ALICE'S LETTER TO HER READERS.

Otago Witness, Issue 1898, 19 June 1890, Page 37

ALICE'S LETTER TO HER READERS.

It is a terrible state of affairs when a woman has got nothing to say, but that is the predicament I find myself in this morning, and two whole printed columns to fill up. Women who are given to gossiping ought to take in hand a newspaper column or two. What nice racy paragraphs these would be. All that was said to a visitor, and after th 6 visitor had departed for instance. It would read before : " Well, you look pale, my dear. Sit down there and let me put this cushion to your back. Whatever have you been doing to yourself, you poor dear ? You must take care — you know you are not strong, and good people are scarce." Afterwards it would appear : " Fearful fright she is getting ! Looks as old as Adam's wife. Delicate 1 Bosh. No more delicate than I am ! Likes to be made a fuss of — that's all ; and the way that fool of a husband of hers pampers and waits upon her is sickening. Ah, well, it is nice to be some women." If you do take to corresponding, use an Independent pen or ink pencil. They are splendid for anyone who has much writing to do. You can carry it about wherever you go. It is rightly named, for you are quite independent of ink bottles, and nibs, and pencil sharpeners ; and really some of the pens one ,finds in a telegraph or post office are quite enough to put one into an ill mood for an hour or two. " Write directions clearly," says the ' notice. "Of course," you think, and made a start, and the result is that you fish tip a fly with the first dip and deposit it neatly in the middle of the form. Attempt No. 2 sends the pen right through the paper, and after five or six desperate efforts you manage to write " Coming to-morrow ;" which gets delivered " Eunning the marrow." Besides this there is the humiliation of being suspected of not being able to write, much less to write " clearly," for when you hand your message to the clerk at the counter he glances at it, looks hard ac you, and says, contemptuously, " Shilling !"

Now for my correspondents. Ah ! here is the first. A question which has not been asked me before. " Dear Alice, are onions good for you ? " Well, I'll tell you. Hearing that if you ate a raw onion before going to bed your liver would never get out of. order, the night before last, having nothing better to do, I thought I would try. So I selected a nice white-looking one and skinned it, and

cut it into dainty thin slices. My eyes watered a little, but still my experience has taught me that there is no good without its corresponding evil, so I persevered and sprinkled it with pepper and salt and a little vinegar. It looked deliciously cool, and I lifted a portion on my fork and ate it. My 1 it mas hot ; but, thinking of the after results, nothing daunted I continued. Before it was done I was weeping copiously ; but feeling I had suffered in a good cause, I retired. Presently a blissful state crept over me. I forgave all my enemies, and did not care very much whether I ever saw any of my friends any more or not. My last recollection was of a pensive mood, in which I murmured some such lines as — Night is the time for rest. How sweet when labours olosfl, To draw around an aohiug breast The ourtain of repose, when all at once I seemed to be reading a letter, which ran :—": — " My dear, finding the house very lonely, I at last decided to take in a lodger. I did not like the idea at any time, but I like it less dow. He was a quiet gentleman-like man and very clever in his way, but I didn't like his way [neither did I when I got to understand it]. He was, I found, a sort of quack doctor, and had patented a new medicine, with which he practised upon himself, and he died." (When I woke up I liked him better. He was at least an honourable man, but ahead of the times. Any other man would have practised upon someone else and have killed the patient, not himself). "He died here," the letter continued, "and ever since he has been buried I have an uncomfortable feeling that he is wandering about the house and garden in spirit. Knowing that you are greatly interested in anything mysterious, I want you to come down and investigate the matter for me." " Certainly," I thought, and though there was a long journey to take by train the onion was strong enough to carry me anywhere, and off I went. It was a cold, frosty, moonlight night (I expect by this time my feet were out of bed), and the house looked very uncanny and lonely, and the garden more uncanny and lonely still ; and a duster of interested people stood about like shadows from phantomland whispering one to another, and glancing at me who, was to be the magnet to attract the spirit of the honest man whom Diogenes searched for so long in vain. From room to room I went — no spirit was there. I called, and my own voice only returned to me in hollow echoes ; then I went into the garden, and crawling along the frosty paths beneath the damp trees (I suppose I was outside the bed by this time), I still searched for the spirit of the dead man. All at once something jumped upon my back and helc me tightly round the throat. If was the honourable ghost. My friends and neighbours called, " He's found ! he's found 1 " I thought I was lost, for that spirit had got more stick-to-it-iveness than anything I have ever met on earth. Tighter and tighter he held, while the joyous crowd said, " How happy you are to be the means of helping that poor soul out of trouble 1" But I didn't see it. With a last and desperate effort I shook myself free and sat up in bed. I thought I saw the gentlemanly spirit in the corner but upon striking a match it proved to be my rocking chair. " Never again " I murmured thinking of the onion. But I leave you to please yourself. My liver is all right now.

The musical public were delighted to have the opportunity of appearing at the first orchestral concert of tho season on Wednesday night. A very full hall was the result ; and the Garrison Hall only looks well when it is full. A very pleasant recollection lingers of the ladies' evenings that were given last season, and also the ladies' evenings of the Savage Olub. It is to be hoped that invitations will be out soon to others of a similar character, for the ladies are complaining of the general dulness. On Wednesday night the orchestral selections were all of the loveliest description, and even after the high-class music we have been treated to during the last six months, the orchestral pieces were very beautiful. They say that comparisons are odious, but not always so, and unless one can compare one thing with another there is really no way of judging. The public have learned with very great pleasure that a musical festival is proposed to take place at the end of six months. The idea is to unite the various church choirs to take part, and in this way a strong chorus will be formed. If it proves a success it is suggested to repeat it every year. Now that a number of the Exhibition Ohoir voices are in such good training, it is a pity not to keep them in practice. To return to the orchestral concert. The twc vocal selections were by Mr W. Young and Miss Matheson. The latter sang " Embarrassment " very well, and Mr Young's " The mighty deep " was a treat to hear. Two other gems were a 'cello solo by Herr Winckelmann and a cornet solo by Mr Charles Ooombs ; but where all was so good it is hard to particularise. Among those present I noticed Mrs Mackenzie, Mrs and Miss Dymock, Mrs and the Misses Reynolds, Mrs and the Misses Rattray, Mrs and Miss Muir, Madame and Miss Fodor, Mrs Finch, Miss Henriques, Mrs Michie, Mrs Grierson, Mrs and Miss Williams, Mrs and Miss Gibson, Mrs A. Towsey, Mrs Weils, Mrs and the Misses Mackerras, Mrs Robert Wilson, Mrs 0. R. Chapman, Mrs and the Misses Spence, Mrs Maunsell, Mrs G. M'Lean and Miss M'Lean, Mrs and the Misses Sise, Mrs Ogston, Mrs Oolquhoun, Mrs Hocken and Miss Buckland.Mrs Davis, Mrs Bachelor, Miss Bird, Mrs J. F. M. Fraser, Mrs Henry Williams, Mrs Ooughtrey, Mrs Hart, Mrs Theomin.and Mrs Isaacs. These ladies looked very nice — some in opera cloaks and some in evening dress, but the costumes were not new enough to require description. While on matters musical I may mention that Miss Blaney has gone on a trip to Melbourne to have her voice x trained. If it retains its present tone there should be a treat in store for Dunedin audiences when she returns.

As I write this a line of some lovely verses occurs to me — "Not one in ten return of those that go ;" and you will observe that it is true. They may return to visit us, but the connecting links are broken. The chain of circumstances that bound them to a certain place is snapped. Other interests are formed and olden things gradually fade and fade like the familiar outlines of our native shore when we put out to sea. Rising from my desk to lcok for a scrap I wanted my eye has

fallen on an old letter which quotes these words — When distant far from those we love, Is there a charm the heart can fetter ? When months roll on and still we roam,

Is there a cure ? 6, yea 1 a letter. Eemember that, all you who are absent from home. You foiget among new interests and new faces those who are waiting at home daily wishing for the letter that does not come. Half an hour will accomplish the task, and it will go like a swift-winged bird, and carry gladness to those who have the right to expect it at your hands. I know the reminder pricks the conscience of some of my readers. Well, I meant it to do so. Have you ever waited for the postman day after day, and watched and waited in vain ? or when the knock was sounded hopefully flown to receive— not the letter that you longed for, but another ? Old mothers cry themselves to sleep at night, and old fathers sit mournfully by the fire because of this omission, when there is no cause for distress, only a great negligenoe that deserves reproof. " Blessed be the inventor of writing," I think it is the Arabs who head their letters, and those who are kept posted up with the news from their absent friends certainly have reason to appreciate it. Women have always been noted for their ready pens. It seems natural to them to write chatty, interesting letters that tell you just as much as you want to know about a subject, but men regard it generally as an insufferable nuisance to write letters to anyone but her. " She " makes the man eloquent, and a man who can not write nice things to lux will never grow eloquent. In after years, doubtless, he would give a great deal to obtain that packet tied with blue ribbon, and I remember hearing of one woman who said to her middle-aged husband, " I had a sweetheart once who wrote this to me," and she read the letter aloud. Her spouse laughed heartily at the conclusion, and said, "My dear, the man who wrote that to you was either a knave or aa insufferable fool. No honourable gentleman in his right mind would so address a lady." " Yet I always thought him an honourable man," replied the wife. "He was not," roared the husband enraged. " He was either a cad or an ass." "My dear," she responded, " it was you."

[To ensure publication in the forthcoming »ssne letters must reach the Witness office not later than Saturday night.] DOUBLE WEDDING AT GLENKENICH.

As I was favoured with an invitation to be present at a double wedding on Juue 5, I must try and give you a description of it. The marriages took place at the residence of the brides' mother, the sbrvice being conducted by the Rev. W. Scorgie at half-past 2 o'clock. Miss M. Sutherland was married to Mr W. Bakdale. the bride being given away by her eldest brother Mr J. Sutherland, the groomsman being Mr J. Bskdale, brother of the bridegroom, and the bridesmaid Miss Clouston The second ceremony was performed Immediately after. The brida in this instance was Christina Sutherland, and the bridegroom Mr T. H. Ferguson, the bride being given away by her second brother, Mr A. Sutherland. The groomsman was Mr W. Moffat, of Clinton, and the bridesmaid Miss Mary Sutherland. The brides wore very neat dark blue dresses, long veils, and orange blossom. The bridesmaids, Misses Clouston and Sutherland, woro respectively a terra cotta robe and a neat grey costume, I will try to give you a description of a few of the dresses worn by the ladies atthe ballheld in the evening inthehallatKelao.snd given by Mr and Mrs Dunnet to celebrate the happy event. Miss Edwards, cream, pale blue sash and gloves to match ; Miss Lattimore, white dress, old gold sash and gloves ; Miss L. Lattimore, white dress, pink cash and gloves ; Miss Aitkin white embroidery dress ; Miss Paton, neat navy blue, white front j Mlas A. Paton, silver grey and brown trimmings ; Miss Livingston, smart black cashmere with black and white figured trimmings ; Mies Barr, grey and brown j Mibb Smith, navy blue costume, trimming* to match ; Misß J. Smith, neat navy velvet, trimmings to match ; Miss Aitohiaon, white dress with gnld sath ; the Misses Adams dressed alike, blue silk skirts, white embroidered bodies, gloves to matoh; Mies Todd, elegant grey costume with watered silk to match ; Mies M'Duff, grey and brown; Mias A. Eskdale, black costume braided in gold ; Miss Ferguson, black dress and cardinal front ; Miss Ross, SJige green and plush to match ; Miss M'Rae, white embroidered dress and white silk gloves ; Miss Scott, black costume with striped velvet ; Miss BBkdale, black braided costume, black watered sash; Miss Keys, dark dress ; Miss ti. Olouston, white embroidered dress, pale blue watered sash ; Miss Leask, black dress, pale blue Liberty silk front, cuffs and gloves ; Miss Cloußton, pink lawn with pink sash and front of Liberty Bilk ; Miss Shaw, black dress, white sash, Among the married ladies I noticed Mrs Paton in a stylish black dress, watered silk and jet ; Mrs Officer, black corded silk ; Mrs J. Dunnet, black caßhmere, white lace cap, which was very becoming ; Mrß Ross, brown trimmed with plush; Mrs Whelan, ruby velvet, white lace front ; Mra Buchanan, grey silk ; Mrs Riddle, dark green costume with jet trimming to match ; Mrs 0. F. Dunnet, plain cashmere skirt, satin jacket with jet trimmings ; Mrs Lough, grey silk dress, scarlet opera cloak ; Mrs A. Smith, drab cashmere, pale pink front ; Mrs W. Clouston, coffee-coloured costume, plush to match ; Mrs Dickson, black grenadine ; Mrs M'Rae, neat figured dress of grey and bl&Gk. I must not forget to mention that the newly-married couples graced the company with their presence for a few hours ; the brides wearing the dresses they were married in, and their oiange blossoms. The brides received over 100 presents, both useful and ornamental. Music of a first clasß order was supplied by Messrs Wiltshire and Paton, violins ; and Miss Paton and Masters W. and A, Dunnet, piano. — Greta.

WBDDING AT DUNTROON.

The most noted event, socially, this week has boen the weddiDg of Mr William Bell to Miss Annabels M Bean, the Rev. Mr Hay conducting the marriage ceremony. The bridesmaids were the Misses M'Bean, the groomsman Mr Robert Bell. The bride was prettily attired in a pearl grey cloth dress, with side panels, &a,, of pinkings of pearl grey, and white, There was a cluster of orange blossom on the bodioe, and the long tulle veil was fastened with a wreath of the same. The bride carried a lovely bouquet of white flowera and maidenhair ferns. Miss Jessie M'Bean looked exceedingly nice in a navy costume, with white moire sash and ve»t. Miss Louie M'Bean wore white, with terra cotta sash. After the ceremony the guests adjourned to partake of the wedding breakfast, which was withal a most sumptuous repast That evening [fully 150 guests nssembled at the ball which took place in the Duntroon Hall. I will give you a description of some of the dresses worn on Jthe occasion. Mrs Gard, black with jet trimmings; Mrs Sutherland, gey oheck and cream Liberty vest ; Mrs Bell, cobtume of green ; Mrs J. Grant, striped material with coral pink trimmings ; Miss Campron, navy dress with moire trimmings ; Mils J, Grant, navy embroidered dress trimmed with white ; Mra M'Gregor, black cashmere and pink vest ; Miss M Gregor, black net: Miss M. M'Gregor, white with shrimp ribbons and sash ; Mrs M'Quade. gree i silk and moire ; Mrs Hay, dragon green costume ; Miss Hay, white dress, rod sash ; Mi<B Niven, white Liberty silk ; Miss Davis, grey check and white trimmings ; Mrs Southwick, heliotrope velvet; Mrs A. Grant, navy blue velvet ; Mrs Duncan, brown embroidered c sturae ; Miss Duncan, ceam and pink ; Miss Wilson, pretty shade of blue; Miis A. Wilson, costume of fawn; Miss Kennedy, wlvte with pale green; Mies Milmine, cream and blue; Miss J. Milmine, peacock blue and white Liberty ; Mi6s Francis, cream muslin; Miss Leonard, navy costume, pale blue front; Mrs O.Hille. black silk; Miss HiUe, goblin b!ue and plußh trimmings; Mrs WHglit, navy costume ; Mrs Cain, brown silk ; Mrs Thomas, silver grey silk ; Miss R. Grant, pale blue.

CONCERT AND DANCK AWAMOKO.

A concert and dance was held in the Awamoko sohooihouse on Thursday evening. After the programme was gone through the people parto ik of a plenteous tea, which was kindly provided by the ladies of the district. Then the room was cleared for dancing, which web kept up till the small hours of the morning. Among the ladies present I noticed

Mis* Smlllie in a grey drees trimmed Trlthjblaok military braid ; Miss E. Smillie, light blue trimmed with silk to' match; Miss E. Geddeß, grey with black sash; Mies Sullivan, blue and cream print trimmed with cardinal plush; ;Miio King, black with white gloves; MUs MAuley, red, trimmed with silk to match; Miss Wilkie, green trimmed with striped green silk ; Miss M'Leod, blue cashmere, with blue pluih front. All present enjoyed the evening's entertainment, and it is said that it was the best dance ever held in the Awamoko schoolhouse.—Biddy.