ITEMS OF GENERAL INTEREST.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1678, 27 April 1904, Page 38 (Supplement)

ITEMS OF GENERAL INTEREST.

The Paris “Figaro” records a new departure in card etiquette. One of its readers recently received a neat Bristol board printed as follows: —“M. Paul 3> has the honuor to announce the divorce pronounced in his favour against Mdme. Louise It on 12th October, 1903.” The receiver sent his congratulations by return. '.Mr Albert Visetti, the professor oi singing who was for several years musical adviser to Adelina Patti, throws some light on the secret of the great singer’s long and successful career. “Madame' Paibti he says “refrains from speaking and remains absolutely quiet on the day of any performance, taking a moderate repast an hour before singing. After the performance she returns immediately, and does not waste her strength and ruin her digestion by indulging in midnight suppers. What is even more important, her breathing is perfect. If her strict regimen were rigidly followed bj 7 singers,” adds Mr Visetti, “there would not be so many ‘sky rockets’ in the world.” Among the daring ladies of France none goes more thorougly into the science of ballooning, nor enjoys more thoroughly the fun of the pursuit, than does the Duchess d’TJzes, one of the few both up-to-date and altogether charming personages now to be met in the so limited smart society of Paris—“smart” not merelv by means or frocks and frills of latest mode, of whom there are crowds, but smart in view of the many little ways that go to make all the difference between the real and the artificial. Every summer sees this fair balloonist, accompanied by her husband, the Duke d’TJzes, making trial of her knowledge, and trying her best to .appropriate the challenge cup, the prize that sport-

THE WELLINGTON RACING CLUB’S AUTUMN MEETING

ing Paris offers to her who shall prove worthy to be pronounced champion of the air. A maid in the employ of iMadame Melba is. writes our San Francisco correspondent, said to be the “wicked woman’ in an action for divorce instituted by Lillian Nordica, the famous opera singer, against her husband, ZoJtan Doeme, the Hungarian tenor. Nordica, Qalve, Melba. Emma Fames and SohumannHeink, all famous operatic artists, were staying together at the Auditorium Hofei, in Chicago. Their intercourse was of the happiest kind, but, following a talk with Calve. Nordica, it is said, imperiously demanded that Melba dismissed her maid, “a Hungarian girl, with eyes the colour of sloes.” The retention of the maid by Melba brought about the separation of the five artists, and it isthis maid who is now the co-respondent in the pending divorce proceedings. The manipulators of fashion are promptly taking advantage of current Ehglish sympathy with Japan, and before the summer of 1904 arrives there will he an eruption of Japanese buttons fans, silks, and embroideries. Mr Mortimer Menpes long ago made the colours and decorations of Japan popular in England, and the siege 'of the Peking legations is said to have introduced the mandarin jacket. But now, to West Ehd gossip, there is to be a “general adoption” of Japanese fashions One may doubt this, however, in at least one particular. The craze for rickety Japanese furniture has already had its day, and it is hardly conceivable that anything can revive it. Many Londonladies are just now experimenting with an adaptation of the Japanese style of hair dressing, but in this they are only imitating the actresses engaged in a new play which is attracting much attention at His Majesty’s Theatre.