LADIES' GOSSIP.

Otago Witness, Issue 2363, 8 June 1899, Page 51

LADIES' GOSSIP.

— What period of life is most enjoyable? This is a question suggested by the gossip of the veterans as interesting as that of their diet or their habits. Mr Frith, R.A., by the way, declares lie lias no rules about eating, and he tells a friend who gives porridge as the secret of old age that if old age can only be had by living on porridge, he prefers a short Jife. As to tlie enjoyable period of life, the late Mrs Keeley said life grew healthier as the years went on, and that mankind had better days before it than behind. Mrs Cady Stanton, who is 83, says that life' was never fuller or sweeter to her than it is now, when she understands the true philosophy of life and wastes no energy in regrets of the past or fears for the futuie. " The future is a sealed book, aud the pa^fc uaunot be remedied." She lives in tlie present, bending all her eneigies to the duties of the hour. Sir Charles (iavan Duffy says, " The most tranquil, and serene period of my life was from my sixty-fourth to my seventy-second year.'

— Princess Kaiulani, whose death,, took place recently at Honolulu, was for some time a resident in England, where, indeed, slie was educated. She was the daughter of the Princess Likelike, the bister of Queen Liliuokuhmi, and Mr Archibald Oleghorn, a Scotch trader, who still resides at Honolulu. As heir-presumptive to the throne of Hawaii, she was, when she arrived in ttiis country, placed under the nominal charge of Mr Singh, of the Foreign Office. She was then just 18 years of age, a pretty and charming girl. Her olive skin, dark eyes, and winning smile gained her many friends. She thoroughly enjoyed English people and their ways, and was A r ery popular among her school-lellows.

— It is said that Irish girls have the best eyes, the keenest wit, the brightest complexion, and the most beautiful hands of all women in the world, the hands of the American girls being declared too narrow and too long, those of the English girls too plump, German girls' hands too broad 'and fat, while the Spanish feminine hand is the least graceful of all. — The wedding dress of the late Empress of Austria was, by her wish, cut up and made into robes for the priests of a church at Pesth.

—It is said that when the Duchess of Marlborough. was a child her fate was foretold by an astrologer with an accuracy and detail which later years have made astonishing. Although at that time the millionaire's little daughter was barely out of the nursery, it was predicted that she would wear the " strawberry leaves" and become

the mother of a line of kings. The first prophecy is already fact. As to the second, . the Duchess is said to believe implicitly in her high destiny. — The will of the late Empress of Austria brings to light a long-forgotten romance. Five years ago the favourite grand' daughter of the Empress, Princess Elizabeth, eldest daughter of Prince Leopold of Bavaria, eloped with a Bavarian officer, Lieutenant Seefried, whose suit had been •repulsed by the Emperor because the lieutenant was plebeian as well as penniless. On their elopement and marriage in Switzerland, Seefried was cashiered from the army, and the couple were forbidden ever again to cross the frontier of Bavaria. Now in her will the Empress shows that she has never forgotten the lovers. She has begged the Emperor, as a dying request, to use hi 3 influence on behalf of Baron Seefried and his royal wife ; with the result that he has now been placed on the retired list of the n Austrian army, and given permission to return to Bavaria with his wife He is to enter the German diplomatic service. — Lilli Lehmann, the famed Wagner singer, gave several recitals in Berlin this season, and at every one of them she caused to be distributed among her large and fashionable audience little petitions, imploring the ladies to stop wearing the '" corpses of little birds " on their hats and bonnets. This reform is as dear to her as* her voice.

— The dressing jacket worn when completing the toilet arid arranging the hb'r is termed by American women a '" combing aacque." — The German Emperor is .vVul tv re.gard the Empress as an ideal woman. "J can wish nothing better," he has said, " than that the girls of Germany should, like the Empress, devote themselves to the church, their children, and their cooking.'' — The expressed intention of Mdlle. Faure, the daughter. .of the late French President, to enter a convent has, it is stated, now been abandoned. Mdlle. Faure will therefore, at least for the present, re main at the head of the charitable association known as the League of the Children of France, which she founded, and which would suffer greatly were she to withdraw just now. At present she is occupied collating the numerous papers which her fathoi entrusted to her; and with which she intends to write an authentic • record of his Presidency. — Queen Margherita, of Italy, is an enterprising mountaineer. There are times when her Majesty, dressed in a tweed .suit, with gaiters and a small cap, will leave her hotel at 3 o'clock in the mornings and not return until 9.' in the evening; which fact being' borne in miridj it is riot altogether impossible' to ; believe that the Queen "experiences the greatest difficulty in securing a willing' companion on' her wanderings fron: •among, the ladies /of, the Court. - • .— • The' Princess of Wales, possesse-s at least r four valuable, .diamond . tiaras. Such omanferite ;co,st "prbtiabtyVfrom -£10,000 to ! £20 ; 000, .though? mafryL are much' more ex"pen*iv.&. ■ F,or .instance, . one -London jeweller has. sometimes in stock a tiara .priced- at ;£loo,oopi ,' though such - expensive articles j are "usually made, to special -order.' I — The' Archbishop of- Cjjjnberbury- has in !,his keeping the book in '.which the signaj ture's- of all Royal brides and bridegrooms | married in England are written. I — Women who are the possessors of ied I hair should wear black, blue, or white.

— Many of the ocean liners are now provided with a very ingenious machine for turning out large quantities of bread and butter or sandwiches. The slicer will cut either meat or bread, and the bread can be sliced without buttering, if desired. The machine cuts and butters 60 slices a minute, and with its aid 8000 sandwiches have been made in two hours. Tt does not matter whether the bread is stale or fresh ; the thickness can be graded to anything the operator wishes, and the quantity of butter added with equal certainty and uniformity. One movement of the hand spreads the butter and cuts off the slice of bread.

—'• Enough to stock a shop ' is a familial expression, but it is a fact that one wellki own lady in society at the present time possesses considerably over 800 pairs of boots and Bhoes

— Who is responsible for the latest feminine caprice in the way of baths historydoes not say-; but certain it is that the flower bath has quite caught on in Paris and won the approbation of the fashionable and up-to-date maiden owing', no doubt, to the peculiar virtue it possesses of rendering her skin smoo.th, soft, and fragrant as a rose. 'Che method of preparation is extremely simple ' Roses and violets hold sway in this, as in numerous other featurea of "my lady's '' toilet. To properly prepare the water for the bath at least two •dozen h roses • or half a dozen bunches of violets are required. Enclose them in a. linen bag, place them in an earthen vessel, cover wjth two quarts of water, and allow them to oimmev until the fluid is heavy with their fragrance This extract imparted to a tub of tepid water is said to be superior to any similar toilet preparation one may purchase at a shop.

j — The principle of the prdinary pneumatic tyre is now about to be applied to dining room chairs. Instead of stuffing a chair with' horsehair and worthless imitations, the stuffing will be simply a medium class of atmosphere. The seat will bo pumped up periodically in the same way as a bicycle tyre, and it will be guaranteed to be resilient and unp'uncturable, and several other long words which the inventor hopes to be able to throw out after he has finished going through the dictionary.

— Tti§ Vienna correspondent oi the Morning Post has been investigating the alleged decline in dancing. " I placed the master before Edouard Strauss in the following categorical manner : — ' Are we Europeans losing the art of dancing?' and I received the answer, 'The way the waltz j danced in Vienna now is unworthy of us. The fault lies, however, not so much wi^L the dancing masters as with the public, who no longer take grace and elegance into, consideration. All sorts of postures ara adopted in the ballroom, and no one seem* .to know how to hold his partner. Whal>^ then, has come over the Viennese to Rrqi

resembles a bird than a human creature, and it is really impossible to conceive anything more musical or flexible than her marvellous voice, which is always ,as clear as a silver bell."

—An enterprising lady, who is a proficient wheelwoman and a good linguist, has been personally conducting cycle tours on the Continent. The personally-conducted cycle tour, however, is not so popular^as the independent variety, and one series that was arranged by a lady had to be abandoned fuEs lack of support.

Cure for Canaries. — Says a bird fancier: " For the ailments of canaries it is not possible to do very much ; but when a bird is very bad a warm bath will often revive it. One canary, whose cage had been broken into by a cat and the unfortunate inmate carried some distance in pussy's mouth, completely recovered after it had been rescued in a seemingly dying condition upon being plunged at once up to the neck in warm water."

—In the United States and elsewhere there are now professional bridesmaids. These are usually young ladies of great beauty of face and figure, accustomed to the best society, and in every way qualified to assist in making the ceremony a success. They are handsomely remunerated for their services, and some of them are said to be on the road to accumulating fortunes. It is anticipated, too, that in all probability not a few will soon be in a position to give employment to some of their professional sisters at then* own weddings. —In recognition of her services during the late war, Miss Clara Barton, head of the Eed Cross Society in the United States, has been accorded the right of admission to the floor of the Senate when in session. She is the first woman in the world to be tlius honoured.

— When the Crimean War broke out two young recruits volunteered from their stay-at-home regiments to one ordered to the seat of war. They fought side by side at Alma and Inkennan and all through the awful time before Sebastopol. The war over, their regiment was ordered to India, and the comrades served through the great Mutiny. After nearly ten years of such service together, without a sight of the old country the whole time, the two came back to England — much impressed that of the numbers who went out with them so few could ever return. Leaving the army, they lost sight of each other for many years. When, not very long ago, they met again it was as patients at one of the Birmingham hospitals^— and there, dying within a day of each other, they lay side by side in the mortuary. —In Paris there is a hair specialist who is consulted by many fashionable ladies as to the shade which they shall tint their hah\ The lady sits between several mirrors, and, after a short conversation, during which her face is carefully studied, she receives the valuable advice required, together with instruction as to what colours "to adopt or avoid in dressing.

How are Your Eyebrows ?

It is popularly believed that if one's eyebrows meet it indicates deceit. Charles Kingsley endorses this belief, but Tennysaa has other ideas, and poetically speaks of "married brows."

In Turkey meeting eyebrows are greatly admired, and the women use artificial means to bring the brows to this condition, and if art cannot induce thin eyebrows to> grow, they make up by drawing a black line with paste. It would appear that the Greeks admired brows which almost met, and "the fashionable inhabitants of Eome not only approved of them, but resorted to pigments to make up the lack which sometimes existed. Some proverbs state that' the person whose eyebrows meet will always have good luck, while others state exactly the reverse. The Chinese say the " people - whose eyebrows meet can never hope to attain to the dignity of a minister of State," and in Greece of to-day the man whose eyebrows meet is said to be a vampire, while in Denmark or Germany it is said he is a werewolf.

Sonnets innumerable have been written on the shape of j the eyebrow, the arched style being preferred and styled by Herder " the rainbow of peace," because " when straightened by a frown it proclaims a storm." The old masters always painted the arched brow, and in speaking of his beloved Dante says, "The eyebrow, polished and dark, as though the brush had drawn it." A woman's eyebrows should be delicately pencilled and dark, though some prefer a contrast between the eyebrows and the hair.

Smelling Salts anil 'Wrinkles.

The woman who wishes to retain the beauty of her face — and what woman does not? — should forego the use of the smelling bottle, for, according to a physician who has lately been making experiments in that line, the use of smelling salts encourages wrinkles.

"If you don't believe me," he said, "stand in front of a mirror and inhale the pungent odour from a smelling bottle, and notice the number of lines that form about the eyes, nose, and mouth. Each sniff taken from the bottle causes the same screwing up of the face, and each time the unbecoming lines deepen. " Eemember, also, that it is an unpleasant experience which has called up these wrinkles. Those caused by laughing and talking are bad enough, but the wrinkles formed by the use of smelling salts give an absolutely undesirable expression

" But if you are already in possession of wrinkles that have been produced in other ways than by the use of salts, then smelling salts are a specific for removing them. In almost every case the wrinkles formed by laughing and crying are in an exactly opposite direction to those produced by inhaling salts, and in this case smelling salts act like a charm in causing the lines to disappear.''

Giving Her a Start.

Queen Amelie, of Portugal, besides being a fully-qualified physician, has many other accomplishments of a useful nature. She ia a born milliner, and has a room in the palace set apart for s j;he designing and trimming of hats and bonnets. In connection ■with this industry of hers a nretty tale is toW f .

Once, while out driving in the streets of Lisbon, she observed a large crowd surrounding spme object. The. Queen sent a footman to see what was the matter, and when he reported that a young woman had fainted, "she immediately left her carriage, had the unconscious girl brought to a neighbouring shop, and personally attended her professionally. The Queen caused the young woman to be removed to her home, had inquiries made about her, and learned the poor girl's history. She was a milliner, and, having failed to get employment, had ventured toundertake work on her own account for the support of herself and her invalid mother, but with so little success that she was nearly starved.

Queen Amelie sent at once some necessaries and commanded the girl's presence at the palace. Here she received her in the workroom, and handed the poor milliner three bonnets of her own creation.

" Take these as models," she said, " call them 'Bonnets 'Amelie,' and tell your customers they are made after the Queen's own fashioning." I

Her Majesty herself wore one of the identical bonnets, and commanded her ladies to do likewise. Within two months the once starving girl could take larger premises, and to-day she is herself an employer of over 200 women.