution that " the recognition of women as capable citizens was essential to the establishment of social justice and to the wise and efficient government of the country." The seconder made a neat little speech, in which she rsniiffiled her hearers that they should take courage from the success of women in the British colonies of Australia and New Zealand —a remark that was "greeted by cheers. It is evident that as English women are very much in earnest at last, success must, ere very long, attend their efforts. When it does, an electric thrill of sympathy will flash through her colonies to the Mother Land.