LADIES' GOSSIP.

Otago Witness, Issue 2649, 21 December 1904, Page 73

LADIES' GOSSIP.

— The autumn fashions ai'e at last a settled fact, and one is relieved to find thut a little more "provision has been made for the flesh " than has been the mode of late. Skirts are fuller ; lines of drapery need no longer flow only in meagre perpendicular '■ effects " ; and those ladies who choose to think that beauty does not consist wholly in length without breadth need no longer do violence to their feelings — and that in more ways than one. It is_well that the vigorous cult of slenderness has come to an end without more disastrous results, and that the athletic girl has held her own through it all — to the salvation of the race ! At one time things bid -fair to rival the times ol the elegantes of the Court of Louis

largely in her hands. Socially the governess is worse treated than an unskilled female labourer. She is a sort of Mahomet's coffin. She rests midway between the scivant's kitchen and the dining room of her employer, and though her remuneration is often little greater than that given to one of the housemaids, yet she has to dress herself in a style suitable for the drawing room. Hers, indeed, is a hard lot. An inteiesting letter by Charlotte Bronte i elating to the life of a governess is now for sale at a London West-end bookseller's shop, and in it she makes the following remarks: — "A governess's experience is frequently indeed bitter, but its results are precious ; the mind, feeling, temper are there subjected to a discipline equally painful and priceless. I have known many who were unhappy as governesses, but not one who regretted having undergone the oidenl, and scarcely one whose character was not improved by passing through it. Should your daughter go out as governess, she should first take a firm resolution not to be too soon daunted by difficulties, too s>oon disgusted by disagreeables ; and if she has a high spirit snd sensitive feelings she should tutor the one to submit, the other to endure."" — Chronicle.

—It was after the services at the funeral of a prominent man of letters at Princeton r.ot long ago. A young woman from New York wafa escorted to a handsomely equipped carriage, which she understood had been placed by a l-eiglibour at the disposal of out-of-to^n frit nds. She told the Goachman to drive her to the cemetery, where she would wait until the others should return. Presently, while waiting for the funeral coi'tege to pass. ex-President Grover Cleveland approached the vehicle, and, apparently not perceiving its young oocupant, told the coachman to drive in some Other direction. The coachman's answer, wh'ch the young: woman did not hear, evidently confused Mr Cleveland Instantly she leaned from the carriage and courteously begged him to get in, saying naively that she was in no hurry

expressing the hope that she might soon iecover. Before waving the King went into the "parlor"' and inspected the photographs. His Majesty presented a souvenir of his visit to the invalid, and afterwards sent a signed photograph of himself to her mother.

— It has often been remarked that in no profession does a man sp urgently, require the earnest co-operation of a tactful woman a-E> in that of diplomacy. The most notable of living Ambassadresses is Mme. Waddington, the widow of the late famous representative of La Belle France at the Court of St James's. After an absence of forty years Mme. Waddington is now revisiting America, which is interesting in view of the fact that since her youth Washington has supplied Europe with more than a score of now famous Ambassadresses. Mme. Waddington is a" personal friend of our King and Queen, and she is the author of a biographical work on the late Queen. So popular was Mme. Waddington that, on her departure from London a few years ago, one hundred ladies subscribed to present her with a beautiful diamond ornament as a souvenir of her stay in London.

— " The range of London Society," says Mrs. George Cornwaliis West, in a recent ■article on " Modem Manners," " has become so unmanageable that a prominent hostess who has a large visiting-list is obliged, if she wishes to give a small dinner or concert, to make a great mystery of it. or to give a huge reception beforehand, at which the multitude are asked; and sometimes so great is the ciush that they get no farther than the door. The host and hostess watch with approving eyes the struggling crowd, and, -when all is over, retire to bed with aching hands, but with a feeling that, having done their duty, they can, without offence, entertain their own fiiends later on.

" The fashion of dancing, which in all ages has been so popular, seems with the present generation to be dying out. The poetry of motion is illustrated by the kitchen lancers and the cake-walk. Boister-

XV. when ladies were ashamed to eat meat, to take soup, or to drink even Avine-and-water in public The Comtesse de Blot, lady-in-waiting to the Duchesse de Cliarties, used to refuse to be considered " the sort of woman who ate chickens and eggs." " Why,"' she would say, " should one need more than the section of an orange, with a little cake, and a strawberry or two? Then, for drink I take milk mingled with fresh water, in a Venice glass — the milk of sheep, of course, what the dear little lambs are fed upon. Think of drinking cow's milk ' and of having nutritive intimacy with a huge horned animal who lows and ruminates !" Some one — we think it was M. de Buffon — advised this fastidious creature to try milk of almonds, and she was puzzled to account for the laugh that followed. She died before she was thirty, and no wonder, bines she held that women of rank should live, like bees and butterflies, on the honey of ilowers and the dewdrops of roses ! Once, on a- journey, she had the courage to partake of the wing of a pigeon, but complained that it tasted "too masculine."' She had her reward, for she became the most diaphanous of all the Court beauties — " impalpable as a rainbow, graceful as ths petal of a lily!'' A girl a golf -club oi a lady in a motoring coat is a positive relief to think of after reading of Madame la Comtesse de Blot, who was bslieved to give her pet parrot more food, than ihe supply she allotted to her own three hungry children. —No profession oj)en to women is so badly paid as that of the governess, a fact * all the more remarkable in view of the high standard of 'attainment expected of her, and that the future of the child is

I as her train did not leave for an hour, and that she would as soon drive first where he wished to go. Thanking her pnd with a smile, he accepted the invitation. Later, when telling of the delightful ride and chat which she had had with the illustrious man, whom she had always i wished to meet, she was considerably ' disconcerted to learn that through a mistake she had offered the ex-President the hospitality of his own carriage. —It is stated, on the authority of a, well-known glove-manufacturing firm, that the marking of the sizes on ladies' gloves has recently undergone a change, necessitated by the modern feminine devotion to sports and the vanity of the sex. A "six" glove to-day is larger than a "six" glovo of five years ago, and this applies to all the sizes made. The explanation is that ladies' hands have grown larger than they used to be through their practice of cycling, golfing, hockey, &c, but they do not like to admit it, so the glovemakers meet the new conditions, and yet avoid hurting the vanity of their customers, by 'a procesb which means that the girl who is wearing a No 6 glove to-day is really a\ earing what in her mother's time was a ''six and a-quarter." ; — From the North comes a pretty story 'relating to the King's visit to Glenquoich. .'An invalid daughter of one of Lord Bin*'tnn's gardeners was anxious to see his Majesty, but was unable to gratify 'her ,wish. The King, learning of the matter, ..proceeded to the gardener's cotta.ge, where '-the door was opened by the invalid's mother. His Majesty shook hands with her, and 'asked if he might see her daughter, with whom he conversed for a few minutes,

ous I'ompirig seems to be the only expression of enjoj n~-ent. " The ordinary young man of the present day is a poor dancer, if indeed he can dance at all. Many are not taught the ordinary rivlimenis. and they look and feel awkward. They cannot even come int o a room with any ease ; their bow ! a nod, and, with their hands" in the.i pockets, they shuffle along or 101 lin doorways. " Foreigners complain that in Englisb Society, general conversation is a thing unknown. The circle which is generally formed after dinner abroad does not exist in this country. One reads in memoirs and histories of the brilliant conversation of the wits of the days gone by, and how the ball was thrown and caught up and kept going. These were the days of &nlons, when people had time to think and hostesses took the trouble to bring the right guests together. The salon is a thing of the past, and so, as a rule, is general conversation.

"The celebrated wits of the past would often prepare their subjects or stories beforehand, quite certain that some admirer would lead up to them. But the raconteur of to-day — .should there still be one leftis thought an intolerable bore, and his stories are dubbed 'chestnuts.'

"Nowadays, conversation is entirely a matter of tete-a-tetes. At a dinner pen-pis converse mostly with those on cither side of them, and it requires a great effort on the part of the hosts to keep an open discussion of any subject. Aftei dinner it is worse. As soon as the men have joined the ladies the whole company pair off, and the man who is bold enoughto approach a couple often retires hastily with the feeling that he is not wanted. ' A grpat deal comes from the unconquerable shyness of the English nature. To keep up a sustained discussion and talw part in it before a circle of attentive people needs a certain aplomb, and many who are otherwise very self-possessed become embarrassed, and are unable to express themselves."

—In spite of all that has been said against the wearing of osprey aigrettes and birds' plumage (writes the Glasgow lady reporter of the Weekly Citizen), such tummings are more fashionable than ever in millinery. Whole birds are used for toque and hats, and one hat described recently in a fashion journal had "a covey of small birds " at one side. Naturalists are every day speaking against this fashion, and tell us distinctly that ospreys or aigrettes are obtained from the birds by shooting them in hundr&d's round their nests. The ospreys are grown by the bird at the breeding season, anrl it, of course, follows that the young birds die of starvation when deprived of the parents' care. Fashion's' demands must b& met. however, &o long as ospreys are favoured, and also birds' plumage. If women could be made to realise the cruelty thus inflicted, whereby their 'headgear is decorated, they might resolve, once and for all, to discard all millinery trimmed with birds. A good example, on the part of even a small minority of women, would assuredly affect the majority in time. Queen Alexandra and the Duchess of Portland never -wear birds in their hats. They have again and again headed the crusade among Society women against such a practice. The Queen's neat headgear is nearly always adorned with a few flowers.

— The Queen cf Portugal is one ol ii.« handsomest princesses of the Orleans royal house, whose home was made in England en their exile from France. Besides being a, stately and beautiful Queen, this royal lady is unusually highly cultured. She is the only reigning sovereign who has studied medicine ; in order to do so, her Majesty spent considerable time in a Paris hospital. She is also fond of athletics, and once single-handed saved the life of a drowning man by her magnificent swimming and her unselfish courage. The Queen is an expert milliner, and often wears hats trimmed by herself. The King of Portugal is, through his father, a cousin of King Edward.