BREEZY BITS FROM SYDNEY CITY.

NZ Truth, Issue 97, 27 April 1907, Page 6

BREEZY BITS FROM SYDNEY CITY.

Feminine Fads, Frills, Follies, Feathers,

Flowers and Furbelows.

(By "Merrie May.")

!AU Vice-Regal festivities are at an end, and our nicest are working hard as beavers and busy bees combined, preparing for Chairity Balls and the much-talked- o r Exhibition of Women's Work. The Northcote grass-party was the latest revel, save the mark. Grass-parties are not what they used to be m the good old days. Under the Northcote regime they are frigid, ultra-respectable, crawlsome functions, where the spook of frivolity expires at the gate-post, and a melancholy peace strongly reminiscent of a ' quaker's - funeral broods o'er the- scene. In such a temperature the most flippant behaves as if she had been reared m a refrigerator. . -',■'

Lord Northcote, suite of 'two, and a Federal Minister, leave Sydney by the Changsha on May IS for a trip to the Northern Territory. When his Ex. arrives at Port Darwin, one of our warships will be there to take him up the rivers to inspect the territory and the wild and beautiful jigger m all his native innocence, that grows there. Some twenty-two Federal politicians wili also explore the Northern Territory atout the same time.

The Rawson-Mitchell wedding was a great spectacle. All feminine Sydney that could get m the vicinity of the Cathedral did so, and wild were the rushes and ' many the scrums when the vehicles with the bride and bridesmaids made their appearance. However, some 200 policemen and divers mounted troopers kept the petticoats a safe . distance from the Church, so the affair passed over without accident or dama &§i NaVal weddings are always showy functions, and our girls do love a free -show above everything.

The wedding, was a "white" one. The bride's dress was a dream * of duchesse satin and chiSon and Brussels lace, and the tail thereof was four --^yards' long— orange blossoms and veil and diamonds and sbower bouquet m the orthodox bridal style. The bride is tall and fair and straight, and stood the ordeal very well, especially the forty-five minutes' exhortation and sermon upon the duties of married people. The bridesmaids wore white frocks and hats'. Mrs Rawson also wore white.

The bridegroom wore his lieutenant's uniform, and the officers and men of his ship wore white linen uniforms. Also, the hride boupht an elaborate new motor-car, upholstered m white, a nd fixed up wth ivory satin cushions for herself ;and hubby, and when the great shivoo Was over they "tooted" off m the heavenly vehicle to Port Hacking for the honeymoon.

The trousseau is described at great length m the columns of our snob dailies. It is a most gorgeous collection of miscellaneous clothing— not two- of everything, as m the mu-sic-hall song, . "Waiting at -the Church," but dozens .of silken- ml*. leries m all the colors of the rainbow and . the newest of new-fangled cut. Rumor credits the bride with £4000 a year— she is 'a daughter of the Mitchells of Tooth's brewery fame. So Lieutenant Rawson is on a very soft wicket, and brayed loudly at the . wedding reception as he advised his, shipmates to capture something similarly gilded arid squeezable. It's a very fortunate, circumstance for that young man that lie chose such, a fine snecimen of a British bulwark for a Pa, otherwise the foiyr thou. per annum mightn't have been his'n. . .

Miss Mitchell, the maiden auntf 01 the bride, emulated Silly Billy Beauchamp when she sent out the wedding invitations. She issued two classes of invitation — whiteboards to the top-notch guests, and pink to the second-raters: The pink ones did not entitle the guest to a piece of catoe or a sandwhich, so after the splicing ceremony was finished they trotted dowft Pitt-street and boughst themselves a reviver.,

.The Northcotes did not appear to be specially gracious on this occasion. They attended the church ceremony, but not the reception. Their wedding gift was a,, silver cigarette case.j .

Diva Nellie Melba's relatives report that the lady, her son, and daughter-in-law will pay a visit to Australia m four' months' time. Though the trip iis ostensibly to visit £apa Mitchell m Melbourne, the world-famous prima donna will sing m the principal cities.

How we tahhy-cats do love each other '. Furious contoversy and much, ruffled plumage re that <juery of Salvation lass Ada Ward.. "Cau an. actress be a Ckistdan?" Ada says she cannot ; that the champagne suppers and other frisky pleasures are too much temptation for her. Apparently, Ada had a wildly hilarious and scarlet woolly past, and now repents m the sackcloth and ashes of the Halleuljah frock and bonnet ; hut but that's no excuse for libelling the profession. Certainly there- are undesirable people on the stage, but the stage work did not make them so. There are undesirable people everywhere—even m the churches and the Salvation Army.j

It is rather a pity that, the stage people took notice of Ada. She wanted an advertisement badly, and they , gave her one. She is still posing before the public, and their replies turned the "limelight full on. Cool contempt and the stare of the glassy eye- would have been gall and Wormwood to old lass Ada,

Tittell Brune, Florrie Young, Marion Grey, Elbert Ortqn, and f some few anonymous Ta,b'bies have 'taken par'; m the inky fray. 'Noble and sweet women have worked at the gi^aser4>?,iali and foottigtotj business.

and kept their families,- etc.< It is a real s,illy season query ! And what about the actor-blomue ? Hasn't he a soul also ? Is he a Kerristian ? How does he manage to remain a Parsiful simple and pure, while frisky matrons and grass-widows make goo Igoo eyes at him, and the matinee girls stand round the stage-door to watch him depart, and send him rose- 1 scented billet-doux ? Or is he on the road to ruin with the rest of us miserable sinners, instead of journeying to glory clad m a red shirt and banging a tambourine ? For the sake of my reason, don't say that the i adorable Julius or the simple and pure Kingston, the scrumptious, near-ly-wedded "Scfuaw Man," the gay ana giddy George Lauri, or the funny man at the Tivoli who paints his nose vermill ion and sings about the, lodger are not Christians ! Ada never mentions the actor-man at all. Is he infallible or beyond redemption ? - ;

Great excitement m Low Anglican circles respecting the vacant church ofSt. Phillip's, Church Hill. St. *Phillip's is one of the most richly-en-*; dowed churches m this State; the' trustees give away £2000 a year for special mission work. There are many laborers m the Lord's vineyard m this State who would have jumped out of their skins, with- delight had the offer come their way, but' the St. Philip's trustees complain that (the Anglican Church m N.S.Wis so permeated with ritualism that they are unsuitable.. So they sent to Melbourne for Canon Sadler, of Chris-1} Church— a "sound Protestant." -with, all necessary qualifications. But that gentleman has twice refused to come, and the trustees are still looking for the "sound Protestant" parson to whom the High Church Psalter and' flowers and millinery are anathema..

Quite a wave of literature is m? undatin-g us. I .notice that Grace Palotta is advertised m a magazine as the writer of an article on "The Stage Kiss." Well, Grace ought to know something about kisses— on the' stage and off.' She's been at the kiss--able staee of existence for quite fourteen years. ..' :

Then there is a South Auatralian raglet which gives a whole page to the booming tof a book or some* thing to be called "Australians Yet;"by a male creature calling himself Grant Hervey. Why the ragiet should be called the "Gadfly" when "Blow* fly" would be such a more appropriate name, I cannot cannot say. And how ridiculously this person called Grant Hervey does boost and blow, about his proposed book I ■ ::■

According to Grant, the volume will contain the 'best stuff ever writ* ten, and he is the arch expounder of the new gospel, "Work,. Women, arid Wages." You will notice how % puts Women second to Work , and- m front of wages. It is the cool, impudent, con-descending manner ,m, which he .writes . of women and the brazen Jv way -he brags- of his know-* ledge of their weaknesses that gets on Fl of'fi"e"s nerves. She -has never set eyes ontws pMz, hut judging from the picture iit the '"'Blowfly?' it would make an excellent butcher's block ; but the odor of his reputation as a gallant and female iiearfcr smasher still hangs about Sydney, and there was a scandal and a shooting case m Melbourne that did not exactly reflect credit on the crowing Grant.. ■■>.

So tJiat one sentence, 'T know: all about girls— how. to catch them and how to kiss! them : how to surround the gay. widow ; how to corral tha sweet Maisie who sings m. the choir ; and how? to 'gather jin the charming Rose who bangs the cash register at the corner hotel— what I don't know about girls is not worth knowing; and if you want to know as much r-buy. my book," should abou> strangle the affair at birth. '

To give bragging Dbn Juan lv» due,- he does know a deal about women of the foolish, believing, credulous, soft type. ; And jf quarter of the stories one hears about Grant are true, he would now be shovelling coals m Sireol instead of making "copy"' out of his experiences among girls and women, if the "unwritten law" about the honor of women were practised m this country. Fortunately for him it is not, so he lives .to brag, and blow about his intrigues and liaisons, , and make money out of the recital of Hhem, if possible. "Kiss and never tell" has no charm for the bragging bounder.;

Premier Carruthers has promised us a College of Domestic Science after Parliament has voted the £5000 to build it. It will be entirely under the. control of the Education Department, as the Technical College is. Any she who wishes ,to learn may. pay the fees and > learn to codk and wash and iipon and make frocks and trim hats on the latest scientific lines. A deputation of pushful busybodies, who waited upon the Premier to ask for the College were told his intentions m plain English,, and also that he would not require their assistance m any way m order to rmu n it. Seeing their lips drop at his ibrusqueness, he retracted, and 1 said he would ask for some hints on kitchen work and the saving of candle-ends, whe n the College was built m tJie sweet by-and-bye.

We had a musical treat this week,. Leopold Premyslav, a youthful Vie* torian violinist, astonished us with; the excellence of his playing. He wa« assisted by Laurence Godfrey SmLth f a Balmain pianist with a Leschett* tizky training. (You pronounce ths name with a double sneeze.) However, the classical and musical went mad over Leopold, and his season has been extended. As he intends "doing" all our cities, you will have an opportunity of Hearing him on the kins of instruments. You know, we Sydney people natter ourselves we discovered Hambourg, and our taste for music is par excellence