NOTES FOR LADIES.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 3634, 27 September 1873, Page 6 (Supplement)

NOTES FOR LADIES.

A lady, Dr. Elizabeth Walker, has been appointed house physician to the Bristol Hospital for Women and Children.

Foot ball, according to the newspapers, is becoming a popular game with young ladies all over .the United States. Boston girls claim to be the most skilful.

The Bridge of Allan correspondent of the Glasgow Mail says the instrumental aids to worship in an Episcopalian Church there were on a recent Sunday greatly, strengthened by the skilful performances of a young lady on the cornopean. At Marlborough-House a mark-book is kept toshow how the Royal children progress in their studies, and how far their general conduct, is praiseworthy. This mark-book is diligently inspected by the Prince of Wales from time to time, who takes the greatest interest in his children's proficiency and behaviour. •

A curious statement was made the other day in a London police-court. A d'.mcing-master, who was prosecuting a man for an assault, admitted in cross-ex-amination that he had never lived with his wife. On the wedding-day he spent ten minutes in her company, and then left her. It was the wish of her parents that he should marry , their daughter and leave her immediately.

Female education in India has long been the subject of much discussion. If, however, we are to introduce European lore into the Zenana, let us not forget the mysteries of a Western toilet. Amongst some presents made to the Ranee of Sikkini, when on a recent visit to Sir George Campbell, at Darjeeling, was a toilet bottle of scent. Ber Highness drank half its contents before she could be stopped, and when told of its proper use, emptied the remaining half upon her handkerchief.

! Surely the most practical man of our day has been discovered by a correspon--1 dent of a Bristol paper. He states that a young man, writing to his sweetheart the other day, said—'' I wish, my darling, that you would not write me such longlettera. If you.were to bring an action for breach of /promise against me, the lawyers would copy the correspondence between us, and charge 4d for every folio of seventy-t'yo words. The shorter the letters, the more we save from the lawyers." The young man received no reply.

Among the novelties to be seen ia Vienna are concerts given by an orchestra of 33 females. Most of these musicians are young and of preposessing appearance, and many of them are really talented, among them being especially remarked a violincelliat and two violinists. They are all dressed in a uniform manner, wearing white dresses with pink favours. The compositions executed consist chiefly of selections from operas, and dance music chosen from among the best compositions of Strauss. The conductor is Madme. Anna Weinlich, who wields the bdton with the ease and ability of an experienced chef cVorchcstre.

In its description of the bail given in honour of the Shah of Persia at Guildhall, the Graphic says:—"As for the ladies, their dresses were, of course, magnificent, but, in our humble opinion, a simpler style would be far more effective. We cannot sympathise with the taste shown by a woman who wears a small vegetable garden on her hfadj hanga i r 9c]stfs, eaoh as big m a penny tartlet,

round her neck, a brooch on her breast like a young dish-cover, and a skirt bo trimmed that the original material is almost invisible. Yet such was not an unusual style. ' Diamonds flashed on every side, we heard an alderman say he had never seen so many." A touching story is told in the American papers of a lady in Kentucky who wa3 stricken with a sudden failing of the optic nerve, and was told that she could not retain her sight for more than a few days at the most, and was liable to be totally deprived of it at any moment. She retired to her home, quietly made such arrangements as would occur to any one about to commence so dark a journey for life, and then had her two little children attired in their brightest costumes brought beforS her ; and so, with their little faces lifted to hers, and tears gathering for the great misfortune that they hardly realised, the light faded out of the mother's eyes. A correspondent, writing on the visit of the Czar to Austria, describing the tastes of the Emperor and EmpreßS of Austria, says : "The Emperor and Empress are both very simple in their tastes, and yet rather wearied by pomp and solemnities. They are both very early risers, the Emperor being sometimes at his desk at 4 a.m., or in the sporting season at one or two a.m. in the mountains, while the Empress prefers a good gallop or a long walk to any ball, and may be found at this season of the year any fine morning in her private gardens at six o'clock, and even in winter at 3 a.m. in the Ring promenading."

A Nova Scotia paper has the following: —"Our readers will remember the interesting report published about a year ago of the family affairii of Mrs Absalom Countaway, of Terrence Bay—near to which the Atlantic disaster occurred— who about that time had .astonished tha natives by giving birth to four children. The operation has now been repeated, Mrs Countaway having given birth to another four on Thursday last. The mother and children are doing well. Since her marriage in 1863, Mrs Countaway has given birth to 17 children,- in the following order :—lst, one ; 2nd, twins; 3rd, twins ;■' 4th, twins ; sth, twins ; 6th. four; 7th, four."

On the 15th June (says the Quebec Gazette) the infant daughter of their Excellencies the Earl and Countess of Dufferin was baptised in "the Anglidan Cathedral, Quebec. Her Majesty Queen Victoria having graciously signified he* desire to be godmother to the child, she was named Victoria-Alexandrina-Munel-May. The Right Hon. Sir' John A. Macdonald and Lady Harriet Fletcher appeared as sponsors. The water used for the baptism was from the River Jordan, arid was supplied, we learn, by a gentleman who has just returned from Palestine. On the entrance of the baptismal party, consisting of their Excellencies, the younger members of their family, the sponsors, &c, an appropriate piece of music was performed on the organ, and at the close of the service a hymn was sung bythe full choir of the Cathedral. Writing of the naval review at Portsmouth, at which the Shah of Persia was present, a correspondent of the Daily News says :—" The Princess of Wales and her sister were, dressed alike, with a charming simplicity that deserves greater imitation than the ladies of the period seem willing to accord. Their bonnets were of a light shade of naval blue, with ostrich feathers and wild flowers ; their dresses, which were very plainly made, were of silk in broad alternate stripes of black and white. Among the other passengers who alighted- from the carriages were Generals Probyn rand Sir William Knollys, vrho walked down the platform, leading the two eldest boys of the Prince of Wales, both attired in naval costume, and, as a matter of course, exciting the intense delight of the lady spectators." The lady correspondent of the Argus in London writes :—" The Cesarewitch and Cesarevna are still here, and quidnuncs persist in expounding the deep political significance of the coincident visits. The social significance of the circumstance has been very agreeable ; for the presence of the Cesarevna has evidently made her sister very happy, and though the'Cesarewitchisa heavy, uninteresting, wooden personage, like a clumsy German soldier1 crammed into a rich uniform—though he never smiles and rarely speaks, and looks' sulky and stupid—his uniform and his suite added to the pageantry of the last month. The Cesarevna's jewels are mosf magnificent. On several .occasions she quite outshone the Shah, especially at the Albert-hall, where she wore a sleeve-knot of incomparable beauty, and a band of large diamonds on her dark hair which was like a river of fire."

The queens of fashion in Rome (the Globe says) are preparing costumes that fill the milliners with despair. Coarse sheets are being bought to cut into polonaises, and " traliccio," which, under a high-sounding name, means nothing more magnificent than mattress-ticking, is being made up into dresses trimmed with innumerable metal buttons. The cause of this singular rage for tearing beds to pieces in order to turn bed-clothes into day-clothes seems to be a caprice of the Princess Margherita, who bought a piece of blue and white striped ticking for her summer dress—a proceeding which has set everbody else wild to follow so illustrious an The idea savors of genius in respect; of the infinite number of its possible developments. A bedcurtain, for instance, trimmed with its brass rings, would be quite as long, and perhaps quite as graceful as many trains that have already dragged their passing, hour. It is curious to observe, however, how extremes meet. A squaw has hitherto been regarded as eccentric for looking upon a blanket as the height of the mode, and perhaps by next season a fine lady will be "not fit to be seen" unless she is dressed in a counterpane. A lady writes from London to the Argus as follows:—"Splendour, profusion, and bad taste have prevailed strikingly of late ; the outrageous mingling of incongruous colours having culminated in extensive wearing of crimson trimmed with yellow, and dark pink trimmed with chocolate colour, in the hottest days of the season. Decoration has become bedizenment, and we are all hoping for a reaction, which is said to have set in in America and!may be expected to 'cross." The last fashionable shade is known as * reptile green,' and the newest thing in ornaments is a twisted armlet in the form of a snake,coiled from an inch below the shoulder to half ah inch above the elbow. This is a development of the classical antique which stopped for some time at the scarabeus. Long fish-tailed tunics are worn supended from the shoulders, and composed of Japanese stuffs, embroidered in strange designs and rich colours—birds flowers, and dragons predominating' btrings of amber and 'amulets' are m vogue, and a favourite,. exceedingly try- ' co^' ciseis formed ot three strips or nilets, of golo. lace worn rpund the hair raised high and/ns<s, and fastened with single jewels ; a headdress which recalls the portraits, of the Empress Josephine "