ITEMS OF SOCIAL NEWS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXII, Issue 10009, 21 December 1895, Page 3 (Supplement)

ITEMS OF SOCIAL NEWS.

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Wo extract the following remarks from tlio Now York Sun:—" Lord Sbolto Douglas, younger son of tlio Marquis of Quoensborry, who recently married a variety actress in California, has decided to return to England with Ids bride. Ha and hid family have become reconciled, and tlio decree of exile, which was tho principal thing that took him to California, has been recalled. One entirely praiseworthy thing about the young lord is tint ho stick's sturdily by his young actress-wife, and has succeeded in getting his family entirely reconciled to her. Shu has been warmly welcomed into the family by letter, and it seemed very unlikely that Lord Sholto's relations will make any kind of trouble, such as was made for him and his Jiancei by hid friends and acquaintance in l.idifurnia, who tried ho hard to prevent tho marriage. Lady Sbolto, hose stage name was Lorelta Addis, seem-, from all that lias been written about her since she and her husband have been in San Francisco, to lx sensible and straightforward. Lord Sholto sent pictures of In- wife to his family, and it is said the homo folk were' very favourably impressed with them. Tho Marchioness of yueen.-berry, Lord Sholto's mother, is in ill-health, and as ho is her favourite son, she is anxious to have him homo again. His exile baa lasted about a year now, and she thinks that is long enough. As soon as sha received pictures of tho new Lady Sholto, about whom, she says, she had read so much in the newspapers, sho wrote her an affectionate letter welcoming her into tho family, and a number of letters have sinco passed between Lady Sholto and her mother-in-law. ' Tho Matchioness has been exceedingly kind to me,' Lady Sholto is quoted as saying. 'Her letters are affectionate, and she is always asking why wo do not go to England. Lord Shofto's people have treated me with the utmost courtesy. They havo been perfectly lovely.'"

M. Bourgot in his book on America was so amazed at the incessant energy of the people that he asks on a Monday morning :— " Ao what time of day do they die here 1 At what! timo do they love? At what timo do they think? At what time, indeed, are they men, nothing but men, as old Faust said, and nob machines for work or locomotion ?" • Ho is dazed, stunned by tho intensity of American life, Evon in religion he finds that Americans are " men of the present, and lor them religion is noither a reverie nor a longing." In church everything is dazzling in its newness—the priest's red vestment, tho seats, the carpets, the people, the sermon—but as ho looks around ho asks, " But at what hour and where do tho poor folk pray?" As in New York, ho was dismayed at so much activity, so in tho avenues of Newport, the summer city of tho millionaire, he is amazed at so much wealth. Indeed, he observes to all things American "something indescribably extravagant, unbridled. Tho American spirit seems not to understand moderation. Their high business buildings are too high. Their pleasure houses are too elegant. Their fast trains go too fast. Their newspapers havo too many pages; too much news. And when they set themselves to spend money they are obliged to spend too much in order to havo tho feeling of spending enough.'' In spite of the extremes of wealth and poverty which ha finds, ho discovers that there still survives a large grain of that equality which is generally only found in poor countries, Tho great families aro of too recent a growth to bo entirely cut off from the people, but; there is a distinct aristocratic class. "The women aro the delegates to luxury in this utilitarian civilisation. Their mission is to bring into it that which the American has not time to create, and which ho desires to havo; tho flower of elcganco, somothing of beauty, and, in a word, of aristocracy, They aro tho nobility in this land of business." Woman in America, however, symbolises neither sensuality nor tenderness. "Shoislikea living object of art, the last fine work of human skill, attesting that tho Yankee, but yesterday despairing, vanquished by the Old World, has been ablo to draw from this savage world upon which fate has cast him a wholly new civilisation, incarnated ill this woman, her luxury, her pride."

Truth's Paris correspondent writes & coquettish trick lias been revealed to me. It seems to bo widely practised at seaside and watering-place hotels. Those who rosort to itaro ladies solicitous to captivate, bub who havo no reason to bo proud of their feet. To give riso to the idea that they havo jntdz d'infants they havo pairs of tiny boots and shoes not made for wear, but to be loft outside their bedroom doors to be cleaned. To give them a quite natural appearance the soles and parts of the uppers are smeared with liquid mud kept in a bottle like patent blacking. As one must souffrir pour etrc bilk, the boots intended for daily wear are slyly cleaned by the owner, when she has not a maid with her. It appears that Frenchmen arc apt to scan the boots of ladies in the corridors of hotels. There is no more curious sight than a long doublo row of pairs of boots. It is a most suggestive sight, and may be amusing as a robus. If whero beauty onds modesty begins, ic is, perhaps, modest as well as Coquettish to have special boots and shoes to figure in hotel corridors. The person who has told me of this bo.it and shoe trick is the forewoman of a fhaussares de luxe house in the Hue du Quail ro Septetubre* It appears that brides whose feet aro nob small now hire tiny chaimnres to figure in the trousseau. Those really made to fib are not on view. This device was recommended and adopted at a groat royal wedding that) came off within the present year. The bride had, to quote the salesman, ks pied) si lontjs qit'oii ne pout-rait se risoudre a expostr sen duiussurcs. But as the absence; of shoes and boots would have been noticed, a whole stock of oleganfc and fairly smallsized pairs were borrowed for the trousseau table.