Ladies' Page.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 462, 18 December 1880, Page 3

Ladies' Page.

Having appointed a lady to conduct this page, we have to reguest that all communications upon domestic matters, dress, cuisine, tfcc., etc., will he addressed to Madame Elise, of the New Zealand Mail. AN OLD STORY. Fisherman John is brave and strong, None more brave on the coast than he ; He owns a cottage and fishing smack As snug as ever need be. And what is truer than I could wish, Fisherman John loves me. Often and often when day is done, With smiling lips and eager eyes He comes to woo me ; in every way That a man may try he tries To win me; but that he can never do. Though he woo me till he dies. Fisherman Jack is a poorer man ; He owns not cottage nor fishing smack, But a winning voice and smile are his, And a manly grace. Alack ! It will not break my heart to tell That I love Fisherman Jack. He loves not me, but every night He sits at the feet of Kate Mahon : Never a heart has she for him—- ' For she loves Fisherman John, Who cares no more for love of hers Than the sea he sails upon. Often we wonder, do Kate and I, ■ That fate should cross us so cruelly. We think of the lovers we do not love, And dream of what life Would be, If only Fisherman John loved her, And Fisherman Jack loved me. —New York Sun. CHRISTMAS FARE. The near approach of Christmas as usual revives with effect the old traditions and reminiscences peculiar to the season. This is particularly applicable to the heads of households, especially where there is an interweaving of family connection, and always where there are little people to provide for. It is to the children far more than to the elders that Christmastime presents the greatest attraction.

That attraction is, of course, intimately associated with eating and drinking. In-

deed more than any other season of the year, Christmas is one of material enjoyment. This is emphatically the case in the colonies where family connections are but struggling into existence, and where, therefore, family parties that great charm of Christmas tide are the exception. rather than the rule ; hence as a sort of dernier ressort, very close attention is paid to Christmas cheer with which may be included the donations of that mysterious visitant Santa Claus. I much question whether this part of the Christmas ceremonies is not most appreciated by the children, still the wee folks display keen zest for eating and drinking, whilst, of course, the children of larger growth find a revival of old and pleasing associations in the well furnished dinner table.

Now there is a variety of Christmas cheer that is governed entirely by the circumstance of the providers. The cuisine gamut may be run up, from the plainest roast beef and plum pudding, to the noble turkey with its richest accompaniments. But whether in rich or poor homes, to the plum pudding is ceded the post of honor, what would Christmas be without it 1 What dinner table would be complete lacking it. Many and varied are the modes of its concoction, each household has its favored formula, despite which I venture to give my own recipe, from which I have made puddings and have kept them for three months when they have then turned out as nice as if freshly made, but then I eschew breadcrumbs and do not spare brandy. Plum Pudding. —lib stoned raisins, lib. currants, lib. sugar, lib. beef suet, -|lb. mixed candied peel, loz. mixed spice, nine eggs, a spoonful of salt, a wineglassful of brandy ; mix well together; this quantity will fill two moulds or basins, cover with a well floured cloth and boil four hours. Be sure the water is fast boiling when the puddings are put in, and kept boiling all the time. When dished, some blanched almonds cut in strips and stuck all over the pudding ornament it prettily. This pudding will keep good for months. I generally boil mine before Christmas Day, and give it another hour’s boiling when the pudding is wanted. Serve with a good melted butter sauce to which has been added a liberal glass of brandy, and sugar to taste. Another and cheaper, but still good pudding is made with equal proportions of beef suet, raisins, currants, sugar, breadcrumbs, flour to which has been sifted a teaspoonful of carbonate of soda, and -J-teaspoonful of acid, 2ozs. of mixed candied peel, three eggs, some mixed spice, and sufficient milk to make it the required consistency, rather stiff. Boil in a floured cloth, leaving plenty of room to swell, and take care to keep it boiling ; four hours will cook it.

Mince pies are not in such request here as they are at Home where the Christmas table is hardly considered complete, lacking these delicacies, but I will write down the recipe which I always use, nor do I keep it for Christmas alone, for by putting the mincemeat in glass salt bottles or jars, it will remain good the whole year if necessary, and it comes in so handy when fruit is out of season. Mincemeat—equal quantities say lib. of chopped raisins, currants, sugar, and lean beef boiled and|chopped, 1| finely shred beef suet, i-lb. mixed, candied peel sliced, lib. green apples chopped, loz. packet mixed spice and a little salt, mix thoroughly with sufficient brandy, or brandy and wine, to moisten well. The paste for mince pies should be ’ of |the best description, puff paste, line the patty pans with it, fill with the mixture, and cover with paste, cutting it smoothly round the edges which should not be ornamented. When baked sift powdered loaf sugar over them. At Christmas time the children naturally look for cake, besides most housekeepers like to have it in the house for visitors, so I will give my recipe for what Cornish people term “ Cupboard cake,” meaning, I suppose, that some should always find a place in that homely receptacle for good things. Christmas Cake. butter, sugar, chopped raisins, currants, dried flour, of each lib., mixed candied peel 4- lb, 1 nutmeg grated, nine drops of oil of” almonds, or if preferred J lb chopped almonds, nine eggs. Beat the butter to a cream, add the sugar, then the eggs, it is not necessary to beat them, just break them in one by one, and keep beating with the hand, add the fruit, peel, and flavoring, with a little coloring of burnt sugar which makes the cake dark and rich-looking, lastly beat in by degrees the flour. This quantity will fill two convenient-sized tins, which must be lined with well buttered white paper above the rim, as the cake will rise in baking, two hours thould bake them but much depends on the oven which must be hot, should the cakes commence coloring too soon put a newspaper on the top of them, and when you think they are done try with a steel fork in the centre, if it comes out clean, the cakes are baked enough! I have a great admiration for American cookery especially in the way of cakes and dainties for the breakfast and tea table. They have a happy knack of making nice things with but little expense. An American lady with whom I became acquainted some years ago, gave me an insight into the secrets of the skill peculiar to her country, and her recipes have been invaluable to myself and friends ; some have already appeared in the “ Mail, ” and others are to follow. The gem of the collection to my opinion, is a cake which shall now be given to my readers and 1 strongly recommend them to try it for the approaching holidays, without fear of failure. It is easily made and meets

with unqualified approval from all who partake of it. White Mountain Cake. —Beat three eggs ten minutes with a breakfast cupfull of white sugar in which has been rubbed a dessert spoonful of butter. When eggs and sugar are beaten they should look white and very light; then sift to them a good breakfast-cupful of flour and a teaspoonful of cream of tartar ; stir, and when mixed, dissolve, half a teaspoonful of soda in a tablespoonful of boiling water ; mix thoroughly and quickly, spread thinly over the bottom of four shallow pans or tin plates of equal size and shape, if these are not to hand, the cake may be baked in a hoop and cut in three or four slices (just as sally luns are cut for toasting,) each slice to be not more than two-thirds of an inch thick. Whether baked in separate layers, or whole and cut, each piece (after baking) must be thickly spread with the following mixture : Grate £ a cocoanut from which the brown part has been removed, mix it with two tablespoonfuls of powdered sugar, and the white of an egg beaten to a high froth, leaving out a half cup of nut. When cocoanut, sugar, and egg are mixed, spread each layer, and lay one on the other, to form alternate layers of cake and nut ; then spread the remainder of the mixture over the top as icing, sprinkle the rest of the grated nut, and over all sift powdered sugar, to make it sparkle and look like frosting. Should any difficulty be found in the foregoing recipes, I trust my friends will not hesitate to ask for an explanation. In conclusion I wish them all heartily, the compliments of the season, light hearts, heavy purses, a wealth of good cheer, with appetite and digestion to match, and above all else a sense of gratitude and thankfulness to the great Creator “Who causeth the dew to fall upon the just and upon the unjust, and whose tender mercies are over all His works. ” Elise. A FEW WORDS ABOUT CHILDREN. —THOSE WHO HAVE TO DO WITH THEM. It is generally conceded that the care of children, if expansive to the heart and affections, is decidedly narrowing to the mind ; and in too many cases, we find the mother of a family (particularly if it be a large one) an estimable but very commonplace! woman with not an idea beyond her every day duties, her mind stunted by the sordid question of what to eat, drink, and where withal to be clothed. Is it necessary that this be so, that the greatest good with which the Maker blesses woman, her maternity, should prove her greatest ill ? We will take the case at its lowest level, and argue from that, then of course, if any of the circumstances be more advantageous, then will the case be easier by so much. lam only considering mothers who wish to, and will be mothers, not women who simply bear children and consider their duty done. Taken for granted, that the woman married is but a girl with an education in which botany, geology, astronomy, chemistry, are conspieious by their absence, and history and geography are done with when the book is closed and school left. I am not speaking of the girls now being educated, for modern history of daily recurring events, is being taught by some thinking teachers and not being pushed aside for that of bygone times, which is traced backwards from the present. We know howto teach our children all that is beautiful in flowers, from what we, in our superior knowledge, call weeds, scarcely recognising the beauty of their construction, to the most beautiful specimen of horticultural art ; and we also know their inquisitorial questionings as to the name of this and that, what it is good for, whatit does, &c. Now, isit not possible from the numerous handbooks on such subjects; to store our minds little by little, that we might thus teach our little ones unconsciously truths of science and this beautiful world we live in, instead of filling their minds with fictitious fairy tales, and personages which are believed in to a certain point of existence, and then have tobe disbelieved, which surely is a shock to the childish mind, and gives a feeling of instability and unsoundness in those who have taught them such things, when perhaps the ground is shaken, and the first seed so wn of that doubt, from which springs in after years that unhappy state of mind which doubts God’s written word of ail things unseen. I speak from experience, being a mother of three small children, of whom the eldest a girl of three years, of whose questions, about sun, moon, and stars, the flowers she is incessantly gathering in the fields, the pebbles and insects she finds, make me feel too keenly my own barrenness of knowledge, and thirst for more, that I might be less unworthy of the charge of life committed to me, and that when my chilel asks for bread I may not have to give her a stone. If my plan commends itself to other mothers, I think the result would be that we ourselves should be benefitted, by something taking us out of the drudgery of child rearing, and occupying our minds when our fingers are mechanically employed in making the coverings of our little ones, bodies. And to our children, I forsee a habit of observation and interest inculcated, in the things of nature around them, with a looking from the creature to the creator, and a steady acquisition of knowledge, built layer upon layer that will effectually do away with all cramming at school to pass examinations, together with a regular strengthening of the brain power without forcing and knowledge that is

always fitting at all ages to them, in which new things are always homing to light, and in which l’olaxation may always be found. Amy 8., Tasmania. PARIS FASHIONS. Excepting for elderly or very stout ladies, all walking dresses are made short, many accompanied by adjustable trains if fitted in material and style to more liabille purposes. These skirts are quite narrow, the only fulness being at the back ; the top is fitted to a shaped band—if made separate from the bodice—and the black drapery is more or less bouffant. With trails, whether separate from or cut in the skirt, the same arrangement takes place, all the fulness being thrown to the back, and the length not commencing forwarder than the side seams. Draped skirts are arranged on a fausse jupe of muslin or thin lining, and this arragement enables them to be easily taken to pieces, which is of great advantage- if of washing material or any fabric whose freshness may be restored by a little brushing and ironing. The train breadths may be cut all in one, allowed to hang full length in handsome folds, a style eminently suitable for such rich materials as brocades, velveteens, satins, and poplins ; or they may be plaited into the side seams, and draped en poufs by strings, or a few stitches, to the fausse jupe. The train put on at the bend of the knee, and a tunic back formed by breadths draped into the side seams, and left pendant partly over the train, is a very fashionable and easily arranged style.

Paniers ai’e still tres a la mode, and the leading artists know too well how graceful and becoming they are to allow of their banishment. Paniers of Surah merveilleux. voile, barege, crepon, grenadine, &c., are very tight and elegant; the lower edges are trimmed with lace, fringe, or a mousse of

little plisses. For evening dress garlands or fringes of flowers edge the paniei’S, convolvulus, muguet, fuchsia, and other pendant flowers being selected for the purpose. The scarf draperies also are in as great favor as ever, and form an elegant addition to Princesse dresses especially. Draperies coulisses in the centre and plaited at the sides are very graceful, the contradiction thus caused in the folds showing the material to great advantage. Draped scarves raised in scollops, or points over a series of narrow kiltings, or one wide one, are very elegant and liabilles looking, especially when the scarves are of pattern and the kiltings of plain materials. The bodices with coulisses, plastron, and deep points, and the round corsage a ceinture, fashionable as they are, have not replaced the casaquins and coats. Of these an immense variety is worn : plain round basques, those with double folds turned under at the back, and an added basque at the front and sides, the straight front and sides, or the latter echancrees on the hips, and lengthening into habit basques at the back. Of the corsage a basques, also, there are innumerable designs, every day bringing fresh ones; the back basques open over a kilting of different material, or turned back with revers—a fashionable style for the coat also. One of the newest styles we have seen had the front basques straight and the sides echancrees; the back was a coat-tail of moderate length, with a sufficient extra fulness left in the centre, a few inches below the waist, to allow of its being folded in a double box plait fastened on outside, with a heading caught down in the centre. The lower part of the plait is raised in the centre, and the whole is lined. The model shown us was of goldcolored Surah, with chocolate and grenat Arabesque ; the plait was lined with grenat satin ; and a band, composed of three crossway folds overlapping each other, edged the rest of the besques. Bodices, laced or buttoned behind, are very becoming to most figures, and decidedly elegant in appearance. It is a great mistake, however, to adopt this style to a corsage of different material to the skirts, as it then represents a coat whose genre is, of course, destroyed by such an incongruity. Polonaises fastened in this manner are very fashionable, and many of the pointed bodices are also made in this way . Bodices laced in front over a coulisse or bouillonde plastron are very advantageous to slim figures, but must be carefully avoided by those whose faults lie in the opposite direction. The front lacings, however, minus the full plastron, are becoming to rounded figures and very fashionable. Most corsages are made open with a separate plastron of some material employed in the dress ; or for more habille wear of muslin, surah, &c. For coat sleeves, small, well-shaped to the arm, is the foundation of most sleeves ; the puffings, epaulettes formed of bouillonnes, crevds down the seam, or at the elbow, cuffs, parements, frills, and other varieties of trimmings being arranged on it. The back seam left partly open with a frill of lace is a great addition to the elegance of a long sleeve. Many sleeves of this class reach only half way between the wrist and the elbows, and all are shorter than when the coat sleeve was first introduced. Evening dresses have elbow sleeves ending with frills or sabots of lace ; short sleeves, consisting of an epaulette only, or the armhole is brought down low enough to represent a short sleeve, and a lace one sewn in it. For full dress— i. e., ball and court dinners and receptions—the bodices are low, the round shape being far the best style, and the sleeves are very short, consisting often of a mere frill of lace or an epaulette of flowers. The lengthening of the shoulder seam is an absolute necessity in the case of short sleeves.

The rich materials of the day are of great beauty—-draps de soie, with brilliant flowers, some of which are woven with gold and silver tln-eads, brocaded satins, pekins, double arnure, satin merveilleux, gros de Lyon, satin, velvet, Louis and Imperial velveteens, plain and figured poplins, for this beautiful material, far too long neglected, has been brought again into fashion by the leaders of society, and will be much employed. For dresses of simpler character the numerous fancy materials are in great demand, and ai - e worn combined or trimmed with plain fabrics. The soft woollens of English make are in the greatest favor among Parisians as well as English elegantes, and most ladylike as well as useful costumes are made with them. Grenadines, gauzes, mousselines de soie, with Pompadour designs, and Indian muslins are

the most fashionable transparent materials, and the numerous varieties of voiles, crepons, &c., are much employed. The newest model for mantles is the Abbesse. It envelopes the costume, and only shows an inch or two of the skirt; a centre back seam half adjusts it to the figure, and is continued to the hem, but is left open for about twelve inches, so as not to press on the dress. The visite sleeves are taken in the side seams, and are edged and lined with a wide band of black or colored velvet ; the large pockets placed in front are trimmed with velvet, and the hood, which can be worn over the head, is also lined with velvet. Two rows of wooden buttons are placed down the front. Made of drap royal, mastic grey and trimmed with Scabieuse velvet, this vetement is very elegant. The leading styles in hats and bonnets are the Mousquetaire with raised brim, trimmed with a handsome feather en amazone ; the Conde, more oval in shape, and raised at one side only; the Calotte, covered with feathers; the Touriste, of straw lined with plain grenat velvet, trimmed outside with a scarf of mousseline de soie, edged with lace, tied with a large bow in front, spread out on the crown ; a-veil of the same attached to the chapeau can be thrown over the face or lightly twisted round the throat. Rice straw lined with color is very fashionable for dress bonnets, one of the most elegant being trimmed with a ruby velvet with a large spray of chestnut blossom falling behind on the hair.—Le Follet. MONEY WON’T DO. Money can secure so much, and gives in many directions such freedom to the will and so much of concrete reality to the fancy, that the man who possesses it frets when lie perceives that his powers will in another direction do so little. He feels like a potentate who is stopped by some obstacle quite trifling, but immovable ; or a magician whoso genius cannot obey him, except to secure ends which he is not just then seeking to obtain. Money for example, will purchase alievations from pain, skilled attendance, good advice, and soft beds, but it will not purchase the dismissal of pain itself. If you have a cancer, millions are no help. A millionaire may have toothache, and in toothache feels, on the account of the money which places all dentists at his command, an additional pang. * ‘ Here am I, who can buy all the help there is, and of what use is that to my pain ?” The sense that the money will aid volition in so many ways deepens the pain, when it is of the kind in which money is powerless, as itisinalmost all serious questions of health. The Marquis of Styne is not the less aggrieved by his liability to madness because he is so very rich, but the more aggrieved, as a man who knows his own strength to be unusual and finds it just sufficient. That habitual complaint of the rich that money will not buy affection or happiness, or even immunity from pain, has in it something of irritation as well as of pathos, and springs often from an inclination to contend, as of one who is unjustly deprived of something. The workers have need to be solicitors about health, but it is the rich who coddle themselves , and the reason is not so much the passion for comfort, as the additional sense of the value of health, which the inability to buy it with money brings home to them more clearly than to other men. A rich man who wanted water, say in a shipwreck, and could not get it wouidfeelin his riches, if lie thought of them at all, an addition to the pain of his despair ; and there are wants nearly as urgent as water towards which money gives just as little aid. — Spectator. WOMAN’S WORLD. In the last generation reading formed a far more important element in the education of girls than at the present time. Then the art of reading aloud was cultivated, books were bound as though they were to last year after year, and bought after due consideration. A new book was an event, and its contents were communicated to the family in the cosy gatherings by the evening fireside. Now all this is changed. As a rule, our Australian girls dislike reading aloud, and so rarely do they attempt it that when an effort in that direction is made it is too often met with a shout from the boys begging Maud not to “ elocute and Maud’s self-consciousness makes her stumble, and blush, and close the book ! Now, too, books are so rapidly multiplied, and the trash known as “ Railway Literature” is got up so as to last about a railway journey ; and so far from the family libraries increasing, in too many cases books are considered troublesome additions to the household possessions, and so much in the way when moving. They accumulate so quickly, and are always out of their places. Public libraries are so numerous, and for a small subscription all the new books can be had. In many cases the circulating library does more harm than good to the young girls of the day. The shelves are crowded with works of fiction, in which falsa sentiments, vice under the garbs of virtue, extravagant passion and prodigality in all phases, abound ; and with this unwholesome mass the minds of our maidens are fed, their pulses heated, their judgment warped. One of the paramount duties of a mother is to superintendthe “reading” of her daughters. Just as certain hours are devoted to sustaining bodily vigor by food exercise and clothing ; so in every house there should be a fixed time for reading, not any book which comes in the way, but for acquiring in a regular manner a knowledge of general literature and a familiarity with the habits and customs of other nations of the lands in which they live. Y”et so little is this really considered ; that a mother who would naturally shudder at seeing her daughter take for breakfast a drop of the rosy port with which papa qualifies his dessert, heedlessly allows her to drink to the full in the morning of her mental life of that river of of pollution, the stream with which Ouida and her fraternity have defiled the literature of the day. The school course through which girls pass allows but little time for the cultivation of general literature, and of general literary history in most cases the young girl at her entrance into life is helpless and ; and often her future mental career is largely influenced by the impressions made by the first book she chooses to read. No young girl should have this responsibility put upon her. A catalogue, valuable to a connoiseuv, is worse than use>

less to a novice. It is like a dynamite charge, which may at any moment cause terrible mischief ; and if, as frequently happens, the care of the younger children engross the mother’s attention, let the father or some trustworthy child be deputed to select the spot from which her daughter shall be launched upon - that wide sea, the realm of modern literature. Once the gate has been opened and the first book greedily devoured; perhaps re-read with true delight, let the names of author and publisher be remembered the first in gratitude for the pleasure given and with the hope of further acquaintance, and the second which may be also the compass to a mariner, a guide whereby she may steer her course. The publisher who has issued sterling works may generally be trusted. Well-known firms mark out a distinct course; it is the minority who mix with the issue of good works the scribbling of ignorant and immoral literary apprentices. —Sydney Mail. THE HEIRESS TO THE SPANISH GROWN. The Queen of Spain was safely delivered of a daughter at 8.40 p.m., on September 11th, in Madrid. Fifteen guns announced the birth, the popular demonstration being comparatively slight by reason of the sex of the child. There were present in the chamber of Her Majesty the King, the Archduchess Elizabeth, mother of the Queen, and an Austrian physician. The assistance of the Spanish faculty was not required. Immediately after the birth Duke Sexto, Grand Chamberlain, announced the happy event to the assembled high officials. Almost instantaneously the guns fired, the bells rang, and a white flag over a white light appeared in the highest part of the palace and every oublic building to announce to the multitude assembled about the streets the sex of the royal infant. Had it been a boy the flags and lights would have been red, and twenty-five guns would have been fired instead of fifteen. The King, attended by the ministers, brought out the heiress presumptive, enveloped in cambric and lace, on a golden tray. On the Prime Minister rising the coverings the King presented the infant to the Diplomati* Corps and 250 Spanish and foreign persons of rank assembled in the ante-chamber leading to the royal bedchamber, the x’oyal decrees in the Gazette having arranged the ceremonial attending the birth according to the ancient custom of the Bourbon monarchy. In apartments which have recently been furnished with simplicity and taste, the ladies of the court were admitted to admire a layette adorned with handsome native and French lace. The nurse for the Princess is a;peasant, about twentythree years old, from the valley near Santander, and wears the pretty pasiega costume of velvet and silken braided bodice and skirt. The baptism of the infant Princess was celebrated in great style on the following Monday. The Chapel Royal had been handsomely decorated, and the toilettes of the ladies showed to great effect in contrast with the sombre velvet hangings and escutcheons on the marble columns of the chapel. The interior was crowded long before the King and the Royal family entered the gallery facing the alter, which was splendidly illuminated. The clergy, with the bishops, the cardinals, the Archbishop of Toledo, and the Patriarch of the Indies, and tlm Nuncio, representing the Pope, formed imposing groups inside the railings of the alter, just as the saluting guns and the artillery band playing a march announced the approach of the Infanta in a gorgeous precession. The long galleries of the palace 'were lined with halbadiers in full uniform. The procession was headed by lords in waiting, grandees, mace-bearers, heralds, the king at arms, and the equerries attired in the gala dress of court'ceremonies. Before the Infanta was born the insignia of baptism, a salver, a mantle, a knapkin, a taper, some salt, some cotton-wool, and a huge almond cake that is distributed afterwards to the guests. The Infanta Maria Isabel Mercedes was carried by the nurse, who sported the same necklace and earrings which were worn at the baptism of King Alfonso in 1557. The magnificent robe, of white satin and point d’Angleterre, worn by the Infanta was a present of Queen Isabella, who walked last in the procession, surrounded by the great officers of the Palace and the Commander of the Guards. The ceremony was conducted by the Cardinal Patriarch of the Indies. Queen Isabella held her granddaughter over the font. During the most impressive part of the proceedings the choir of the Chapel Royal sang some beautiful hymns, and an artillery salute was fired as the Princess was again taken back by her household. The health of Queen Christina is excellent. The King and Queen have received messages containing congratulations from many of the Courts of Europe, among them being one from Queen Victoria. The baby Spanish Princess occupies a splendid rosewood cradle made in Paris, hung with blue satin, and ornamented with gold. On one side are the Spanish arms carved in relief. The sash with long ends and the greater portion of the layette are the gift of his Holiness the Pope. The sash is of blue silk, richly embroidered in gold and precious stones. It was closed in an ivory casket which had belonged to Pius IX., and the initials of his Holiness in rubies and diamonds are inerusted in the lid. A detachment of Worth’s employes has been summoned to Madrid by Queen Isabella to manufacture the costumes for the ceremony of the churching at the Atoclia. The costume to be worn by the Queen of Spain will be a train of rose-colored velvet embroidered in silver, with a petticoat of white satin richly worked in flowers. All the crown jewels of Spain will be displayed on every part of the dress. The costumes of the ladies of the Court are all to be worked up to that worn by her Majesty, so that not one color will be allowed to predominate over the other, and a genial harmony made to prevail. MISCELLANEOUS. A DoJiasTic Romance.— The will of the late Mr. Gibson, of Ravenstonedale, has been proved in the Carlisle Court under £250,000 personalty. This is the conclui-ion of a story that might readily be woven into a romance. Five brothers of the name of Gibson were born at the end of last century and the beginning of the present in one of the little dales of V est* moreland, and the last of the five has recently died. One succeeded to the small family estate, two entered the church, and one became

a manufacturer at Kendal, the fifth dying comparatively early. All were careful men, each remained unmarried, and each bequeathed to his surviving brothers his wealth. The result is seen in the proving of the will of the last of the Ravenstonedale Gibsons in' Carlisle Court a few days ago. A paiuted window, given by the Earl cf Harewood in memory of an attached servant has been erected in the church of Harewood, near Leeds, the subject, “The Presentation in the Temple,” being carried out with great richness of detail. The work is from the studio of Mr. W. G. Taylor, of Berners-street. The Queen has signified her intention of conferring the honour of knighthood upon Dr. E. B. Sinclair, of Dublin chiefly in consequence of bis most successful exertions in educating and training women to serve as midwives in the army. A Parsimonious King. —The following letter, addressed by James VI. to Dundas of Dundas on the occasion of the baptism of Charles 1., ought to be preserved as a specimen of a Royal invitation, and as characteristic of a parsimonious kmg : —Right traist friend, we great you heartily well. The baptisme of our dearest son beitig appointit at Halyrudhouse upon the xxiii day of Decmr instant, quhsirat some princes of France, strangeris with the specialis of our nobility being invyted to be present, neGessar’ it is that great provisions, guid cheir and sic uther things necessary for decorations thairof be providit, whilks cannot be had without the help of some of our loveing subjects, quhairof accounting you one of the specialis, we have thocht good to request you effectuously to propyne us with vennysons, wild meit, Prissell fowlis, i.e. (turkeys), caponis with sic uther provisions as are maist seasonable at that time and errand. To be sent into Halrudhouse upon the xxii day of the said moneth of December iostant, and herewithall to invyte you to be present at that solomnitie to take part of you awin guid cheir, as you tender our honour and the honour of the country ; swa we committ you to God from Lithgow this 6te of Decemr, 1600. —James R. This letter is said to have been transcribed from the original, and the copy was found in a cabinet of Adam Cockburn, of Ormiston, Lord Justice Clerk.—“ Seth Wait,” in Notes aDd Queries. The education of girls has recently been the subject of a good deal of remark, and no doubt a good deal can be said both for and against a college education. Time was when even middle-class society, young girls were scarcely allowed to go out alone, and never to travel unaccompanied ; but now it is nothing unusual for a girl of seventeen or eighteen to be travelling daily backwards and forwards her college or classes, and she necssarily gains a confidence and assurance of manner very much out of character with our typical shy English maiden. Even the old names are changing. We have no longer governesses, but “ ladytutors no more school-girls, but “ students.” The great cry for the better education of women, for the equality of the sexes, is being responded to, but where will it carry us ? If a girl is to be a governess, or has to gain her own living, she must in these days of competition work very hard if she would not be altogether left behind in the race for bread. But the present rage for colleges and classes makes many girls, who have no reason ever to think of getting their own living, work much harder than is good for their physical health. A.nd the question is, does the kind of education they obtain make them better wives and mothers, pleasanter companions, or more estimable or intellectual women than their grandmothers were ? People say women have done nothing very notable because, in past generations, they have had no chances, have never had proper educational facilities ; but the real fact is, women have not the creative faculty ; and for one woman who has originated anything, twenty or thirty men can be named. It is not a matter of education, but of natural power and ability. That to many women the present educational advantages are of immense value cannot be denied, but these, it may almost be said are exceptions ; we can count on our fiugers our lady-doctors or our ladylavvyers ; our known lady artists aie not numerous ; and the world would be better without some of our lady-writers. But take the mass of our English girl-students, and can we say that the present high-pressure system of education is good for them ? If a girl is to be a governess, and teach, or in any way to get her own living, slie must necessarily learn thoroughly such subjects as are essential to the object in view ; but even so we hold that working desperately for a period, and then having three months holiday is a bad division of time. And for girls who are not going to be governesses, but whose lot in life is rather to be pleasant home companions, helpful intelligent members of society, and probable mothers of children, it is a pity their health and strength should be strained and overtaxed by condensing the work of months into weeks, and of years into months. And, indeed, some of the brightest and most intelligent of the many delightful women we meet have never had a college education, know nothing of mathematics, and not much of science, but instead have dipped deeply into good literature, and can take an intelligent interest in, and give a sound opinion upon, the great questions of the day. Was it Charles who said his idea of educating a girl was to turn her loose into a well-chosen library ? Of course he was thinking of a girl as a companion, not as a clerk or a lawyer. There is a wreath for him whose hand The crimson tide of battle leads ; The triumph of the victor’s brand Death with its slaughtered thousands feeds ; Is there no wreath for Christian worth, For him that fights for truth on earth ? —Charles Swain.

Eli Perkins, writing from Saratoga, says : “ The LaDgtry Jersey waist has appeared here, and is pronounced by all the ladies to be too sweet for anything—perfectly divine.’ The garment is simply a ready-made dress-waist, without seams, buttons or lappels. It is knitted like a silk glove. In fact, the whole waist is a sort gigantic glove drawn over the bust of over the hands. Its beauty and simplicity consists in its destroying all the old seam 3 and wrinkles. It fits around the arm like a silk glove fits around the thumb. It preserves the outlines of the plump female form, and gives a voluptuous look that ruffles, wrinkles, and seams destroy. A woman with a jersey waist looks like a walking statue. Whitewash a beautiful woman in a Jersey and you would have the Venus de Midici. The garment is pulled on over the head like a gentleman’s merino shirt—the hole in the top for the head beiDg very small.”