LADIES' GOSSIP.

Otago Witness, Issue 2928, 27 April 1910, Page 72

LADIES' GOSSIP.

■ —Miss Ethel Wood has been appointed instructor m the art of storytelling by the Massachusetts State Board of_ Education. Miss Wood won a reputation as an original storyteller while teaching in Brooklyn.

—Miss Sophie Wright has been declared New Orleans's best citizen, and her bust has been presented to the State of Lousi ana by hex former pupils. She is the Principal of the Home Institute, which she founded and for many years conducted without assistance as a night school _ for poor children. . It was the first night school in New Orleans, and % now one of the most flourishing institutions of its kind in America.

Miss Beatrice Daisy Dunton, of Lambeth, has received from the Society for the Protection of Life from Fire a certificate and a gift of money in recogn.tion of her rescue of two children froi i a fire, which occurred in South LambeLi road on April 3, 1910. One child wg.-j burnt to death, but by rushing throug.i* the flames she was able to reach . two children, whom she carried to a plac» of safety. —Quite small things upset the sensitive nerves of some women. Little meannesses, ebullitions of temper over trifles, even persistence in wearing a tie of dis l cordant colours, or a sudden desire to cultivate mutton-chop whiskers may mar matrimonial happiness and alienate a wife's affections for evermore.—GentleAvoman.

Mrs Alma Webster Powell, at a public meeting in New York, elaborated her osculatory campaign on behalf of the "Votes for Women" movement. "There isn't a man in America," she said, "whose vote cannot be bought fox a kiss. If the suffragette party will only delegate some pretty girl to attempt- the conversion 01 each member of the Legislature, the women of New York will get the ballot without another effort. There isn't a man who would vote against votes for women if a pretty little suffragist put up her lips and said 'Please.' "

—We are bringing stage effects into our ballrooms. A craze this season abroad which will probably reaeh London in the season is for "rainbow balls." At

ffhese all the girls are dressed in white, and during the dancing of the quadrilles coloured limelight producing rainbow effects is thrown on the dancers. The "moonlight" quadrille is another innovation, the girls wearing silver : crescents and appropriate headdresses, and during the height of the dancing a very strong white light is thrown in the middle of the room. In another ballroom all the dancers wore red costumes, and a rosecoloured limelight produced a very fantastic and weird effect. Two unique marriages recently took, place at Maidenhead, England. The parties were Moses Skeats, 72, retired hotelkeeper, and Florence Cole, 34; J. Wigley, of London, 70, and Florence Skeates, 40. The bride■grooms were widowers and the brides spinsters, and the marriages took place together. Mrs Wigley is the daughter of Moses Skeats, whose wife is the sister of his youngest son's wife; thus, as well as being sister-in-law to Moses Skeats's youngest son, she is also his mother-in-law and mother-in-law to her own sister, while Moses, in addition to being father of his wife's sister's husband, is also his brother-in-law. Messenger girls, the ' latest additions to the London streets, have their counterpart in the German, capital. A number of girls have now been enrolled in Berlin, and in spite of the Imperial edict against the use of foreign words and phrases, they are known as "messenger girls." Their uniform is both pretty and serviceable. The coat is made of lightcoloured cloth, with black braid, and fastened with three frog buttons. The portfolio is of black leather, in which letters an;' other /documents or small parcels may be carried. The "skirt is black and box-pleated. The cap is round, like that formerly used by our cavalry, fixed with a strap under the chin, and worn well tilted over the ear, which gives them quite a jaunty, military air. The committee on Methodist law has just had under its consideration the question of women preachers, with special reference to the restrictions imposed by regulations passed in 1803. By these regulations permission was given to women who were convinced that they had an extraordinary call from' God to speak in public. The committee could not see its way to advise the repeal of this regulation, but ultimately decided to. recommend some revision of the wording whieh will ensure greater liberty •to women preachers. The conference will, be advised to reaffirm the regulations of 1803, with certain modifications. The committee were of opinion that the preaching of women should be restricted to neighbourhoods where there is no special opposition to Bucb preaching. dinner New York is reported from Paris. nations have been sent to hundreds <o ■ .ell-known Parisians by Mdlle. Solange Siccard, the little daughter of the famous doctor, who desired her friends to .attend the ceremony of "naming her new doll. The party was a great success, where the big children had quite as merry a time as the little ones. IM doll was "named" Heloise Berthe with due ceremony. There was an ample distribution of sweets made of almonds. Mdnie. Berthe Cartigny was the dolls .godmother, and -when called upon to reply to the toast of "Dolly's health, she explained why she was happly to be the B ° The*retirement of Mts D'Oyly Carte from London-theatrical management has caused much regret amongst those who recognise the valuable assistance she rendered her ..husband in the production ot Gilbert and Sullivan operas, and how, since his death, she has helped to mamtain the best traditions .of the Savoy Theatre. Her first association with the W» TTOvlv Carte was romantic in tne The famous manager had al- ' ard of her triumphs in the world ...rtainment-she haying acted as r..'r«nt in lecturing tours in America for - \thew Arnold Vnd Archibald Forces tie famous war correspondent-and had ueLmLd at all costs, to obtain vices as translator and secretary After many obstacles had been wmov«d, this at last accomplished, with the result that the secretary m time consented to go a step farther and become not only his partner in business but also u life. The oldest woman m the world is Frau Dutkiewiez, residing at Posen, where she has just celebrated her. 125th birthday. She is tall and thin, but bent and very feeble, although not absolutely bedridden. ' Her face is full of the wrinkles of twelve and a half decades. She is almost blind and deaf, and suffers rheumatic pains. Long tresses of perfectly white hair give her a patriarchal appearance. Her son, aged 89, was a priest of the Jesus Church in Posen. By a strange coincidence, while celebrating mass before the altar on his mother s 125th birthday, he fell dead, from heart disease. Frau Dutkiewiez was married over 90 years ago,' and has been a widow for 55 years. She gave birth to ten children, and her dependents now number more than 200. She possesses two great-great-great-great-grandchildren. She distinctly remembers the Napoleonic wars and the final fall of Napoleon. Those far-off events at the beginning of the nineteenth century are clearly impressed on her memory, whereas many incidents of the last quarter of a century have been entirely forgotten.

Empress Eugenie's Dream.

Le Matin (Paris) published an interview which the Italian journalist, Signer Antonio Scarfoglio, claimed to have had with the Empress Eugenie ,at Naples. 'Between the past-and present (the exEmpress is to have said) there are not only fifty years, but quite ten centuries. What can I sav. and to what purpose? I had a dream, and it was a great dream for the country which had' welcomed and embraced me as sovereign. But this dream is dead —killed by destiny

—and I have wished, and I wish to disappear with it. lam a poor woman, who has lived much and suffered much. At present I seek peace and quiet and oblivion, in a tranquil corner of the world, with beautiful flowers and brilliant sunrise, where my soul may be, dissolved little by little, mingling with sky and sea, thus dying before my weary body. 1 have loved France too much not to endeavour with all my strength to forget her. lam as one walking backwards," she said, "facing the_ horizon which he has already crossed." I have renounced the future.

live in my youth and my past. All else is but a shadow—a dark shadow. I resemble yonder trees. They, too, like myself, live on the rememberarice of their past beauty. But they are awaiting the spring, whereas I no longer have anything to expect. Even my sad winter is drawing to a close."

A Ski Wedding.

A "ski" wedding is Cupid's latest freak. Putting convention and public opinion aside, a young Swiss couple arrived in the morning at the church at St. Moritz to be wedded on skis. They were accompanied by the best man and several bridesmaids, all on skis, while the parents of the sporting couple walked to the church and waited for their children. The joyous band planted their skis against the walls of the church, and, brushing off the snow from their clothes, entered the building for the ceremony. The bride wore a whit© sweater, short

skirts, and heavy boots with nails, but carried orange blossoms in her hand. After the ceremony the young people were snowballed —which replaced the traditional rice—while putting on, their skis, and chased several miles out of St. Moritz by their friends. The wedded pair, who are expert skiers, distanced their friends, being joined later by two guides, who conducted them to the ■ nearest Alpine hut on the Bernina Range, where the honeymoon commences. . The young Swiss couple intend to pass two weeks in the Alps on the SwissItalian frontier, skiing from one hut to another, before returning to St. Moritz. Snowstorms, however, which are now raging in Switzerland, are likely to bring the original honeymoon to an abrupt end.

Turkish Women.

— They are Treated Like Babies.—« "Turkey is kept down by its women," cays Miss Hester D. Jenkins, Professor of History in the American College for Women at Constantinople. Miss Jenkins is taking a year's study at Columbia University, and giving occasional talks on the position of women in Turkey. She has had plenty of chance for observation in this matter, for, she has lived nine years in Turkey. She not only was there during the recent revolution, but she had a hand in the affairs herself. "The Turkish woman," says Miss Jenkins, "isn't in the least stupid, but she is treated like a baby by the men, and! she behaves like a baby. Of course this reacts on the men. Men brought up by such mothers can't amount to very much. Moreover, the women of a country, though they may be babies, will dabble in its affairs, and it- is a" fact that in more than one Turkish crisis the intrigues of the women, ignorant and reactionary, have placed the wrong man on the throne and held back the course of progress. Skirts, Not Spangled Bloomers.— "I want to correct one Western misconception of Turkish women, however. They don't, as a rule, wear bloomers. In Occidental lands the Turkish woman 16

1 thought of either as a gorgeous creature in spangled trousers, or as. a frightened little thing—also in trousers —expecting every minute that her husband is going to chop her head off. Both conceptions are quite wrong. As to the bifurcated garments, they are worn now only by women in the villages, and the country, and by servants. No woman of any social position would think of putting them on. The ordinary well-to-do Turkish woman wears a conventional skirt in the street. : Her upper garment is odd—a loose jacket, j with large flowing sleeves gathered at the - wrists and a hood completely covering her hair. She would think it most immodest to show her hair. A friend of mine has a summer, home on one of the Greek islands. It is hemmed in by high walls, so she ventures to sit on her own verandah without anything over her head. But from i one. window in a distant house it is possible for a man to see her, and her old! I mother mourns continually. i " 'My child, my child! Where will you go when you die if you let that man see your hair?' " —The Face Veil Superstition.— The superstition of the face veil still clings, Miss Jenkins says. From the front of the hood in the street costume a thick little black veil drops to the wearer's chin. They resent having to wear it. But the priests make a great point of the veil, and progressive Turkish women, realising that it's a mere detail which will adjust itself as women come to take their rightful position, don't protest. It is some-

what surprising to •be told that the Turkish woman isn't even sufficiently emancipated to keep her husband's house or to darn his socks. Miss Jenkins knows one house in which the husband is the housekeeper, and in others the servants take entire charge. "You would think," she says; "that the Turks would get tired of their baby wives. And many of them do. A little while before I sailed a progressive Turk said to me—- " 'The Turkish race has no mothers. We want you to train our girls in your school to be mothers for our race.' "And what do the Turkish women do all day? They sit, sit, sit. 'Sit' is the verb always in their mouths. Ask a Turkish woman where she spent the winter, and she replies, 'I sat in. Constantinople. ' Their one .amusement is to visit. A Turkish call lasts the entire day. Gossiping, smoking, drinking coffee, eating occasionally, they sit together in their close rooms, growing fatter and muddier of complexion by the moment."

Wives and Personality.

No wife, to be a perfect success, should possess too much personality, or perhaps individuality would be the correct word to use. Before marriage a woman is i permitted by the lords of creation to possess unlimited capriciousness and originality; in fact, these qualities are rather admired. But that is before marriage; after the ceremony, and when the novelty of matrimony has dulled, individuality must be sunk and originality put down with a firm, hand, for it is so j much easier for a man to have the woman j about his household of a pattern that i is easily matched at any Bargain counter; | it gives his brain-box no trouble,, .and' he can concentrate on his affairs, his'politics,, or his amusements with so much-more freedom. • - cu A wife who insists on retaining her own individuality must be like an aching ; tooth. Teeth are so useful, and so j long as they give no trouble they are j scarcely given a thought to, but if they;

pain, then they force attention to themselves. So long as a wife is tactful enough to smile just when her husband wishes her to, looks sad when he is not pleased, stays at home when she ijs required, and goes out when requested, then is she termed a model wife ;" but if she rebels and asserts a will she should not own, she becomes a sad trial like a recalcitrant molar, and with a sigh of self-pity the poor male owner must set a-thinking of the easiest and least painful j way of getting- rid of his troublesome possessions. A woman whom man would credit with owning a brain above the average of her sex is "some other "fellow's wife," or perhaps just an ordinary-minded female with sufficient cunning to conceal ■ her real braininess, and listen admiringly to his words of wisdom ;. and she must possess an unlimited' fund of tact. A tactful woman will always win through where her most beautiful or brainy sister would fail. A man does not approve of surprises when they come from his very own women folk; they irritate him, he j feels as aggrieved as though a dirty | chimney-sweep had accidentally collided '■ with him. j Well! it just amounts to this, that a woman must make her choice: she can retain her original individuality, and let people wonder why so clever a woman is not a favourite with men, or be a tactful, flattering nonentity and have countless swains worshipping at her feet.—" Elizabeth of H," in the World.

Hints and Suggestions.

! In cases of obstinate dentition rub a slice of lemon on the child's gums; it cools the mouth, and produces the free flow of.saliva. A correspondent who has tried this remedy has never had cause | for anxiety: As a cure for sore feet the following ! recipe is strongly recommended by an ! eminent doctor : —Alum, 3ox ; tannin, loz; brown vinegar, 1 pint; rose water, half-a-pint. Mix, and apply a little as lotion after washing the feet. Don't leave your warm abode in cold weather without warm wraps around* your shoulders and breast.. Don't retire with oold or wet- feet. Nothing prevents sleep with so much certainty as the neglect of your pedal extremities. Don't throw away oold- tea, but diil|ute it with water, and wash paint and oilcloth with it. Cold tea is also good wherewith to water ferns. Dish towels should be washed out in warm suds, rinsed and dried after each dish washing, and once a • week they should go into the laundry. Always use a salver fork for beating an egg instead i of a steel one, as the phosphorus of the yolk attacks the steel and ! forms a disagreeable salt. ! To save darning and to increase the wear of children's stockings, put a piece of wash-leather at the back of their shoes. This prevents the sbces slipping at the heel. Wallpapers in bedrooms, where it is desired to combine sweetness and light, ! should never be a source of arithmetical j problems to the occupant, but should conI tain some rambling design, in which, try I our best, we ca.ni discern neither beginI ning nor end, and should be of pale shades ,—either rose, amber, or green.',. ... If a small fragment of clpth-is cut otfr the piece you may by a simple process, of unravelling distinguish if the -wrap-is of cotton. Supposing the material to be made of what is called wool,, the presence j of what is technically known as "ijhoddy" j is revealed when the fragment oji being stretched with the thumbs by the "everage

of the forefingers as inelastic, soft, and spongy, yields. easily, and having yielded does not'return to its original firmness. To Prevent Freezing Pipes.—Freezing pipes may be prevented during the frosty, weather by a little care and forethought. Before going to bed make up the kitchen fire with cinders, well damped, and coal dust in alternate layers. Press the top well down, pull, out the hot water damper, and turn'the hot Water tap slightly, so that a tiny stream of water may flow all night. This keeps it circulating, and the slow fire prevents it freezing. . A pennyworth of gum arabic Idssolyed in a pint of water does wonders in producing a gloss on starched goods. Add one teaspoonful of the mixture, with two or three drops of turpentine to a pint of starch, and use, of course, in the usual way. . A very effective way of ventilating bed and stitting. rooms is to place a board three or' four inches wide, but exactly, the width of the window,... m its edge under the lower sash, which is then raised the width of the sash. By this means a space is left between the two sashes m the middle of the window, through which fresh air enters upwards towards ceiling, and does not cause draught. Almost every woman uses a little face powder occasionally, and xs there are many injurious articles on the market ifc is well to prepare it at home. Mix onehalf pound of powdered starch with two and a-half ounces of powdered orris root, then "run through a fine sieve. Put a. little in a bag of thin flannel, and apply, it by shaking it lightly on the face. The odour of fresh orris root is always liked, closely resembles violets.