THE LADIES COLUMN.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXII, Issue 7341, 30 May 1885, Page 4 (Supplement)

THE LADIES COLUMN.

FASHION NOTES. Jit will be more need than ever in drew and millinery. .... Jewelled combe a» the fashion, and very becoming they are. The fiehwif e bonnet u considered becoming to young f aces only. Cream lace worked with lilac flowers in relief makes a charming skirt. Black surah is need for home wear, and is trimmed with jet velvet or lace. Walking dresses very generally have plain skirts, or skirts pleated in circlet. A white satis front ia embroidered with iris blossoms in pink-shaded pearls. A snake of rough gold, coiled about a long pin, is worn as an ornament for the hair. Cream velvet bats, trimmed with the cream-white wings of dovea and seagulls, will be much worn by children. For country-wear are !arg£ poke bonnets of rough straw of many colours, trimmed with a bunched-up kerchief of printed muslin in moyenage colours and designs, and lined in the brim with puffs of red or yellow wrinkled csjtt. Long pins of gilt or oxidized eilvoi , i'.ve thrust in the loops of the kerchief.

Melon waists formed by organ pleats extending fre n the throat and shoulders to the waist, where a narrow belt draws them to a point, are worn under short Eton and zouave cutaway jackets that reach only one or two inches below the armpits, and not to the waist line, even in the back, where they are finished in a point. A pretty cuttaway basque for slender figures is open from the throat down, with tiny buttons at either side. The full blouse vest of merveilleux is held down by a Swiss girdle of velvet or plush. The sleeves have a puff of merveilleux below the elbow, with a bias band of velvet above and below. Quite frequently the edge of the cutaway basqv. > is velvet trimmed to correspond. WOMAN'S SIXTH SENSE. Here is a singular instance of the working of that subtle, fine, sixth sense, which is apt to affect women more than men, and which is so mysterious in character that we often decline to deny its existence at all:—" A lady eat sewing quiotly in her sitting-room, and in an inner chamber the nurse had just put the baby to sleep and laid her in her bassinette. As the nurse came out of th 3 chamber she said to her mistress, * The little thing will sleep for three hours, madam, I'll warrant.' The nurse went downstairs, and for about a minute the mother sewed on. Suddenly a desire seized her to go and take the sleeping child from the crib. ' What nonsense ?' she said to herself. ' Baby is sound asleep. Nurse just put her down. I shall not go.' Instantly, however, some power, stronger even than the last, urged the mother to go to her baby; and, after a moment, she rose, half-vexed with. herself, and went to her chamber. The baby was asleep in her little in her little bed, safely tucked in with soft white and pink blankets. One email hand was thrown above the little brown head. It was half open, the exquisite fingers slightly curved, and the palm as rosy as the depths of alovely shell. 'My baby 1* whitpered the mother, adoring the little sleeper a& mothers will. 'My own little baby !' She beat over suddenly a third time, impelled by that imperious force which was controlling her, and, for no apparent reason, took fchw sleeping baby in her arms and went swiftly iiH'o the other room. She hud scarcely crossed the threshold when a startling sound caused her to look back. Through a stifling cloud of thick grey dust she saw that the ceiling above the baby's cradle had fallen, burying the heaps of rosy blankets, and lying heaviest of all upon that spot where, but for the mystic warning, her little child would even then be lying." A MARRIAGE BY COMMAND. The late Khedive's magnificent extravagance is well exemplified in the small palace he built for the Empress Eugenie, and which has never been . occupied since. Here, too, an instance of thorough Oriental arbitrariness occurred. The Empress, while thanking the Khedive for the magnificent reception he had given her, happened to say that the only thing she had not seen was an Arab marriage. "Indeed," eaid the Khedive, "this shall soon be remedied." So he sent for his A.D.C. gave him one of his Circassian slaves from the harem, presented him with a large dowry and told the astonished official that everything was to be ready in two days. Accordingly on the second day there was a grand marriage a VArabi. The Empress was greatly pleased, and the A.D.C., a man far more European than Egyptian, and who spoke several European languages splendidly, found himself indissolnbly attached to a Mohammedan wife, while all along it had been the dream of his life to marry a European lady, one educated like himself, and with whom he could associate. But he knew he dared not refuse, and so an accident settled his whole future life.—From "Three Months in the Soudan," by Ernestine Sartorious. , CHIT-CHAT. Ten ten-penny nails dipped in gold varnish are bound together with a crimion ribbon and make an artistic paper weight. The oddest mnemonic curiosity is, that a woman who never knows her own age, knows to half an hour that of -all her female friends. Crimson is the national bridal colour in China; for brides in China are all royal, an empress In ancient times having granted them that privilege. ' Carpets, after the dust has been beaten out, may be brightened by scattering upon them cornmeal mixed with salt, and then sweeping it off; mix salt and rneal in equal proportions. A simple remedy for neuralgia is to apply grated horse-radish, prepared the same as for table use, to the temple when the face or head is affected, or to the wrist when the pain is in the arm or shoulder. According to information from Calcutta,' Lady Dufferin has ventured upon an interesting innovation. The usual announcement of an "at home" at Government House was varied recently by the information that " those having children were requested to bring them." * • . ~ .. .-,. , The Paris Gaulois describes the nature of the revolver panic in the form of an anecdote. • At a dinner party a male guest hesitates whether to seat himself on the left or on the right side of a youthful beauty. "Pardon me, Mademoiselle," he politely remarks, with an evident air of indecision, " but would you nvad teiiiug m<> on which side you wear your revolver V Another girl full of needles, whose presence cannot be accounted for, has been heard from, this time in Manor township, near Pittsbnrg, where her father so a dairyman. A couple of months ago. the account states, she was seized with pricking sensations, and within a week a physician has removed twenty-four needles from various parts of her body, with others still to come out. * ■' ■■ THE SHOPMAN'S HORROB. She flood bes de the counter— ; '. .: The day he'll ne'er forgot— SJi* thought tho muslin dearer - 1 Than any she'd >een yet; He watched her playful fingers The idle* and satins to» ; The shopman looked uneasy, And felt a little cross. " Show me some velvet ribbon, ''"'•'■' '■'■ - Barege and aatin tuic." She said, " I want to purchase 1" ; Then gave the goods a jerk; Tbe>kepman, all obedience,,■• ■ Brought satins, silks, and crape ; • ■ ■ • ; At l-ruth, with limitation, : .', . She bought a yard of tape 1 The reigning beauty in England is said to be the wife of an officer in the First Life Guards, named Cayley. She is the daughter of Mr. Chappell, the well-known music publisher in Bond-street. " Tall in figure, and lithe and graceful in movement,, she attracts attention wherever she goes by the sweetness of her expression, and the simplicity of her manner. Masses of curly brown hair cluster about a'Grecian-shaped head, and a pair of violet eyes light up a countenance in which the regularity of the features is not more admirable than the winsomeneas of her bright look. A " Mugby Party," a sort of basket picnic, was held by the ladies of a church in my neighbourhood a while ago, says an American writer. The ladies contributed baskets, each filled with a dainty little supper for two. - Each - lady - enclosed her card, and at seven o'clock these baskets were sold to the highest bidders among the gentlemen. Then the gentlemen sought the owner of the card enclosed and shared with her his supper. Those who read the works of Charles Dickens will remember the story called " Mugby Junction," It is said that ever eince, as the trains have passed through Mugby Junction, the coaches are emptied of their inmates and all tourists buy a basket containing a lunch,'' and the proprietors of this restaurant have made themselves immensely wealthy, Mugby Junction •' having I been • made famous ■by Charles Dioken'e Christmas story. :; '