ITEMS OF SOCIAL NEWS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXVII, Issue 8264, 24 May 1890, Page 3 (Supplement)

ITEMS OF SOCIAL NEWS.

-O —' [FROAr THE SOCIETY PAPERS.} The King of the Belgians, with charac* teristic good sense .and right feeling, has requested that the large sums which were to have been spent in celebrating the twentyfifth /anniversary of his accession to tho throne may be applied to the foundation of a fund for the relief of workmen who meet with accidents while engaged in then labours. And this is to be done forthwith.

A famous Monarchist has passed away in the l)uc de Polignac, who lias— the Paris correspondent of the Daily Telegraph —just succumbed to an attack of apoplexy, in his seventy-third year. The deceased was the son of Prince de Polignac, Minister of Charles X. On the fall of that monarch the family of the Polignacs took refuge in Bavaria, where the Duke who has died entered the army, and remained in it until his marriage with Mdlle. de Crillon, the heiress of another great French family.. The Duke's sister, the Princess Yolande do Polignac, married the Due de Bissaccia or Doudeville, and is the mother of the Duchess de Luynes, whoso son has been brought lately into prominence as the friend of the young Due d'Orleans. The Due de Polignac inherited none of his father's taste for active politics, but took a great interest] in military matters, and, having been prevented by circumstances from joining fcha army, he sent each one of .his sons into the ranks.

Rather more than a year ago a young Magyar, known as the Count Szandor Vay, arrived in Klagenfurt, the capital of Carinthia, where he led the life of a bibulous, quarrelsome roysterer. His family connections enabled him to frequent the best? society ; and wishing to settle down, after a round of dissipation, he proposed to and was accepted by a rich heiress. They were married, as it now appears, by a false priest, and the husband turns out to be a woman, whose title is that of the Countess Sarolta. On the death of her parents she settled in Buda-Pesth, disguised as a man, started a newspaper, identified herself with politicians of revolutionary principles, and squandered her fortune in dissipation. Then she removed to Klagenfurt, where proceedings are now pending for the. dissolution of her marriage.

Scarcely any snow has fallen in Russia this winter, and the fact is regarded as an alarming one by the cultivators of the soil, as it will probaby involve the destruction both of the grain and root crops. The phenomenon is attributed to the diminished evaporation, which has resulted from the demolition of the forests -vfrliich formerly covered enormous areas of Russia in Europe. This has not. only led to a greatly decreased rainfall, bat the rivers Volga, Dvina, and Dnieper are annually shrinking in volume, and they are neither of them navigable for so many miles as they once were.

At no period in the present century (writes " Vera'") have the women more glaringly and daringly indulged in "painting and decorating" than at the present moment. In Piccadilly and Bond-street of a week day, at "Church Parade" on Sunday, it is the exception, she says, to meet) what in the shibboleth of the hour is called " a smart woman" whose hair is not dyed, or whose complexion does not bear unmistakable signs of having been gummed and glazed and coloured to order. The golden youth, even when they look into the eyes of last year's debutante*, have first to encounter a framework of Indian ink lavishly and unblushingly applied : and that the curious Venetian tinted locks, which are the "fashion," bear no resemblance -whatever to Nature's colouring seems in no wise to disturb the conscience of the fair sex. Indeed, it would rather appear from the altogether reckless manner in which the women and girls of the day are resorting to the use of dyes and cosmetics in the daytime, that they glory in that which should be their shame. That "everyone does it" appears to be the excuse for individual indulgence in the practice, and the besmeared and "twopenny coloured" appearance of one woman's face seems rather to encourage than disgust her neighbours with the practice. It is to be assumed (continues ""V era ) that men, young and old, prefer the feminine complexion laid on like some artists' colours, with a palette knife, and that the sight of their womenKind, and of those whom they would wish to number among their womenkind, with uncompromisingly painted faces in the glaring sunlight, is agreeable to them. One might ask with some reason in these circumstances if men of the present day have ceased to care whether their wives, their sisters, their daughters, and fiancee.. are mistaken for others than gentlewomen. Else, why do they not express thlh* disapproval of the practice? Neither press nor pulpit denunciations would be half sa effectual in this matter as the disapprobation of the "smart" men.

Her Majesty's visit to Aix • los - Bains iw S „n° , have » I trUck the good people of that old town from two points of view in particular. They are interested in the Queen s donkey-chair, and in her gorgeous and dusky Indian attendants. Although the Indian serving-men have not before accompanied Her Majesty on her Continental M*its, they are not a new institution at Court. For years their picturesque garb has stood out in contrast to the tartans? of the one or two Highlanders who are Her Majesty s more immediate attendants out 01 doors The donkey-a sleek little beast not so obstinate as the majority of donkeys . and donkey-chair are recent innovations in Court life. They are used by Hep Majesty when she desires to take a quiet] half hour s airing, as distinguished from -.«* drive. m

VI hat do all these rumours mean about; Mr. Stevenson, the novelist, settling down !in Samoa ? As great a traveller as Mr. Stevenson himself (to wit, Trelawney, the friend of Byron and Shelley) said that he went into the country to exercise his body, and into the town to exercise his brain. Samoa is a good way "in the country" • e ? London, in spite of her imperiectj civilisation, cannot have lost her attractions for an heir of all the ages. But goocl work still awaits a sharp eye and a graphic pen in the Southern Seas. A book by Mr Stevenson on the Pacific Labour Question would do much to concentrate public attention on a system which can so easily degenerate into a horrible abuse. Readers of the recently - published books of Mr. Romilly and Sir. Woodford know what. the English savage is capable of when he gets a free hand among the lower races.

The real name of "Rolf Boldrewood " the author of the now popular " Robberv Under Arms," and other Australian stories is not Valentine Browne (as has been stated), but Thomas Alexander Browne He is the police magistrate and coroner in charge of the Albury district of New South Wales.' valentine Brown is a colonial celebrity of a totally different character, Ji.e is the Civil servant who obtained -pi nito damages for a libellous picture in ff bourne Punch. It having transpired in Parliament that the Mr. V 72 postal official with a handsome Kdarv and nothing to do, Mr. Punch improved the occasion by representing Mr. V. B stand ing in the corridor of the Gnnnr'J v * Office with protruded tongue, as a sortof animated stamp-moistener a hink ? a authorities t h»? hi, services iitfghb b\° ± * fitably utilised in that manner Fm- FkL little pictorial joke Mr V R L i.. action against Mr. Punch and won it?