WOMEN OF NOTE

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXII, Issue 7021, 8 January 1910, Page 11

WOMEN OF NOTE

("M.A.P.") QUEEN MARGHERITA. Everyone will be glad to hear that the popular Queen-mother, Marghenta or Italy, has derived much benefit from her recent "cure" at Wiesbaden. She he® greatly enjoyed her stay at the beautiful German spa, which, by. the way, is quit© th© prettiest of Teutonic watering-places, and withal a decidedly gay town in the season. The widowed Queen, who is a keen traveller, has been spending a great deal of her time motoring in the lovely Taunus district, and this is possibly compensating her for the loss. 1 181, favourite country sport, mountaineering. Tall and stately, with the graceful bearing aUd regal ureseritoe of one Tx>rn to wear a crown,” Queen Marghenta is one of the most genial of women, and dearly loves to throw off th© pomps and etiquette of Royalty to enjoy herself like any ordinary tourist. She is particularly devoted to 'everything English, and is always keen to read Englih literature, of which she is a ready patroness. MRS HAMLYN. ' g The Educational world can boUst of no rival to Mrs Hamlyn, tho wife of the wild-beast importer, who has started a "school for monkeys." Her skill with her pupils has already _ been exhibited in her successful tramimg of the renowned "Consul," and now Mrs Hamlyn is preparing another debut Unto in the shape of “Diana," who is being taught her manners, * and already has made great progress in th© art of getting civilised. Mrs Hamlyn's gifts as an instructress Ure undoubted, and she has a method of training to which her strange scholars do credit. MISS MARIA RUTKOWSKA, A record change of occupation hassurely been rung by Mile. Maria Rutkowska. of th© Court Theatre, St. Petersburg, who has recently retired from the ballet there, where she was a bright particular star, to become—a barrister! It is a far cry from dancing on tho stage to pleading in a law court, but Milo. Eutkoyrska has apparently all the dash and energy which is the peculiar distinction of the Russian woman. Und has followed the needful curriculum for her new calling at th© University of Zurich. The Swiss bar will profit by-her gifts, for it goes without saying that in her own. country they would b> somewhat wasted. QUEEN CHRISTINA OP SPAIN. The ' charitable regard displayed by th© Queen-mother, Christina of Spain, for her poorer neighbours was well illustrated . th© other dUy by her ready succour to a workman who fell down in th© street through sunstroke, and her impulsive kindness in leaving him the contents of her purse is very characteristic of her practical charity. The Queen-mother is a notable woman of many-sided gifts, and, among other talents, Mis no mean capacity for musical composition. Her faculty for governing she inherits from her Hapsburg teebears, and her religious zeal is unbounded, sbe having strongly influenced in. this respect the young King Alfonso