NOTES FOR THE LADIES.

Otago Witness, Issue 1148, 29 November 1873, Page 10

NOTES FOR THE LADIES.

The ladies do their hair up so high now that they have, it is said, to stand on something to put on their hats.

" I am now in the honeymoon of my widowhood," was the remark recently made by a young and happy widow in Paris.

According to the Bath Express, for the first time during the present century a Quaker's wedding was celebrated last August, at Devizes, according to the usages of the Society of Friends.

The German Director of Telegraphs has decided to follow the example of the British postal department and admit women into the service. The beginning is to be made with 200 clerkships, which are to be assigned to female candidates.

A London correspondent of the American Woman's Journal says : — "A majority of the Scotch members of Parliament are in favour of the enfranchisement of women, and I believe the same might be said of the Scotch clergy, if they were canvassed upon the subject as the members have been. "

A Western journal says that practically the common-school teachers in the United States are now women between the ages of seventeen and twenty-five. In the country schools they are virtually the sole occupants of the field. In all the Western cities they are gradually taking the place of men.

The Independance Beige, of Brussels, mentions that at Fexe Slins, a woman named Larose has given birth to four children, three boys and one girl, all perfectly formed and in good health. The infants are all alive, and, like the mother, doing well. The husband is a labouring man, earning 4f. 50c. per day. Hia family, which before consisted of five children, has thus been suddenly increased to nine.

Ornaments of gold, in open work of various shades, or of beads of the precious metal cut like jet, are in great demand in Paris ; so are silver open-work, oxidised silver, and enamel; so are small round watches of the old-fashioned "turnip," or " warming-pan " shapes, in black or Russian leather, studded with small silver nails, or matching the rest of the ornaments worn.

The Woman's Rights movement ia working a change even in the announcement of marriages, as may be gathered from the following extract : — " Miss Mary C. Putnam, daughter of the late George P. Putnam, the well-known publisher, and the most educated woman physician in this country, has made a partnership with a leading German doctor in New York — both professional and 'personal."

The Liverpool Mercury tells the following story :—": — " A modest couple, whrc had been married for a year or two, went into a baby linendraper's to get a small cloak for baby the other day. They were supplied, and before leaving the shop wrapped the cloak around the precious little nuisance. Unfortunately the cloak had been taken from the window, and the unsuspecting couple went along the street exhibiting the child ticketed 'Our own, make!'"

A family festival of rare occurrence lately took place in Fischenthal, Canton Zurich, Switzerland, when M. Knecht, District Judge, and his wife, celebrated their diamond wedding. A singular circumstance connected with the affair was that the pastor who joined the young couple sixty years before was present on the occasion. All three are still robust and enjoy the best of health.

The project of establishing a national training-school for cookery, to be in alliance with the School Boards and train-ing-schools throughout the country, is finding a great deal of favour among all classes in Britain. The executive committee, under the presidency of the Hon. F. Leveson Gower, M.P., are pressing forward the work ; and it is in <?onten>

felation to establish schools for the'teaching of cookery, in connection with the parent school, in the principal towns of the kingdom. Here is what a correspondent of the Globe has to say of the Vienna girls :— " In fact, under 25 there no ugly ones ; while for every third young lady one meets, one's heart jumps down into one s3s 3 boots. They are mostly fair, with the clearest complexions, beautiful hair, and killing eyes ; and the same remarks apply equally to the servants. I have been in many capitals, but I never was so completely prostrated by appearances as I am here."

On a recent date the Mayor of South Shields (Mr Al. Glover) was engaged some time at the Police Court hearing applications for assaults and quarrels preferred by women against one another. In some of the applications, the applicants displayed so much volubility, that it was with difficulty His Worship could induce them to stay their tongues. The Mayor, referring to quarrels among women, remarked that placards were issued requiring the owners of dogs to muzzle, and he really thought an order should be issued requiring quarrelsome women to be muzzled. Mr Superintendent Richardson said it would have a good effect if they were muzzled. A silent but veritable revolution has taken place in the English fashionable world. Hitherto it has been the practice, when friends or acquaintances were about leaving town, to call on one another, and leave a card with the letters, in pencil, "P. P. C." At present if that missive be left by the owner, and no departure takes place within eight days, no umbrage is to be taken ; but if a fortnight or a month elapses and there is no prospect of the departure, the "P.P. C." is to be accepted as a notice to quit all visiting — a decision as definite and unchangeable as the laws of the Medes and Persians.

In Peru the lives of young ladies are very retired. It is not considered proper for them to go into the street unless accompanied by mother and servant. Married ladies have more liberty ; for instance, a girl fifteen, if she be married (as often is the case), can chaperon an old aunt of sixty, while it would be highly improper for this representative of single blessedness to venture out alone. The manner of dress is very different from our own. Bright colours are worn, and on a pleasant afternoon you can see all the colours of the rainbow in the street, together with a profusion of jewelry. Mantillas are worn mostly, though the foreigners still hold to their own round hats, and the natives are slowly adopting them, for they are becoming, and it is not in their power to withstand anything that adds to their attractiveness ; but in the early morning the streets are filled with these black-robed figures going to church.

In one " of the recent feuMctoios, writes the Medical Times and Gazette, M. Latour calls attention to the mischief which may arise from the now almost universal employment of perambulators for the transport of children. He chiefly dwells upon what happens to young infants, who, in place of resting on the nurse's arm and gradually bringing the musctilar system which supports the trunk erect into use by exercise, and accustoming their senses to the perception of surrounding objects, now lie recumbent and somnolent in a state of dangerous quiescence. Woman, he believes, in thus abdicating yet another of her functions, which, in all eyes but her own, render her attractive, and although she may relieve herself of some fatigue, it is at the risk of the welfare of her child. " Certain lam that an wfant a Vequ'qxtgc is a retarded infant ; it will walk later, talk later, and smile later." The Graphic says :—": — " Men are so unreasonable, they want ' Mamma ' to be a model housewife, a playful genial mother, and an intelligent companion all at once. They want 'sweetness and light,' grace and culture, as well as well-made hashes and neatly darned socks. Of course when ' education ' gives us our properly trained servants, or 'the progress of science' supplies us with warranted silent self-act-ing serving-machines, there will be no more worry. Which of the two we shall get first seems doubtful ; but meanwhile why not take a leaf out of our German cousins' book, and secure for each a little skilled labour by economically sharing it among several 1 In Germany trained servants are few, and few families can afford to keep them. So they arrange accordingly. In the quiet little country town the 'help' goes first to the Pfarrer or the doctor, who has children to send to school, and wants the house tidy and the breakfast on table betimes ; thence to the professor, and next to the Herr Rath, guiding in each house the little drudge who is sole servant in our sense of the word. Lastly, she goes to the artist, whose habits are later than his neighbours' ; and so an active woman will set four or five households straight before midday, and will be ready by evening to go the same round. The thing is simple enough ; it ia just an extension of the

college scout or chambers' laundress system. But what we plead for is its value in regard to cooking. A good cook could turn out successively the half-dozen dinners of any little town with ease to herself and infinite gain to the digestions of the six families. Nothing would be necessary but thorough punctuality, mutual accommodation as to hours, and somebody in each house to 'wash up.' And the gain would be that we should have six mammas set free from meddling and muddling, and- able to put on extra educating, child-training, home-beautifying power."