GOSSIP FOR THE LADIES.

Otago Witness, Issue 1479, 20 March 1880, Page 22

GOSSIP FOR THE LADIES.

The seamless cuirasse body is made of an elastic material manufactured expressly in order to Btretch over the figure, as there are no seams either at the back or in frost. Ib is laced at the sides, for, as you may suppose, it must be fastened to the figure somehow. For balls itisjmade of gold ; for the day, of black, or of colours.

At Home last winter there appeared to be a considerable number of lady skaters. Perhaps experiments on roller skates have emboldened them to get themselves shod with the old-fashioned skates, which they do noli hire from the men in the parks, but carry dangling in their hands when they are making their way to the ice/ ' The winter far costumes are Astrakhan or sealskin for the day, and swansdown for evening. The swansdown costume is the gem of all. Flowers are thrown: here and there on the body and skirt, bub not in profusion. The effect is wonderfully strange, but alss wonderfully pretty. It is, indeed, the fairy tale of the " White Cat" brought into action. The Queen of rr l ,ttaly has gone to seek for health at Bordighera. The nervous shook she received on witnessing the attempt to assassinate King Humbert is the cause of her invalided condition. She has taken with her to Bordighera the Prince of Naples, whom she does not trust out of her sight.

Mr Flood, the San Francisco bonanza king, gave his daughter a New Year's present of 2,500,000 dols.. There is a great variety iv dressing the hair. Some ladies wear their hair in flat bands, showing the shape of the head in all its purity. With those bands, a Graoian chignon is worn at the back of the neck. But this requires an immense quantity of lusferoua hair and a profile (of faultless symmetry. The Princess Louise (Marchioness of Lome) previous to her leaving Ottawa for England, <^aye instiucbions for a clearing to be made in the woods of Rideau Hall and a veritable backwood shanty to be constructed upon it. The work ia . now in progress, and will be ready when she returns to Canada. This seems to indicate that Her Royal Highness has been charmed with life as she has seen it in the Canadian backwoods.

There is a point worth attending to in tho ' treatment of all headaches. See that the head is elevated at night, and the pillow hard, for if it be soft the head sinks aud becomes hofc, which with some is enough to provoke an attack in the morning if sleep has been long and heavy. Velvet is the favourite material for winter atfcire, and some very beautiful costumes for out-door wear aro made of dark shades ia which scarves, demi-tablier, and waistcoat were often of rich coloured brocades. The long hoe trimmed gloves a,re ! still the tnosfc fashionable for evening dress; there are two, and sometimes three, rows of insertion of the sama colour as the glove, with narrow imnds of kid between, and they are finished with a frill of lace at tho top. The Princess Clothilda's home, in spite of its elegance, wears the air of a cloister. . Her whole life is given to religious exeroiges and the practice of all sorts of good works. She rises at a very early hour, hears Mass, gives alms, and consoles and succours the sick, Ne&r by her chateau is a Carmelite oonvent, | where she spends much time. She is only thirty-six years of age, but her ascetic life makes hr-r look older than she really is. TLord Truro, a member of the British House of Lords, lost his wifeafewdiys ago, vid buried her with singular simplicity. Having placed the body in a plain box, "lightly constructed so as not to arrest the process of natural deoay," he dtposited tfc'bimself in a grave four feefc deep, in thej lawn in front of his country house. The spot was her own selection, and a marble monument will b<> raised upon it.French ladies are making entire dresses of otter skin. The gentlemen, the elegants, affect otter skin for wafatcoata, and some of them aro thinking of reviving th.B fashion of carrying maffs. A hundred years ago the muff was worn'even on horseback, and with a military uniform. A woman may be handsome, r>r remarkably attractive in various weys, but if she is not personally neat, she cannot hope to win a<lmiration. Fine clothes will not couceal the slattern. A you»g woman with her hair always in disorder, and her clothes hanging about her as if suspended from a prop, ib always repulsive Among the different ways of wearing the hair, some ladies wear wavy bands, rather high on the head, and filling in long onrla over the back. Others cut their hair short, and wear it in little curls all over the head and well covering the forehead. For evening, rows of pearls or diamonds, or black velvet ribbon, are coiled round -the head in aad out the curls. This style is adapted for ladies who have but little hair. Vbuy TTngallant Tha girl I left behind me, 1 hope she'll never flad mo ; "Pwould give me palu To meet aafniu Thd girl I left behind me \

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