TABLE TALK. . Monday, August 18.

Otago Witness, Issue 2527, 20 August 1902, Page 61

TABLE TALK. . Monday, August 18.

On Thursday evening, Mrs J. M. Ritchie had a small bridge party at her residence, "Balvraid," Pitt street.

On Friday Mrs A. W. Morris entertained some ladies at luncheon at her residence in Heriot row. The table was beautifully decorated with large white Christmas roses, and rose leaves varying in shade from bronze to green. Amongst those present Ibesides Mrs and Miss Morris were Mrs Macassey, Mrs W. Maitland, Mrs Michie, Mrs P. C. Neill, Mrs Rattray, Mrs Reynolds, Mrs Ritchie, Mrs Roberts, Mrs Turnbull, Mrs Turton, etc.

On Fiiday evening' the ever-popular Univeisity ball was held in the Agricultural Hall, where a most enjoyable evening was spent, both by dancers and chaperones. J?he latter weie represented by Mrs Benham, Mrs Jackson, Mrs Ritchie, Mrs Sale, Mrs Salmond, Mrs Shand, and Mrs Jtoyse. The committee, which, consisted of * Mrs Marshall, Miss A. Batbgate, Miss Peep Gibson, Miss K. Ulrich, Miss fi. Webster, Miss IJartleman, Messrs T. S. Fleming, G. H. Graham, J. R. Hotop, J. a Neill, R. J. Ritchie. G. X Turner, A. T. Spence, G. R. Ulrich, and T. S. Little (hon. secretary), have much cause to congratulate themselves upon the success of their labouis. The large hall (which was gaily decked with bunting, festoons of evergreens, and coloured Liberty hangings) was used for dancing. Mr Sondeihoff's excellent band played upon a platform hung for the occasion in the centre of the hall. The stage was carpeted and prettily fitted up as a drawing room, while the gallery and stairs provided friendly nooks for sitting out. A most choice supper, the preparation of which had been personally supervised by some of the ladies, was served in the Victoria Hall, which was comfortably carpeted and set out with small tables covered with delicacies where the weary dancers could sit down and enjoy their supper, combiuing rest with refreshment, while listening to the strains of music •wafted in from the distant ballroom. Yelilow was the prevailing colour here, the floral decorations being a dainty mixture of ■wattle, chrysanthemums, and daffodils. Violets and primroses scented the air with their delicate perfume. Three spirited extras were played respectively by Mrs Petre, Mrs Shand, and Mr Ulrich. Altogether the ball may be pronounced an unqualified success. There were many pretty dresses to be seen, the number of white being very noticeable, which was, perhaps, due to the fact that this ball is always considered a good opportunity for debutantes to make th»ir first appearance in society ; and upon this special occasion a, great number took advantage of it. There were between three and four hundred present, among the number being Mrs James Allen ; Mi«sIna Allen, in pale blue silk covered with string-coloured lace, tucked net 6leeves and black velvet finishings ; Miss Allan (debutante), in pretty dress of white silk ; Mrs Armstrong, handsome gown of white satin trimmed with chiffon, and lace; Miss Bexs (debutante), soft

pouched; Miss Audrey Jackson, -white silk ; Miss Joachim, black with white chiffon on bodice, large chou of blue ribbon ; Miss" Kempthoi ne, blue satin, with strips of string-coloured insertion ; Mrs Kirkcaldy, black net over silk, string-coloured insertion ; Miss KiikcaJdy, ■white silk trimmed with pale blue velvet, blue rosette in hair; Miss Minims, buttercup bilk, frilled skirt, tucktd bodice ; Mi?s P. M'Lean, white satin fulls edged with lace, bodice trimmed with chiffon and lace; Mrs (Dr) M'Knight, white silk "with bright green bow; Miss Molly Neill, heliotrope crepe de chine ; Mrs "Taik, black; Mis* Paik, white silk tnmmed with chiffon; Mi,-s Patteison (debutante), white silk, with frills of white silk and chiffon on skirt and bodice, bouquet of white flowers; Mis Petie, white, covered with black sequin net ; Miss Ramsay, white silk with bunches of vrolets ; Miss Lorna Rattrav. black silk, with white lace ; Miss Lucy Rattrav, blue satin with lace on bodice ; Miss Rawsou, white silk with pale pink flowers on dress and in hair ; Miss M. Reynolds, black ciepe de chine; Miss Reid, white; Mrs J. M. Ritchie, pink silk brocade, with stringcoloured lace and green velvet ; Miss A. Roberts, black, with coloured floweis ; Mrs Salmond, black ; Mrs Sale, heliotrope and pink brocade, with cream lace trimmings ; Muss Sale, pink and heliotrope ; Miss (Dry Siedeberg, pale green brocade ; Mrs Shand, black; Miss Shand, black satin with white chiffon on bodice; Miss Alice Shand, white satin, tills of satin edged with lace, silver passementerie straps on shouldcis ; Miss Fanny Shand, pale blue silk; Mis SinoLur, black satin with lace ; Mi K s Sinclair, but-ter-coloured satin trimmed with lace; Mivs Speiiue, white brocade; Mi-s Stewait (Auckland), white silk, white lace, and pink floweis; Mrs H. L. Tapley, white; Miss Tapley, pale blue silk with lace, bunches of heliotrope violets ; Miss Vida Thompson, white Liberty s=ilk bodice trimmed with chiffon, white and pink flowers ; Mi?s M. Turton, yellow silk ; Mist. B. Ulrich t black silk with pale blua trim-

Mrs and Miss Peep Gibson are returning to England, and leave by the Mokoia on the 24th inst., to join the Ormuz at Melbourne.

The engagement has been announced of Miss E. Orbell (Timaru) to Mr Harper (Christchurch).

Mrs Tower (London, foinierly of Dimedm) has lately become engaged to Captain Tipping, R.N. (England).

Another engagement which has 1 itely taken place in Cliristchurch is th.it of Mi^s Jithel Deamer (Chmtelnuch) to Mr Phil Hume (late of Dunedin).

Mr and Mrs James Mills letmned fiom Chiisteburuh on Satuidav.

Mrs and Mi-s Gibson have gone to Oduuuu for a few days.

Miss Drnni.iton is expected lo return this week from Chi'stchuich. wheie she has been staying on her load home fiom Auckland.

IXVERCAR^ILL.

August 18.

The Invent rgill Rowing Club's Carnival was brought to a close on Satuiday evening, after a mo=t successful iuu duiing the week. Every night the hall m.is crowded, and the whole affair lias been a great success. I hear the total takings amount to between £500 and £600, which should enable the club to get some good new plant and place them in a bound financial position. The Rev Mr IlVwif^on, of Dunedin, i"- at present visiting Imeicaigill. Mr E. Howhson (Dunedin) is at present in town.

Mi.^s Mackerra", of your city, is at present the guest ot Mrs \V. T. Hazlett.

Mr J. Herdman has purchased Mr Vernon's property in Gala street. Mr Carswell. inn., has puicha&ed Mr

It may be that the reading and enjoying once more of Lowell's charming e«bay "In Praifce of Winter," no less than the actual presence of winter itself, has reminded me that here at least is a season which we have always pas.sed by in silence. Few w riters have chosen to painff for us a finished picture of winter ; indeed, at this moment -the only vivid pictuie of winter wlu'h I recall is that which ZangwiH gives us in '"The Master." Lowell's c.-say, with its quaint conceits and vaiied quotation.--, anakes very pleasant leading.

" I once spent a winter in Diesden," he wnte>, "a southern climate compaied with England, and leaUy almost lo.st my 1 expect for the .snow when I .saw him groping among the ch'mney pots opposite my bedroom window as he. described his impoverished ai<_ in the iky.' 1 And, again, be tflLs a little story which appeals wondprf 11 1 ly to me — who would sooner f<ir be hungry than cold : "I dunk there is nothing no demoralising as cold. I know of a boy who, when his father, a bitter economist, was brought home dead, said only, ''Sow we can burn as much wood as we like! "

But if winter is an unpopular theme with writers generally, poets have sung of it, as they iadeed have tung of evciy thing. One tells us sadly enough that

Winter make 3 fu'l half the year,

Aud labour half of life. And yet another, with Welcome note of thankfulne.*.', reminds us that

Though wo bless the flowers of Jiuie, And all its charms remember, We've double blessings for the rose Tha,t blossoms in December. While Emerson, with his instant intuition of human life, describes for us how in winter

. . housemates sit Around the radiant fireplace, enclosed

In a tumultuous privacy of storm

Yet there is no gainsaying the truth that in their tribute to winter, the poets have lacked the inspiration, of love, the fervour

that glows in their songs of summer, th.% delicate intuition of their carols of spring. Spring suggests to the poet the long, long; thoughts of youth, the pearly tissues of undimmed Hope, the dream-sweet possibilities of incompleteness, the purity of first love.

Summer speaks to him of the feast of roi,es, the pride of life, the meridian of beauty and of love. Autumn, rich and splendid in the fiuition of Spring's showers and Summer's suns, fruit-laden, vinecrowned, borrows her only touch of sadness from her approaching mariiage with Winter. But Winter? Ah, Winter speaks to the poet of sorrow and adversity — of old age, of death. Fven our most busy outdoor poets have found but half-hearted inspiration in the austere beauties of winter ; even as Ciceio, in his "Treatise on Old Age," speaking with the ease of a man of the world, no less than the sweet reasonableness of experience, does but prove to us that old age, at its best, is all that youth is not.

Beautiful? Yes, as winter is beautiful, with the chilly beauty of negation. Yet is not this '"Prayer of Old Age" pathetic and beautiful? Oh Lord' I am «o used to all the byways Throughout Thy devious world, The little hill paths, yea, and the great highways,

Where &aints are safely whirled. And there are crooked ways, forbidden pleasures,

That lured me with their spell ; But there I imgered not, and found 1:0 trea-

Though, in the mire I -fell. And r.cw I'm old, and worn, and, scarcely seeing

Th.2 beauties of Tliy work, I catch faint glimpses of the shadows fleeing Through valley 3 in the muik ; Yet I can feel my way — my mem'ry guides

I bear the voko and smile. I'm U3ed to life, and nothing wounds or chides

Lord! let me live awhile! But there siro c!o3er tie 3 than these that bind me,

And mako me long to stay And linger in tho dusk where Death may find nic

On Thino own chosen day: There's One who walks beside me in the gloaming, And holds my faltering hand— W'Hhout her guidance I can make no homing In any distant land. Scma day when we aro tired, like children playing,

And, wearied, drop our toys — When all the work and burden of our staying Has mingled with our joys — With those wo love around, our eyelids drooping,

Too spent with toil to weep. Like some kind nur3e o'er drowsy children stooping,

Lord, tako U3 homo to sleep!

On th.9 principle th«t "distance lends enchantment to the view" we may, now that winter is nearly over, days lengthening, birds twittering in the still leaflets trees, spring flowers thrusting up timid heads in the boiders, enumerate indulgently tho pleasures of a season we shall not remember again for a year. For I don't believe thafc anybody leally likes winter! We admire its beauties, we count its pleasures,, enumerating each one with the same sweet reasonableness with which Cicero exhorts the young to live a life which may store up the honey of virtuous memories whereon to feast in old age. Year after year, as winter draws near, we remind ourselves how many pleasant plans, crowded out by the lazy summer, shall wake form and substance in Winter's long evenings. And yet, we secretly dread its coming, and grudge each sunny splendour of too-fleeting autumn.

In this silent, instinctive shrinking from winter lies something strangely akin to the universal human shrinking from death. The con»cientious persistence •with which, we enumeiate the pleasures of winter corresponds to the gentle orthodoxy with which we remind ourselves that Death is Peace — is Rest — the portal to another life, •and the crown of tin's life. The secret unwillingness with which we shrink from the cany-ing out of our admirable theories about winter is but a fainter reflex of the deep, physical shrinking with wiiich all life tries to elude Death. '

One of our fallacies aboufc winter is that all tho world of nature is asleep — dead ; the snow is its winding sheet. Just a fallacy. liOfk in your shrubbery, town dweller. See the soft crimson glow of the blossoms nlonij tho strong stems of the Pimis japomca : the myriad golden stais. which fl"ck the dark twigs of yellow jasamine ; hfre is an arbor vitie, covered with its tiny conf-like floweis, from wliich the chill y bie<.z3 shakes clouds of golden dust, and thc-ie a cii^eiful laureatinus, dressed for her \vi<>tei brii'il.

Ytt, thoirjli we pcarc* know the treasures i'ur j/irdens and shrubberies hold, we aie b>i\v with oilier mittfr*. We go io afternoon teas and "At homes" vowing each molt* stup d than the last, and finally giving one ourselves just to wipe off our social obligations. We are Viiy busy, too, in winter, wiping off lone a 1 rears of "dutv-ra!K' We exercise omselves physically at ping-pong tournaments, dances, and hockey, and peiform intellectual feats at literature classes, reading and gl^e clubs. 'I here are orchestral and liedertafel concerts, the occi.«:f>nal attractions of the theatre or opera, and yet «ome evenings remain, saved from the olla podrida of public and private entertainment. Into these we try- to crowd tho pleasant tfhemts wo dieamed of for sewing, 1 pad ing, carving, painting or music, study or meditation.

In vain ! Winter has flown by once more, regardless alike of our fut le plans and our desultory grumblings. Nor doe« winter add to the housewife's caies in town, though, via coal hills and tram fares, it successfully lightens the purse of the hou«e father. The greengrocers' shops, where the golden glow of piles of oranges lights up the dimnesy, side by side with the crimson and waxen yellow of apples, flanked by ru.sset walnuts, and neighbouied by the deep purple of pa,ssioa fruit, are as exounite to the eye as they, are tempting to the appetite. The faithful "John.."' constant 011 his round 1 --, sub^

white dress of silk with frills and chiffon ; Mrs (Dr) Barnett, pale blue satin trimmed with cream lace ; Mif-s A. Bathgate, black silk with pale blue chou ; Miss D. Bathgate, black, with white lace, large chou of pink ribbon ; Mrs Benham, black silk covered with black sequin net ; Mrs Bothamby, black, with chiffon and lace ; Miss Bothamby (debutante), becoming dress of white tatin, with pretty bouquet aid jonquils ; Miss Burnett, ?ofb white silk dress trimmed with pale blue ard bunches of violets ; Miss Butterworth. pale blue ciepe de chine ; Miss De Lautour. black silk and net, with yellow ro^e* ; Miss Fergus, pale green satin with tucked skirt nnd folded satin bodice, niushed with black velvet ; Mips F. Fergus, pale blue satin, with lace and chiffon ; Mrs Linuo Ferguson, rose-pink crej>e de chine, tucked skiit, bodice covered .with black net, handsome diamond ornaments; Miss Ciissie Foisyth (debutante), most becoming frock of white silk, the bodice trimmed with nas^emeuterie and lovely white rase?, rhe -^cirt a double one, formed of a heavy kilting fiom waist to foot of skirt, a diiinty sash of white chiffon finishing a quaint and pretty costume ; Miss Milly Graham, blue brocade, vi ith bunches of violets ; Miss Cara Graham, white silk and chiffon: Miss Peep Gibson, pale piuk silk with stiiug-eoloiired lace trimmed with a brighter shade of pink velvet ; MUs'NeUie Haggitt. pretty shade of bright pink silk ; Miss Edie Hart, white silk drtFs trimmed with chiffon and lax:e ; Miss L. Holmes black velvet, with white lace : Mi«.s Hotop, black disss with pink rosette ; Miss Hislon, black ; Sliss Inglis. white satin, with pale blue chou ; Howard Jackson, black ; Mis-s Jackson, yellow &iik, the skirt tucked, bedice slightly

1 mings ; Miss Ussher, white silk with pink roses ; Mrs Walcott, old gold satin ; Miss I G. Webster, black velvet, bodice trimmed 1 with white lace ; Miss Wilkie, yellow corded silk with white chiffon, frills; Miss j Doia Williams, black ; Miss Constance

Williams, black ; Miss Woodhouse, cream corded silk, frills of cream chiffon. Among the gentlemen present were Messrs Armstrong, Allen, Burke, Bairon, Fleming. Fish, firaham, G. Graham, C. Hnivey, Hogg, Jackson, Kirkcaldy, X. Kirkcaldy, Lowne, M'Lean, Moore, Petre, Ritchie, Salmond, R. iSise, Spence, Spencer, Stewart (Auckland), Stewart. Tapley. Turner, Anstruther, "Ihomson, L'lulli, L. Williams, Williamson (Gisbmne). Dr Batnctt. Dr Stanley Batchelor, Dr Ernest Williams, etc., etc.

Mis? K. Rat tray returned labt week from I'maiu, •where she lias been paying some Vi«ltS.

Mrs Maud returned to Oamara on Thuisday.

Miss Amy Mos-s (Auckland) is at present paying a shoit viMt to Dunedin, and is staring with ills (Dr) Alexander in Albert fetreet.

Miss Ina Allen returned from the Island I lip on Wednesday.

Mr and Mrs J. M. Ritchie- intend leaving by the Mokoia next Sunday to ppend a few weekb in Australia.

Margueiite Boyd is going to Melbv the same steamer to visit some

Miss bourne friends.

Norton's property in Yarrow street, -and is now in occunation.

A. Hanan have gone back

Mr and Mrs J. to Wellington.

Mr C. Osmond (Dunedin) is at present in town.

Mr Smith, of the Alliance Assurance Co., was in town during the past week. Mr and Miss Farquhar passed through Invercargill last Monday en route for Melbourne.

Mr A. Morris has returned from his short visit north.

Mr and Mrs G-. Waymouth are giving up their hou«e at Gladstone, and are coming to reside in the Bank of New Zealand premises at the end of this month.

We were all greatly shocked to hear of the sudden death of Mrs Perston, which took place at Nelson last Saturday. Great sympathy is felt for the parents and relations in their sad bereavement.

Mrs W. R. Cook is at present in Nelson

Mr and Mrs H. W. Royds have returned from Christchurch, but as Mr Boyds has had to go to Melbourne on business, Mrs Buyds and child are staying in Dunedin.