WOMAN'S WORLD.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LIV, Issue 16500, 28 March 1917, Page 9

WOMAN'S WORLD.

EQUIPPING THE CHILD'S PLAYROOM. In every home whero there are small children there should be a playroom equipped with the proper toys for amusing and educating the - occupants during the long hours that must be spent there on days when they cannot be out of doors.. Very often parents are in doubt as to just what such a playroom should contain. A list of equipment for children of various ages, made out by Miss Alice M. Cnrbin, Supervisor of Playrooms for Small Children, in Pittsburgh, may be helpful in making selections. " Every playroom should provide some means by which the child can have contact with earth and water. A sand bin can be built under the floor by cutting sectional doors in the floor and placing a large wooden, or preferably zinc-lined, box underneath these doors. Some of the low cupboard seats might be converted into sand bins by opening these seats on top and placing de*p trays of zinc there. There will still be room underneath for shelves of various heights on which toyc can be kept within easy reach of the children. " For water plays, zinc trays can be made to tit upon the children's low table or to fit the cupboard seats along the wall. These trays should have at the side faucet arrangements for drainage. Here the little folks can play in water, sail boats, build dams with sand. " There should be a wide window ledge where the children may plant flowers and vegetables in wooden boxes. Another window should be reserved for plants and bulbs which call into play the tender care of growing things. One corner of the room should be reserved for pet*, such as rabbits, white mice, birds, or gold tish, which demand daily care on the part of children. " Perhaps the following lists of materials will be helpful: — " For children up to seven years: Small worsted balls in gay colours, large rubber j balls covered with yarn, blocks in nests, for babies to play with, two sizes of un- j breakable celluloid dolls, wooden 'Do 1 With' dolls, rag dolls, Indian and cowboy j dolls for small boys, boxes of coloured beads, coloured pa per rings, spools, spoons, bean bags, stones, pebbles, buttons, rattles, bells, whistles, linen picture books, celluloid animals, aluminium dishes. Pul-1 ing toys, such as small carts, wheelbarrows, rabbits, ducks, and horses on wheels. Wooden farmyard animals, doll beds, cairiagcs, tables, stoves, wash-tubs, brooms, and dishes. T.u moulds for sand play. Simple block and cardboard puzzles. , " For children from seven to nine: Unbreakable dolls with complete sets of clothes, paper dolls with dresses, dolls of nature materials, such as potatoes or peanuts, doll beds with complete sets of Bed clothes, doll furniture, jacks and balls, jumping ropes, mechanical toys for teaching boys experimental machinery, games, such as jackstraws, checkers, dominoes, tiddley winks, crocinole, table croquet, indoor baseball game, ta,get games, a bench and tools for carpenter work, puzzles, such as historical painting puzzle, national map, railroad puzzles. Specially selected books, sheets of coloured paper, scissors, glue, nails, spools."

NO DEMAND FOR EVENING DRESSES I It is a significant fact that the most difficult thing to find in the sales to-day is an evening dress, says a correspondent. The loneliest departments are those which were formerly crowded by bargainhunters, eager for evening finery, and one may find in houses famous for goods of this class that neither customer nor saleswoman is to be seen in the lighted rooms where melancholy little delicately-tinted dresses Vang fet intervals in the onceoverflowing glass cases waiting in vain for girls who want to buy them. Some of the t-hops have a mere score or so of modish evening dresses, and offer almost hopelessly bargains of the tight-skirted area, and some depend entirely on their pre-hist,oric goods. One buyer in a good i house declared that he had not so much as looked at a ready-made evening dress since the war began. IN STRICT CONFIDENCE. How one hates people who are always describing their own temperaments There are women who constantly proclaim themselves as sensitive, or affectionate, or cold, or artistic, forgetting that it is not from what they tell us, but from what we observe, that we form our estimation of their character. Men are not introspective thev are far too primitive, or they have a keener sense of the ridiculous. Who ever heard a man tell that he was courageous, or sympathetic, or broad-minded, although a lot of men are all these. " You know, dear, I have a queer sort of temperament," in many a woman's prelude to the disclosure of a mind that seems to have been designed on a penny-paper pattern. OARE OF THE NECK.

The cold cream used on toe neck should be selected with even more care than that to be applied to the fa:e, because if the neck is yellow, as well as thin, a bleaching lotion is needed. A mixture of the white of one egg, with equal parts of almond oil, is given by a well-known beauty authority as a satisfactory treatment for a thin and discoloured neck. They should be beaten together and rubbed into the flesh. The mixture can be left on all night and washed off in the morning with tepid water. To get the best results from the treatment a ten-minute mafsage is necessary. If the neck is very thin, the massage, must be firm and swift. Work the paste into the skin with rotary motion, holding the chin down so as "o permit more freedom of the manipulation. If the chin is thrust out, the flesh is too rigid to massage without bruising. Try kneading the flesh with the knuckles for a change. Sometimes the tissues and muscles below the surface can be reached by a rotary motion with the knuckles where they would not be affected at all by the lingers. Before using a Gold cream the flesh should be well Dathed with hot water to make the flesh more pliable, and to avoid rubbing in dust. Open all the pores of the skin by applying hot water for at least three or five minutes, then rub on your cream. Now you are ready for the conventional massage. This does not require skill, but perseverance. Use both hands, and make the motion a rotary one. Use the tips of the fingers, and make the upward stroke stronger than the downward one. This treatment reduces a double chin, otherwise the stroke should be lighter and more brisk. In massaging the neck the centre of the throat should be rubbed harder than the rest to stimulate the muscles. Three months of regular massage with a good skin food will fill the ordinary hollow in the average throat. CANDIED FLOWERS. To candy pansies, violets, mint leaves or any other leaf or flower set an ounce of gum urabic and half a cupful of cold water over the fire in a double boiler and stir while melting. When cold use in brushing over the leaves, petals, or blossoms. The stems must be covered with the solution, as also both sides of leaves and petals. Let dry on a table oilcloth. .More gum arabic may be added if the mixture is too thin to dry well. Make a syrun of half a cupful it water and one cupful of sugar. Let boil until soft. When cold dip into it the prepared articles and dredge with granulated sugar on both sides- Candy bouquets are attractive and not hard to make. The flowers composing these bouquets are formed of sugared almonds and sugared jellied candies- in assorted sizes, mint and wintergreen wafers in different colours, flat rapaberry and lemon drops in hard candies and crystallised violets. The latter are formed into bouquets by the same method that the candy petals are formed into flowers. Artificial foliage and pistils, which may be purchased from a florist's supply house, are added in arranging the flowers in bouquets. Lemon drops heated, then rolled in granulated sugar, maka .jjqod. cenjrea . ~ ' .

A MOTTO FOR EVERY HOME, "No nagging" is a. motto that shjul'f hang in every home where there are children. Discords are inevitable in homes, and the authority of the parents must he exercised in correct them. Failings must, be corrected; disapproval nm<t be expressed. Bit: thoie should be m room for naming ; no " haiie ..vers" in the way of dwelling on past grievaiii p?. Thr-rn is never anything gained by go-ti; over and over the same ground. ft' .1 ■--< n. cannot be taught by a first frank ii: iling of the matter without doves, :ii: tie reiteration of the !•■.-< ,n w-'l not di;\e .t in. There is nothing that innate? tvi young more—and rightly 5 ►—than to nagging they get at the hand? of tin r elders. Anil it doe? not an ounce of i:- ■! ; on the cot trary, it roe-; hnrtr.. m that ail the effert 'if the original c.rre. ,5 i, st* in the after-sense ■.-f irritat.o.n.