LADIES' GOSSIP.

Otago Witness, Issue 956, 16 May 1889, Page 34

LADIES' GOSSIP.

— The Americanladie3havebeenso successful in the matrimonial market, and beauty has risen to such a premium, that the Yankees are now determined to spare nothing to make their women " lick all creation." Ladies' maids have given place to professional beautifiers who are making large incomes, and who may be hired regularly by the hour or day> to keep their clients beauti* ful for ever* Once or twice a week the ladies are shampooed, anointed, and bathed in a peculiar manner. The hair is carefully manoeuvred, the eyebrows trained, eyelashes elongated, and numerous minute details attended to, for the purpose of warding off wrinkles and every other indication of age. The great panacea, however, appears to be sleeping in silk — silk sheets and silk pillowcases, in all colours— even silk blankets are pressed into the service. It would be premature as yet perhaps to expect any decided results. The reports, so far as they go, seem to state that the success is splendid with girls up to 25, and in many cases even to 30 years of age. It is fairly satisfactory up to between 40 and 50 ; but beyond this neither rubbings nor skin tighteners nor the multitude of other appliances manage to secure the patients (unless backed by the potent spell of the almighty dollar) those manifold polite attentions lavished on the younger ladies.

—A rumour is current in the best circles at Home and abroad that the Queen of England has embraced the Roman Catholio religion. It is, however, no new report (writes the Home correspondent of the South Australian Chronicle), for some years back it was said Cardinal Newman had succeeded in proselytising her Majesty. In support of this statement we are told the Queen's frequent absences from England during Lent are accounted for by the necessity imposed by the Romish Church of every member takingjthe sacrament on Easter Day. This is imperative among Romanists in all countries. The ceremony could certainly not be accomplished in England ; the dread of publicity and scandal, and also injury to the prestige of royalty, would be too great. We are told moreover that the secret of her Majesty's attachment to ' the Empress Eugenic lies in the religious sympathy which binds them together. The Empress is decidedly the Queen's mental inferior. To her Majesty's serious temper and reserved manner the childish dependence and naivete of speech of Eugenic presents a strong contrast. The rumour anent the Queen's perversion has been eagerly seized abroad. The latest ' absurdity set afloat is that her Majesty's proposed visit to Madrid refers to a secret pilgrimage to' Our Lady of Atocha, j to whom Queen Christina attributes release from all the perils by which she has been and is beset. Queen Christina is a strongminded woman, but it is nevertheless true that ehe pins her faith with as much intensity upon the protection of " Our Lady of Atocha " as the humblest peasant woman in her kingdom; By the way, the rumour I have been writing about includes two of the Queen's daughters 'as having followed their royal mother's example. A year ago there was, I remember, great consternation at a story about Princess Christian having embraced the Roman Catholic faith. I just give the above report as it is circulated here without attaching the least importance to it.

— The German Emperor is severely criticised for his Spartan notions of parental discipline. The little Crown Prince, aged six, and his next brother Frederick Eitel, but one year younger, have but an hour and a-half of recreation. Every morning the infant heir gets up at 6, commences his studies at 7, is drilled daily alone, and afterwards goes through military exercises with his brothers. Truly " all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy."

— A Russian prince cannot marry any Protestant or Catholic princess unless she is willing to join the Greek Church. Our English princes are not free to espouse Catholics, and therefore cannot go courting to Austria, Italy, Belgium, or France. The Austrian, Italian, French, Spanish, and Portuguese families are cut ofE from all Protestant and " Orthodox " princesses, however lovely and lovable they may be. The heirs to Denmark or Sweden would probably forfeit their thrones if they brought home a Popish bride.

— Madame Mutsu, wife of the Japanese Minister at Washington, since the season has begun, has made over 1200 social calls, and when she came here last spring she could not speak a word of English. Now she can carry on a conversation, and is able to remember and correctly pronounce the names of thousands of people to whom she has been introduced.

— I will briefly describe (writes a Home correspondent) a few of the dresses worn at the Queen's first drawing room held at Buckingham Palace on Tuesday:— Mrs Ord, a fashionable physician's wife, wore one of the two high bodices which the Queen's regulations allow. Train and bodice of sapphire-blue velvet, the train lined with pale blue satin ; the petticoat at the back also of blue satin ; the sides veiled with point lace, the said sides being formed of a splendid piece of brocade, cream colour, richly flowered ali over, Hack edge w.aj hpr.de.red

with brown far. Mrs Playfair, another London doctors wife, was dressed in pure white. The f rqnt of her gown was made of a piece of wonderful old rose point which had once adorned a cardinal's robe, and the satin aiid brocade which composed the other part of the drefls Were chosen to riiatch the dead white characteristic of the la&e. The train Was made of brocade with designs of white peacock's feathers woven in. Mrs Playfair's 'ornaments were diamonds and emeralds. Mißs Playfair's presentation dress had. a petticoat of white tulle trimmed with white satin ribbon and clusters of lilies of the valley tied with white ribbon placed thickly all along the bottom. The bodice and train were of white silk. The former was finished at the neck with a perfect mass of lilies arranged to form a berthe. Miss Hilda Mackenzie, daughter of Sir Morell Mac- : kenzie, was also presented. Her dress was likewise decorated with lilies. The white j satin petticoat veiled with mouseline de soie, with lilies to form a border. Bodice and train of white poulte de soie, with deep Directoire moire sash round the waist. " Flower "

dresses, as they are called, were in, plenty. A lovely specimen of this class, beside the two already described, Was of white silk, the front of the petticoat covered with tulle Caught up and dotted all over with snowdrops, a thick fringe of the same flowers going round the bottom.

— Mrs Astor, of New York, never invites the same people to dinner twice in a season. There is a certain list of persons whose due it is to be seen at her board, and that list is so large that she has no chance" to repeat invitations, which are sent out many weeks in advance, so that there can be no possibility of " previous engagements."

— Tuesday was a gala day, and no mistake, for the London florist. First- there were the hundreds of large drawing room bouquets; and then there was the wealth of flowers lavished on the Empress Frederick at her departure. Among the floral gifts, I noticed one exquisite bouquet of white lilac and the daintiest of white orchids; another was of

pale violet orchids, and yet another was

nothing but a mass of lilies of the valley ; but prettiest of all was, perhaps, the magnificent basket of various flowers, the handle of which was covered with tiny brown ivy leaves, among which nestled quite a cluster of yellow rosebuds, and which the South Eastern Railway Company presented to her Majesty.— Home papei.

—The marriage of the only son of Lady Elliot, Mr George Kelsall, with Miss Dallas, niece of the Earl and Countess of Lindsay, was celebrated at Kilconquhar. The bride, who was given away by her uncle, wore a dress of ivory satin, bodice and sleeves trimmed with swansdown, and petticoat draped with old Venetian point lace. Her wreath was of orange blossoms and white heather, the veil being fastened with diamond stars, the gift of the bridegroom. Early in

the afternoon Mr and Mrs Kelsall started for Edinburgh en route for the south, the bride

travelling in a dress of emerald green plush, trimmed with Norwegian otter, with mantle, toque, and muff, en suite. Mrs Kelsall is a daughter of Mr J. A. Dallas, French lecturer at the Otago University.

—Whilst the Empress Frederick Was in England every one spoke in highest praise of her Majesty, but now reports say that the officials and servants both at Windsor and at Osborne felt great relief when the royal widow took her departure. They affirm that the Empress was authoritative and inconsiderate. She is a restless and disappointed woman, and feels herself superior in every way to the persons she meets — so rumour asserts, and perhaps truly asserts. Viewed from afar, the Empress is a grand and mournful personage, whose defects are but as spots on the sun.

—Scent pencils, composed of solidified perfume, are a novelty. They are fitted in silver holders, have a tiny ring attached to them for fastening the watch-chain or chatelaine, and when rubbed on the hands or any part of the dress emit a delicate odour. , — A Transatlantic paper gives the following amusing description of ,the Duchess of Newcastle's elaborate trousseau: — "It consists of the most Frenchy of French gowns, over under-garments cut in patterns worn by the zenana women for 1000 years or more. All the materials were brought from the East, too, and consist of dozens in the finest, snowiest India wool, which is almost as smooth as silk — linens that are called in their picturesque phrase, 4 woven wind,' and crapes and foulards soft enough to be drawn through a ring. These materials are made up into garments, with an unpronounceable Indian name, which extend from the neck to the knee. For the upper part of the body this supplies a soft swathing without bulk, clasped on the shoulders and at the waist with curiously wrought antique ivory and gold clasps. Below the waist it turns into Turkish trousers, which are clasped at the knee by more of these clasps, which also serve to hold the silk stockings, doing away with the garter. Every bit of this material is hand- woven, and tinted in the most exquisite dull Eastern shades, which can only be secured from native vegetable dyes, but much of it, the larger half in fact, is snowy white. The corsets are something absolutely unique — a simple and superior substitute for all the ' health corsets ' so much vaunted by dress reformers in this country. Hindoo women have worn such for centuries. They are made in the shape of waists, and while they give the body absolute freedom in movement are sufficient to support the figure and give a smooth surface over which a dress can fit as well as over any ' hand of iron ' in a satin glove ever manufactured by a Parisian corsetiere. They are made of the skin of a certain Indian wild goat, which, when the animal is taken young, is susceptible of the highest finish in dressitfg, so that it becomes like velvet for softness and flexibility, yet does not stretch or give with us: Miss Oandy ordered a dozen of these corsets set with gold eyelet-holes, laced with silk, and dyed in all the delicate shades to match her tinted underwear. Over this corset is worn a dividec skirt which Western reformers arc struggling for now, and which Indian women have been wearing time out of mind. These are made of silk to match the rest of the underwear, are all in one piece around the waist, dividing lower down into two wide trousers, some of which are gathered around the calf of the leg, others falling loose tp $?. ankje,s, Qv§r ftus i

strange Oriental t wear the modern slim Jbirectdire gown is particularly effective, and one reason why Miss Candy's assumption of the Elripire' styles has been so particularly becoming is because o$ what she wore underneath it." —The Emperor oi Austria is said tor have become bent with grief, and his hair has' turned snow white since the tragic events at Meyerling. He has provided funds for a perpetual daily mass in St. Stephen's Cathedral foribhe repose of the late Prince Rudolph's soul, but has peremptorily forbidden his son's name to be mentioned in his presence. — The World announces that the decline of the bustle is making life a burden to the furriers this winter, for all the sealskin cloaks and coats get out of fix in the back and have to be remodelled below the waist. Ladies have a pleasant way of insisting that the coats were not made right at first, and of swearing that they have on the same dress that they wore when the garment was J fitted ; consequently the only remuneration j the manufacturers receive for the alteration is the small amount of fur they carve out of the back. These small pieoes are more marketable than might be supposed, for the popular trimming . for ladies' gowns next season is to be seal edging or piping, which may be made from these small pieces. One dealer has already received an order for 100 doizen of yards of this fur trimming, preparatory to next season's demands. — The Empress of Russia was more fond

of her Danish home than any other of her sisters and brothers, and when she was about

to leave it for Eussia she wrote on the

window pane of one of her favourite rooms at Fredensborg, "Mit elskede Fredensborg, farwell" (My beloved Fredensborg, farewell).

— A new occupation for a woman is that of superintendent of weddings. A young woman in her late twenties who makes a success- of the profession is installed in or near the house of the bride 1 prospective some little time before the ceremony. She selects the trousseau, advises what is latest and finest in underwear, buys the material, designs and makes or superintends the making of the gowns. She is au fait in stockings, boots, gloves, laces, and hankerchiefs. She sees to the millinery and the jackets and wraps. She gowns the bride's mother and the younger sisters, if any. She dictates to the bridesmaids, and is the fairy godmother who thinks of everything and lets the engaged couple enjoy themselves at their leisure.

—Curiosity is an essentially feminine virtue, but most observant observers have observed that a man is not at all unwilling to listen to the information his inquisitive wife may have gathered.

— Ten thousand laundresses in Paris have formed a trades union with a market of their own, a minimum' wage, and a regular counoil of administration. The council consists of of six washerwomen of irreproachable morals, who, when they are elected, take "a solemn pledge entirely to exclude politics from their discussions, and to organise balls and concerts for the amusement of their fellow members.

— A pretty story is told in English provincial papers regarding the circumstances under which Mr Chamberlain made the acquaintance of his wife. By a curious coincidence it appears that Mr Chamberlain's son played the part deus ex maohma in the marriage of his father with Miss Endicott. The young man had met the lady when he visited America the year before Mr Chamberlain went there to negotiate the Fisheries Treaty. On his return home he spoke with so much enthusiasm of Miss Endicott that the father, carrying an introduction from his son, called at once on the Endicotts. We know the sequel of the story. The same'spell of fascination was cast over the father, and in course of time the lady— younger than any of his children— became the right hon. gentleman's bride.

— Six bridesmaids at a recent fashionable wedding were attired to represent violets. Their gowns were of delicate green crepe, the exact shade of violet leaves, and trimmed with a peculiar tinsel fringe, to represent the hoarfrost through which the first spring violets look out on the new year. The Empire corsages were of deep violet velvet, clasped by a pair of enamelled violets, diamondhearted—the gift of the bride— and each girl wore a wreath and carried a bouquet of natural violets.

— Madame Patti has been careful not to take her most valuable jewels with her to South America, nor to leave them at Craig-y-Nos. They have been deposited for safety with a banking firm in London.

—One of the most successful dinner dresses of the New York season was worn by a debutante, and had a remarkably surprising effect. It was made of cream-white crepe, the entire skirt laid in accordion plaits. It was colourless until the wearer moved, and flashed out a number of pale but distinct rays. Each plait was lined with a delicate stripe of pale telue, pink, and orange India silk. Over this was a Directoire coat of cream-white moire, the tails lined with old gold and finished with a gold -embroidered waistcoat and deep cuffs. This is one of fcwo prevailing styles that only a few years ago would have been voted too highly theatrical for wearing in a private drawing room. But this is a season when " effects " are sought after, not only in (costumes, but in surroundings. —That Mrs Levi P. Morton will be the leader of fashion in Washington for the next four years is beyond a doubt. Unlike any of the ladies who have taken precedence in the White House since the war, she is fortified by the experience of not less than 20 seasons in the very best circles of Continental and New York society.— New York Sun.

— The notorious Parisian champion of women's rights (Madame Astie de Valsayre) is again amusing the public by her efforts to wear masculine attire. She has formally notified the Prefect of Police that in the snowy weather the femine petticoats get wet and give their wearers violent colds. Such garments, she says, are only fit for women who have nothing to do ; so on future occasions when business takes her out in bad weather she intends to dress as a man.

—A new dinner favour is a tiny jewelled pin— like a lace or bonnet pin— with which the guest may fasten tbe^napkin to the table cjoth, The hostess who introduced them

was obliged to explain their' ptUpme in life as her guests proceeded to use tndtt! tb'pln them on the knots of flowers which faf. &% each plate. They were found so convenient that this individual fad has really sprung into a general "fashion. —In London the distances are so great that it is very difficult even for people who like one another well to meet often and cultivate their friendship.- If they live in different suburbs they may spend mttch time, many shillings,- and a great deal of shoe-leather in seeking each other out. While they are separated serious illness may attack one home, the inmates of the other being entirely ignorant of the visitation. Sometimes friends learn by a line or two in the newspapers that one whom they really valued and loved has' been removed by death. For, unless a man or woman has means and leisure to cultivate his or her social relations with thoroughness and care, such shocks are sure to recur, and each time they painfully impress people with the loneliness of London life, the vast crowd j acting like a fog in which the forms of friends are blurred or blotted out. — Tele^ graph. — A novelty for children in the form of a skipping-rope which plays tunes while it is being used, has been introduced. There is a small musical box fixed at the end of one of the handles of the rope, and the turning of the rope puts it at once in action.

— There never irere, says the Pall Mai

Gazette, so many royal widows in the regal circles of Europe in existence at one time as

there are at present. Beginning with Queen Victoria, the Empress Eugenic and the two German Empresses, Augusta and Victoria, there are now Queen Christina of Spain, the Duchess of Albany, and, latest of all, the Grand Duchess Stephanie, whose aunt, the mad Empress Carlotta of Mexico, has never put on widow's weeds, as she is in daily expectation of the arrival at her present home of the Emperor Maximilian. What a brilliant destiny that unfortunate prince threw away when he left the charming shades of Miramus to run after the will-o'-the-wisp grandeurs of a visionary empire in the New World. He would have been now, by the death of his nephew, Prince Rudolph, the heir to the Austrian throne, and popular and beloved as he was, he would have been rapturously hailed as the future Emperor by the nations under the sway of Austria. Napoleon 111 did his most fatal work when he lured the intelligent, amiable Maximilian from his conjugal happiness and the brilliant possibilities of his future, to work out his own sinister designs, which were not for the aggrandisement of the unfortunate Archduke, nor even for the regularisation of French claims in Mexico, but which were simply covert acts of hostility against the United States. " I have carved you an empire out of a block of silver," was the remark of Napoleon to Maximilian when the latter came to take leave of him. It was not an empire, but a sarcophagus that the, crowned Mephistopheles had hollowed out' for his luckless guest, and not from a block of silver, but from one of granite — not in sunny Mexico, but in the dim funeral vault of the Hapsburgs.

— The Empress of China, it appears, is always chosen from what is called the " Eight Banners," an expression used to describe the Manchu or Imperial Guard. When the time comes for the important selection to be made, all the girls, children of these body-guards, who have reached a particular age, are summoned to the Dowager Empress' presence; and the first thing they must do is to satisfy her Majesty as to the nature of their horoscopes. These are carefully inspected by the astrologers, who, bythe bye, call themselves by the pompous title of " the officials who inquire into heaven !" The girls whose horoscopes correspond with that of the Emperor are picked out by these gentry; for it is the essential point in a Chinese marriage that bride and bridegroom's celestial records should well agree together. The stars having thus, as it were, given them good credentials to start with, these favourite ones are conducted into the immediate presence of the Awful Lady who is to decide their fate ; and from this more limited number she again selects a few who are to reside "with her in the palace until she' has had an opportunity of observing their manners and characters. Finally, the most desirable maiden of the lot is chosen as the bride-elect of the young Sovereign. In the present case the elder Empress made choice of her own niece, whose father is a deputy lieu-tenant-general of the Manchu army ; and the young lady has undergone a vigorous course of instruction as to her coming duties and the intricate ceremonial, in which she will be expected to be perfectly au fait when she is married. With her were chosen two

" fourth class " wives, who have shared in these preliminary^ teachings ; for the Emperor is allowed a good few helpmates over and above the lady who shares his throne, and these "inferior" wives^are also chosen by the Dowager Empress. Poor fellow ! it is to be hoped he will find them amiable and charming, since his life must be unhappy, dull, and lonely. The Chinese themselves describe it as " solitary as that of a god 1" for he never is allowed to be natural for a minute, but must regulate every act of daily life according to a minute ceremonial, pre« scribed by the royal astrologers and their 200 tedious books of etiquette for each individual circumstance. Nobody so much as speaks to him erect like a fellow mortal, but the servants and officials crawl into his presence on all fours. What an existence !

— Nothing is more thoroughly mistaken than the idea that a woman fulfils her duty by doing an amount of work that is far beyond her strength. She not only does not fulfil her duty, but she most singularly fails in it, and the failure is truly deplorable.

— Mrs Cornelius Vanderbilt, when she gives dinner parties, uses a solid gold dinner service set with uncut gems, and with some courses Dresden and Sevres plates worth more than lOOdol a piece.

— Kerosene freezes solid in Dakota, and it is as much a part of the domestic economy to melt the cake of kerosene as it" is to wash the dishes.

—The Empress of Austria has resolved, on the advice of her doctors, to goto Wiesbaden shortly with her daughter, Princess Valeric, and go through several weeks' treatment oi massage at the bands of. Pro<

fessor Met&gerVwhc? htd before treated fcej Majesty at Aaseterdani.