MISCELLANEOUS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XVIII, Issue 6063, 23 April 1881, Page 3

MISCELLANEOUS.

A doctor in Santa Rosa advises all who have the care of children or invalids to boil the milk fed to them. A bag which cost £800, ornamented with a diamond beetle, was sent to a French princess, filled with her New Year's sugarplums. . Perhaps in these days when the quality of French silks is a question that interests all women, it may be well to remind them of the simple test of burning a bit of tho material to see whether it turns to charcoal as it should!, or smoulders into a yellow, greasy mass, as it will if heavily dyed. . Love will find out a way. A Russian officer begged permission to break the canon against marrying during the fast preceding the Russian Christmas, as he was ordered to join SkobclefTs expedition. Being refused, he took the bride and a lady companion with him, and was married on the way, as soon as the fast was at an end. Boston University is the only place in America where a girl can study theology and receive the same elocutionary drill and sermon criticism as a young man. It is observed as a little singular that the theological department of the University, which is supposed to bo wider Methodist control, should open its doors to women, when the church quietly shuts its pulpit, so that she may not use the knowledge given her.

Muffs this year are a distinctive feature in ladies' dress. They are truly wonderful. Owls look out of them, and other lnrda of all sorts ; animal's paws with gold and silver claws are stretched along them. They are lined with various colours, and bnght-hued ribbons stream from them, floating on the wind. Artificial flowers and natural flowers nestle between perfect cascades of lace ; but they arc too small, and hardly fulfil their real duty, i.e., to keep their hands warm. The Princess of Wales is a fine musician, and plays from Chopin and Schumann with feeling. She is very fond of French art, and her private rooms are filled vriih innumerable objects in Dresden and Sevres, with small objects brought from India by the Princo, and with screens of her own embroidery. The French are very fond of her in return, and a white marble statuette by H. D'Epinay represents her as a lady of the time of Henri Deux, dressed in a long brocade petticoat, the bodice loaded with precious stones, the head adorned with a cap with streaming feathers, and the features fine as a cameo, the whole thing an object of exquisite beauty. '~ ; . . . . ' \ _