LADIES' GOSSIP.

Otago Witness, Issue 1824, 5 November 1886, Page 32

LADIES' GOSSIP.

— A novel " rose dress " has just been made in Paris for a lady who wished for a toilette composed entirely of flowers. The skirt is made of 800 roses of different hues, and rosebuds compose the bodice, while a veil of tulle, spotted with crystal drops, is thrown over the dress to imitate morning dew.

— A singular custom obtains to this day in some of the towns on the Lower Rhine — namely, that of " selling " maidens at public auctions. For nearly four centuries, on Easter Monday — auction day — the town crier or clerk .of St. Goar called all the young people together, and to the highest bidder sold the privilege of dancing with the chosen girl, and her only, during the entire year. The fees flowed into the publio poor-box. — A piece of evidence in a breach of promise case was a cuff with an offer of marriage written en it, One ni^bfc, while

tbe defendant was holding the plaintiff's hand and whispering fervid words, he popped the question in manuscript on the smooth linen at her wrist. She was sentimental or shrewd enough to keep the article out of the wash, and now it is of practical value. — Pariß contains one married woman of 14, three widows of 18 and two widows of 16, as a late census shows.

— Everyone has heard of dancing on the ice, but dancing in a ballroom under a snowstorm is not.so familiar. This, however, was what a party of friends found themselves doing not long ago in Sweden. During an extremely cold night, but with the sky clear and the stars shining, a large assemby was gathered for a ball, and in the course of the evening it became so hot in the room that several ladies fainted. An officer tried to open a window, but he saw that the pressure, of the ice was holding it fast shut. So he broke a pan 6, and the rush of cold air coming from without produced a fall of snow in, the room. The atmosphere had been charged with watery vapour, and this becoming suddenly condensed and refrigerated, fell, under the form of snow, on the heads of the astonished dancers.

— No article of outer wear has at any time b%en more universally worn than the loosefronted small flannel coats which women put on for all but full-dress occasions. They are made in plain and striped woollens. Originally designed for tennis coats, their sphere of usefulness has been curiously extended. The price of such a jacket varies from 13s 6d up to a guinea, it is made with two pockets, one just above the other ; and a sailor hat of straw or a peaked flannel cap invariably accompanies the jacket. The Louis XV coat is an Edition de luxe, if I may use the term, of the tennis coat just described. It is intended for indoor wear, and the revival of such an article of apparel would introduce a new (old) feature into our present style of dress. Rich brocades of cream and rose and other rich colour combinations are utilised. The front of the coat is cut away, and the skirt or basque is somewhat long. The coat opens over a waistcoat of plain satin, or otherwise it may be embroidered with coloured flowers. Lace squares are worn at the neck, and the skirt of some rich selfcoloured silk is as a rule trimmed with rare old lace. Such a toilet is, of course, only possible or suitable for those fortunate folk who, like lilies of the field, " toil not, neither do they spin," and therefore can fittingly array themselves in the most gorgeous products of the loom.