ITEMS OF SOCIAL NEWS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXIV, Issue 10413, 10 April 1897, Page 3 (Supplement)

ITEMS OF SOCIAL NEWS.

[FROM THE SOCIETY rAPEKS.] If there is one spot on eartb (says the Daily Chronicle) where the entrance of a woman is rigidly forbidden, ib is the monastery of La Grande Chartreuse, where tho white monks live their lifo of utter silence, for-* Rotten by the world or only associated with thoughts of liqueur. One exception only is made to the rule excluding lady visitore, and that is in the case of a female Sovereign, who may be admitted by permission of the Pope. It is commonly supposed that Queen Victoria is the only woman who during recent years has passed the portal of thie solitary world. But this is nod strictly true. Many years ago an English lady—no monarch, but a literary queen—with neither permission from tho Pope or knowledge on the part of the monks, visited the monastery and was even present at tho midnight sorvice in the chapel. Ib was the late Mrs. Henry Wood, tho well-known novelist. Soon after her marriago she was visiting the neighbourhood of La (irande Chartreuse, in company with her husband, who had some slight acquaintance with the monk who at that time happened to be serving as porter. Mr. Wood paid a visit to the monastery and obtained permission to come again at midnight for the service, and to bring a friend with him. But he did not say who tho friend was. When midnight approached he asked Mrs. Wood to come for a walk, and wrapped her in a voluminous cloak, drawing a large bood over her bead. Thus arrayed, and suspecting nothing, she was led to the monastery door, and bad ontered before she understood tho plan. In a letter slie tells how she trembled whon she realised the situation, but had the presence of mind to say nothing. The unsuspicious porter took the lady for somo strange monk, and made no inquiries. So the three passed through the long cloister, with its many doors opening into the little houses— thirty-six of them—where the white fathers spend their lonely lives, only coming out twice a day to visit the chapel, and on Sundays dining together in tho refectory. At the end of the cloister they asconded a narrow staircase and entered the strangers' gallery of the chapel. Far beneath them in the dim light they saw the figures of the fathers near the altar and the lay brotbors on the west of the screen, all joining in the monotonous chant which goes up-perpetu-ally through tho long hours of the night, as the monks prny for the world which sleeps and sins the while. It was a weird oxpori , ence, and tried Mrs. Wood's nervos to the utmost.

The Queen's long-promised visit) to Sheffield, which was postponed from lasb year in consequence of the death of Prince Henry of Battenberg, will take place either on Friday, May 21, or on Friday, 28th. The Queen will take Sheffield on her way to Balmoral, the train arrangements being much the same as when Her Majesty visited Manchester in May, 1891. The Queen will leave Windsor Castle about half-past ten in the morning, and is to travel direct to Sheffield, arriving thore iti the afternoon. The Archbishop of York, the Earl of Scarborough, the Duke oi Norfolk, the Duke of Devonshire, Earl Fitzwilliam, Earl Wharncliffe, mid other local notables will take part in the functions of the day. The Queen is to dine at The Farm, the residence of the Duke of Norfolk, whore the Duke and Duchess of York were entertained during their recent visit to Sheffield. Her Majesty will afterwards leave for Scotland, travelling by the Midland line to Carlisle, and thence by her usual route to tfallater, arriving at Balmoral on the following day in time for luncheon.

There was a gruesomely graphic touch in the recent plague news from Bombay—the vultures on the Towers of Silence were gorged and would eat no more bodies. But although the Piirsoo method of disposing oi the dead may seem revolting to Western ideas, it is nob so when examined in the light of sanitation. These Towors of Silence, five of which stand on Malabar Hill in a beautiful position looking over Bombay and the neighbouring country, are about 25 feet in height, and inside each is a circular platform 300 feet in circumference, more or less according to the size of the building. The platform is paved with large stone slabs, and is divided into rows of shallow troughs, in which tho bodies are laid. Around the sacred enclosure of the tower are beautiful gardens of trees, shrubs, and flowers, so that there is nothing externally to shock the mourners, except ic be the sighb of the vultures waiting and watching on the walls above. The friends do nob witness the final disposition of tho body, for after the religious ceremonies are concluded it is handed over to the attendants, who place it in one of the receptacles on the platform. Within an hour or two the vultures have done their work, and the bones are thrown into an open well in the centre, where, being exposed to sun and air, they soon crumble into dust. Every earois taken by means of sand, charcoal, and sandstones to prevent any contamination of the earth, for it is a strict tenet of tho Zoroastrian religion that the earth shall nob be defiled by contact with dead bodies.

A pretty story, savouring of the romantic, is told in the French press about the Kaiser. Recently His Majesty wont to the Berlin Barracks alone. The corporal on guard recognised the Kaieer immediately, and ealuted him. The Kaiser was pleased, and approaching the soldier, said : " Why do you look so sad, corporal?" Tha corporal did not reply. The Emperor then asked if be was disappointed in love. Ab this the corporal found his tongue, and replied that he wished to marry Marguerite, the daughter of his eergeant-major, but that her father would not givo his consent until he became a sergeant. " And do you love her very much ?" asked the Kaiser. " Oh, yes," was the reply. " Then," said the Emperor, "go and tell your future father-in-law that William 11, makes you a eergeant."

The "eexual equality" propagandists, who have been comparatively quiescent ol late, have just come to the front again with a demand, formulated on their behalf in a weekly paper, for the creation of a now order of lady " knights" in connection with the commemoration of the Queen's sixty years' reign (eays the World). The new knightesses are to be " lady authors, artists, musicians, and leaders in philanthropic work"—the latter to include, no doubt, the most aggressive platform advocates of " emancipation"—and the recipients of the suggested order of sho-chivalry are, of course, to be endowed witli the right to use the coveted title of " Lady." Should this suggestion be adopted, the accolade will presumably be administered with the fan instead of the sword. But the jealousies and heartburnings that would be entailed among the " lady authors, artists," and so forth, by the process of selection aro simply too terrible to contemplate.

A few days ago there was an extraordinary incident! at a church in St. Petersburg, where a young man, a member of the Russian aristocracy, was unwittingly about to marry his half-sister. It appears that about twenty years ago a baron, who was an officer in the Imperial Guard, fled with a young countess to England, whore he married her. On his return to Russia ho was killed in a duel by the conntess , brother. The baron had had a son by a former marriage in Russia, but this son knew nothing of the second marriage of his father. At a ball he met a young lady of whom he became enamoured and to whom he became engaged to be married. When all the wedding party bad assembled ab church an old general, who had been a friend of tho bridegroom's father, took the young man aside and told him that the lady he was about to marry was the countess' daughter, and therefore his half-sister. The wedding, consequently, did not take place. The young man ia alleged to have attempted to commit suicide, and the bride that was to hare been is almost demented.