HOW WOMEN AMUSE THEMSELVES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLVI, Issue 14235, 4 December 1909, Page 5 (Supplement)

HOW WOMEN AMUSE THEMSELVES.

SOME MODERN CRAZES.

A littlk group of women in London find their recreation and amusement in the study of the occult. Ancient tomes of ponderous size and of deep learning are constantly read and carefully digested. The members of the small, but select, society meet from time to time for the discussion of subjects abstruse and, to the average mind, utterly uninteresting. Their pursuits are simply a form of occultism carried a trifle further than those of the ordinary investigator, and they find them absorbing. To women outside of their own circle, it must be confessed, they arc- somewhat wearisome, for conversation is always brought to bear on the beliefs or the evil deeds of far-off ancestors and a comparison with the present-day conditions. The recent interest in matters pertaining to the occult sciences certainly suggests that there has scarcely been a time in which the supernatural received more simple credence than at the present moment. The number of women who constantly consult palmists, and who believe all that is told to them, is amazing. The leading of hands occupies most of the leisure hours of many women, and coteries are held of an afternoon, for which palmists are engaged, so that they may foretell the future to their credulous clients. The vogue for palmistry has clone a good deal in the way of inducing women to have special care bestowed on their hands, and half an hour or so spent with the manicurist is one of the important engagements of the day. Bridge has not ceased to bring groups of women together, and the hours spent over this game frequently run into three or four of an afternoon. The woman who is a good bridge player finds that her amusement yields her quite- a pleasant haivcst, for she is in great demand. A stranger entering into some social circle finds very soon that her engagement-book is easily filled, not only with bridge dates, but with dinners, lunches, motor expeditions, week-ends, and so forth. Many hostesses 1 esilate now to make up their parlies except as a rendezvous of bridge players. Time was when the woman who could sing or who was a pianist, or willing to play accompaniments, found that her hobby provided her with a "passe part-out." That, however, is all changed, and a complete alteration has taken place in the accomplishments that render a guest popular. The art of small talk is one that many women try to cultivate, and there are instances of clever talkers who find employment as exponents of the art of light conversation. Their method is to read the newspapers daily, to keep in touch with the latest books, to know something special about all the new plays, and to invent small scraps of information just bordering on the scandalous. While the society woman is undergoing treatment at the hands of the hairdresser, her expert conversationalist sits by her side and I chats, as it were casually, on the subjects of the moment, so that her bon-mots may I be remembered for repetition.