THE LADIES' COLUMN.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XIX, Issue 6572, 9 December 1882, Page 3 (Supplement)

THE LADIES' COLUMN.

FASHION NOTES.

Uprioht ruffs of lace and net show off fair and slender necks to advantage. Bretonne jackets of white cloth aretrirrmed with coloured silk embroidery and hanging Oriental cloth of as many colours as Joseph's coat is the richest fabric for mantles and cloaks.

Silver bracelets have a very narrow ring around the wrist, from which hang old coins of gold and silver. Black velvet corselets, shaped very much like French corsets, are worn over white cashmere or nun's cloth dresses.

Dark-red cloth costumes are braided with black soutache, set on in relief, in designs representing bunches of gt.ipcs. Appliques of velvet f>ll t-lotli dresses take the form of discs or iiraduat'-d siz-.-s in three or four rows on thr .skirt and overdress.

Hussar-bhu: cloth d:ess. ; s are i,i;.ile with a plain skirt bordered with velvet, above which is military braid and a plain redingote with braided wheels down the front and pleated fullness behind.

' New* rlressea arc K*ss clingiujz t:> the figure | than thtiv huvo heon for veins. Skirts <ire cut to give :i fuller appearance, and the puffed drapery is very large, as it is mounted on a cu- hiou of hair sewn to the skirt lining. LADY SWIMMKR-i. The old Creek story of Leander swimming across the 1 from Abydos to Sestos to meet Ilia love, Hero, is familiar. Byron, having read o" :he extraordinary feat, took it into his lic-a^i that hi: might immortalize himself, also, l>y doing the setme thins:, although for a different purpose than Leander's. Byron did it for a second fame, which he acquired, M:e:v-«fnJly landing on the further side. Captain Webb and Mr. IJoynton have done some cii'ectivi: work in that lme in another direction in our day, but the-i they have been a : -' -d l»v artitieiai contriv uiees. Neither w-.i.M venture to swim across the Straits of Ilmer, or aeioss the Hellespont, for that matter, without some ingeniously cnn>tucted support. And let it be asked, Would Miss 1 feio, however infatuated with Mr. Leander, have ventured to swim from Sestos to Abydos to meet him ? Hardly. The verv thought; of sueii a c»M bath would have been apt to effectually chill tile ardency of her ad'ect'on. L.u'.i.s were not supposed to be particularly verged in the art of swimming in those antiquated times. They had their baths, to be sure, in classic structure and perfumed waters, hut the baths were not like the vigorous ones of our modern ladies ®in the at:onn salt waters at Black I'oint, Monterey, Santa Cruz, or Alameda. Ladies in these latter times can swim, aud can swim well, and well it is they can. At Portsmouth, Kng'.and, there is a ladies' swimming club. It is composed exclusively of amateurs. Professionals are excluded. Perhaps there is but one real lady-professional in the art in the kingdom — Miss Heekwith. She is hardly more than a girl graduate. bu f she has publicly distinguished herself by extraordinary accomplishments in the water. She, with other professionals, if any there be, is not admitted into the club referred to. .Recently the club had a competition for a Hold medal and the championship. The length of the race was eighty yards. Therewere fifteen entries, r.ine of whom reached the finishing post, throe of them within fifteen seconds of the winner. She made the time in one minute and thirty-five seconds. She is a daughter of the head-master of the grammar s-chool, which not only testifies to tlie respectability of the club, but. goes to show that the a:-; of swimming acquired by ladies may be linked with intellectual as well as physical education. School calisthenics for girls is something comparatively recent, anil jv/iz-.-s for competitive swimming girls is another advance in the training of the sex.—American Paper.

WOMAN

0, woman ! them wert fashioned to beguile : so have all sages said, all poets sung. —.lean Bigelow. Karth has nothing more tender than a woman's luart, when it is the abode of pity. — Luther.

Ideas arc like hoards—men never have any until they grow up, and women none at all.— Voltaire.

Friends, beware of fair maidens ! when their tenderness begins, oar servitude is near. — Victor Hugo.

Unhappy is the in:ni for whom his own mother has not made all other mothers venerable. —Richter.

Often the virtue of a woman must be verygreat, since it has to sullies for two. —Elizabeth of Romania.

At present the most valuable gift which can be bestowed upon woman is something to do.—James A. Clarlield.

The most fascinating women are those that cau enrich the evory-day moments of existence.— Leigh Hunt. A woman would be in despair if nature had formed her as fashion makes her appear. —Mile. De Lespin.-isse.

A woman set on any thing will walk right through tho moral crockery without wincing. —Charles Dudley Warner.

A beautiful woman is a practical poem, planting tenderness, hope mid eloquence in all whom she approaches.—Emerson.

CHI r-CHAT.

There is nothing so hoalthy as honest laughter. A woman who had recovered from a decline was r.sked what cured her, and her reply was, " 1 stopped worrying and began to laugh ; that is all." It isn't often that a couple is married in three hut at a recent wedding in Cleveland, Ohio, the justice performed ' the ceremony in English and German, the bride responded in Bohemian and the. groom answered in German.

"The Mother of Five Swimmers" writes the fallowing to the Times: —"Reading in the Times of Mr. P. E. Evans's attempt to swim five miles, for thu honour of my sex I be;; to inform you that two young Indies (sisters) .swam about three miles —from SShnnklin to Santlown—in one hour, three weeks back. The tide was in their favour, but u strong wii:d uas ay.iinst them, or they could have done it with ease in less time. They were not the least fatigued, and took a four miles walk after. I consider swimming as necessary for girls as boys in these days of canoeing and boating, aud wish I could say anything to induce parents to have them taught early this most useful anil healthy accomplishment." An American journalist has been carefully collecting curiosities of divorce, some of which are highly amusing. At Los Angelos a divorced couple re-married again within twenty-four hours. At a town called Berlin a wife applied for :i divorce because her husband had become blind ; her application was refused. At Cleveland a male and female doctor resolved to enter into a medical and matrimonial partnership ; the husband to attend the male patients and the wife the female. The lady was indiscreet enough to write to oik; of the patients wh.-.-:: she was about to hand over to her intended husband that, although she couhl no longer doctor him, she should never cease to love him, whereupon the intended bridegroom cried eff the bargain, and was sued for breach of promise ami breach of contract by the lady. (Jills who love dancing for dancing's sake, aud ilμ not care who or what their partners may be so long as they can waltz, ought to be delighted to hear of thofollowing American invention. Tlr<. " irreproaehaUo waltzer" is a stout frame of light wood, of about five feet in height, and rcmotelv resembling an old-fashior.cd kite frame. A*t the top ol the frame is a paddi-ii " iv.st" for the lady's hand, and at a! out the middle of the frame is a jointed arm, capable of being placed round a lady's waist and securely fastened in that position with a thumb-screw. The frame lias two feet furnished with castors, each one of which has a universal joint, so that it can turn freely in any direction. The whole all'.iir weighs only five pounds, aud it is made to fold together, so that a lady can carry it in her hand, either with or without a shawl strap.

While women are ungallautly excluded from the liar in many States, a contemporary say--, female aspirants for forensic honours may look with hope to the Pacific slope, where their :-ex are not only accorded all the professional rights and opportunities of the IJ.U-, but are 'heM iu high esteem by the liench. This is (shown by the judicial reception recently given to Clara S. Foltz, " the learned lady attorney" of San Francisco, when she attended the United States Circuit Court in Oregon. When Judge Deady, according to a v estern contemporary, "espied the distinguished lady seated in the room, he immediately rose, and, taking her by the hand, escorted her to a seat beside him ou the bench, and after the adjournment of the Court lie introduced her to every lawyer present." For this gallant act Judge Deady will be applauded by all women and a good many men.