LADIES’ PAGE.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 662, 31 October 1884, Page 3

LADIES’ PAGE.

Saving appointed a lady to conduct this page, we have to request that all communications upon domestic matters, dress, cuisine, dec. die., he addressed to Madame Elise, of he New-Zealand Mail.

WANTED—A LITTLE GIRL. _ ■Where have they gone to— the little girls, With natural manners and natural curls ? Who love their dollies and like their toys . And talk of something besides the boys ?

Little old women in plenty I find. Mature in manners and old of mind ; Little old flirts who talk of their “beaux And vie with each other in stylish clothes.

Little old belles, who, at nine and ten, Are sick of pleasure and tired of men, Weary of travel, of balls, of fun— And find no new thing under the sun.

Once, in the beautiful long ago. Some dear little children I used to know; Girls who were merry as lambs at play, And laughed and rollicked the live long day.

They thought not at all of the “ style ” of their clothes, They never imagined that boys were “ beaux” <( Other girls’ brothers ” and “ mates ” were they ; Splendid fellows to help them play.

Where have they gone to ? If you see One of them, anywhere, send her to me, I would give a medal of purest gold To one of those dear little girl c of old, With an innocent heart and an open smile, Who knows not the meaning of “ flirt ” or “style.' —Ella Wheeler.

A HUNDRED YEARS AGO. "Where are the birds that sweetly sang A hundred years ago ? The flowerß, that all in beauty sprang A hundred years ago ? The lip that smiled, The eyes that wild In flashes shone Bright eyes upon— Where, O where, are lips and eyes. The maiden's smile, the lover’s sighs, That were so long ago ?

Who peopled all the city’s streets A hundred years ago ? Who filled the church with faces meek A hundred years ago ? The sneering tale Of sister frail, The plot that worked Another's hurt— Where, 0 where are the plots and sneers, The poor man's hopes, the rich man’s fears, That were so long ago ? Where are the graves where dead men slept A hundred years ago ? Who, whilst living, oft-times wept A hundred years ago ? By other men, They knew not then, Their lands are tilled Their homes are filled— Yet nature then was just as gay. And bright the sun shone as to-day, A hundred years ago.

DIED OF A BROKEN HEART. New York, September 3rd.—Mr Nash had been keeping company with a young lady, named Miss McAban, for some time, but made up his mind to break the attachment. He called last Tuesday and announced his intention, saying they had better separate. This statement was a terrible shock, and she fell speechless and went into spasms. The young man, becoming greatly alarmed, aroused her parents, but all efforts to relieve the girl proved futile. The young man was willing to make any reparation, but it was too late. The poor girl died of a broken heart. Her sufferings were most intense, and at times it required the strength of three strong men to hold her in bed. Her cries could be heard for a long distance. In this terrible state of mind she died. THE JEWS AND CONTAGIOUS DISEASES. Attention is again called to the immunity of the Jews from contagious diseases and epidemics by their escape from the ravages of the cholera in Southern France. Of the Jewish community of 4000 souls in Marseilles, only seven have been attacked, with the disease. Two of these were life-long invalids; one was ninety-seven years old, and two others had not observed the Jewish law. The American Hebrew ascribes the comparative health of these people to the dietary laws of Judaism, which is probably the correct key to the problem. Undoubtedly intemperance in eating and drinking has much to do with the ill-health and spread of disease among any people, and the Jewish law, which prohibits certain articles of food as unclean, greatly reduces the variety of dishes with which men are tempted to gorge themselves.

HOW TO OVERCOME THE Destructive MOTH.

This is one of the greatest vexations which careful housekeepers have to contend with, and their depredations are not to be remedied after they have once made inroads. Houses heated by furnaces are especially predisposed to have moths, but every housekeeper must be on the watch for them, for, from the time that the windows begin to be left open, the trouble begins. Heavy carpets sometimes do not require taking up every year, unless in constant use. Take out the tacks from these, fold the carpets back, wash the floor in strong suds with a tablespoonful of borax dissolved in them. Dash with insect powder or lay tobacco leaves along the edge and retack. All moths can be kept away and the eggs destroyed by this means. Ingrain, or other carpets, after shaking, are brightened by sprinkling a pound of salt over the surface and sweeping carefully and thoroughly. It is also an excellent plan to wipe off the carpet with borax water, \rsing a thick flannel cloth wrung tightly, taking care not to wet it, but only to dampen. Open the windows and dry the carpet before replacing the furniture. Other woollens including blankets and wearing apparel, must be beaten and brushed and

folded smoothly. Be careful to clean every grease spot with ammonia and water, not too strong, and a dffrk woollen cloth. Tie pieces of camphor into little bundles and put one into each article. Wrap the articles in newspapers, as printers ink is a great preventive of moths, and then lay them up in strong sheeting bags, labeled, so that it will not be necessary to open them during the summer except for use. This is a good way for those who do not possess cedar boxes, and the articles need have no other care if every spot is treated as directed and the garments are not left hanging in the closet too long before putting away for the season. —Providence Star. FATHER AND DAUGHTER. She had just returned, from Vassar, and papa was stroking her hair fondly. ‘ I hope, my dear,’ said the old man, ‘ that you haven’t acquired any of the vulgar slang phrases which so many of the Vassar young ladies are said to use.’ ‘ You bet I haven’t papa,’ she replied brightly, * when anybody catches me talking slang, he is specially invited to slug me in the seventh rib.’ ‘ That is right, my daughter, never indulge in slang. It gives a young lady dead away.’ TO KEEP CUT FLOWERS. At this time, when cut flowers fade so soon it is well to know that if a small bit of the stem is cut off and the end immersed in very hot water, the flower will frequently revive and resume its beauty. Colored flowers are more hasily rejuvenated than white ones, which are apt to turn yellow. For preserving flowers in water, finely pulverized charcoal should be put into the vase at this season. Where vines are growing in water, charcoal will prevent foul odors from the standing water, FISH-EATING PLANTS. Prof. Baird of the National Museum has received from England a specimen of an aquatic fish-eating plant, known as the great bladderwort, which has been discovered to be peculiarly destructive to young fish. The plant is large, has no roots, but floats free in the water, and its leaves bear small bladders which entrap the fish fry. Twelve or fifteen species of the plant are found within the limits of the United States, and it abounds in the Fish Commission’s carp ponds at Washington, where it had been introduced at considerable labor and expense, having been heretofore regarded as excellent fish food. Prof. Baird will warn carp culturists to destroy the plant wherever it may be found. SHE SWORE~RELUCTANTLY. A few days ago two ladies called at the Custom House to see about getting some imported articles out of the hands of the Government officers. They were directed to the proper department, where a courteous deputy collector informed them that it would be necessary for the owner of the articles in question to make oath as to their character. This statement caused the elder lady evident distress. She remarked uneasily that she did not want to swear. ‘ The law requires that you should swear to the facts,’ said the deputy collector, as he proceeded to fill out the necessary affidavit. ‘But I cannot—l really don’t want to,' expostulated the lady. ‘ It is absolutely necessary that you should,’ replied the officer, and he immediately read, very rapidly, the usual form, * and you do solemnly, sincerely and truly swear,’ etc. The lady cast an appealing glance at the imperturbable officer, then looked resignedly at her smiling companion and said: ‘ Well, I suppose if I must I must, but the Lord have mercy on my soul—damn it.’ The astonished deputy collector explained to the lady the nature of the oath required. THE SIGNIFICANCE OF RINGS. It is understood that a gentleman who desires to marry wears a plain or chased gold ring upon the first finger of the left or heart hand. When he becomes engaged the ring passes to the second finger. After marriage it passes to the third finger. If, however, the gentleman desires his lady friends to clearly understand that he is not “in the market” and does not wish to marry at all, he wears the signet upon his little finger. This will inform all ladies that he is beyond reach. With the ladies a plain or chased gold ring on the little finger of the left hand indicates “ not engaged ” or ready for an offer. When engaged the ring passes to the third finger of the right hand. When married the third finger on the left hand receives the ring. When a young lady desires to defy all suitors, she places rings—one on the first and one on the fourth finger. A writer on the subject of rings says : * Though the ring of gold has long been looked upon as a necessity in the marriage ceremony, it is by no means iudispensable, and civil marriages may be contracted without it. The Puritans abolished the ring, or, rather, tried to do so ; they looked upon its use as superstitious and of heathen origin. Quakers generally object to the ring on account of its heathen origin, but the ladies of that persuasion have shown a decided preference for its continuance on account of the invidious position in which a married lady might be placed for the want of it. Wedding rings are placed on the left hand to typify obedience. The converse is probably the roason why the engagement band is placed on the third right-hand finger of a fianede, who still posseses a large amount of freedom, and reqsuently exercises her power in an arbitrary manner.’—Brooklyn Eagle. EARRINGS. From remotest antiquity, and amongst almost every nation, u hether civilised or savage, fashion seems to have ordained the wearing of earrings. Without entering too deeply into this settled question, it may just be remarked that sacred and secular writ tells of the use of these ornamants, and that they have been found in more or less variety of shape, and in more or less richness of material, among the relics of the Egyptians, the Romans, the Greeks, and other people. But as explorers have brought to light these pieces of jewellery, and antiquaries have

speculated upon the sorts and conditions of men, or rather women, who adorned their persons with them, so travellers ancient and modern, have informed us of the peculiar conformation of the organs in which they have been so carried, not normally as to anatomical structure—for an ear is pretty well an ear as God made it in all species of man —but artificially and abnormally deformed, in order to adapt it to the ornament custom has dictated its lobe or its pinna shall bear. Thus, tiny ears, which we English and our brothers on the Continent so appreciate in the estimate of feminine beauty, are a positive defect in the Chinese catalogue of pulchritudinous “ points ” in their ladies. Mrs or Miss Hong must have small feet, but small ears —jamais; her husband or her lover likes them large, long and pendulous ; so they have been stretched by earrings of the heaviest material until the object has been gained. The belles of Baas, a province south of China,so gradually enlarge an opening which a bone or metal stiletto had originally made in the ear, that in the end their gallant’s fists will pass through it, thus, we take it, giving these gentlemen a convenient hold either for caress or for punition. The Omango tribe of American Indians wear in the dilated of the cartilages" of their ears, bouquets of flowers, so do the Botocudos of Brazil ; and we ourselves have seen in those of the Cinghalese, Tamils, and other Asiatic natives, thick pieces of wood, conical rolls of dried palm leaves and volutes, cowries and other shells, thrust either to widen or to keep patent the gaping and disfiguring openings for more showy ornaments. Whence originated the practice of boring our children’s ears ? Our ancestors held the fallacy that so doing and inserting earrings was not only a charm against the “evil eye” but actually preserved the sight. ..The African negro has pretty much the same idea; the ring he or she wears is a counter spell to Obeah. Upon what physiological affinity our forefathers grounded the idea, that because they bored the ear-lobe of their litttle daughters, their vision would be longer maintained perfect, it is as hard to say as why the boys escaped from the ordeal. Generation after generation has slipped away : The absence of reasoing as to the preservation of eyesight has long died out, but the barbarous custom itself still exists, as we see, in all our associations with society. Dr Felix Bremond, under the title of “ Les Boucles d'Oreilles,” has dealt with this subject in the pages of Le Nouveau N 6, and from his article we mainlj 7, gather our present observations. He adduces the fact that earrings often cut the delicate structures of the ear, frequently making them bleed, occassionally ulcerating them, and invariably elongating them to a size Dame Nature never intended. Jewellers, he goes on to 3ay, have tried to avoid these inconveniences by modern improvements ; for the fastening ring of the ornament they have substituted a shank, terminating outwardly by a jewel set in metal, or by a knot of metal alone, and inwardly by a screw working in a socket. By these means the experts in question have “scotched the snake, not killed it,” to put it poetically, for this new method presses the lobe of the ear between its two parts ; certainly it no longer cuts, but it crushes, and cases are related where such pressure has induced injuries which has required the surgeon’s knife to relieve. Dr Bremond bids us stroll through any of the gallaries of art in his own or other countries, where are painted the sculptors of great masters, and he asks, upon which of them do we see the disfigurements of earrings ? Do our Venuses, or our Dianas or our Hebes show them, either on the canvas or the marble ? Did Pygmalion add eardrops or jiendants to Galatea before he fell in love with her, and she descended from the pedestal a thing of life and beauty ? Unquestionably not so. Why then, either from an aesthetic or a hygienic point of view, do we still adhere to these Gothicisms, which inflict a minor sort of mutilation upon our womankind, add not one iufinitessimal iota to their charms, and very far fetched as the idea may be, reflect the mark of bondage upon them,for was not the slave and prisoner taken in war by the Romans ear-ringed ? But, says the writer of “Les Boucles d’Oreilles,” “ I ought to be impartial, and acknowledge that, if the Baltimore Gazette is to be depended upon, an earring once played a remedial part. In ISS2 a young lady of that city, having been recently vaccinated, borrowed for an evening the earrings of a friend. The next day the ornaments were returned to their owner, who put them into her own ears, with this result, that she was unmistakably vaccinated. The apertures of the lobe? were possibly abraded, the ring or the screw of the jewel had carried away part of the vaccine virus, and had produced that Jennerian eruption which is the safeguard from smallpox. Setting people by the ears is common enough, but setting up vaccination through those organs is unique. But, lastly, if vaccination were the only evil which the slight wound of piercing the ear could induce, it would go for nothing. Much graver and more lasting constitutional affections may be brought on, and which, accepted as a fact, it is unnecessary and out of place here to enlarge upon, although Dr Bremond gives some of them, collected from the medical reports of some of his contemporaries. It is high time, then that, in common with other barbarisms, we sent earrings into the limbo of things done with and forgotton, leaving “the wickets of the soul,” as the poet Davies calls the ears, so marvellously and scientifically modelled for all the purposes of sound and human beauty, simplex munditiis, untrammelled and not deformed by jewellery of not the least utility, and frequently by its showiness directing attention to existing defects.

There is a curions relic of Gustavns Adolphus in the possession of a private family at Augsburg. It is an embroidered collar, said to have been worn by the King at a ball, and is now kept in a glass case together with the following note: —“This collar has been worn by Gustavus Adolphus, King of Swedeu, and was given as keepsake to my beloved wife, Jakobina Lauber, who, at the time of the King’s sojourn ill the town, was the most beautiful among the maidens. His Majesty deigned to dance several times with her, but on his becoming too familiar she ‘ collared ’ him, and as a reward for this act of valour received the collar he wore that night.”