LADIES' GOSSIP.

Otago Witness, Issue 2355, 13 April 1899, Page 52

LADIES' GOSSIP.

— • Society often goes out of its way to obtain a fresh sensation. The latest American craze is to pose for one's photograph in a mummy frame. This startling fancy originated in Cairo. To obtain a mummy case in Cairo is a comparatively easy matter. The enterprising photographer there keeps one in stock for his American patrons. The picture is taken in this way : The subject steps into the case, which is placed on end, and the lid is then closed, leaving an opening just large enough for the face. It is a gruesome idea, but a popular one. The fad has attained such instant popularity, however, that many persons will not wait for a tour of the East in order to see a picture of their own faces peering out at them from a mummy case. The photographers prepare a photo of a mummy case and simply insert the face of the person desirous of obtaining such a unique photograph. — Almost all Japanese women make their own dresses. Even the present Empress, who has now adopted Western fashions, before her marriage used to make the gowns she wore.

— Many women who have pretty ankles and aie proud of them contract severe colds by wearing low "shoes in winter. Great quantities of blood course through the wrists and ankles every minute, and both veins and arteries are near the surface and therefore lose heat very rapidly.

— The German Crown Prince is rapidly growing up. He will be 17 next May, and is already taller than his father. His education is pursued with truly Teutonic rigour and thoroughness, and there are not many moments during the day which the youth can call his own. A few weeks ago, however, he had a half holiday, joined an Imperial shooting party, and bagged his first pheasants azd rabbits in the famous Spandau forest. 'JLhe next thing will, no doubt, be a shot at the wild boars, on which his father wages such impassioned war. — The Duke of Westminster sends a pretty story to the Spectator about one of his grand-daughters to controvert the view held in some quarters that children have little feeling for the sufferings of living creatures. The young lady in question, when about five or six years old, burst .into tears on passing a blacksmith's shop. On her mother inquiring the cause, she said, " Oh, mammy, they are nailing the donkey's boots on ! " We know a little boy who was so fond of animals that he once waxed quite indignant with his mother for speaking crossly to a cat. The same boy at an earlier period unintentionally one day cremated an ant with a burningglass, with which he was amusing himself in the garden. His distress when the nature of the act was explained to him was very great. Such instances only prove the folly of generalising from particulars. — English corsets ore made in very large numbers in the towns of Bri.stol, Ipswich, Portsmouth, and Sudbury. They are cut out 'by men, and sewn together by women, a good article consisting of perhaps 40 or more separate pieces. — • Gaston Worth, a member of the famous Parisian firm of dressmakers, has lately calculated the amount spent in France upon ladies' dresses, and he estimates the average yearly expenditure for gowns and mantles alone at the enormous sum of £40,000,000, ten millions of which are paid to French dressmakers by English, American, and Russian women. Thirty years ago the Count de Boursenne made a calculation quite as interesting as that of Mr Worth. The Count, who was theft Master of Ceremonies at the Court of Napoleon 111, endeavoured' to ascertain as nearly as possible how much was spent upon bnlls each season in gay and lively Paris. He found that more than 4000 balls were given during the season, and that about £2,750.000 were spent upon them. The cost of the ladies' dresses amounted to £1,200,000, carriages and cabs £100,000, and gloves £180,000. Flowers cost £70.000, and the same amount was spent upon hair-dressing ; while the bill for satin shoes alone was £90,000. He reckoned that the cost of minor ornaments was no less than £700,000, which sum is not excessive when one takes into consideration that it included lingerie, ribbons, and other odds and ends.

— The carpet in the Queen's private railway carriage cost £150. The curtains are hung upon silver poles, which are suspended upon small gilt figures, which cost lOgs each. The door handles cost £150. The whole saloon cost £6000.

— The latest yarn about Madame Sarah Bernhardt is that she hag given 200,000fr for a high silver comb, with the back set in flGwers made of sapphires, emeralds, amethysts, and turquoises. — Have you noticed how the fashion in card-playing has changed during the last few 33 T oars? Nowadays no one ever plays 100 or vingt-et-un, which were both the vogue about 15 or 20 years ago. What has become of lasquenet, which was the game of games at the club in Algiers in the days — not so far distant — when Mr W. "E. Norris wrote '"Mademoiselle de Mersac"'? Whist had a long innings, and is not quite bowled out yet. About the earliest text-book on whist was written, you may remember, by Captain Matthews, who contended with Sheridan for the hand -of Miss Linley m the days when all the world went to Bath. Does anyone play bezique now? And who does not shrug his shoulders at the mention of "nap"? The great change came with the coming of poker, which was probably introduced by those who had loved and lout at poker on the Transatlantic steamers.

Euchre, too, had an evanescent popularity.' But to-day whist, -of the antique Icindp is almost obsolete. In any of the West End clubs, where they play, you will not be-in-vited to play whist, but the games suggested will be " bridge," or " Boston," or, " solo whist," the last of which looks un-! commonly like whist, but is very different. — One of the most striking departures from old-fashioned styles is that adopted for the latest invitations to society festivities. The invitations to some of the most exclusive dances have recently taken the form of the visiting card'of the lady about to give the ball, on which have been written in pencil merely the date and time and the words " Come and dance."