CHIT-CHAT.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXI, Issue 7002, 26 April 1884, Page 4 (Supplement)

CHIT-CHAT.

Lady reporters in Chicago are a failure, because thev circulate the news before publication. Mrs. Webb, the widow of Captain Webb, haß had employment till now in one of the departments of the Foreign Exhibition in Boston; An old lady being late at church entered as the congregation were rising for prayer. "La!".she said, curtseying, "don't rise on my account." James asked his wife : : ' * Why is a husband like dough ?" , He expected she would give it up, and was going.to tell her it was be: cause a woman needs him ; but she said it was because he was hard to get off her hands. A rich but who was rather ambitious in her conversational style, in speaking of a friend, said, "fleisaparagram of politeness." "Excuse me," said a wag sitting next to her, "but do you mean a parallelogram ?" "Of course 1 do," immediately replied the lady. " How could I have made such a mistake." A San Francisco journal describing an audience at the opera, says: "Diamonds glistened on fair throats and also on blanched shirt fronts. Ladies in full evening dress unadorned their heads with Gainsborough bats to hide their dislike of notoriety and the stage from those who sat behind them." A writer in the New York Tribune alleges that he heard a skilled vocalist sing "Wait till the clouds roll by," and that she rendered it: '• Wah tah tho claw raw baw jawy; Wah tah the claw raw baw ; Jawy ma aw traw law wah, . Wah tah the claw raw baw." Catherine Kile, who recently died in Bichmond township,. Pa., at the advanced age of 9S years, had 12 children, SS grand-children, 128 great-grand-children and two great-great- ■ grand-children. Three of her children were born at one time, and these three triplets are still living at the age of 72 years. They bear the good old Scriptural names of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

Napoleon married a widow ; Madame De Maintenon ruled aa a widow Gibbon abaxed himself at the feet of a widow ; Kosseau did the same ; Disraeli married a widow ; one of the greatest rulers of modern Europe was the widowed Empress Catherine ; and the three most distinguished women in Europe at present—Queen Victoria, ex-Empress Eugenie, and Ex-Queen Isabella—are all widows. A servant girl in New Haven stole her mistress': false teeth. The woman told, a policeman that "Shesheesb cosh shwenshy shollarsk, ansh she shwash wosh shusha wreshashdo ahteeshfawshe sheeth—" " Wait till I find an interpreter," interrupted the policeman, thinking the woman was a newly arrived Hungarian ; but she was. an American, and when her teeth were in she could talk the head off him. ! A.'story, is told of a young commercial traveller who. recently called upon an upcountry storekeeper and.by.mistake handed him a photograph of his betrothed instead of his business card, saying that he re-presented-that establishment. .The merchant examined it carefully, remarked that it was a fine establishment, and returned the carte to the astonished man, with a hope that he would soon be admitted into partnership. ; " . - : •'■:' ■ 1 :: ?. ■ ■ ' '_'i The will of a French lady_ who recently died at the advanced age of ninety contained this provision:—"Heave to my physician, whose enlightened care and wise prescriptions have made me live so kmg, all that is contained in the old oak chest of my boudoir. The key of the chest will be found under the mattress of my bed." The family were somewhat anxious. The fortunate physician arrived. The chest was opened, and found to contain solely all the drugs and potions, still intact, .which the doctor had given his patient ■for years back. '■ There are forty-three registered bowling clubs for ladieß in New York, and eight in .Brooklyn, four of the latter having connection with young people's church societies, while there are any number of public places in New York where a private alley is reserved for lady patrons. Some of the older .clubs for ladies have adopted a very comfortable natty uniform . of'navy-blue flannel, very much like, the lawn-tennis costumes, save that the skirts are in the shape of very roomy pantaloons, the bottoms of which reach to the shoe tops,.a most sensible dress indeed. The "Evangeline - " Club, largely made up of Murray Hill ladies, gives' fortnightly receptions at its elegantly, fitted up ally, when gentlemen friends are admitted and invited ,to bowl; ; Two very elegant gowns of satin and velvet have been made for -the Princesses Victoria, and Ella of Hesse, the Queen's grandchildren. These consisted of skirts,of steel | grey eatin composed of two flounces of broad box plaits ; over these fell at intervals narrow panels of steel velvet of a much darker shade. The flounces were gathered high on the right side;'and finished with a pouf and hanging ends of velvet. The' bodices were without any basque,' and terminated at the waist. The. yelyet_ waistcoats had perpendicular folds,pf satin at eaoh aide. Velvet bands sprang from the back of the waist, and were, brought round to the front below the hips, whore they crossed the skirt in a slanting direction and were again fastoned to the folds of the skirt," forming the drapery at the back.