LADIES' GOSSIP.

Otago Witness, 1 June 1910, Page 73

LADIES' GOSSIP.

—Women are earning for themselves a reputation for fidelity in fashion's domains by their sincere admiration for, and staunch allegiance to, the monster hat.— Daily Mail. The society woman, even if she be of the smart and butterfly description, must do hard labour of a sort in order to shine conversationally and sartorially. Her skill in epigram or barefoot dancing does not come at a whistle.—Daily Sketch.

—ln her own day, George Sand was supreme in her field ; now, save for her country tales--her "Georgks." as SainteBeuve happily called them—she is generally unfamiliar, and for one person who has read any of her novels there are ten who know her only from her association with Alfred de Musset and Chopin.— Chronicle.

An interesting double wedding, where one of the bridegrooms was a great-great-nephew of Napoleon I, took place recently at St. Paul's Church, Grove Park, Chis.wiok, when Mr Frederick William Williams (son of the late Mr William Williams, of Enniskillen, County Fermanagh) and Mr Napoleon Gerald Bonaparte-Wyse (son of the late Mr W. C. Bonaparte-Wyse, of the Manor of St. John's, Waterford) were married respectively to Miss Edith and Miss Gertrude Crowther, daughters of Mr and Mrs John Crowther, of Ranelagh House, Grove Park. Mr Bonaparte-Wyse is a grandson of the late Right Hon. Sir Thomas Wyse and Princess Letizia Bonaparte (who was a daughter of Lucien Bonaparte, brother of Napoleon I). Beautiful china requires much care. There are some matrons who never allow their rare pieces of china to go into the kitchen, but who have two pans of water brought into the dining room, where they themselves wash and dry and polish to the point of shining all of their daintiest wares. All china will look its full value

only when highly polished. Plenty of towels, perfectly dry, perfectly fresh and clean, must be on hand to polish good china.

—Mrs Humphry Ward is the subject of an article in the Revue dee Deux Mondes by M. Firmin Box, who places her among the greatest of English female novelists, classing her with the Brontes and George Eliot. He finds that she expresses all the best that exists in English society today. He thinks that there are few novels more thoroughly English, lew more lifelike representations of the English aristocracy than are contained in "Lad'y Rose's Daughter," "Mrs Ward's dialogues are masterpieces of truth and beauty." This is high praise indeed from such a critic. We wonder if the future will justify it!—Saturday Review. Sentiment may be as absurd as VOW please, but it does things. This ridiculous business of young love, it alters for better or worse a man's- career. This nonsense of family affection, it works to make each generation a trifle better than the one before. This preposterous sympathy with wretched sufferers, it alters the whole tone of national life. This idiotic faith in an abstract idea, it crushes slavery all round the world. The hysterical young lover, the adoring parent, the gushing philanthropist, the passionate doctrinaire, they are all quite ridiculous people. Only their sentimentality does things. Their sentiment is as absurd as you please, only it is something that they will die for. So the sentimentalists get things done their way. It is to silly sentiment we owe it that so much of the world's story is not tragedy but melodrama.—Telegraph. Mrs Aubrey le Blond has a claim to stand in the front rank of modern mountaineers, irrespective of sex. But not content with her reputation in this field, she has also made a name as a photographic artist and as a writer of delightful travel books and articles. Indeed, there are few lady travellers, even in this travelled age, who can boast of more varied experiences. This is all the more extraordinary when it is remembered that Mrs le Blond made her first acquaintance with the mountains as an invalid. As a girl she was weak and frail, and after trying the Mediterranean, the Tyrol, and Algiers, she was sent to Switzerland in search of

health. ■ Shortly after tier Arrival, she made her first ascent from Curmayeur. On the way down the mountain the party wer.: overtaken by darkness before the club hut was reached, and had to spend the night in the snow, which was by no means a delightful prospect for the invalid. Since those days, Mrs le Blond has climbed nearly every peak worthy of the name in the Swiss Alps, the Dolomites, and the mountains of D&uphiny. She has also travelled practically over every inch of the most inaccessible • parts of Norway. Some nine years ago she established herself in a tent at a little place called Jaegcrsvand, two hundred miles within the Arctic Circle. Here she was surrounded by a little colony of Lappt. These little people were very amusing, and after a time became quite friendly, though they had a distinct aversion to having their photographs taken. The sight of Mrs le Blond's "magical box" would drive them ail into their huts. On one occasion she took a snapshot of one who had actually accended to the housetop with a fond hope of being out of reach of the camera. By birth Mi's le Blond hails from Ireland, where her family have been landowners for generations, including . some of the loveliest country in Wieklow, Mrs le Blond has inherited all the delightful hunvjur of her people, and revels in racial stories. Once a relative of hers, finding himself at a certain little town in Wicklow, inquired if there was a barber in the place. "Is it to be shaved ye want?" asked the hotel "porter. "Sure, the coastguard will shave ye."

Life of Turkish Women.

Origin of Custom of Going Veiled—All of Them Superstitious.— "Turkish women do not wear veils because of their religion," writes' Mrs Kenneth Brown in the Metropolitan. "It is- merely the survival of an old custom. When the Turks still lived in Tartary, before the time of Mohammed, it was the habit of the men to steal such women for wives a.s attracted them. "This led to so much fighting that about t|he second century after Christ the Turks came together and decided that henceforth the women should go veiled, and should not meet men, but dwell in harems as soon as they arrived at womanhood. "The first 12 or 13 years of a Turkish girl's life is n«t different from that of any other girl. She plays with children of both sexes, Turks and Europeans. The instant, however, that she becomes a woman and takes tchirchaf —the loose outer garment which conceals the figure —her companionship' with boys ends. "She no longer accompanies her father or visits that part of the house, called selamlik, where the men are. She lives in the pa.rt of the house called haremlik, and begins her education as a woman. She learns what is expected of her as sister, daughter, wife, and mother. She is not deprived of her European friends nor the chance of making new ones. She is permitted to study and to go about freely, although always veiled and attended. "Turkish women, even the most enlightened of them, are very superstitious. To praise a baby to its mother is all your life is worth should the baby happen to fall ill afterward. The evil eye is the most common belief, and little childi'en, who may be dressed in the height of European fashion, otherwise, will wear under the' brim of their hats a piece of garlic or other potent charm against the evil eye. Nifisay Hanoum, a woman not only well educated, but possessed of an unusual mind, had four children. They were . faultlessly dressed in imported English clothes, but each of them wore some trinket against the evil eye. I teased her about it, and she protested that it was not her doing. " 'The slaves put them on, and I do not wish to hurt their feelings by, taking them off,' she said. "I resolved to test her enlightenment, and the next time I saw the baby with her I exclaimed : 'What a lovely little creature.' " 'You wretch!' she cried. 'Spit on that child at once.' "I laughed at her manifest terror, but hastened to add : 'I do not think her lovely hi the least, for she has red hair and freckles and a pug nose —but I wanted to find out whether it was you or the slaves who pu* that garlic on your babies.' ""She shrugged her shoulders. 'The slaves did it, but I suppose I do in the bottom of my heart believe in the evil eye. It is in the blood.' "In Turkey there is no shame attached to slavery. Can the same be said of our domestic service? Should a servant marry a rich man here and be raised into the ornamental class, would she not find it hard to live down her former state ? In Turkey the mother of Sultan Abdul was a slave, as is the wife of the Khedive of Egypt, and no disgrace attaches to the fact.

"It is this which primarily differentiates Turkish slavery from what we are accustomed to associate with the word — that and the fact that the slaves do not come from an inferior and servile race, but from among themselves. There is no caste in Turkey. All persons below the Sultan are equal before Allah, Every man and woman has a chance to rise, according to personality, intelligence, charm, or beauty.' '- Hints and su/sjcstions. Potato peelings and cold water are excellent for cleaning decanters, etc. A little castor oil rubbed into your boots occasionally will make them last much longer. For flatulency there is no better remedy than a teaspoonful of glycerine after each meal. Rub a mud-stained tjhbiella with a rag

1 dipped in methylated spirits, and the stains will disappear. To take ink out of boards, apply spirit of salt to the stains with a piece of rag. Afterwards wash well with water. To stop a leak in a gas or water pipe, beat some whitening up into some yellow soap. Well rub into the leak, and' you will find it will stop it when other things have failed. A good way to repair small holes in Holland blinds is to get some court plaster, cut a piece a little larger than the hole, warm, and lay perfectly flat over the hole. When dry it will hardly be noticed. Colds in the head, etc., may be cured by putting the feet into hot water until perspiration is caused on the forehead 1 ; drink a tumbler of cold water in bed, and well cover yourself with bedclothes. To remove ink stains from table linen, and other white articles squeeze the juice of a fresh lemon over the stain; let it remain on a minute, then rinse in warm water, and the stain will have disappeared. To distinguish a boiled egg from one that has not been boiled, stand the egg pointed end downwards on the table and spin. If it is cooked it will spin, but if raw it will immediately roll over. To clean brushes do not use water, but shako a little flour through the bristles and rub with the fingers till the flour becomes quite black, then rub with a 6oft cloth until all the flour is removed, and the brushes will be. beautifully white and clean. The correct sauces for meats are: With roast beef, grated horse radish ; roast mutton, currant jelly; roast pork, apple sauce; roast lamb, mint sauce ; roast turkey, cranberry jelly ; roast venison, black currant jelly or grape jelly ; roast goose, tart apple jelly ; roast duck, orange salad or apple sauce ; roast chicken, bread sauce; roast ptarmigan, bread sauce ; cold boiled tongue, sauce tartare. When the cane chair seats, are out of shape, turn up the seats and with hot water and soap wash the cane-work until thoroughly and leave the chairs to dry upside down in the air, when the seats will become firm and tight again. ■ When a pipe from a lavatory basin or a bath becomes clogged with soap, mix a handful of soda and a handful of common salt together and force it down into.the pipe. Leave this for half an hour, then pour down a large kettleful of boiling water, afterwards rinsing the pipe thoroughly with warm water. When a splinter has been driven deep into the hand it can be extricated without pain by steam. Nearly fill a wide-mouthed bottle with hot water, place the injured part over the mouth of the bottle, and press lightly. I"he suction will draw the flesh down, and in a minute or two the steam will extricate the splinter and inflammation together. The great secret in having good toast is to dry all moisture out of the bread before holding it to the fire, otherwise the outside will become brown and scorched while the middle remains spongy. Dry the slices of bread in the oven for a quarter of an hour (with the door open). The bread will toast very quickly, and evenly after this treatment. It will be crisp, yet neither hard nor tough. Directly toast is made it should be stood upright in a warm place till served. If glazed tiles are spotted, wash them, with lemon-juice, leave them for a quarter on an hour, and finally rub them with & soft cloth. Tiles should not be washed, but only rubbed with a damp cloth, and then polished with skim milk and water. Perhaps a rag on which a little paraffin has been sprinkled is the best of all polishers ; but it should be used before a, fire is lit in the gTate. Always keep carbonate of soda in the house for burns and scalds; it is an excellent remedy. The surface of the burn, should be covered with it, either dry or just damped. It relieves the pain caused bv bites or stings of insects. A small saltspoonful in half a tumbler of water will relieve heartburn and indigestion, and if taken- with tepid water last thing at night will frequently induce sleep in a restless person. To whiten ivory handles of table-knives jub them the way of the grain with a little moist whitening on a soft flannel. A little ammonia and water will take- out stains made by perspiration; after applying, wash the material in clean cold water.' To clean a saucepan in which anything has been burnt, fill it with wood, ashes, and water and let it stand aside for a few hours, Avhen it can be cleaned without any trouble.