THROUGH A WOMAN'S SPECS

Marlborough Express, Volume XLIII, Issue 268, 13 November 1909, Page 8

THROUGH A WOMAN'S SPECS

(Written for JSlablborough Express.)

'' Woman needs no eulogy,.., she . speaks ,for herself."

In opening a.- v jW!..C.T.U. bazaar ..at Napier recently, Mrs Qldham, President otthe local union, spoke strongly on ihe subject of raffles, -She-*aid that, a thing ooulda only be right 01; Wrong, and if a person gave twenty shillings for an article. it ,was, hers, but if the same article was bought with nineteen shillings from nineteen other people, only one-twentieth part could belong to the one winning it. This, she said, was .tantamount to taking things that bfeloag to ojbher people, and was not just of ■ honest. I am not prepared to defend raffles or any form or gambling, but I fail to see where the "dishonesty" of such a proceeding comes in. §o long as no on© is deceived in any way. about the article to be raffled for, how can it be "dishonest?" If it, is made quite clear bo the purchaser that the chances are nineteen to one against his obtaining the twenty-shilling^ article for his shilling ticket, where is the "injustice" or "dishonesty" of the proceeding?

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' 'Angels and ministers of grajtie defend us !" Mr Stead has broken out anew in his "spook" business^, and "authentic" messages from .the mighty dead are being delivered through "Julia.": Not to be beaten by Mr Stead a correspondent in The Express, has given us an account,of an interview he had with the'ghost of our own King Dick. Some, of the things our late Premier is reported to have said, have a decidedly Seddonian ring about them, but who is "Mary" who was to be told .of the interview? lam not questioning the veracity of "anti-spook," but I think he simply had a particularly vivid dream. " ■ ; .'

As a 'rule "spirit" messages .are banal almost to the, point of imbecility. And the silly conjuring tricks practised by the average f'me■<iium" would not impose on an intel-i ■lige'n^ child of twelve.. Take this, for jnstane'e., which is related, in Annals ( ,of.Psychical,Science: On one- occasion, :in the drawing-room-.of a lady friend,: Daniel ,Honie, the celebrated spiritmedium, became entranced, and walk-: : ing up to the fire^. which was of wood, raked it out with his hands, and took,' up a lump, of charcoal about twice the ftijse of an egg in his right hand. He blew into bos hands, and the flames ooukl be seen coming out from be-r tween his fingers, as he carried the charcoal round the room. One of the persons present asked if it would hurt him if he touched it. Home told him jhe might try: he did so, and found that it burned him."

! An entertaining and amusing book has just been published, being,: the autobiography of a lady of fashion. It is entitled "My Recollections," and ;is from the pen of the Countess.of Cardigan and Lancastre. She. was born in 1824, her father a De Horsey •and her mother Lady; Louisa. Mary Tudor, youngest daughter of the first Earl of Stradbroke. One of her earliest re'eojiections is of a children's party for the late Queen Victoria, given at"St. James's Palace by King William IV and Queen Adelaide. proceedings were rather lengthy, f)jand , when the time came to say '/"gSpd-by.©". little Miss De Horsey was •■discovered fast, asleep in the King's ifavourite arm-chair.

She gives some recollections of the ;great Duke of Wellington; and alsjo tells of hearing Tom Moore sing his own Irish melodies at Lady Tavistock's. Her wit is rather caustic at times, as the following will show. "Although Lady A. was considered a beauty she was excessively thjin, and her scragginess, was once the 'aobrce of a joke. She was devoted to Lord W. but on one occasion wenVon board Lord C's yacht and remained some hours before returning. Lord W. who was furious about it ; made quite an unnecessary scene with Lord C. and a kind friend said that after all it was a case of two dogs fighting over a bone."

Like Frances,' Countess of Waldegrave, her matrimonial destiny was foretold by a fortune-teller. 'Her predictions came true in'every particular. Her first husband was Lord Cardigan, the leader of the famous charge of the Light Brigade at Balaclava. She mentions incidentally that Lord Cardigan never said anything of moment about the Balaclava charge, though Ronald,*€he horse he rode at the head of it, was kept in comfort. "I have often been asked if .he.confided to me anything particular about the charge of the .Light,., Brigade, but the truth is that he never seemed to attach any importance to the part he played." According to her own ■; account,; shewas no less attractive as a widow than in her youthful days, and among those who succumbed to hex charms .was Disraeli. In 1873 he proposed to her, she was at Belvoir, and the pre-

sent King was there. This is how she describes it: "I had known Disrael? all my life, and liked him very well. He had, however, one drawback, and that Aras his bad breath—the ill-odour of politics, perhaps. In ancient Home a wife could divorce her husband. if his breath were ..unpleasant, and.-had Dizzy lived in those days his wife would have been able to divorce him without any difficulty. I was wondering whether I could possibly put up with- this unfortunate attribute in a great man, when I met the King, who was.' graciously pleased to ride with me. In the course of our conversation I told him about Dizzy's proposal, and asked him whether he would advise me to accept it, but he said he did not think the marriage would be a happy one to me."

Eventually she married the .Count 'de Lahcastre in August lfe/3. and thus describes the honeymoon: "We 'spent our honeymoon at Deene, where we entertained a large party of my ; husband's Portuguese friends for the shooting. 1 can only describe some of these gentlemen as being very dangerous Bhots, and I was obliged to put English' guns behind the foreign sportsmen to kill what they missed! In some cases' the cartridges were filled with bran, for I always disliked shooting' accidents, and our^ friends required most careful watching." The Countess frankly acknowledges that she was somewhat of a rebel against society conventions. "The late Queen was most kind to mo when I was young, but the way in which I defied Convention before I married Lord Cardigan .did not dispose her favourably' towards me; and my second; 'marriage greatly displeased her, as by it I took the title of Lancastre,., Which she was so fond of using whfen.she. travelled incognita." i : There are some passages which, are ratbe.F gruesome in their details, but on the whole, the book is bright and. aniusing. -The . aged authoress declares :. "I have en joyed my life thoroughly," and as a chatty, informal contribution to what may be termed society literature, her book will b£ heartily Welcomed. '■-.■