NOTES FOR WOMEN.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19688, 15 January 1926, Page 15

NOTES FOR WOMEN.

By Phillida.

(Continued from page 14.) MAY I INTRODUCE? “Who was the man? I couldn’t catch what she said when she Introduced him,” inquired a woman at a big reception the other day. “Oh, Mr .” “I’d no idea He’s the very person I have been wanting to meet—and now he’s gone!” Many people who ought to know better make introductions very badly indeed. They murmur or gabble names indistinctly, and then turn away satisfied that they have done their duty, leaving the newly-introduced couple with the vaguest notion of each other’s names and none as to their position or interests, to utter bored platitudes. Quiet, but perfectly audible and unhurried tones and distinct pronunciation are most important, and the principal in this little incident involving social etiquette should think before she speaks for hesitancy and mistakes are very bad form. How embarrassing it is when she begins: “Er—X want to introduce you to—nr—Mrs Er —I’m so sorry I’ve forgotten your name!” A clever hostess endeavours to make mention of some particular subject of mutual interest to the people she introduces. “Mr So-and-So —Miss Somebody-. Else,” says their hostess. “I know you ore both been tennis players,” she continues, and adds: “Miss Somebody-Else played in a lot of tournaments, this summer,” which helps to establish a topic of conversation between thte two without the usual preliminary fencing for a kindred subject. At a mixed gathering introductions should be made with discretion, and when in doubt it is always a wise plan to inquire unobtrusively of the more important personage whether he or she desires to meet any particular persons before they are presented.

Some people are very “touchy” about introductions, so the inexperienced should always remember the point of etiquette which requires that the less prominent socially or by virtue of position should be introduced to their superiors, never the other way about. Matrons have unmarried girls introduced to them, ladies of title expect to be in a similar position regarding those who have none. It is, sometimes, a very fine point which name ought to be mentioned last, and in a quandary it is usually safe to give the elder woman the advantage. A man is, of course, always introduced to a lady.—Daily Chronicle. RUNNING REPAIRS! In every household there arc endless little jobs which must be done by somebody. The master of the house is seldom available except on Saturday, when he would probably rather be doing something more interesting than soldering up holes in the kettle or nailing up a new shelf in the scullery. Every woman ought to, have her own little set of tools. There need not be a great many, but they should be good of their kind. A solid hammer, the head of which will not fly off at odd moments, a couple of screwdrivers, one being a small one, an implement for extracting nails, a gimlet, a goodly assortment of tacks, screws, and nails, and last, but. not least, a soldering-iron and some flux and solder. Armed with these a woman is independent. She can do most of the “running repairs” of the house and save money, time, and temper.

Most women regard soldering as a very skilled art, if not as a sort of miracle performed with much preparation by (*OlllO super-men called tinsmiths. But, as a matter of fact, once you have learned a few simple rules, it is quite an easy matter to prolong the life of tin things in the house. The soldering iron—which, by the way, is made of copper—can quite well be aeated in the fire, but it must never be made redhot. It should be just hot enough to make the solder run. When it is hot enough, dip the end of it in the flux and then rub it on the solder until it is covered with it and looks silver. This is called “tinning the bit.” Unless the iron is covered with solder it is impossible to make the solder run on to the article to be mended.

The next thing to do is to get the part of the kettle, or whatever it is which is to be soldered, alsolutely clean. Scrape it with a penknife or rub it with sandpaper. It must be free from grease and dirt, and the hole itself had better have the knife-point turned round inside it so as to free the actual edges from dirt. Now put a little flux over (he hole and hold tthe heated and tinned iron to it. The solder should run into the hole and form a little blob of solder over it, completely stopiling it up.

The iron must be re-tinned each lime it is heated. If the hole is 100 big to be covered in this way a little patch cut from a cocoa tin can be soldered over it. Here the procedure is rather different; the article to be patched and the patch itself must be carefully tinned, then, aving placed the patch in position, hold the soldering iron on it until the solder runs and the patch sticks. Patching is a good deal more difficult tha nordinary soldering, and should perhaps not be tried as the first experiment. —Answers.

THE DOMINION’S LOVELIEST WOMEN.

A writer in the Leeds Mercury vyho has just made a tour of the Empire, and has obviously taken part in those social functions where the most beautiful women come together, has been reviewing the women of the Empire. “In Hobart,” he says. “I have noticed that the crimson of the famous apples there was rivalled by the natural complexion of the Tasmanian girls; in Auckland, Wellington. Christchurch, and Dunedin there was on daily review a womanly magnificence that was a revelation; and in Vancouver, Toronto, Quebec, or in the great rural territories of the Canadian hinterland, a man would be a misanthrope indeed to avoid looking twice at some of the Canadian girls who make their way over farm land or city street.” But he goes outside the Empire in his investigations—United Statesi Italy, China, Japan, and the watering places of Great Britain. “Where then of all these countries are the most beautiful women to be found?” he finally asks. “An invidious task, my masters. Yet, looking back there is one little land far-famed for its natural charm which possesses a setting for a girlhool and a womanhood that for a universal standard of beauty, elegance, and grace to my bachelor minds stands alone. I refer to the farthest-flung outpost of Britain’s scattered Empire—New Zealand—a land of inroading sea and straggling lake, a land of fiord, fern, and flowering tree, the land of the moa and the Maori, and veritably a land of beautiful women.”