SOCiETY AND ITS DOINGS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2454, 27 March 1901, Page 63

SOCIETY AND ITS DOINGS.

SOME SM.VRT SAYIKGS.

With the advent of the new century "Rita' has had published, by Mr Fisher Unwin, a new impression of her most recent work, "Vanity: The Confessions of a Court Modiste." It is a remarkable book, cleverly written and bristling with smart sayings and truisms, and although to some readers several of the characters and passages may seem exaggerated, it gives a vivid insight into the* social workings of society. In Wildash, the author has treated a delightful "character — an Irishman full of resource, who eventually marries an American heiress ; while fcacly Farringdou and Mrs feck are excellent types of their respective sets. The following are a few extracts from this bright and entertaining book : — Vanity lies at die root of every female heart — a desire to be beautiful, to be admired, envied, remarked. How is it one can be more confidential with a. French servant than an English one? Perhaps because one suffers uo loss of respect by so doing. Their interest is genuine, and they do neb presume upon it. Of very few of our English domestics can that be said. You must rule youi customers, not be ruled by them. Never "suffer dictation, or you are lost. Di was a perfect encyclopaedia of fashionable knowledge. She never forgot a face or a scandal. To the Irish all things are possible. Pleasure is not an inventive god. One dinner party or one ball does not differ very, much from another in glory. Society is very like my chintz roses. It only requires effects, no matter how startling or bizarre. All its satin passes for hand-piinted, if it's only worn by the right person. The destruction of art is the public's joy. They always hail the blot on the picture with enthusiasm — I suppose because they can understand that. Popular tunes are a success, but they are not music, and popular plays are not art. and popular books are not literature. The British public is a dull ass, who loves to have his ears tickled. In reality they should be flayed with nettles. It's a sorry business: — journalism — And what is good in it women are doing their best to destroy. They worry editor-, vulgaiNo interviews, turn news into a hash of personalities, attempt to criticise what they don't understand, and,*t,ake miserable pay for the hoinour of airing "I'm on' such and such- a journal." A woman will bully her husband, torment her , lover, insult her inferiors, snub or betray her friends, but she vs ill lick the dust off her dressmaker's shoes in order t i procure an original gown, or be pronounterl the best-dressed woman of her set. It is ignoble, b\it then your society dame has no fine feelings. The world is her god, and the world exacts the lowest form of homage. People say money rules the world. Not a bit of it — impudence — impudence ol speech — of manner — of mind. Fashion is a foolish god ; its feet are clay and its head a bladder, but its hands are of steel, and never loosen their grip on its feminine idolaters. I'm a Bohemian heart and soul. I hate respectability as much as I hate the "good Christian family" — the people who wouldn't go to a theatre for any consideration, }-et bully-rag the servant if she's five minutes late in the mornina or leaves a bread crumb on the carpet. Take a This ride through any London suburb, and you'll see them by the score. They're as common as their own red brick villas with the garden plot in front and the plant and the Bible in the window. Fancy these women taken out of a world where they didn't change their gowns five times a day or gossip over tea and nips oi cognac in each other's boudoirs. Where there were nc scandals, no liaisons, no intrigues, no Paris oi Moiue Carlo, no afterdinner card parties for baccarat or bridge, no cotillons, no rivalries. Grea' Scott ! What would they do? Tc be well dressed is nevei t feel one i^ well dressed. Life is only a phase, i passing moment, a breath in a mirror. She sits under the trees and glowers at the crowd, and covers herselt with jewellery till she looks like a decorated Christmas tied

: Bettc- an out and out Mackgua-d with the strength in sin boldly than these effete, ; corrupt, miserable norii* who have crept i into our firude--ttec"!e life, and ruin minds : and morals wiih their poisonous follies. It is a mistake for ;> wramn to marry i a man older than hci.-elf. He either bnli lies, her or manage* her. Y\"lien "-he has ! the of seniority she con buliv or • miinpge him. Women make pets of them (modern i youths). and they ait really quite haun- ■ je>s. h-ort -jf toy dogs, warranted not to : bite. ! lou can buy a "p-ir" us eaf-ilv as, yon can, • buy a penny bun. ; Did ever any hu&band give to his witi wha< he would to a Momun whose claims s were impersonal— time, uttentioii, homage,. . foi-bearance? ; An Englishwoman always looks her best . with- an outdoor -background. C4ive her > a hat and a coal and .skirt ard she's all right. It is in room;. — -\t great pageant.*— . she suffers by contrast with her° foreign , neighbours. She is too conscious ot her : clothes, and if she has jewels she puts them > on in a mass. She wants everyone to .see what a quantity she possesses.' anc 1 hau?s i them all over herself as a smiaw Lan^s i beads. ° ; To modern woman jewels stand in pliro . of domestic virtues. &Le"4 certainly neve;rank them as "fai above rubies ' The best things in life are bcyoi:J iv*,e i money to buy— love, health. "<*\n pui.v, , friendship, happiness. Imitation', of c-.iih [■nd- all -you may purchase, but the leui thing — .10. , Another peculiarity of women is that they take violent fancies to peifectiy un- • suitable articles of attire, forgetting th.it the beauty of the thing itself lo&ey all its charm if worn by the wrong person. A pretty woman can never be wholly and entirely a business, woman. Her ' glars won t let- her, and men have eyis. The church is about the most comfortless . and irreligious institution that modernity has invented. Christinas Day is always the dullest and most depressing in the whole year. It is the essence of 50 Sundays rolled into one. , Life in a country house is mainly composed of eating, drinking, and flirt'iig I -Actresses are generally as difficult a Jass to please as to fit. It is one woman in a thousand wlig proves her friendship. The other 999 arc content with professing it. Scandals are burrs that cling to a wo,« man* skirts too close'foi- deiaehtfieiil. • The liw i.s always on the man's side in , even-thing. Xo wonder, considering men ■ made it. - • ■