LADIES' GOSSIP.

Otago Witness, Issue 1893, 2 March 1888, Page 34

LADIES' GOSSIP.

— Among other modes Frenchwomen are borrowing from England is a love of auiraals, and pure white cats, large furry Persian cats, and other treasures of the grimalkin species are domeciled find made much of in most Parisian households. In many they are adorned with marvels of collars and baubles, their ribbons constantly corresponding with the dominant colour in the toilet of their mistress.

—The Empress Augusta of Germany, has been ailing for some time ; she has paralysis of the lower jaw, which compels her to wear a bandage around her head to support it. —A pretty New York lady is winning fame as a whistler. Should she set the fashion so that girls' lips would be habitually puckered, they must stand the consequences. — A working woman is perhaps surer of making her living in New York than a working man. Mrs Putnam Heaton, who (says the St. James' Gazette) has carefully investigated the employments, wages, and prospects of female toilers in that city, finds that women constitute more than half the assistants in the drygoods stores, a fourth of the telegraph operators, about a fifth of the type-setters, and more than half the type-writers. Women seem, as a rule, she tells us, to make less efficient telegraphers and type-setters than men; but they hold their own with them as stenographers, and beat them altogether as type-writers and " drygood clerks." More women are employed in drygoods stores than in any other line cf work except domestic service and factory labour. The general conclusion to which Mrs Heaton's inquries lead her is that the outlook for self-supporting women in all of the numerous departments of activity open to them is probably better than it ever was before.

—An American paper says that ladies ill over the country are buying so much almond meal that the price of sweet almonds is likely to go up. This is due to Mrs Ella Wheeler Wilcox's recent letter, in which she says that the use of almond meal in the toilet " leaves the face kissable and sweet."

—The Association dcs" Dames Frangaises was fourded in Paris in 1879. Its aim is to render help and service to the sick and wounded in time of war, and to lend its aid during epidemics or in any public disaster, such as shipwrecks, mining casualties, floods, or fires. Its sympathies extend even to foreign countries, for it has sent money to Austria to relieve the survivors of a great lire, to Greece after the earthquake, and to the Servian and Bulgarian soldiers during the war.

— No gown can be bought from Worth for less than £40.

— " For gracious pake, don't look as if you were going to be hung," said a dashing American bride in an audible tone of voice to the embarrassed bridegroom as they marched down the aisle of the church after the ceremony one day recently. And everybody smiled. —A granddaughter of Charles Dickens has established herself in business as a typewriter, and employs a staff of j T oung ladies, who, with herself, copy MSS. with the typewrit '.»r. They are said to be getting plenty of work, and to be particularly skilful in deciphering and rendering badly-written manuscripts. —Women in New York are taking largely to the busines of buyers for firms in distant places. The choice of dress material is particularly suitable to women, who can judge of its appearance when made up, and its adaptability to various uses, better than men.

—In Germany and Denmark, and, to a more limited extent, in France, there are special schools for training girls in dairy work and in all matters pertaining to a farm-

house. The largest school of this kind is at Raden, in the Grand Duchy of MecklenburgSchwerin, which owes its existence to private liberality, but receives a grant of £325 a year from the State. The same training is given at Heinrichsthal, in Radeberg, Saxony, where from 10 to 12 young women are taught the theory and practice of butter and oheese making. The practical instruction is given by a mistress, and includes : — Technical management of a dairy, comprising bookkeepings the feeding and care of cows, and the fattening of calves and pigs ; cooking ; housekeeping in general; the management of poultry and of a kitchen garden. At Hildesheim, in Hanover, another dairy school of a like kind exists, with a grant from the Agricultural Society of Hanover of £225 on the condition that six pupils shall be provided with board, lodging, and tution for a year at £18 each. The pupils give their services in the dairy until 1 o'clock, after which hour they are taught housekeeping. The heavy part of the work is done by servants, but if the pupils do not know how to perform any particular description of dairy work they are taught it carefully. All the elements of an ordinary education, including sewing, are taught in the afternoon. Many of the pupils are young women in a good position in life, daughters of large as well as of small farmers. Some are girls who have been brought up in a town but who, being about to marry young farmers, require to learn everything connected with the management of a farmhouse. There are 16 such dairy farm schools in Germany. —A leading jeweller in Philadelphia says he has become a hopeless cynic, after 13 years' experience in his business^ It has, he says, been for some time a favourite fad with young men in society when one becomes engaged to present his fiancee with a jewelled bracelet, which the jeweller rivets on the wrist so that it cannot be slipped off. This is supposed to be a token of the eterral bondage of the wearer to the donor, and a perpetual reminder of fidelity. But in a day or two the lady receives a note from the jeweller requesting her to call. When she does so, she is shown a secret spring whereby she can put aside the bond at will. " And I have observed," added the jeweller, " that although the fair lady protests against making use of the spring she is delighted to find the secret of it."

A Busy Society Woman.

One of the most interesting of New York society women is Mrs John Sherwood. She wields an unusually clever pen, and betrays in every line her superior knowledge of men and things. To be a woman of fashion to most people means to live in indolent luxury, to drive in the park at the fashionable hour, dine out and give dinner parties, have a box at the opera, and sit up until midnight ; in fact, leading an arduous life, doing nothing, or, rather, nothing that is beneficial to one's self or others. Mr 3 Sherwood, the New York World says, is the fashion without being fashionable, if to be such is to be indolent ; and many a one who might sigh for her position, socially, would be appalled at the amount of work she daily performs. She enjoys receptions, the theatres, the meeting of her thousand and one friends, yet she never makes so-called fashionable calls; her day is so apportioned that she finds time for all and not a moment is wasted. Her literary work is often done early in the morning, and in order to accomplish this she has not unfrequently to rise as early as 4 a.m. One reason that Mrs Sherwood is_so interesting is because she is familiar with many phases of life. She is as much at home in Paris salons as in English country houses, or in New York drawing rooms, or amid the gaieties of Roman carnivals. She has travelled with her eyes wide open and brain ever on the alert. It is the minutire we like to hear regarding the notables of the earth, and Mrs Sherwood gives us this delightfully. Heart ins for Charity's Sake. Two years ago it was suggested to Mrs Sherwood that she should read some of her own experiences of travel for the benefit of the Mt. Vernon fund. She kindly consented. It was arranged to be given in Mrs Sherwood's own drawing room, the tickets were sold at 2dol each, and, to her great surprise, people rushed in crowds. It was an intellectual feast, a new mode of entertainment, for which society is ever asking. The charity was so substantially benefited that Mrs Sherwood was continually invited to read on this or that occasion. Sometimes it was for a home for incurables, sometimes i or a fresh-air fund, and again for the blind asylum or infants' hospital. Most of these readings have been given at Mrs Sherwood's own home, a few at the residence of Mrs Robert Hoe, one at Dr Hammond's and at Mrs Arthur J. Peabody's, and a few in Brooklyn, but wherever they were the crowd of attentive listeners followed Mrs Sherwood. It became "the fashion" to attend her readings, as much so as to hear Patti, the Lanciani lecturess, or to be seen at. all the fashionable receptions. In the two winters Mrs Sherwood has given 75 readings, all of which have been crowded, and it has enabled her to turn over to the 'trustees of the several charities between 3000dol and 4000dol. This is naturally a source of great pleasure to her. " Why do the same people come again and again ?" she once said in referring to these readings. They come because they hear either something they have never heard before, or to those who have travelled over the same ground as Mrs Sherwood her readings are pleasant reminiscences, told as only she pan tell them ; her voice is clear and penetrating, so that her listerners catch every word she reads as if she enjoyed it. They have undoubtedly started a train of intellectual thought hitherto neglected, and which could only have been accomplished by just such executive ability as Mrs bherwocd possesses. Imagine the labour which these 75 readings have given the health and strength, to be always present at the appointed time; also Mrs Sherwood's contributions to the press, the demands society makes upon her, and which she so ably fulfils, and we may judge something of what it is to be a leader in society.

An ©Id Offender

The nervous woman, the worrying mother, and the meddlesome mother-in-law have been targets for the satire of smart young newspaper fellows in season and out of season, To be sarcastic at the expense of

womankind is an unfailing resource and a pleasant recreation for all hack writers. Just for a change, therefore, and because we think it high time these self-sufficient men— these omniscient, jeering; hypercritical, fatwitted husbands— took their turn in the pillory and were pelted a while, pace aux dames } Give the women a chance.- One writes : —

I would solemnly warn all women about to marry to ascertain beforehand that the contemplated husband is not what is called a fidget. A leaning towards temperance may be greatly mitigated in a husband by ode's keeping the cellar key and not allowing him any pocket money; but a fanaticism for being always before the time it is difficult to repress and impossible to extirpate. Better that a bridegroom should not be at the church door until after the rubrical hour, and your marriage be postponed for a day, than that he should prove himself a fidget by presenting himself at the altar before the clergyman or yourself is ready for him. Your self-love may suggest that such haste is only the result of eager devotion; but do not deceive yourselves, young women — he would have been at the church equally early if it had been to bury you. Tompkins himself is in many respects an excellent husband, and I do believe he is very fond of me ; but it is timeliness first and feelings afterward with him, I know. When business calls him on a journeys only one eye dropa a tear at parting with his Wife and offspring; the other is fixed on the clock to see that the cab is sent for in time to Catch the train. That " catching the train " is the thought that makes him thin and keeps him so. That is all well said. " Down with the fidgetty husband! Shame on the mean creature that is always on time ! "

Dealing With The Little Ones.

The other day while talking with one of those rare and charming women who seldom do a thing in the stereotyped way if they know or can devise a newer and better way, she asked her little boy to pick up the playthings he had scattered about the room, He declined to do so. "Oh," she said, "I thought these little feet would be glad to run on mamma s errands, but it seems not. So they will have to be punished. " She tied the small ankles securely together with a handkerchief, and continued her chat with me, only pausing every little while to ask him if his feet were ready to obey. The answer invariably came in a regretful yet decided tone, "Not yet, mamma." "Oh, I am so sorry," she would say, and show in her look and voice that she was sorry. " Those little feet seem to have given us a great deal of trouble lately." "Mamma," asked the child sadly, "did your feet trouble you like this when you were young 1 " " Yes, indeed, and your grandma and I had a good deal of trouble in training them to obey. Do you think it will take yours much longer to get to the starting-point ? " " Yes, quite a little while yet." "I am so sorry. It would be very much pleasanter to hear you running about the house than to see you tied up like a bundle." The little fellow wriggled about, sighed heavily, looked longingly out of doors, and at last in response to his mother's inquiry as to whether he was ready to be freed nodded his head, and at once on his release picked up his playthings. This is called punishment by deprivation, and is as great an improvement on the oldfashioned, brutal method of slapping and beating a youthful culprit as imprisonment for older criminals is better than the whipping-post. It rouses neither resentment nor anger, but induces that introspective frame of mind favourable to reflection and repentance. Another form of it consists in tying the hands when convicted of touching what has been expressively forbidden, or when their owner positively refuses to make them useful in the way desired. This form of punishment is the best for acts of disobedience, but it will fail of much of its good effect if the child is not clearly shown that it is practised for his good, and not as an outlet for the parents' anger and impatience. Even in offences of a more serious nature than disobedience, some form of deprivation is the punishment that makes the most lasting impression. This was dimly felt even in those dark ages when our grandparents were young, for some of them have carried with them always a vivid remembrance of the day when they were sent supperless to bed, and of the other awful afternoon which they spent for the most part behind a locked door in the seclusion of their own apartment. Even the " naughty word," for using which they were compelled to stand in the corner of the room with face turned to the wall, has not escaped their memory. To lose one's liberty, or to lose 1 the privilege of going somewhere, doing something, or having something upon which the youthful heart is set, is often a serious affair to the offender, while unlike the use of the rod it does not develop inhumanity in trie parents and brutality in their children. The boy who has been " thoroughly whipped " will, if he has a spark of manliness in him, suffer the tortures of wounded and humiliated selfrespect, the one quality of mind which, next to the religious sentiment, needs to be cultivated and strengthened as the best safeguard against the manifold dangers and temptations of this present evil world. — Exchange.