LADIES' GOSSIP.

Otago Witness, Issue 2857, 16 December 1908, Page 73

LADIES' GOSSIP.

— Miss Evelyn Longman, of Xew York, has won £2500 commission by her design for the bronze door for the chapel of the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis. There were 33 men among those competing for the work. t— Most royal ladies are expert horsewomen, but few are so fond of the exercise of riding and indulge so much in it as the Queen of the Netherlands: She has an overwhelming love for dumb .creatures, and has one of the most replete stables in the world. —By the Scots' Peerage law, which knows no abeyance between daughters, Lord Herries's Scottish barony devolves on his elder daughter, the Duchess of Norfolk, who thus becomes, like the Countesses of Powis and Yarborough, a peeress in her own right as well as by inarnage. Of the small number of iemalc holders of peerages, five are now connected with Scotland, and three of these dignities are enjoyed by Roman Catholics.

— Mrs Johnson, of Ross, Herefordshire, has become a chimney sweep, and at Braunton. De\on, a woman is to be seen driving a two-horse reaping machine. That there is nothing new in women invading men's occupation^ is shown, however, by a warrant to be seen in a Minories bookseller's shop. This is signed by Sir Thomas Chichely, Master-general of Ordanace to Charles 11, and appoints a woman ratcatcher to the Tower.

— The Duchess of Sutherland spent the autumn quietly at Dunrobin, ' and is believed to be deep in the construction of a new play. Details are not yet forthcoming, but it will probabty take the form of a modern drama. A society play by .a beautiful and popular duchess ought to make its own welcome. Mr ForbesRobertson, it may be recalled, opened the Srala Theatre with a mediaeval tragedy, " The Conquerors," from the pen of the Duchess of Sutherland, but it had not the good fortune to secure a long Tun. — It is with a feeling of surprise that one hears of a lady Doctor of Literature in Cuba. Nevertheless (the Englishwoman's Review states) the University of Havana has just conferred on Mdme. Blanche Baralt, " doctor es lettres," a Chair of Literature at the University of Havana. Accompanied by her husband, Dr Barall. the lady has been making a tour of Euiuoe to study the methods

adopted in the organisation of public instruction. She- and her husband have been particularly interested in the methods followed in France, and they stayed long enough in Paris to' give a series of literary conferences at the Free College of Social Science.

—It will not be denied that the majority of women arc better educated than formerly, and that a larger view ot life is open to them. In England the most frivolous of social butterflies has her earnest and serious occupations, Sven if they be few and far between, and most are imbued with a certain desire to appear au fait of the questions of the day. In this the Englishwoman is better off than her cousin across the sea, to whom politics are a sealed letter, and who is restricted in rationally spending her money by having fewer outlets. — Mrs Cornwallis West.

— The latest development of the sale fever in London takes the form of the " bargain express "' — a special train run for the purpose of enabling women from the country .to take advantage of the annual sales at Shoolbred s, Peter Robinson's, and other big establishments in the city. These "sale specials" have been run from the cities in the west and south of England, and bAve brough crowds -ol bargain hunters into London. On arrival they were met by representatives oj the emporiums and presented with a ticket- for the "tube" station nearest to their destination, whilst motor buses were waiting for those who preferred that Jorm ol conveyance. The experiment has proved so successful that it will become a recognised institution in connection with future sales.

— The "engagement bracelet" for men has arrived in London, and promises soon to attain the significance of the engagement ring. At present engagement bracelets for men are being made to order by a well-known jeweller of New Bond street, and have been much irr* demand by the newly engaged. The bracelet is a plain flat band of pure gold, which is fastened tightly on to the wearer's arm above the elbow. It is snapped on to the arm with a buckle or joined with an invisible spring. When once it is on it cannot be removed except by a small needle specially manufactured to touch the spring in a tiny hole which is left for its insertion. — The wedding present fashion seems to be even a severer tax in Finland thap it is. in this country, where it is bad enough :—": — " I remember well the reception at a wedding I attended some years ago in this part of Finland. The bride and bridegroom were seated in the two places of honour, arrayed in ,all their splendour, and the bride held on her knees a sieve, covered W/ith a rich siiu shawl. Then as the guests advanced one by one, according ,io his rank, to congratulate the pair, each guest ' slipped a monetary offering into the sieve. The sum collected is towards the outfit of the bride. But the most trying part of the proceedings to me was that, as each offering was put into the sieve, the name ot the donor and the sum given were shouted out in a loud voice by a groomsman standing beside the bride !" —If there was a love affair in court, camp, or grove, it surely was that of the Crown Prince of Germany. It was a lo\e-match from first to last, and, quite in the manner of melodrama, the alliance was looked upon askance by the " great father." The girl who had won the heart of Germany's young hopeful was not wealthy, and had little to recommend her, save her simple ways and gentle bearing. " I am not a bit clever, but I can make bread and cook dinner and keep house, she used to say ; and her charming modesty made the match dear to the heart o"f the German people. The young lovers had to resort to scheming to obtain their meetings. Cecilia would visit {riends in a certain old castle, and there young Wilhelm would appear, and tin two 1 by day would motor through the quiet country lanes, and at evening stroll hand in hand beneath the great trees ot the deer "park. For years, it seems, Cecilia had admired the tall, slim figure of her hero, and when she saw him riding his horse down the great stone staircase of the Potsdam Palace her young heart thrilled. It is doubtful if m. all the courts of Europe there are a more domestic— and happier— couple than tne German Crown Prince and his wife. — Thres English brides arrived m New York last month on the Majestic, and were married on the liner before they were allowed to land. They were Miss Alice Osborne. of Birmingham; Miss Mildred Brand, of London, and Mifs Rosa Webb, of Portsmouth, and they were married to Englishmen who had been in New York a year preparing homes for their brides. The weddings took place in the ship's library, in accordance with tbe new law which requires that aliens arriving in America for the purpose of being married must have the ceremony performed before landnij. The Rev. j. E. Price, of New York, officiated, and the chip's stewards acted as witnesses. The captain gave the wedding breakfast in tli-a salo&n. and tlie newly married pairs were afterwards put ashore under showers of nc-e.

—In a town in Idaho where free mail delivery is being introduced a young lady came out number one in the "civil service " examination, and was about to receive the appointment, when she wa6 set aside by a decision of Acting Postmastergeneral Granfield that no woman could eerve in the capacity of letter carrier, because a "regulation" of the department, assuming that all better earners would wear trousers, proceeds to minutely set forth the details of their construction. Whereupon, wifnoat consulting the lady, the acting po^tmSster-general declared it all off, and gave orders for another examination.

— There is a touch of feline malice in some of the stories of her own sex given in the diary of Elizabeth, Lady Holland. Nelson's Lady Hamilton was addicted to posturing, but was withal a vulgar woman. "So much so," declares Lady Holland, "that the Austrian amba&sa-

dor's sarcasm -is excellent. After showing i her attitudes", which- &he does by representing the finest' statues a"nd pictures, he asked, cEt quand est-c© qu'elle fera Miladi?' (and when will she play the lady ?). Her vulgarity destroyed the illusion when I saw her once. She had worked one's imagination up to a pitch of enthusiasm in her successive imitations of Niobe, Magdalen, and Cleopatra. Just , as she was lying down, with her head upon an Etruscan vase to represent a water-nymph, she exclaimed, in her pro- j vincial dialect, 'Doun't be af eared, Sir t William ; I'll not crack your joug.' " t -No J less feline is the touch in the following anecdote of Madame de Stael :—"Bonaparte, in his passage through Switzerland, went to Coppet- to see Necker; some imagine that he proposed to him to accept the post of Minister of France. Madame de Stael greeted the hero, and made a political tirade for full 20 minutes. When she ceased she expected a complimentary eulogism. All he said was, 'Madame a-t-elle nourri dcs eiif ants?'* (Did Madame suckle her' chikh-en ?}. A cutting rebuke."