LADIES' GOSSIP.

Otago Witness, Issue 2375, 7 September 1899, Page 51

LADIES' GOSSIP.

— Amongst the few lady war correspon* dents called into activity' by the SpanishAmerican war, ]^tiss Muriel Bailey may claim a distinguished place. She is probably the first woman journalist who has been able to describe a battle from experience gained by actually mingling in the conflict, in spite of the remonstrances of the soldiers. It was the battle of Caloocan. one. of the earlier engagements between the Americans and the Filipinos, that Miss Bailey determined to acquire her impressions of the conflict at first hand, went to the front. Turned back at one point by an officer, who begged her to go liome. for the bullets were flying thickly, Miss Bailey betook herself, revolver in hand, to another dangerous part of the field, and there ,' watched the full fury of the fight, saw sol- | diers falling dead and wounded all about her, followed them in theii charges, and, in i short, witnessed every scene in the battle, j remaining on the field until the hoisting of the American flag over Caloocan proclaimed J;hat the fight had been fought and won, fit is almost needless to add that her ex- ' periences enabled this conscientious lady j journalist to produce for her paper a very vivid and realistic account of the combat. . — One of the novelties of the London season is the driving of four-in-hands by ladies. j' A few years ago such a sight was unknown : now we have Lady Warwick. Lady Curzon, Mrs Mackey, and a host of minor luminaries all following suit. Four-in-hand driving, however, can only be indulged in by women with a perfect and well-drilled team ; no woman could really manage and hold an unruly quartette. But few celebrated old whips could ever do this, and the • muscles and arms of an ordinary woman | are totally unequal to the strain. Still, ! under certain circumstances, it gives plen--i sure to the dl%ived I% i ver > if l ess to the nervous ! oceupgnts that sit behind. The pace, toi?, ; must necessarily be slow and cautious; galj loping a team driven by women cannot be i thought of. Yet it was just these daring feats that fraught the old coaching days ! with excitement and intense interest. The lives of the passengers were in the hands of . the coachman, and both he and they knew ; it. — Lady Vtolet Greville, in the Graphic. , — While^n some ways the path of the | pauper seems to be made easy in Den1 mark, there is anothei side to the question. The authorities there have the right to deal in very severe fashior with those among tho poor whom they consider disreputable. There are- workhouses — quite different from the poorhouses — to which "efraclory paupers may be sent. These are really houses of correction, where the offender may be con- ] fined for a period iiot exceeding six months. Moreover, indooi paupers are divided into grades, according to their deserts, and separate institutions are assigned _to the various classes. Thus the vagrant when he retires to the workhouse to end his days, is not placed in the same house, noi does j ho enjoy the same treatment as the deserv j ing poor. It is admitted, however, by i many officials that there is a tendency to jbe too easy in giving relief. Under one head oi anothei every applicant can claim 1 he)]), and under these circumstances officials I are not too careful about the grading of , them. Still, it is claimed that there is little ! hereditary pauperism in Denmark. Pauper ] children are almost universally boarded out ; and often they do not know that they are paupers. Herein, of course, lies the great advantage of boarding-out. But we ' should think that under the Danish system i there would be no need for hereditary leanings to make the path to pauperism easy. — The Hospital. —As shop assistants women have up to. ■ the present been employed mostly by drapers. A large firm of grocers is now, ; however, trying the experiment ot women behind the counter. — The tide of American travel to Europe must be a source of tremendous profit to flower dealers on the other side of the Atlantic. All the travellers bring away flowers. It is estimated. that the bouquets carried away by a steamer are worth from £1000' to £3000. ' Indeed, it is rare to find one of these liners whose passenger -list does not produce an aggregate oi flowers amounting to at least £1000. Most-.jot these flowers, instead of i being thrown away as soon as they are sent. 1 out of the 'ooms, which they invariably are after a few hours, are carefully sorted toi remove the faded blooms, and are put into . the ice house, and when the vessel reaches ; her English port they axe cold by tltt:

stewards, and the receipts divided among jfche men. 'Cute Yankees arriving by slower Steamers often buy from English flower 'girls, in the belief that they are English blossoms, the product of the gardens of (New Jersey or Long Island. — Chronicle. — One of the most gifted of the growing band of lady doctors is Miss Arabella 'Kenealy, daughter of the once-famous lawyer who defended the Tichborne Claimant, f Dr Arabella," who at the time of the jgreat trial was a child of six, practised' successfully for many years as a doctor in {London, until she discovered that there was 'snore profit in her pen than in her prescriptions. She has written some clever toovels, the first of which, "Dr Janet of Slarley street," embodies many of her own experiences. Dr Kenealy has now made Jier home at Watford. — Brides whose names are also those of powers are now using such blossoms exiendively in the decoration of "their wedding .dresses. — For the first time in an English civil court ladies haye been allowed to act as interpreters. At a London County Court all the parties in one case hapjgpened to be of French .nationality. No interpreter of that language being attached to the court, the judge permitted two young ladiec who were present to act £n that capacity. —It was said, says a writer in a Home !>aper, when bicycles came so prominently nto genuin& favour that the slim waist was loomed, foi cycling and restricted breathing room could hardly be compatible. That Jfchis supposition was erroneous is illustrated ko-day, for the size of the feminine [jmiists is not increasing with the number »f their bicycles. The apparent measurement of the average girl's waist is calculated to inspire us with awe if not with adjaniration. How a comparatively tall young Woman can walk, talk, eat, and bicycle, and jjjperforni the ordinary duties of every-day , life, within a circumference of 19in, is an interesting question. Of course, heredity imay have something to do with the present (condition, of affairs'. Our mothers, grandmothers, and. female ancestors for some generations back consistently compressing ftheir diaphragms for the sake of appearance might gradually change the average Waist measurements, until at the present -moment we have the formerly normal size keduced considerably in the natural course |of evolution. But those advertisements, those notices to the stout and the unweildy calling upon them to grasp the opportunity of patent corsets, calculated to reduce the size of the broadest waist without harmful lacing or undue compression, have they nothing to do with the microscopic waists bf these days? The modern schoolgirl jw-ears stiff corsets, lest her athletics increase the width of her waist with' the ibreadth of her shoulders; and older girls 'go -to even greater extremes to obtain the 'desirable sylph-like form of the penny noyelette. The bicycles can do nothing. A little discomfort is nothing weighed in the (balance with a waist, and the system gets iaccustomed to anything in the course of Hfcime. The result iB not always so artistic |as the owner believes. There are some girls of this type who constantly look as Si they were melted into their garments, and as if the slitting of a few seams would aid the natural function of rerßpiration. The effect with these is especially unpleasing. Even in waistbelts fashion is a ficke jade; but in this item of press, details change less than in most, fefhe sequined belts which a couple of .years ;were so much worn are being sold to-day for a tenth of their original price — a sure )sign that their days are numbered. Some .elaboration is seen in the fashionable belts, and they are worn to harmonise in tint /with the owner's dress. There must be some demand for the gilt or brassy type of waist belt, as they are shown in the shops, though where their beauty lies it /would be difficult to say. For light shirts pnd blouses, the white silk washing belt (takes first place, and with a goo# clasp of silver or gold, nothing looks better. — Consequent upon, the outcry resulting from the many accidents caused by the inflammability of flannelette, many experiments have been made to render it less easy of ignition. The most successful material of the sort yet evolved appears to be •"raised" only on the side worn next to the skin. —In old times the Czar could choose ihis Czarina from among the daughters of tis Boyards. Messengers were sent all over the country, and, with the aid of the and the Popes, they frvould get introductions to the families bf the nobility in which were blooming marriageable daughters. Those who were found beautiful enough and suitable for •the exalted rank to which they might be called, were taken to Moscow and subemitted to the Sovereign's appreciation. When Ivan the Terrible decided to take % spouse, not less than two thousand girls jtvero brought to him in the course of a jingle week. Among them was a perfect

beauty whom his messenger could not resist introducing with the others, though she was only the daughter of a merchant of Nijni-Novgorod. And, after all, it was this lady, Marfa .Sobakine, who won the frightful prize, and married the Terrible Ivan. All the "fiancees of the Czar" were located in ,tbe same palace, in the largest room of which was a throne for the Imperial master. Slowly the young ladies, dressed in their best frocks, entered the farthest door, walking along on the slippery marble floor to show the surety of th£ir feet and the grace of their gait in difficult circumstances. In front of the Throne they prostrated themselves, and waited till a kerchief embroidered with gold and pearls was put on their shoulders. The kerchiefs were all alike, only in one of them was hidden, knotted in a corner, a thin loop of gold, and when it fell on the neck of the chosen one she knew that she would be called the Czarina. As soon as the elected girl had left the Throne Room she was taken into the Czar's apartments, and, while kneeling before the sacred icons, she received the blessing of a Pope, who baptised her the " daughter of the Czar," gave her a new name, and put on her head the coronet of a princess, which she was supposed to wear constantly till the day of her marriage. After the ceremony she returned to kiss the hand of her lord and master. Though many old noble Russians- still regret that this custom no longer exists, and would gladly have seen it revived, no one could deny that it was often the 'cause of great troubles and scandals among the nobility, and the story of the unfortunate Eufimie Ysevolojska is mot yet forgotten. She had inspired a violent love for the Czar Alexis Mikhailovitch, the father of Peter the Great, and he had decided to take her as Ms wife, though, for the sake of "etiquette, he had consented to receive at the Kremlin the other beautiful daughters of Russia who might be brought to him for his selection. However, Morosoff, his favourite officer, had determined that his Imperial master should many the daughter of his step-brother, the Boyard Miloslavski, and invented a cruel ruse to part the lovers. He handed to the women who were to dress the hair and adjust the coronet on the head of Eufimie a tremendous sum of money, and the perfidious maids drew the tresses of the girl so tight, and placed the pins so awkwardly, that she had scarcely re-entered the Throne Room to pay obeisance, when she felt intolerable pains, which, combined with her emotion, caused her to swoon. At once Morosoff got up and declared loudly that t/he girl was epileptic and could not become a Czarina. She was sent home with shame, and afterward shut up in a convent ; her father was accused of having dishonestly hidden the -terrible diseiase which afflicted his daughter, .and transported to Siberia.