LADIES' GOSSIP.

Otago Witness, Issue 1917, 17 August 1888, Page 33

LADIES' GOSSIP.

— Bellevue Castle, on the outskirts of Berlin, once the residence of the genial Prince Ferdinand, has again become the favourite resort of members of the royal family. The aged Grand Dowager Empress Augusta takes her daily walks there. In the beautiful park, fronting on a quiet bend in the Spree, a path has been made for her especial use, ornamented at short intervals by heavy railings bn which her Majesty, can rest. Though she is really stronger than a few months ago, it is a melancholy sight to watch the old lady, who has gone through so many stormy scenes, -walking with great effort fcom goal to goal. There seems little life in the tottering gait, little vitality in the wrinkled, careworn face. Yet I have wondered why no enterprising photographer steals her likeness amid theses-romantic surroundings, though it would arouse the wrath of the venerable Queen. Her vanity is still boundless,- and no man has taken her portrait for over 30 years — a fact which explains the surprise of foreigners who purchase groups of the Imperial family and find the hoary widow looking younger than the Dowager Empress Victoria. -She was then in her prime. But near the Grand Dowager Empress on these afternoon waik.s is another picture which is

in bright contrast to her and often engages her Majesty's attention — the frolics of her great-grandchildren. A part of the park has . been laid out for their use, and here, true to the Hohenzollern blood, they play " soldiers in peace." The eldest, Prince Frederick William, the ruler of Germany in the days of some future Bismarck, now six years old, is commander-in-chief, and fully impressed with the importance of his position. A few days ago he asked his mother to have a forfc built for his amusement, but was compelled to content himself with a guard-house instead. Here he orders one of his brothers to stand watch, salute him- as he passes, with the little wooden gun; in regular military fashion, and relieves him after duty by brother number 2. At other times he drills them, and, dressed in his miniature uniform, demands unconditional obedience on the part of the junior princes. It is amusing to see the perfection with which the commands are executed and hear the sonorous soprano of the commander-in-chief7the high-sounding language when a stomach is too far forward or a foot out of place at " right, dress ! " The youngest boy is just out of the cradle; still he toddles about in his own peculiar way, and gives promise of a future leader. The faUier appears among them often, and takes command, degrading the eldest son to the ranks for the time being. But this he accepts with pride, desirous to show his own proficiency. He will be well drilled at the age of 10, when all royal princes receive the rank of first lieutenant. Then his command will be genuine. —The betrothal of Princess Lretitia Bonaparte to her uncle, the Duke of Aosta, Prince Amadeus of Savoy, forms (the Daily Telegraph's correspondent says) one of the principal^ topics of conversation in Paris, both the fiances being, of-course, well known there. The Duke of Aostawas one of the most popular and prominent figures in Paris during the Empire. He used to go everywhere, from the Imperial " teas " in the Tuileries to the " little suppers " of .the Prince of Orange, nicknamed "Citron" by the Due de Caderousse. The Duke's marriage in 1867 with the daughter of Prince Pozzo della Cisterna, whose wife was a Frenchwoman, the Countess de M erode, gained for him more sympathies than ever from Parisians. The Princess never rallied from the shock she received when her. husband's life was attempted at., the Puerta del Sol, and she died at San Eemo in 187 G. The Duke was almost inclined to enter a monastery on the death of his wife. It appears that it was the Princess Clotilde who has arranged for the marriage of her daughter to the Duke, her brother. It is difficult to find suitable matches for the French princesses just now. Neither the Orleans princes nor the Imperial family can contract alliances with the German houses. The sons of the Count of Flanders are not of age, and both Prince Napoleon and the House of Savoy are in disfavour at Vienna. In Portugal there are two available bridegrooms; but the Duke oC Coimbra, the King's brother, docs not, care to submit, himself to the wedlock noose, and the second son of the King, the Duke of Oporto, is engaged to an Orleans princess. As to the Swedish royal family, the Princess Clotilde is too devout a Catholic to allow her daughter to marry a Lutheran. Finally, there is the necessity of marrying the widower duke, as the heir to the throne of Italy is delicate. There wag some difficulty in getting the "dispensation" for the marriage of the uncle and niece from Pope Leo XIII. His Holiness, however, after considering the question, said that he was prepared to waive all objections and dissipate all difficulties in order to please (he Princess Clotilde, "whose piety was equal to that of a saint," and the Duke of Aosta, "who always evinced, even. in the most troubled times, a great deference to the Sovereign Pontiff and the Church." The betrothal will cake place when Princess Lretitia, her father, mother, and brother return fromtheir visit to the Empress Eugenic. The marriage will be solemnised by Cardinal Alimonda at Turin amid great pomp and splendour. The King of Italy and his courb will be present on the occasion, and probably also the Duke of Braganza, son-in-law of the Comte de Paris, whose mother, Queen Pia of Portugal, is a daughter of Victor Emmanuel. The newly married couple will live in the Eoyal Palace of Turin, the three sons of thp Duke of Aosta continuing to dwell in the Cisterna Palace, which belonged to their mother. —The German Emperor is waging war against the dandies of the Prussian army. He recently gave orders that the English trousers and pointed laced shoes—" English points," as they are called—" which some of the gentlemen wear of late," should be abolished and replaced by the military trousers and Pruosian shoes— most unornamental coverings for the feet. The order is not liked, and increases his popularity only among the older officers. He also ordered ihe bands of the various regiments under his command to practise the historical tunes uf which he professes to be a great lover Tim modern airs, which had become popular among the soldiers, are doomed, and alrl-ady the tunes of " Hohen fried berger," "Torgauer," ", l ebastopol," " Racletzky," and "March to Paris" echo -gain along tiio streets of Berlin. The small boys do riot whistle the accompaniments to these, however—a certain proof thac they are not, popular. But the Emperor is happy, and thinks he is daily increasing his resemblance to Frederick the Great.— Berlin Letter. — The following Japanese romance in real life is narrated by a correspondent of .the Times :— A few days ago a Japanese named Suda Tomojiro, advanced in years, went for a day's outing to Gion, accompanied by his daughter Kuni, a charming girl of 18 or ID. They sat down to rest beneath a cherry tree outside of the temple gates, when another Japanese, about 45 years old, accompanied by a lad just out of his teens, inquired whether his name was not so-and-so, and ou his assenting, informed him that he had sought him for years in order to arenge the death of a brother whom Suda had slain. Suda replied that the dead man had deserved his fate, haviug provoked it by insults, but it was agreed to fight a duel. Kuni, however, bursting into. tear?, besought her father to reflect on what would become of her were she to lose him, rhe stranger was greatly moved, and at length said, " Some 13 years ago business brought me to this city with my wife and Uttle daughter, then six years old. We went '

to worship at the Kitano shrine and lost our child in the crowd. My wife died brokenhearted. Were our child living, she would be grown as this your daughter." Suda then told him, " This little maid is not my real daughter, but a lost child found near the shrine at the time of which you speak." " Our daughter wore at the time a bag containing three little charms," replied Kakujiro, whereupon Kuni produced those she wore, was identified as the long-lost daughter, and the duel was indefinitely postponed. — King Humbert's palace at Rome contains 2000 rooms, but the King and his, family occupy only 125 of them. — What woman's dress will be in the future it is difficult to say. The writer of the Daily News article is of opinion that skirts will always be worn as distinctive of the sex, and it is obvious that men's dress, in its present condition, is not by any means an example of a perfectly rational costume. It is more than probable, however, that the dress of the twentieth $entury will emphasise distinction of occupation, not distinction of sex. — " The Duchess de Luynes," says the Paris correspondent of the London Daily Telegraph, "was vastly amazed the other day when, on returning to her town house after a short trip to the country, she found her waiting woman, ayoung Italian named Cessia, dressed in the best evening gown of her mistress. Cessia was walking about in the salon admiring herself in the mirrors, and was not in the least put out when the duchess appeared. On the contrary, she followed up her strange doings by telling her mistress that the time had now come for the ' millennium of the maid.' In the meantime, Rose Rullier, another servant of the establishment, walked into the mistress' presence, and after having given vent to some extraordinary heresies about the relative positions of duchesses and chambermaids, she began to collect the articles of vertu, choice bits of bric-a-brac, albums, and other nicknacks which were on the tables in the drawing room, and going to a window she flung them all out. . . . The police took the two serving-women to a doctor, who pronounced them insane." — A few years after his marriage the late Emperor Frederick, then Crown Prince of Prussia, Selected the New Palace, now called Friedrichskron Castle, as a permanent residence for his family, and our Princess Royal, his wife, set to work to rescue the garden surroundings of her home from the sad decay into which they had fallen. With the assistance of her head gardener she did everything, and even sketched the plans with her own hand. One great featuie of the grounds is the rose garden where hundreds of rose trees, alternating with rose busho.-V creeping and climbing roses, and beds of moss roses — the favourites of the Dowager Empn:.=s - cover the velvet-like turf in perfect arrangement as to colours and size of giowth. Amid this world of roses, theporeelum groups and vases are placed within geometrical outlines of carpet plants. There, too, stands a rustic arbour, covered with bark, winch lias witnessed many happy g.a 'her ings ell Mic row! sorrowing family. A tablet which is close by bears the EoM iwi<io- vvTso wiut"ii by ihe j Dowagej .Empress Victoria in foi tner days :— This jiV o."^:O!ind I - ail :• y ,\> 'i, Sweet witti !.h*bie fc 1 <*• fi>v.iv, Of mernqntd of pure delight And toil ot summer hours