ITEMS OF SOCIAL NEWS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIX, Issue 15175, 14 December 1912, Page 6 (Supplement)

ITEMS OF SOCIAL NEWS.

[FROM thb society tapers 3

Giu:\t care is taken by the Kins Queen, as to what shall bo read by their children, and all books given to them are carefully read through beforehand, xtus tiisk is now undertaken by the Hon. John Fortcecuo (better known at.court as Jack Fortescue") who is an excellent judge ox literature,, and who was entrusted with tho writing of the monumental work <>nUi(> Indian. Durbar, held last year by Iheir Majesties.

By direction of tho Tsarina, a lady o£; her "court has visited the shwuo « tot. Nicholas a- Bari, South Italy, an A**®" 1 a vow to be made to tho saint for the re covery of her son. . tit. Nicholas is the patron saint of Russia, and .is also W* ed as the special protector ot . ciuidren. " Santa Clans" is a corruption of tho Dutch form "St. Nicola as," winch went to the New World with tho Dutch colonists and returned to England in its now familiar form.

> From Scotland comes a pretty story of tho Countess of Scafield. ; She was out > driving the other day, when the carriage overtook a little fisher girl, who was .weeping bitterly as she struggled pamfuJy along udder a heavy creel. Tho counter .topped tho carriage, and asked tho girl why tho was rying. "HI never be ablo to get hame," aho sobbed. "Oh, .11l nevei bt, able to get hame wi* this." A few seconds later the countess had bundled the g'-rl and her creel into the carriage, and ttiey -cro bowling along towards the Usher girl s home as fast as the horses could take

• them.

'"?• Queen Mary has decided that the posi- : tiou of maid" of honour is one that is no 1 longer required, and she does not propose to make any new appointment of this ciiar- • aeter. Her three maids of honour will continue to s-irve either until they marry oi- fbooco to retire, and the vacancies will not bd filled up. In future the maids of ' honour will only attend the Queen upon the i occasion of a "court or 1 a-'state ball, ana will not take regular turns of. duty, as has v hitherto been the ctoe. For' some: tunc 'past the duties of a maid of honour have i been almost nominal, , since-a good deal of • »he work undertaken,by them in former '" reigns is now carried out by; Her Majesty s ]aaies-in-waitiii)f. In other respect®, says y the Ladies'. Field, Her Majesty has been,of i , , the opinion that there was a good dead of V : : ". unnecessary expense attached to her houseYr • hold, and that considerable economies might !' \'i be effected here, and she now proposes to j go into this matter: very thoroughly, so ',1 . /' that gome striking changes are to bo looked £• : « for hero very 'shortly.

V A month to two ago it was persistently sj'f< rumoured that King Manoel and his mother would be given suites of apartments in /'; Kensington Palace." This rumour was little i; \ more than a kite sent up to see which way - the wind was blowing, and the wind of disapproval blew "so strongly from -a cerV> P tain quarter that the idea was promptly !?6 : ;<given up. Queen Amelia might possibly ■ •' be given a suite, but there are reasons why ,' ■; it £ highly improbable that King Manoel f, £ will reside at Kensington permanently. The young King's most urgent need at * ty present is a wealthy bride, for with a little * .* more .money in his hands he might have a 1 chance of wearing the crown of Portugal ?)', xi again. The Grand Duchess of Luxem■f \ * bourg has been suggested as a sufficiently • * wealthy! young lady ; but it_ would be surprising, indeed, if the Kaiser, who r : - J keeps a fatherly eye on tho young duchess, were to allow her to marry King Manoel. . Theoretically, .of course, it is none of his . ; business who marries the duchess, but it is almost certain she will marry a German .V?•' , Prince, and ho will probably be one of the , Kaiser's younger sons.

J Nerves are- emphatically the com*?«;plaint of the moment, though why society t , women should suddenly realise that their I, i /"' nerves are worn-out does not seem quite } , clear at first sight. True, your society V $ woman is up very late, but, then, she is tji sever called in the mornings until nearly ' • midrday! > She drinks no wine for fear ol ' her complexion and figure being lost. 'She v*. is massaged every day, aad has nothing much to occupy her out Iter own amusement. But perhaps that is the true secret. People like the Duchess of Sutherland, the Duchess of" Marlborough, and ; • others of their calibre, with plenty of outside interests, never go in for nerves. I Still, each decade has its, special pet ail- ' ment. At the beginning of this century •—how long ago that sounds!— was influenza. A common or garden cold was influenza; so, to, was a simple attack or migraine. Then came a period when everyone became a victim to neuritis the case of the late Lady Howe and ai Lady Londonderry very genuine neuritis; but their real suffering evidently made it , the fashion. . Appendicitis has had its " run," and where people had no real excuse for the removal of that much-abused superfluity they— in the recent case of Lady Crewehad the operation performed while they had time, in case it should develop at some -inopportune moment- The seizure of the late Ring, on the eve of his Coronation, was said by cynics to have causod the social vogue of the ailment !n question, while Bernard Shaw, of course, satirised it in his own peculiar way in "The Doctor's Dilemma." We all remember the great surgeon "who ought to have operated."

Now and then one has seen statements in the newspapers that Miss Lily Elsie (Mrs. Lan Bullough) may return to tho sta<;e. Mrs. Bullough has been far from well for soino time, and though she is steadily improving, any idea ox her return to tho stage is at the moment quite out oi the question. It is not easy to associate illness with her, for she was always so bright and gay. This is 0110 of her stories. Tt was about a man whose wife had gone off for a week-end and left him at home by himself. Soon after she left a frantic wire was handed to her: "Where is the key of the larder?" "In pocket of bolero in wardrobe," she wired back; When she returned home she made a thorough examination of the house, and after a few minutes the confronted her husband and asked him sternly. " Whcro are all my things that were in the wardrobe, and what is that black mark in the middle of tba lawn?" ''Well, dear," said the husband nervously, " I got, yc-ur wire on Saturday, and when I discovered I couldn't get into the larder" " But I told you the Jty wai in the bolero," his wife cut in. " Yes, I know you did." he went on almost, irritably, '"'hut I'didn't know what a bolero was, and as I was starving on Sunday 1 look all your things from the wardrobe out to tho lawn and burnt them. Then I found the key among the ashes!"

Mrs. Cleveland, widow of Mr. drover Cleveland, 22nd President- of the United States, is to "bo married to Mr. Thomas Preston, professor of archaeology and the history of art at Wells College. 'Ilia announcement wa3 made in Princeton by Mr. John Hiliben, president of the Princeton University. Mrs. Cleveland is 49 years of age, and "looks far younger. It is now 27 years since she went to Washington to become tho White House bride. Professor Preston is 50 years of age. After leaving Princeton University ho engaged in trade arid Hindu a fortune, lie then returned to the university, took, his degree, and studied archaeology after lie was 40. It is a joke at Princeton that Mr. Preston once said i)o was obliged to leave college and make sorao money in the world " before his faculties were dulled by scholastic, training." Mrs. Cleveland, who was a ward of the . late Grover Cleveland" beforo she married him, ■ is, like her future husband, a keen student) and holds a college degree. Sho ; ;; : .i9 'the daughter of Mr. Oscar Folsom, of • 'Buffalo, once Mr. Cleveland's law partner, and was married to Mr. Cleveland in White House an June 2, 1886, when »ho was 22 rears old. The wedding was a great surprise 'to the country at large, and for several days after t)y> newspapers alluded to Miss Folsom as the "young lady reported to be engaged to thePresidegt.. - Mrs. .Cleveland h« four children., ,