THEY SAY IN PARIS—

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19963, 3 December 1926, Page 14

THEY SAY IN PARIS—

That, when your dance frock is trimmed with diamante (and many of them arc trimmed inis way now, especially blacK chuton oner) yon should wear a single iuigo diamante flower on your shoulder. That mere fringe is used than over, and it. will bo a feature of autumn daneo frocks. 'lnn newest Xringc falls from a netted top, like that on the edge of Spanish shawls. Winter coats are nearly all straight in outline, and an enormous number of them are trimmed with hare or rabbit. These furs are being dyod to match all tho autumn materials and exactly reproduce even the subtlest shades. Black and white is still very smart, especially for evening. When coloured frocks are worn it is considered more chic to use two or three shades of tho same colour than a single tone. Bomo of tho latest sports frocks aro trimmed only by rows of very close gathering. This is applied at the neckline and pockets in strips of separate material, but at the top of the hips tho skirt itself is gathered for two or three inches, and from the lowest row the fullness is taken into small pleats. A scalloped waist-line has been found to be more “slimming” than a straight lino round the hips, and this curving line is being used on many frocks for matronly figures. WHAT DO THE SCALES REVEAL? At all agos a pair of accurate weighing scales have an important health lesson to teach. In infancy there is no more delicate indication of progress or of retrogression than that whicn is afforded by the regular weekly weighings. One empha eises the word “weekly” because there is no practice so iraught with danger to the mental health of the parents and the physical health of the infant than that daily weighing of tho young infant so often carried out in careful, well-educated homes. Some days tho weight is stationary, and there aro faint anxieties; other days there may be a slight loss, and after wild alarms tho infant’s food is changed, probably for one not nearly so good. Actually one must recognise that there is no regularity in tho weight gains of even the healthiest child; its weight curve is full of zigzags, and the only important thine is to know whether there is, a general upward tendency or not. For this purpose weekly weighings aro ideal It is well for the parent to know what the normal weights are at various ages in order to have some reasonable standard with which to compare that of their child. An average 71b baby weighs 141 b at six months, 211 b on its first anniversary, 28!b on its second, and 531 bon its third. After that a gain of 41b a year until the seventh year, and then of about 61b a year until tho thirteenth represent good average progress. After adolescence, in early adult life, the ideal weight to aim at is one which is the average for one’s height. Everybody has seen tables giving .the average weights for each sex at different-heights and ages. Of course, one’s own weight may show considerable deviation from the average without indicating that there is anything at all wrong with health; but, on the whole, health statistics show that beyond a certain point departures from the average must bo looked upon with suspicion. A good gen eral rule is that under 45 it is better, if anything, to be slightly over-weight; after 45 to be slightly under-weight. Below 45 one reduces for the sake of beauty and elegance, but after 45 one should reduce for the sake of health and a long life. , Finally, one’s weight in adult life tends to be remarkably -steady. Any sudden in crease or decrease from one’s_ own average should never be left uninvestigated.—Daily Chronicle. ORGANISING THE SCHOOL HOLIDAY. In dealing with children home for the holidays many people do not seem to realise what a complete change homo life is after the ordered activity of school. Parents often complain that their children are mischievous or tiresomely exacting. What they do not realise is that the children are missing, unconsciously perhaps, the ordered days of term time when they had an allotted time for all work and play. Few children can take a prolonged interest in anything unless they have someone with them to stimulate that interest. Pets, gardens, hobbies all lose their thrall unless there is an audience. I do not mean that children do things for effect, far from it; but the child, like the man, does appreciate a listener, someone, anyone, who is also taking an interest in the work or play of the moment. All this applies particularly to the only child, but to a large extent to children in general. The only child is, of necessity, dependent on outsiders for companionship unless, and here is the crux of the whole affair. his parents will take the trouble to make themelves his companions for the few weeks of the holidays. The mere fact of going • about with him is not enough; there must be companionship of mind as well as of body. The parent must put his mind into rolationshjp with the child’s mind and enter into his ideals and enthusiasms. Even where there are several in a family this applies, for, to children, the approval of a grown-up means much, and the open, interested discussion of a project oven more. - In the busy life that most of us lead today it is difficult, if not impossible, to give up to the children the whole holidays, but somehow or other the holidays should be made a time for getting into closer touch with the child’s mind. If the parents go about their work and amusements irrespective of the child or children they aro bound to lose touch, and. as the children grow older, they will instinctively seek their amusements elsewhere. Homo must be made a place whore the children of to-day are unsolf-conscious and yet self-controlled, never bored and yet not artificially amused. It is useless to expect mature minds in children, but what chance have they ol learning to think and to discriminate it they have no companionship with grown people who have moved about tho world?— Daily Mail. JANE WELSH’S TRIBUTE TO CARLYLE. i “He possesses all the qualities I deem essential in my husband—a warm true heart to lovo me, a towering intellect to command mo, and a spirit of fire to be the guide of my life.” The above tribute to Carlyle is contained in one of a score of letters discovered by Mr Leonard Huxley, written by Jane Welsh Carlyle to her aunt,. Mrs George Welsh, whoso husband was brother to John Welsh, the Haddington doctor, Mrs Carlyle’s father. A first series of extracts from these letters is given in the October Cornhill. In the first letter June Welsh writes from Templand in 1826, before her mar viago;— They would toll yon that my intended is fioor, and most likely indulge in some criticism scarcely flattering on his birth. But a hundred chances to one they would not toll you he is among tho cleverest men of the day . . the most enlightened Such is this future husband of mine; not a great man according to the most common sense of the word, but truly great in its natural proper sense; a scholar, poet, and philosopher, a wise and noble man. We got an interesting glimpse of thehousehold in Choyno-row: For ourselves, we aro going on much after tho old fashion—Carlyle busy as busy can be over his book about Cromwell, which, for all that he works at it like a house on fire, is still a long way from being done. A letter written in the spring of 1346 gives s a lively account of a visit —self-in-vited—paid to the Carlyles by a young cousin of Mrs Carlyle. John Welsh:— The first five minutes satisfied mo that I had found no cousin hero except in •mine. One stood amazed at the obtuse assurance and barefaced egotism of the 1 loy. Ho contradicted niv husband lectured 'dm, even, as if ho had been the Angel Gabriel come among us. The wittiest and | most high-bred woman of her time, the | Lady Harriet Baring, coming to tea one/ was put to rights at every word —one might almost sav bullied, by tin’s oresuinDtnon.- youth ns if she had no more sense than a clucking hen ! Ho stayed three weeks, and kept Mrs Carlyle sitting up at nights until 2 and 3 ' in the morning. Wo can hardly wondet' that 'ho privately determined never to suffer him to sleep under m y roof again thro’ all eternity.” . I (Continued on page 15.) *