LADIES' GOSSIP.

Otago Witness, Issue 2779, 19 June 1907, Page 73

LADIES' GOSSIP.

— Beauty sleep (says a Viennese specialist) is the sleep a woman gets after she Ins siept se\en hours and before she has slept nine. A woman needs seven hours' sleep for the building up oi her system Then she needs two hours more for the recuperation of her body, and the extra two houis will restore her complexion, make her eyes bright, take the wi inkles out of. her face, and keep her form elastic. The woman who wants to derive the fullest benefit from her beauty sleep will compose her mind before sinking off into slumber. She will think pleasant thoughts. Worrying thoughts make furiows in the brow and set lines round the mouth.

— All the supreme moments of a woman's life — her birth, her marriage, her death — are clad in white. It forms in its simplest manifestation her first garment and her last, and in more sophisticated texture it witnesses the compact which seals her life to felicity or sorrow. There

have to tall under the same condemnation. Our descendants will think they are much better- looking than we are. — "Ambrosia,' in the World.

— Once again the spinning wheel is to be found in the boudoirs of the mighty. One of the latest photographs of Queen Alexandra depicts her at her "wheel." Some years ago the then Princess of Wales made a collection of the spinning wheels of various countries, and they now occupy an entire room at Sandringham. The Queen is an adept at spinning. The Crown Piincess of Roumania, who is shortly to visit England, is another expert in this art. and is proud of the fa^t that her national costume lias been woven by herself. The Duchess of Sutherland, who de\otes so much ot her time t-o advance the \\ el tare of Scottish industries, is also clever with the spinning wheel, and her small daughter. Lady Rosemary Lev ison-Gower, is now being initiated' into the art of spinning.

When in June (says a London paper) the King and Queen of Denmark pay their fast Slate \isu to England, we shall ha\e an opportunity" of seeing the wealthiest Queen in her own light— and the tallest. It will doubtless be remembered that Frederick Vlll succeeded to the Throne of Denmark at the beginning of last year, alter the sudden death of King Christian, the beloved father of Queen Alexandra. It is now thirty-eight years ago since King Frederick man led Queeo Louise, a daughter of Charles XV of Sweden. From her maternal grandfather, Prince Frederick of the Netherlands, Her Majesty inherited three millions, and she was also left a huge fortune by her father. Furthermore, the wealth of Queen Louise has been considerably increased since her marriage by careful management and judicious investment. There is an interesting romance in the family history of Queen Louise of Denmark. Her grandmother, who died in 1860 as Queen ot Sweden and Norway, was born plain Mile. Desiree Clary, daughter of a Marseilles stockbroker She if fused thp hand of the great Napoleon to accept that oi

j M. Bernadotte, who subsequently became" the great French general, and who was adopted as heir to the Swedish throne by the childless King Charles XIII. , —M. Lehman, the Swi6s engineer who won £40,000 in the Milan Exhibition v lottery, is .receiving from 500 to 1000 begging and matrimoniil letters daily, and the postal authorities at Romont, near Fribourg, have had to treble their staff... Among the letters is one from an English-* woman, who writes : "I am "going to marry a horrid old man soon, because .1 must. If you 6ent me £2000 " I could marry the man of my choice, who has no money." A girl who describes herself as " twenty-two and pretty," writes a ten^ page letter on the pleasures of domesti-t city, and adds: "I am willing; are you?" One correspondent frankly admits that sha is 46, but adds that she is kind and. affectionate, and would make a good wife. : An equally candid German farmer writes 5 " I have three daughters. Take you*, choice." — The beautiful Duchess of Portland continues to win all hearts by never--ending evidences of her kindly disposition. The recent spell of severe weather meant a good deal of suffering to the inhabitants of the colliery villages on her Graced. Welbeck" estate, and to these poor people ' the Duchess has been acting as a veritable, angel. Almost every day she motored, through the villages, calling quietly at the. unpretentious houses and leaving behind ', her everywhere a wealth of good cheer;'. From the first the Duchess has shown a. keen practical interest in the miners' wel^ fare. A little while ago a collier sus-t tamed a serious 6pinal injury, and the Duchess had him removed to London, provided funds for an operation, etc., and' on his return home presented him wrtfr an invalid chair.

— There is no more' unconventional monarch in Europe than King Leopold of Belgium. When he visits Paris an<r attends the races at Auteuil, more often than not he mixes with the crowd, taking; his turn at the turnstile. He strongly, object* to fuss and ceremony when »wsji fiom ihe Court, and even in his own domain he prefers simplicity to royal dignity. One can well believe that? familiar story which tells how, one day, the King of the Belgians was near the gate of bis castle, when two American girls took him for his own head gardener. "Would he show them round?" "With all the pleasure in the world." And so the three went round the gardens. "B am taking the liberty of showing the, ladies round," said Leopold to his Chamberlain, whom fie met on the way, and}, the Chamberlain smiled and passed on< The American girls, their* hearts bubbling over with gratitude to their guide, renwarded him with a lOfn piece, whicht. they found on the King.'s watch-chain when, a»^few days after, tjbey were intro* duced to his Majesty at a garden party. •

— How many English people are awart that only a narrow chance prevented Eng« land having as its sovereign a Queea Georgians? For fully recognising the possibilities of his infant daughter's ultk mate succession to the throne of England, 4 the Duke of Kent desired that both tha Emperor Alexander of Russia, and hex uncle, the Regent, afterwards George IV"., should be god-fathers. Alexandrin* Georgiana were the names decided: upon, when the Regent announced that Georgiana must take precedence of Alexandrina, as it could be second to nonef other. The duke not being inclined fo concede the point, the royal infant was - eventually given the name of Victoria, after her mother, "the" late Duchese oi Kent, nee Princess -Victoria of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha. Since Jier late Majesty's, marriage, the name of Victoria has figured freely among- her feminine descendants. For instance, it was borne by three of Queen Victoria's daughters and by all the daughters of the present King, as well as by her young great grand-daughter, Princess Victoria Mary of Wales, jto say nothing of many other grantichflaren, and great grandchildren of Queen Victoria.

— No* noble family is respected than that of the Marquess of Hertford im the neighbourhood of Ragley Park, his beautiful Warwickshire seat ; and gTeat sympathy is feh with -Lady Yarmouth,-' the young wife of the heir to the title, who has gone to New York to be neai ncr brother, Mr Thaw, at this tragic hour of his life. Since her marriage three \*ears ago Lady Yarmouth has won many, friends round her husband's home in the Midlands. Unlike the typical American heiress, she is of simple and unsophisticated tastes, cares little for fine clothes or jewels, ami, while possessed of no extraordinary beauty, has an attractive manner and address aiid a kindliness oi disposition which, are very preposaessirg. Everyone will wish her well through the period of trying suspense which she is now enduring.

— In a letter to "'Rita,"' the lady, eon* tributor to the Melbourne Weekly Times, the special commissioner of the Herald in London writes as follows: — "Readers of your column will be interested to know, that the ladies accompanying the colonial! Premiers to Londou are greatly '60ughti after.' Mrs Deakin was hardly . installed! at the Hotel Cecil when cards from alB sorts of enterprising people, including many press photographers^ reached her^. and her first morning's mail brought re-> quests for interviews from a great number of lady journalists, such first-rank publications' as the Realm and the Gentlewoman: being represeirted. Mrs Deakin, always very gracious,- tried to meet all requests, but in order to keep some of the engager ments thus made- on her arrival she was unable to accept several social invitations.Once more the peens and peeresses and!