LADIES' GOSSIP,

Otago Witness, Issue 2668, 3 May 1905, Page 65

LADIES' GOSSIP,

— Lady Constance Stewart-Richardson greatly glories in the eccentric reputation she has achieved. She keeps an album into which she has gatheied the press notices recording her various performances. And the book, as may be supposed, makes most piquant reading. Things both true and untrue are to be found therein, and the true ones are quite sufficiently startling. She is one of the best sportswomen in Britain. She has travelled pretty nearly the whole Avorld round. She has shot stags in her sister's forests, tigers in India, bears in the Rockies, leopards in Africa, and elk in Canada. She has almost renounced the feminine encumbrance of petticoats ; in Scotland the kilt is her usual wear. But when, in deference to conventionalities that she cannot avoid,

she does descend to womanly garments hei toilettes are marvels to behold. Only the ateliers of th> Rue de la Paix can be trusted to carry out her wishes, and when travelling her dress-baskets are nearly as bulky as the cases containing the trophies of her gun. The station-master of a small wayside place in the North, where she was travelling last autumn, found that Lady Constance's luggage weighed over two tons ! Happily for him the Duke oi Sutherland's own special train had beet >" 7 erpd to take the lady and her belongfc ...l. D'inrobin.

— Economy is the order of the day ; high prices are out of fashion, and yet, says the Lady's Pictorial, one finds women often more. attractively dressed than, perhaps, they have ever been during living memory. The two facts seem, irreconcilable, and yet all those who write of fashi ions are loud in their praises of the ap» pearance of womankind at this period. For our own part, we think this one oi the curious signs of the times. The art o£ making the best of things has been studied, and though it would be disastrous for the country, without doubt, if the present enforced economy were to continue, so far as the world of dress is concerned one cannot but think that it has not been wholly regrettable that women, have learned that they can look well without absolutely ruining their husbands or parents. Feminine extravagance is made the text -for endless sermons on the slightest provocation, and when, therefore, wo can say, as we undoubtedly can at this moment, that women have never beendressed more tastefully, picturesquely, sensibly, and withal moderately, from the financial point of view, we surely have very good reason to feel proud of- ourselves, of the skill of our modistes, of feminine resource, and of the example capable of being set by our sex at a time when it is desirable to make both ends meet gracefully.

— Those ladies who go in for so-called " rational dress " should be highly gratified by the fact that the State costume of the Queen of Siam is a knickerbocker suit. Her Majesty, whose name is Sowaya, Pongsi, wears this costume on all Stafc. occasions, aaid so do all the princesses and the ladies of the court. It consists of awhite blouse, knee breeches and dainty buckled shoes, and in various colours prb« duces a most charming effect.

— A daily newspaper is trying to discover who was the first woman to ride a woman's bicycle on the public highway. It would be interesting to find her. She mounted her machine, we think, in about 1890, and disposed for ever of the common joke that while women might do mostthings, they could never ride a bicycle. It was a cumbrous engine, that feminine bicycle of the early nineties, and we have improved upon it since. But think of the.* splendid courage of the first woman wao braved the jeers of the street boy, wlio is, after ali, the critic of social life. That courageous woman was the pioneer who led her sisters into the open, and far afield. Lawn-tennis had come, but that "was in sight of the drawing-room -windows. Even hocKey had come — but that was behind walls at the women's colleges at Oxford. The woman who first, with two wheels beneath her, sped gloriously independent along the highway was the pioneer of a movement. And if she can be found, let the women of England raise a subscription, commission M. Rodin for a statue, and set her up in Trafalgarsquare — bicycle and all ! — The Queen of Roumania, whose writings under the name of Carmen Sylva ara now so well known, has recently treated of "Marriage." On Ihis subject she r»* marks : —

" A standing complaint among women la that ' husband has no appetite,' that ho h taciturn or sarcastic in their society. If a man compelled his wife to swallow tn& very bad indigestibles some of them axe treated to, and, besides, the ill-natured i-e-marks, scoldings, complaints, and assurances of contempt my sisters are in th<» habit of spouting forth at meal-time, the number of female dyspeptics would be vastly larger than it is now."' — Europe is threatened with a return of the chignon, after the style of 1880. though the monstrosities that were worn then are not likely to be tolerated. The thin edge of the wedge, however, has been inserted by the levival of the low coiffure and the introduction of certain styles not altogether unlike the " patent "' Grecian scallop, which consisted of twists caught to the head at the back with plain and! fancy-headed tortoiseshell pins. There is a change pending, and it owes its origin to a great extent to the desire to revivify the hair. And silk nets are to be worn. The low-cut, exaggerated type of stiaightfronted corset is irrevocably doomed. Tuat

it has brought about its own descent goes .without saying. As with most things per,taining to .clothes, it has been forced out of all original recognition in the mistaken -"desire? inherent in. so many, women,, to outrival everyone ; and, as' is the- usual order, • 'the reaction has come short and sharp, and with a- determination it will be well jaot to mistake. _ | — According to Professor Patten, who , Jills the- chair of political economy at the University of Pensylvania, the married jwoman ought to contribute to the Support of her family, and 'he de- ( .plored the existence of so many .married women' in the leisured class. The economic independence of man a,nd wife ■would go' a long way to promote the ihappiness of both. Formeily the wife was always occupied in attending to her house- ; bold duties, but in these days of steam(heating and of the presence in American^ Shomes of so many' labour-saving appliances there was no longer any necessity to restrain a woman from developing her in"dustrial and commercial instincts. Her industrial developments should progress simultaneously with the development of her character. Some, ladies took exception to .Professor Patten's arguments. .—. — The assertion recently made that the average""" American girl is better educated than the average .English girl is one which •has a suspiciously trans-Atlantic ring ajbout it. If tHe writer had said that the American girl appears to be better educated than her .British sister his-state-might have been passed. As a matter of fact, the American giiThas an effervescent brilliance that is quite independent "pi education, as the -educated English girl regards the , word. , She can talk to legal luminaries, church "dignitaries. Emeritus -professors, and minor poets without perpetrating a single "howler," or revealing fhe weight of her honours — if she bears > my. . Few English-, .girls, on the other hand, ever acquire this art of unfathom- ' able conversation, which Is one of the ghief reasons why she cannot compare in popularity among. the young men of the present day with the Gibson girl. Our youth — gilded or otherwise — have a horxor and suspicion of "clever" women at > any age. -The 'intimation that he is to take in to- dinner a Girton girl will intimi- J date the., bravest and -cleverest of men, and, unfortunately, when our women are , clever, they rarely have either the art or the desire to conceal the fact. I " — Reciting "As You Like It" to a Leeds [ audience^ Mrs "Kendal passed from the . -love scenes .in the forest between Rosa- ; Hind and Orlando to a disquisition on kiss- } ing. It was- natural, MrsJKendal said, to steal a kiss"; to buy one- was stupid. Pro- '. fpev is it to kiss one's sister ; an obligation } )to Mss one's wife ; an . act of gallantry to kiss ugly people.. - Devotedness was shown ■ |in kissing a faded widow ; "to kiss a j young blushing widow. — that is quite a j jdifferent thing." To kiss three girls the } same day was extravagance — to kiss your another-in-law- is a - sacrifice. ] One Sunday "morning a little while ago, ; as a witty old Erench abbe was entering • jthe pulpit, the Comtesse de sent a j "•message to him" that she must see him. j >After much heating about the bush, she icame to the -point. Vanity was her besetting sin, and only that morning she had wielded to the temptation of gazing at her- . fcelfin the mirror and- thinking she was ftrery pretty. The abbe looked- at her feteadfly for a minute, and then, in his j poft, musical voice, inquired, kindly, "Is jthat all, my daughter?" "Yes, father, ' jthat is all." "Then, my daughter, go in (peace, for to make a mistake is no sin! j — "What is beauty?" is a question that icould " only be answered on the wave of some astounding inspiration, and even it-hen, out of ten inspired answers, nine Jwould be at hopeless variance in their 'definition (says the Lady). Limit the question, and it only becomes a trifle less difficult. What gives a woman a right to Ifche . attribute of beautiful ? What is a 1 ibeautiful woman? In England the question is more controversial than in any Jother country, for there is no regular type pi : English beauty. One gathers from! knid-Victorian novels and poetry that fair ( &air and blue eyes were once considered . indispensable. Even Shakespeare had his Jmife into the dark woman, and praised the old age because then "black was not xounted fair." Nowadays a woman s hair may be of what colour it— or her hair- , Sresser— pleases. Red is not taboo ; gold, ijjrown, and ashen are all. one. No one ! fudges beauty by the hair or complexion. -'And a"-am I come round to my difficulty Sand my problem. What constitutes beauty? In Japan they have an unvarying ideal ; they do not allow their beauties •to sin against it. To be beautiful, a 'Japanese girl must be five feet in height, [have a clear, fair skin and well-developed xrmscles. The hair must be long, thick, and jet black, the fac oval, the nose high, narrow, and straight^ the eyes large and ,

fringed with thick black lashes, the mouth small, the lips red, but not too thin ; the ears must not be too small ; the eyebrows must be long and thick. Happy Japan*! She has determined by schedule what is a beauty. But an Englishwoman's beauty, which might or might not embrace a single item in this schedule, remains a subject for doubt-, for prejudice, for disI cussion, for despair and perplexity. | -^Lady Bute has taken Abbotsford, the historic seat on Tweedside belonging to Mrs Maxwell-Scott, for a term of years. The picturesque home of Sir Walter Scott, which is still visited annually by many hundreds of tourists, was inherited by Sir Walter's great-granddaughter from her mother, wife of Mr James Hope-Scott. Her husband, who is a younger brother of Lord Herries, took his wife's surname on his marriage, and they have several sons, of whom the eldest (an officer in the CamL eronians) bears the family name of Walter. Mrs MaxweH-Scott, who has not herself resided at Abbotsford for many years, is nearly connected with Lady Bute, whose first cousin, the late Lady Victoria Howard, married Mr Hope-Scott as his second wife. Lady Bute, who has been confined to her room at St. John's Lodge. Regent's Park, with a rather sharp attack of influenza, is looking forward, says the World, to spending part of the spring at Abbotsford, where her younger sons will get some good fishing in the Tweed, which [ runs just below the house. i — t- Several of the leading motor-car [ makers are employing women as chauffeurs to display the powers .of their cars. Besides the attractiveness of a feminine 1 driver, nervous customers, who distrust their own powers, gain confidence when they see how easily " a mere girl " can control the formidable-looking vehicle, and are induced to purchase. Women | "chauffeurs are also obtaining engagements -with- ladies -who prefer a driver of their ;_t>wri sex. !-' — With the 'marriage of the Earl of Suffolk to Miss Daisy Leiter, the Americans married to peers number 25. As -usual, there is a great deal of rather talk about Americanising the peerage.', new blood, and other journalistic "fancies of a similar kind (says the King). As -a matter of fact, this number includes all the Americans, with one exception, married to peers since 1860 — a period of 44 years. Nor is this all. Ten of these ladies have no children at all, and six have no son, so that the peerage is not likely to be Americanised yet awhile. It is not for nothing that President Roosevelt preaches to his countrywomen on their duties as wives and mothers in his message to Congress and in his speeches delivered on his many tours. France is not the only country in the world whose falling birth-rate is an ominous sign of the future. | — Some time since it was announced that the Queen of Roumania meditated a Welsh romantic drama. The project was, however, interrupted, but it is said that the work has been resumed, and that the royal authoress will have the advantage ' of suggestions as to Welsh customs ana traditions from her two or three friends resident in the "Principality. Her Majesty's affection for Wales is almost romantic in character, and she has quite recently expressed her hope of being able to spend yet another holiday in the favoured land. I — The woman whom men admire is not melancholy or self-conscious (says a writer in the March number of The World and His Wife). She usually has the motheri wit and discretion to believe that hearts are pretty much alike, whether they beat under nankeen waistcoats or chiffon blouses, and are to be conquered by very nearly the same means. M-en as well as women, she knows, are more pleased and flattered to be coaxed into talking than to be forced into listening ; and therefore, I wher such a woman is introduced to Mr ' Jones, or set down at dinner beside Mr Brown, she warms the genial currents of , his soul by trying to talk to him about I himself rather than about herself. This i is indeed a point that so many truly I clever modern girls fail to make. You ' stand accused so often, my dear Girton girl and literary maiden, of trying to take too lofty a tone in your conversations with young men. You are just a bit •proud and arrogant with all your spleni did knowledge; and when you meet Mr Blank you want to talk about Browning 1 and Parsifal, when poor Mr Blank really has never read one line of that poet's work, and does not know one note of music from another. Or if you do not make this mistake, you fall into the equally fatal error of allowing yourself to be very easily bored, and of looking superior and difficult to please. This is what the woman admired by man never does. She never allows the fast that she speaks fouiv languages and plays Beethoven beautifully to interfere . with her popularity ; she has not a con-

descending manner, and she does not take interest only in the man who can speak languages, "too, and understand Wagner and Strauss.

— The woman of to-day is supposed to be the embodiment of health and energy, and is known to be a devotee of exercise and athleticism. The modern girl is trained to excel in some outdoor game, such as hockey, tennis, golf, or Badminton, and through the teens and twenties she keeps up her interest generally in these amusements. At thirty-five or forty she begins either to find the game more exhausting, or is seized with the conviction that she looks ridiculous when engaged in the relaxations which suited her so well in her first youth. So, from one reason or another, she gives up her daily exercise, and at forty-five contents herself with a career that entails a minimum of movement. She also concludes that her dancing days are over, and when chaperoning her daughters or nieces only stirs from her comfortable armchair in the ballroom to partake of a heavy supper in the next room. Why the average woman in middle age develops a trying and unfashionable embonpoint is thus fairly obvious. The abrupt change from an active to a sedentary existence naturally ruins a woman's health and figure. The fact that her love for the motoi*-car takes her daily into the fresh air for hours does not exonerate her from the charge of defying the rules of hygiene. A certain amount of regular exercise is the plump woman's road to salvation. She is no doubt wise to abstain from golf and hockey when she finds they take too much out of her, but if games are banned the arfc of pedestrianism is still left. Walking, however, has indisputably gone out of fashion. The girl of to-day never walks anywhere except down Regent street, or perhaps to church. Pedestrianism is nevertheless the ideal exercise, and would, if systematically undertaken, avert half the ills that flesh is heir to. Walking at a reasonable pace not only keeps one in good health, but clears the brain, develops the muscles, improves one's carriage, and brightens one's complexion. The keen pedestrian is usually an alert, cheerful, upright individual who knows nothing of nerves, and is seldom attacked by the blues. For the brain-worker a daily walk is both restful and exhilarating, and is absolutely essential to keep his jaded mind and body in good trim. The revival of the art of pedestrianism would mean an immense improvement in the national physique and stamina.

— What all sufferers from the tyranny of unstrung nerves require is just enough of the universal tonic — work — to keep them from dissipating their neryous energy in harmful, because undisciplined, frivolity. All useful work, no matter of what kind it may be, strengthen the controlling powers of the mind and invigorates the will. The performance of any task which is not really in accord with the mood of the moment demands the expenditure of sufficient will-power to overcome that mental inertia or sluggishness of which laziness is the natural expression. But in work, as in all things else, there must be moderation ; immoderate work is quite as injurious to the nervous system as no work at all. Next to useful mental occupation, the pursuit of some hobby, and the consolidating of one's interests in life, a measure of physical exercise is necessary to the health of the nervous system. Healthy outdoor pastimes should be followed and the hygiene of the body strictly preserved. Persons of a highly emotional temperament, whose senses are too responsive to the appeals of music, literature, painting, and the arts in general, should avoid these (to them) unhealthy stimuli, and endeavour rather to find some pursuit which will call into play their highest powers of will and determination. Women who work for their living are seldom the slaves of their nerves, and if all women were trained from youth upwards to exercise a certain measure of self-control and self-denial, we should find amongst the adults of to-day fewer of those poor creatures who are condemned to pass their lives under what is aptly termed the "tyranny of nerves." — The Young Woman. — Lady Cork — now an aged woman and a widow, was Lady Emily de Burgh — is sister to Lord Clanricarde, and became the wife of the late Lord Cork in 1853. As a girl her beauty was so brilliant and so greatly admired that, at the time of her marriage, she received a jewelled gift subscribed for by the smart bachelors of London. Lady Cork has had a marvellous social record. Her husband was a noted Liberal peer, held office on several occasions, and she entertained Royalty and smart society in London and at Masterton Housa, Somerset. Lady Cork has, even now, the remains of her transcendant attractions. Her black eyes are still vivid, and their colouring continues brilliant. She never follows the fashion of the day, but dresses in a stlye of her own. Her head is always adorned by a black lace cap, which in the evening has for ornament a single pear-shaped pearl of great size and value, that drops on her forehead in the style that obtained in 1830. A competent authority has declared that the pearls of Lady Cork, Lady Iveagh, and Lady Lansdowne are among the most- precious in London. Lady Cork and her late lord celebrated their golden wedding in July, 1903. — Princess Ena of Battenberg, who has made her first appearance at Court, is the Royal debutante of the year. Even were she not a princess she would rank as one of the reigning beauties. Tall and stately, with regular features, her chief charm lies in her exceptionally pretty colouring. Although blue-eyed, and with the lightest flaxen hair, she yet rejoices in the blackest of eyelashes ! Princess Ena is a fearless horsewoman, she drives her own motor as well as her own pony-cart, understands fardening, speaks several languages uently, and is almost as good a musician as her mother. Her eighteenth birthday is in October. Princess Henry of Battenberg is the only one of the King's sisters who attaches any importance to state and circumstance. Both Princess Christian and Princess Louise, like the King's own daughters^ enjoy playing at not being

princesses, and it is their delight to lunch and dine informally at their clubs and at restaurants, and inn m and out of the London palaces without ceremony — Although the Inns of Court are unbending in their attitude towards those of the fair sex who deshe to be called to the Bar, considerable progress is beingmade by women in getting admitted to other branches of the learned professions. Medicine and surgery have long been open to the studious woman, and about three years ago the Royal Institute of British Architects, after some opposition, extended its membership to ladies. There are at present but two ladies who have become associates of the institute, and they are sisters. Miss Ethel Charles, of Flushing, near Falmouth, the first lady associate of the distinguished body, has well justified her admission into its ranks by carrying off the Royal Institute's silver medal and twenty-five guineas for an essay on the development of architectural art from structural requirements and nature of materials. The award was gained in competition with many male students. — The most beautiful debutante of the year, so it is said, will be Miss Ivy Gordon-Lennox. Lady Jean Cochrane, second daughter of Lord and Lady Dundonald, is fated to run her close, according to the Society Pictorial. Lady Grizel Cochrane, now the wife of the Master of Belhaven, was much admired when she came out, and her sister resembles her closely. There is another beautiful girl, Lady Marjorie, whose presentation is not due for a couple of years y-et. All Lady Dundonald's girls are most carefully trained. Lady Dundonald herself is still a very handsome woman.

— The Mayoress of Chatham,_ for the second year in succession, is Miss Louisa Mary Dawes Driver, a young lady of four years. During her first year of office she treated 2000 school children, presented the prizes at Chatham regatta, opened a bazaar with the unique speech, "'The show's open," and presented prizes at many meetings. She was driven to the Town Hall the other day~ to receive the honours due to her exalted position, and was lifted into a big chair, from which she dangled her chubby legs and smiled sweetly at the bearded councillors. Some of the latter were so daring as to kiss the Mayoress.

— Tht. Duchess of Westminster is one of the most beautiful and most charming women in Foeiety. Sine has known her husband all her life, and was engaged to him when still in the schoolroom. Her marriage in 1901 was the wedding of the year. The union has proved a great success. Before all things a sportswoman, her Grace does not neglect the gentle arts. She is a great reader, and although the quality of her voice is not so sweet as that of her sister, Princess Henry ol Pless, she sings well in a powerful mezzo, and is a fairly accomplished musician.

— White Proposals. —

A theory has been started that the woman in white is the recipient of more proposals tban her sister in colours. This may be on account of the popularity of the colourless colour of infinite shades worn by women at every important festivity in life from the cradle to the grave. Certainly, most women look their best in the colour selected for them by artists of all ages.

White was the favourite shade of the ex-Empress Eugenic when she earned notoriety as being the best-dresse'l woman in Europe ; and before her widowhood it wa's constantly worn by the beautiful Dowager Queen Margherita of Italy. Our own Queen often dresses in white, which is almost as popular at the English Court as it is at the Court of St. Petersburg, where it is almost exclusively worn. — London Opinion.