"ALIEN'S" LETTER FROM ENGLAND.

Otago Witness, 1 June 1910, Page 75

"ALIEN'S" LETTER FROM ENGLAND.

April 15. , "The Ideal Home" Exhibition, which : was formally opened last Saturday at the Olympia by Princess Christian, has been London's biggest public show of the week. The title of the exhibition, like the title of a book or play, has much to do with its attraction, and the Ideal Home is the ideal of domesticity, and to the Olympia, where the ideals of the past and present are set forth —and most artistically set forth at their full commercial value—there has been a steady stream of people wending their way all the week, to learn how to be housed and homed, decorated and adorned into the belief that drab streets need not be drab, if ideality were admitted into the scheme of building, and that the poorest of the poor might still be picturesque if they would live in ideal cottages instead of in dirty stuffy rooms in dark and dirty byways. These ideal cottages, with their quaint, mimic-old, real-costly art furniture and decorations, are an object lesson in how to be happy though poor! How sweet to have lived in the deac little Tudor village, with •brownies at the waterfall, and brownies aancing the Maypole dance. All the village is inhabited by men and women clad in costumes of a picturesque period, and so real do they look that one is for the moment illusioned into forgetting that they are very real men and women of the present-day poor, earning their wage by pretending to have lived 300 years ago in Tudor times, when it appears the main pursuit of villagers was to dance and sing. But to go through the Ideal Home Exhibition is to convince one, not so much how a poor man .may. live ideally, but the best and most artistic way for a rich man to spend his money ,< and a rich woman too; and one famous lady has bought one of the picturesque cottages to send to her estate in Normandy to use as a home for invalid girls. Hundreds of others who cannot possess an ideal cottage are filled with covetousness, and go home to their inartistic fiat and the next-door piano and the spring-cleaning Vith unmitigated disgust, and recall that William Morris said that "if our houses, our clothes, our household furniture and utensils are not works of art, they are wretched makeshift, or, what is worse, degrading shams of better things." Strolling down a long green avenue at the Meal Home Exhibition at the Olympia, '-ou may see in the exhibits of the leading firms of England.—as you may see in the West End' shops—all the things that heart and eyes desire, displayed in such a fashion that it is mortally impossible not to covet your neighbour's goods, and the pursuit of the real lead's thus away from the ideal. Such wall-papers ! such carpets and rugs and art needlework and easy chairs and lounges and china! Every London lodginghouse-keeper ought to be admitted free of charge. There is even millennium flour, suggestive of painless pastry and millennium buns. One of the most interesting sections of the exhibition —and to it all the women drift —is under the special direction of Viscountess Helmsley, and that is Babyland, where there are babies of all nations — white, yellow, brown, and black, in charge of their native nurses in some instances, and all dressed in their national costume. It is both amusing and interesting to listen to the remarks of the women, and the comparisons which are not odious as the contrasted charms of the little ones are discussed, for whatever the changes in furniture and wall-paper, the fashion in babies does not pall, fortunately for the world; and the ancient fashion of motherhood, without which there never has been an ideal home, still shines out of women's eyes, whether the woman be turbaned or wears a ridiculous hat. Talking of hats reminds me that a summons was granted the other day against the manager of a West End theatre for excluding from the stalls two ladies who refused to remove their matinee hats. The incident has caused a good deal of comment, and the question is again emphatically asked, Why will women persist in wearing large hats at the theatre? Why? Because a woman convinced against her will is of the came opinion still, and it is very much against her will that some women are convinced that people who pay for a seat in a theatre and frequently travel long distances to see a play would not rather look ""' at a matinee hat. The wearers of these offending creations have some reason to urge on their side. The dressing rooms are- too crowded and the pegs too small to hold a number of the gigantic hats now in fashion; a hat for which £lO has perhaps been paid would be utterly ruined / by the crushing it would get in the tiny space alloted to it. She" has not time to wait her turn in the dressing room after the performance; and, besides, her hair has been dressed to suit the hat—the large hat requires a special mode of hairdressing with curls and coils, unbecoming without the hat. The curls and coils have probably known the art of the hairdresser, and the hat and the coiffure is very likely due at a reception after the play, "and the whole effect of the elaborate hairdressing would be spoilt were the hat meddled with. The hair and the hat is a creation, incomplete apart. If so, whv go to a matinee? asks a suffering, stupid 3 man. Every woman who has a 10-guinea matinee hat understands that it is no use—or very little —without the matinee, for women in matinee hats don't go to see the play or let other people see it, but to show their hats. Each season in London now provides its pageants, and gives, as one expresses it, " amateurs an opportunity of dressing up

(Specially Written for the Witness Ladies' Page.)

HAPPENINGS OP THE WEEK.

and getting out of themselves"—an opportunity sometimes devoutly to be desired. This opportunity of representing some hero of the past has been afforded to many thousands of present-day folk by the rehearsals now in preparation for the great Festival of Empire pageant which begins at the Crystal Palace on May 25, and will be one of the biggest things of its kind that has ever taken place. There will be 15,000 players in the pageant, but when the call was made to the public to impersonate these more or less interesting characters, not only was there no lack of offers, but many more volunteered for the parts than could be accepted. Of the male characters the Duke of Wellington was first in favour, over 100 applications for his representation being received, and Queen Elizabeth is the favourite character among the women, quite 350 ladies having applied for the part, while applications for the role are still being made. The necessary qualifications for the character were published as " reddish, auburn hair, pale complexion, green-grey eyes, and dignified deportment," and at the pageant administration offices many ladies called personally, and it is said that there has been a good deal of study of Queen Elizabeth at the libraries. Queen Elizabeth's Coronation will cost nearly £IOO, exclusive of her jewels, and the other dresses will all be handsome, so that one naturally wonders whether it is all' admiration of "Good Queen Bess" or the picturesqueness of her appearance that prompts the eagerness. The lady on whom the honour of Elizabeth's representation is to fall is a lady of Kensington—unless another with a more striking likeness to the Queen should appear at the last moment, which is improbable, as the rehearsals for the pageant begin at the Crystal Palace to-day. The stage managers have a gigantic task before them.

Many who know London will be sorry to hear that that old and favourite exhibition, Earl's Court, is not to be open at all this year. The competition of the White City is too keen. But many there are who will miss its lighted gardens and band and select little dinners at the club ; I the meeting and gossip with old friends : in quiet nooks in the gardens under tho j trees. Some preferred it to the brilliance and crowd of the White City, but not j the majority, or its hospitable doors Avordd I still be- open to the public. It is con- ! fidently affirmed that the Anglo-Japanese Exhibition will be a fine show. Only Japanese workmen have been employed on construction, and it will be a bit of real Japan, picturesque and attractive to I the Westerners —especially the gardens, which, as far as climate permits, will be laid out in real Japanese style. There will ; be Geisha girls, too, and the whole illu- , sion will be vivid. j The first visit of a Queen of England to the House of Commons that is within living memory was paid by Queen Alexandra last, Monday, when she listened to part of the veto debate, and heard the maiden speech of Lord Rosebery's son, Mr Neil Primrose. The Queen was accompanied by Princess Victoria, and was received by Mrs Lowther and conducted to the private ladies' gallery, where she sat behind the grille till after 5 o'clock, when the royal ladies had tea with Mrs Lowther. The Prince and Princess of Wales and other members of the Royal Family have paid frequent visits to the House during the sesion, but this is first visit of her Majesty since she has been Queen. A TIRED HOUR. "He shall give His beloved, sleep." A weary spirit. Lord, Too- tired to pray! To ask with certain »wor(J An onward way; Only, if it should be Thy will, Just to lie still! Just to lie qu;«\! Spring, With opening bud. The bird upon £ha wing, The fragrant sod, Speak of renewal, arrd of things to be. To-day, for me, The unfolding green, the. blue Of violet; The rain-washed earth made new, Have no regret; Sunset*, the shadow-darkening sky, Ccin.3 by—and-bye. O'er stubble field the green Sweeps barrenness, Where empty nests Songs rise to bless, And all youth's world is full of i sweet Spring's day to greet! Unto the young, the Spring! And the Spring's task, New sky, new earth, strong wing! I only ask (Ab ! priceless boon which His beloved keep), Gcd's painless sleep. Unto the young the Spring! The brightening day; All that Love's faith may bring And Hope may say But to. the weary of Life's seasons run, The setting sun. —Alien.