WOMAN’S WORLD.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CI, Issue 11900, 25 May 1899, Page 7

WOMAN’S WORLD.

Greek girls, wear—frequently mere- . ly. a prfetty ornament —an elfegant silver chjuied-dagger. On marrying these daggers aroaaid aside, the idea being that the huaj band’s:-.protection renders them no longer necessary, , Mrs Nansen, the wife of the great explorer,; was .before her marriage- a singer. .Like many Swedish women, she speaks Eng- ' lish well; and is' very fond of British ilIttstrated papers. Indeed, most of the lead-ing-periodicals find their way to her picturesque - home at Lysaker, a village near ■ Ohristiaifia.'‘ "■ " " ’ \ ’• --Worcester, Massachusetts, has a “Widow’s Retreat,” in which-six elderly widows live happily together. The eldest widow is Mrs : Eliza Parker, ninety-one years did,. and, the nest, Mrs Susan S. Bridgham, eighty-eight. The ■“ retreat ” is simply a pleasant board-ing-hohse kept by'Mrs Lucy M. Underwood. Mrs Underwood is a -widow, and two of her sisters, widows, also live with her. An- American lady, Miss Morris Stuart, of the Castle Square Opera Company, has been blessed by Nature with two hundred miles of golden, hair., Wavy ,and abundant, the tresses fall almost to the hem of her gown! The number of hairs to the square inch ,of the bead have , been counted, and the hair is sft in length, so it is estimated thai ifvthe silken strands were laid end to end -two hundred miles would he measured. Rudyard Kipling is passionately fond of his children, arid very proud they are when he takes them for a walk. A stoning match at Rotitingdean is a frequent right, Mr Kipling and his . children Mining stones at a flniTting chunk of wood, which serves as a target, in the intervals of weaving his epoch-making verse or story. He is said to miss his little daughter very much, as do the small brother and sister that re- ■ - main. ' , A year ago the attention of her Majesty the . Queen was called to the case of Mrs Bkes£s,-,w.ho was the mother of six policemen, all of whom were living, several of them having pensions.. Her portrait was forwarded to her Majesty by Sir Edward Bradford, and the Queen expressed a kindly i,interest in.the case.. This' January Mrs Steats-died' at the home, of her son Caleb, at Noah’s Ark', Southgate, in the eightyseventh year of her age. A lady, well known in American society, has .been inveighing., in a New York paper ‘against the “Evil of Anglo worship in New York Society/” and rails against the frequent' marriages of untutored American maidens to British peers. According to an estimate . that has: been made of the Anglo-American marriages during.the past.few years, ho fewer than 152 American women have married. European noblemen. The dowries tney have brought amount in the aggregate to rather more than £5,330,000. which would give an average fortune of some £20,000 to each of them. . A'statistician has been devoting himself to a study of eminent ballet dancers, and his investigations seem to establish the fact that they are an unusually long-lived lot. The famous'Garlotta Crisi is living now, at the age of 77, and one of the ballet dancers at the! opera ,in Paris is 70; but ho is man. . Amalia'Ferraris is still teaming at the age of:78 in Paris, and seems likely to contimie that work for some time to come. ■ Fanny Essler- waa 74 when she died, and Taglioni has passed her eightieth year., Bosita Mauri, the popular premiere at the opera in Paris, is over 50, and has begun to talk of retiring. ' ’ t Ladies’ dubs have proved an unqualified success in London. The most exclusive one is the Empress, to which it is now almost impossible to gain admittance. The Duchess of Albany uses the duonouse in Dover - Street with gratifying regularity, „ ..,. frequently.lunching there when on.shopping t , , , expeditions in the West End, and sometimes she brings .in, a friend for afternoon, tea. The Princes 'Beatrice, the Princess. 'IA-, Louise,, and the Princess Victoria have on many' occasions been' asked to support la - : dies’ clubs with-their patronage, but Lave invariably as they share her Ma- ( fdislike of the newer phases of the feminine movement. ‘ Charles Dickens is, perhaps, the Queen’s favourite author, and of his works she possesses handsomely-bound sets of almost every edition 1 that has been issued. Sunday is the Queen’s prindpal day for reading, whep one of Mrs Oliphant’s novels is fre- ;■ quently chosen. It appears that her Ma fjestyhas never taken kindly to the. New 1 Woman stvle of writing. When the Queen takes a liking to a book she immediately gives instructions for a copy, to be pm chased for her library. Her Majesty has .wonderful- -knack of retaining, what sh-.? baa read, and after a lengthy period will dlscGsa the merits and demejifo of the book ""with a freshness that is:-remarkable. ' ‘The Qneenis a great believer iff the influerca .of good' literature on tlipf mind, and in con- ' ‘ sequence'of- this belief she has established'' 1 at Windsor a library of several thou •and folnmes especially for the use of the scrvaius