THE LADIES' COLUMN.

Lake Wakatip Mail, Issue 2169, 13 August 1897, Page 4

THE LADIES' COLUMN.

Ladies' Gossip ■ . One of the Queen's last acts before her departure for the Continent was to' give her sanction to the commemoration programme for June the 22nd. In order to enable as many as possible of her subjects to view the procession, Her Majesty has agreed on a route which is over six miles in length, and winch it will take three hours to complete. The procession will leave Buckingham Palace at 11 a.m., and will go by Constitution Hill, Piccadilly, St. James's street, and Pall Mall, past the National Gallery, and along the Strand to the Law Courts, where the Queen.will receive the homage of the Lord Mayor, wftio will present the Sward of State, which will ]*• returned. The procession will thence pass along to St. Paul's, where a short service will be held on the steps. From St. Paul's the route will be along Cheapside to the Mansion House, where an address will be presented from the city to Her Majesty; thence through King William street, over London Bridge, to the Borough: and thence over Westminster Bridge, by Parliament street, Whitehall, the Horse Guai-ds, and the Centre Mall to Buckingham Palace, which will be reached at 2 p.m. Her Majesty has chosen this route in order to show herself to South Londoners especially in the ancient borough, and to enable some of the poorer neighborhoods to profit by the letting of windows to view the spectacle. The widening of the area over which the crowds will be distributed is also an advantage, The Queen's Procession will be a mile long. Her Majesty's carriage will be preceded by the Princesses of the Royal Family, and by a splendid cavalcade of Princes on horseback. In advance of the Princes will come the Headquarters Staff of the Army, including the Com-mander-in-Chief, and Duke of Connaught, who will be in supreme command of the troops in London on that day. In the procession will be contingents of the Royal Horse Guards, the Ist and 2nd Life Guards, the Scots Greys, the Colonial repi-esentative troops, some 700 in number, and a special escort of representative Indian native officers. Twenty-five thousand men will be paraded on the occasion, the streets along the whole route being lined with contingents from every branch of the regular and auxiliary foroes. The place of honor has been given to the Guards and the Navai Brigade, both at St Paul's and Buckingham Palace, where guards of honor of both services will be mounted opposite each other. In the great procession there will be at least two mounted bands, and other military bands will be stationed at short intervals along the route.

ABOUT THE ENGAGEMENT RINGS. Most young ladies are only too glad to draw on their slim fingers the engagement rings presented by the fiances, but a case occurred within the writer's experience where the fair damsel positively refused to wear the betrothal-ring. She stated that so many girls of her acquaintance who had done so had had their dreams of wedded bliss shattered by fickleness on the part of their swains, that she had therefore come to look upon the wearing of an engagement ring as an augur of ill-fortune.

So it came to pass that the handsome ring which the ardent lover had purchased in fear and trembling was never

"sported" on the finger of his future wife, though when the wedding-day came she consented to the attachment of the wedding ring with the best grace in the world.

This case was eccentric, hut the following is very sad. A young barrister had, after long courtship, become engaged to a very clever and pretty girl, residing in a fashionable West-end square. The day after he had put the momentous question and had been accepted, he went, as in duty bound, to a Bond street jeweller's and selected a very beautiful ring.

Having completed the purchase, he set out for the young lady's house, but on arriving there be was astonished to find the place in confusion, the servants in tears, and signs in all quarters of some disaster. At first no one had the heart to break to him the news, but after a little time it fame out that the poor girl had died of heart disease ten minutes before his arrival. The sad and cruelly tragic irony of the situation will be apparent to all. A rather curious instance was that which occurred not so very long ago in the West of England. A gentleman of wealth and ]>osition became engaged to a young lady, but when he brought the customary ring, she begged to be excused from putting it on at the moment, as her finger, she said, was sore. The accepted lover, though somewhat «?urprised. made no demur; but what was his amazement, a week later, to receive a polite note, inclosing the ring, and stating that the writer wished to cancel the engagement.

"I accepted you," she wrote, "loving another all the time and I have now repented of my wickedness, and thank Clod I am not too late to save myself. The ring has never been on my finger for one moment."

Then, again, there was the case of the girl who refused to accept the ring brought by the loving accepted one. simply because she had made a resolution years before to never suffer the smallest piece of jewellery to appear on her person. The young man pointed out that a plain gold band could hardly be classed as jewellery iu the ordinary meaning of the word; but the girl was firm, and it. is to be hoped that the youth was able to dispose of his useless property in some way or other. Perhaps be exchanged it for the wedding-ring, though perhaps the eccentric young woman refused to wear the latter as well. The following is rather humorous. though the lady concerned in the case; evidently did not. think so. A youug fellow of somewhat "close" habits had become engaged to a girl whose tendencies were towards extravagance. The former, much aggrieved at the idea of having to incur the expense of an en-gagement-ring, picked out the very cheapest lie could find in the shop, with the result that when lie called and presented it to his charmer, she threw it in tlie tire, boxed his ears.aud ordered him cut «>l" her sight, for evermore.

This was an abrupt ending to the eiigngemeut. but doubtless the young gentleman consoled himself with the thought that he had had a lucky escape, for. after all, :i girl who could behave thus would not strike the ordinary observer as having in her the makings? of a model wife. -"Tit Bits." o USEFUL HINTS. Yellow stains on lace can be removed by oxalic acid. Cover a hot iron with several thicknesses of clean linen; upon this lay the lace, moisten the stain with the acid, then place lacn at once in lukewarm water. Rinse, dry, and press in the usual manner. Boots that have become hard through being wet or lying by can be softened by Molliscorum, which is sold by bootmakers, also saddlers; this will soon soften ts« leather, besides which a goo 3

polish can immediately afterwards be given. Feathers gone straight through exposure to the dampness of the air may be renewed by holding them near a hot stove (of course taking care not to burn them), and shaking them now and again until curled. They can also be nicely curled by the aid of a silver or ivory knife, passed from the back of the feather and inclined whichever way it is desired the ends shall curl.

College Pudding.—Half-a-pound Cake (stale), 2 eggs, 2oz currants, loz peel, loz sugar, 1 pint milk. Grease well some teacups, sprinkle into each some of the currant 3 and a very little candied peel. Cut up the cake into small squares, and fill the cups with them. Do not press the pieces in, but put them in loosely. Beat in a basin the eggs and sugar, and pour into the milk. Fill up the cups with the milk and eggs. Place the cups in a saucepan, and pour round as much boiling water as will come half-way up the teacups. Grease a sheet of paper and place it over the cups. Allow the water to boil one hour, then turn the puddings out on a hot dish. If liked, pour round a sauce made as follows : 1 lemon, 1 pint of boiling water, 1 teaspoonful of arrowroot, 6 drops of cochineal, loz of sugar. Pare the rind from the lemon, place it in a saucepan with the boiling water, and boil it gently for ten minutes. Place the arrowroot in a basin, and moisten it with a little cold water. Pour over through a strainer the boiling water, stir well together, and add the cochineal. P»eturn all to the saucepan, and boil for three minutes, add the lemon juice and sugar, and pour the sauce round the puddings.— __ r< .