ITEMS OF SOCIAL NEWS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXII, Issue 9711, 5 January 1895, Page 3 (Supplement)

ITEMS OF SOCIAL NEWS.

[FEOM the society paters.] Society is much interested in an incident! reported from Bucks, in which the Earl of Orkney, who a few years ago married Connie Gilchrist, was the principal figured The Earl was walking oub one day with the Countess' pet dog, and met some roughs who had a bull terrier, which they set on to the Countess' pet. The Sari called upon them to desist, which they insultingly refused to do, whereupon he went for the biggest of them in pugilistic fashion. A ring was formed, and there was & hob fighb to a finish. The Earl came off victor, leavhis opponent in a babttered and helpless condition. Tae Earl came oub of the encounter almost unmarked. He was heartily congratulated the next morning ab thfl meet) of the hounds on his triumph.

Should a lady 'cyclist when oub riding ba accompanied by her groom ? In New York, •a lady nob unknown to polite society has been descried on a bicycle in the publU ways, with a groom similarly mounted in attendance.

The reputation of being " the handsomest man in London" still belongs, in tbfl opinion of many people, to the Marquis of Granby. He is tall, dark, and always well groomed. The Marquis is an ardent trout fisherman, but he cares to fish only with a single dry fly. He represents the Melton Division of Leicestershire, and is fond of modestly attributing his success in holding thab seat to the fact that he once broke his leg at football, which has endeared him to his sport-loving constituents.

The engagement of Lord Wolverfcon td Lady Edith Ward has caused quite a flutter of satisfaction in society, in which ib was expected. Lady Edith, who has been for some seasons one of the most beautiful and graceful girls in London drawing-rooms, is only twenty-two years of age. The marriage is a satisfactory one from a worldly point of view, for although Lord Wolverton did not inherit the whole of the great wealth of his predecessor once removed, an arrangement was come to by which the Accidental omission of all provision for his succession from the second Baron Wolverton's will did not cost him more than £400,000, so thab ha has a cool million on which to starb housekeeping.

The Chief Justice of Victoria when distributing the prizes at South Melbourne College, the other day, took occasion to re' commend poetry to the youth of the school, and, speaking from experience, affirmed tß.it in love-making you cannot get on well without verse. Sir John Madden said:— The lover sighing like a furnace and writing odes to his lady's eyebrow was hardly to bo found in Australia, and, indeed, thera seemed to be a marked degeneracy in this direction, for the average young man between the ages of 18 and 21 would as soon be detected in picking a pocket as in writing a sonnet to his mistress' eyebrow, or even to the whole accumulated volume of her charms. (Laughter). This was a great? defect, and the lover himself was immensely the loser by doing without the sustenance which poetry could give, and which he knew from his own experience that it did give in that direction. If lovers would only admit to themselves the value of poetry in raising their ideals they would find a divine spark in the human clay, and no one would ever again put forward for serious discussion such a question as " Is Marriage a Failure J"

Bachelors may care to learn on the authority of Mr. Tighe Hopkins thab " savage man is almost invariably a marrying man. He abhors the single state. Old maids and old bachelors are rare in all barbarous communities. The rule is to marry early—and generally also to marry often. Mere is one notable point of difference between civilised and uncivilised societies."

There are shops in London where suits of clothes may be hired for an evening. Ia Paris an agency has been started for hiring oat wedding guests for the special benefit: of people whose relations live in the provinces. The managers say : "We can place at the disposition of the bridegrooms a choice selection of well educated young men, charming talkers, elegant dancers, several of whom are besides endowed with all the necessary talents appertaining to fine society."

There are many thousands of young men in London (says a writer in the Pall Mall Budget) who live as nomads all the week. They dine at clubs, and spend their evenings at music - halls and such-lika pleasant and ungodly places. If ib were not for the Sabbatarians they could do the same on Sunday. But the Sabbatarians see to it that they cannot. Now ib is a curious thing that) ninety-nine bachelors' out of a hundred would rather face the pii of Tophet than their own solitary rooms oil a Sunday evening. Consequently ninety* nine bachelors out of a hundred who live in Bohemia all the week will be found on Sunday evening dining at the table of some respectable married householder. It would be difficult to exaggerate the importance of this; and it is all owing to the Sabbatarians. For often the Sunday dinner ia the sole link which binds the nomadic bachelor to domestic life, and prevents him from drifting into absolute Bohemianism. And we may imagine that the weekly contemplation of one or other instance of domestic bliss may plant a seed of resolution in the bachelor breast, which ultimately will blossom out into respectability and a semi-detached villa residence. And that, of course, is good. Isn't it

A man of the world was wont to call, nob infrequently, upon a young widow. Ona day the pretty maid at the door announced that her mistress was out. On some pre« text, however, the man entered. Soma days later, knowing that the lady had returned, he called again. He was rather; surprised when a strange maid met him at the door. While she carried his card up the stairs, he reflected that she was not so dainty as her predecessor, and not so pretty, though her attire was similar, and her cap as stiff, and her apron as spotless. He was realising how much more the woman is to the dress than the dress is to the woman, when the maid returned, and announced. " Mrs. is not receiving." The man of the world bit his lip and moved toward tha door. The maid held it open for him, and as he passed through she blurted out, " And she says, if you please, sir, the maids receive in the kitchen, sir."

Some time ago there was a dance in a Canadian settlement for the benefit of the settlers and their wives. Most of the married ladies had babies with them whose noisy perversity required too much attention to allow the ladies the full swing of their souls' pleasure in the dance. So a number of young men present gallantly volunteered to watch over the refractory infants, so that their mothers could indulge without let or hindrance in the sweets of the " light fantastic" exercise. The eallanfc offer was readily and confidingly accepted, but no sooner had the women left their dear charges to the care of those mischievous young rascals than they commenced stuffing the infants, changing the clothing, and giving one the apparel of the other, till all were transmogrified. The dance and musia continued into the " wee sma' hoars," and then it was time to go home. The lights were lowered, and each mother hurriedly took a baby, in the dress of her own, and started for home, which, in many instances, was ten or fifteen miles away. The following morning there was' a prodigious row in the settlement. Mothers discovered what had occurred, and then commenced some of the idlest female pedestrianism on record. Living, as they did, miles apart, ib took two full days to unmix the babies and as many months to restore the mothers to their naturally sweet disposition#. Those young men never venture into that) Bottle* menb now. It wouldn't be safe.

The -latest story about the King of the Belgians relates how he went out for a walk the other day, and entered a farm to ask fog jtf a glass of milk. When ha had made a remark in English to his companion, he heard ■*. the hostess say to her husband, in .English, " I wonder what that long-nosed /' English* - % man will give us for the milk," whereupon , the King took out a five-franc piece and gave ib to the woman, saying in Flemish,l ||g " Allow me to offer you the portrait Of the § jf §| long-nosed Englishman.* ..