LADIES' GOSSIP.

Otago Witness, Issue 3018, 17 January 1912, Page 88

LADIES' GOSSIP.

The tragedy of womanhood is the perpetual effort of the plain woman to pass herself off as a pretty woman. Hence the vogue of dressmakers, milliners, beauty specialists, and the whole mob of humbugs who cater for the multitude of women who yearn to be beautiful. The worst of this rage for manufactured beauty is that it gets what it wants. The resources of modern ingenuity have risen to the occasion. If a plain woman has money she can be made beautiful. All sorts of artists are ready to transform her into at least the semblance of fashionable perfection.—James Douulas, in London Opinion. It is pointed out in the Lady's Realm that every year the hunting field i 6 becoming more and more the scene of feminine triumphs There are at this season at least six lady masters—two of foxhounds and four of harriers. Miss Eve is the new master of the Bexhill Harriers, in succession to Lord Brassey. She is the sister of Mr Justice Eve, and is a notable sportswoman. Miss Wakely, the new master of the Edenderry Harriers, has some difficult Irish country to hunt. Mrs H. C. Burke has undertaken the North Mayo Harriers. Though new to mastership herself, a lady master is not new to the pack, for sne follows Mrs Garvey in the position. Mrs J. W. Proctor, who has just been chosen master of the Bigglewade Harriers, follows one of the " grand old men " of the hunting-field, the late Mr George Race, whom only death could take from his beloved sport. This is one the most successful of harriers packs. Of the established lady master of foxhounds, Mrs T. H. R. Hughes, of Neuaddfawr, has done particularly well with her by no means easy task. Evelyn, Countess of Craven, also retains the mastership of her own foxhounds at Ashdown Park, and intends to have them out a regular two days a week this winter. Here' is a skit on paper bag cookery, in which the general nousewife is made to perform her' cooking operations with newspapers instead of the much-adver-tised bags, with the following result:

There's a breach of promise oa.se upon the mutton, And a rmrrder right across the pickledl pork; You oon read about the navy on the surface of the gravy, Whilst the spinach gives the latest new» from Cork. The motto on the fish is " Votes for "Women," "While a scandal on the veal attention begs ; On the bacon we .are getting all the latest London betting. With the names of all the winners on the eggs. Do You Take Headache Powders? One of the greatest dangers in all drug medication is found in the headache remedies that are becoming very popular, especially among women. Headache powders (says the Health Record) usually contain large quantities of drugs which affect the heart; therefore, they are the worst possible things that can be used. Find the cause that produces the headache and remove that. Worry, overwork, lack of sleep, eye strain, constipation, and indigestion are some of the most common causes of headache, and these can all be removed or prevented by an intelligent effort. Rain-water for the Complexion. It is well known that soft water is the only water for the face, and rain water, filtered, has no equal. Everyone remembers that Diane de Poictiers, who, at 60, won admirers away from young girls, had a wash the secret of which was never disclosed during her lifetime. When that radiant beauty was no more, her chemist confessed that the large bottles he sent her contained nothing but filtered rain water, with which, and some declare with which alone, she bathed the face time seemed unable to touch. If rain water cannot be secured, distilled water will do as well, but it is a more costly substitute. Roman Hainlressing'. The Greek, Egyptian, Cathaginian, and Roman ladies of 25 centuries ago made use of the most astonishing quantities of borrowed hair, and the Roman women of the time of Augustus were especially pleased when thev could outdo their social rivals by piling upon their heads a greater tower of additional tresses. They also arranged curls formally, around the head. An extensive commerce in human hair was carried on, and after the conquest of Gaul, blonde hair, such as grew originally on the heads of Ger-

man girls along the Rhine, became veryfashionable in Rome. Caesar collected a vast amount of hair from the vanquished Gauls, which he sent to market at Rome, and in the Roman provinces a cropped head was regarded as a badge of slavery or at least of subjection. The hairdressers of Rome were persons of real importance, and charged exorbitant prices for forming the hair into fanciful devices, such as harps, wreaths, and diadems.

The " Intuitive Riss." Dear as remember'd kisses after death, And sweet as those by hopeless fancy feign'd On kps that are for others. —Tennyson's " The Princess."

An "intuitive kiss" caused Arthur Walchman, a florist, to be summoned recently before Uudge Sanders. The "intuitive kiss" turned out to be a kissless or unkissed kiss —the kiss that never came. Mrs Tillie Shaw testified that soon after she got employment with Walchman he threw a dollar into her lap, and tried to kiss her. " Did he really try to kiss you?" asked the judge. * , " I had an intuition he was going to." Walchman said he was going to the telephone, and had no intention of trying to kiss Mrs Shaw. Her husband testified he was far away at the time, but had had an intuition it was about to happen. Walchman was discharged.

A Shipload of Brides. A Montreal correspondent tells of the arrival at that port from Glasgow, on ' board the Donaldson liner Saturnia, of no fewer than 20 blushing brides-to-be. Most of these, he says, found their fiances waiting for them when the ship swung into port, but others had to travel all the way to the prairies before the joyful meeting. Captain D. Taylor, who took a personal pleasure in landing the brides in the best of health and spirits, was a regular father confessor on the trip, and he gave lots of fatherly advice in response to shy confidences. When the disembarkation took place, it was he who stood on the gangway and shook each one by the hand, and wished them, on behalf of the loved ones left behind, all joy and prosperity, in the 20 new spheres to which the 20 brides were going. The brides ranged in age from 20 to—well, over 20, and they were declared to bfr as handsome, a lot of Scottish girls as ever landed in Canada. There were concerts every evening during the voyage, for this bridal tour of the Saturnia was felt to be an occasion demanding the best efforts of crew and passengers alike. The crew testified to the success of these efforts by declaring the passage was one of the meet jovial ever known on the Saturnia.

Fast Typewriting. A remarkable typewriting performance was accomplished by a French girl in a competition in Paris, organised by the Oliver School, in which 150 pupils took part. The winner, copying from a newspaper for three-quarters of. an hour, maintained during that period an average speed of 100 words a minute. .

Beautiful Englith Words. In a contest to determine which 25 words are the most beautiful in the English language, James Shea, a New York lawyer', won first prize with an accepted list of 21 words of the 25 he submitted. Here is the complete list:—Melody, splendour, adoration, grace, eloquence, virtue, in nocence, modesty, faith, truth, peace, nobility, joy, honour, love, divine, heaven, hope" harmony, happiness, purity, justice, liberty, radiance, sympathy. From the 25 words the judges struck four—grace, divine, justice, and truth —as lacking in euphony compared to the other words ot the list.

Old-fashioned Cleaning: Hints. When washing extra fine linen a favourite device was that of using potato suds instead of soap. This was said to whiten the linen considerably,, the potatoes being first of all three-parts cooked and then cutf in halves. These were rubbed on the linen, which was then returned to the copper to be reboiled for half an hour. After rinsing once" or twice in warm water, it could then finally be

wrung and dried in the usual way. Gin used to be very much in demand for cleaning purposes, and we must suppose that it! uses were pretty fairly divided between the kitchen, the dining room, and the cupboard where stores of polishing pastes and cleansers were kept. Hot removing the soiled line round the neck where a silk dress was concerned, there was supposed to be nothing to equal gin. This was rubbed over the collar-band with a sponge. Gin was also used to remove grease marks on silk mufflers. Girl Soldiers. Two girls at the Lycee Buffon are preparing for the entrance examination at the famous school, the Polytechnique, which is the alma mater of the leading civil and military engineers. Should they be admitted to the school, it will be one triumph the more for Feminism, but, at the same time, a considerable source of * embarrassment to the school itself. If the young ladies succeed in becoming " Polytechniciennes," something like a revolution in the habits and customs of this centre will result. The school songs, which are not alwavs intended for delicate ears, and have a bluff and martial tone, will have to be suppressed or " bowdlerised," and others, inocuous in character, put in their place. Again, the female applicants cannot, obviously be called upon to perform their military service; in consequence, the regulations must be changed to meet the case.

11 A Popular English Superstition." This is how the Hospital describee the belief that " the only really important item in the daily bill of fare is a meat dish at every meal": —Even when meat is well chosen, well cooked, and attractively served (says the paper), too exclusive a meat diet draws heavily not merely on the purse but on the economy of the body, for the digestive system is unable to use an excess of nitrogen, and a heavv strain is thrown on the kidneys and other organs in the elimination of what is not required. Little by little the housekeeper should demonstrate the attractiveness, nutritive value, and digestibility of the rival proteid foodstuffs to meat, taking due heed always that the meat-eater is not neglected. Savoury .dishes prepared from < cheese, macaroni, nuts, pulse, and certain cereals would prove a change and relief from the monotony of meat and afford body-buildLng materials in easily assimilated form.

The Fashionable Fad; in Paris. Monkeys are fashionable just now in Paris, especially their skins, which are the latest craze for satchels, purses, writing-cases, and such articles. Monkey leather is of a dark golden brown hue, and is as strong and durable as crocodile skin. Slippers of natural monkey leather are in great demand among smart French women, as are wpjting-table accessories made of that material, which is supposed to be the only thing that matches the inlaid intarsia furniture wich is just now considered ultra chic. Men carry canes with monkey heads or faces carved on the handles, or with knobs made of monkeys sitting on their haunches. Of course,' the carving must be of the finest or the effect is not good. It is monkeys wherever you look : monkeys on umbrellas, on lorgnette handles, on hatpins, on belt clasps, or hanging from watch fobs or bell pulls. ■—Paris Letter.

fio Chance Sow for " Cold Feet." By means of electricity it is now proposed to make the carpet, the Persian rug, or the tiger's pelt as warm in winter as" the latter was while worn by the tiger. In Germany the experiment is now being tried of waring the floorcovering so as to heat the oarpet or rug and do away with cold floors. A patent has been taken out for running wires through the carpet in parallel lines in euch a way that an ordinary lighting current can be run through the wires. The conductor becomes warm and heats the carpet. The heat in large carpets can be controlled as desired, and the carpet will remain warm for two or three hours after the current is turned off. A small foot-rug can be heated and taken for comfort during a carriage ride. The wiring of carpets for this purpose is new, but patents have been issued before for passing wires or wire-gauze through compartments in table-covers, carpets, and other coverings for lighting purposes.

Queen Alexandra and Slew Zealand. The Premier of New Zealand (says The Times of November 23), speaking at a recent meeting of the Wellington Women's »Social and Political League, announced that he had invited Queen Alexandra to visit New Zealand. We are now permitted to publish the following correspondence on the subject: — " Hotel Cecil, July 5, 1911.

"Dear Mr Harcourt, —Would you be so good as to convey to Her Majesty Queen Alexandra a cordial invitation from the Government and peoDle of New Zealand to visit the Dominion as the guest of the country? The women of New Zealand especially would be proud indeed if Her Majesty were to bestow such a favour. I may say I spoke to Hi 6 Majesty the King on the matter, end he expressed his concurrence in my extending the invitation to his Royal mother. —Yours sincerely, J. G. Ward." "Marlborough House, Pall Mall. S.W., "July 10, 1911.

" Dear Sir Joseph Ware], — Mr HarJourt has forwarded to me your letter to him of the sth inst., -which I have, ae requested, submitted to Queen Alexandra, and I am now charged bv Her Mejesty to deliver you the following reply :

"Queen Alexandra Is deeply touched at receiving the invitation from, the people of New Zealand to visit the Dominion. Nothing would have given more pleasure to BDer Majesty than to accept, had it been possible, the invitation to visit a part of the British Dominions of whose kindly feelings and warmth of sentiment to the Mother Country she has seen so manv proofs. It has always been her sorrow that she was never able to visit the overseas Dominions with her beloved Consort in hie lifetime, and she feels now that it would be too painful to her to undertake .so important a journey as this is, deprived of the presence of one by whose side for 47 years all such visits were made. Queen Alexandra feels sure that the [kind-hearted people of New Zealand will understand this, and will forgive her for not accepting the invitation she so greatly appreciates.—l remain, dear Sir Joseph Ward, very faithfully yours, " D. M. Phobyn, " General-Comptroller to Her Majesty " Queen Alexandra." Society's Soul. —The Dangerous Hour. — There is probably no period of the day when people are more dnngerous to trifle with than the breakfast hour. If people must assemble and meet together to break their fast, read the morning's news and their correspondence, which is generally of a disturbing nature —for disagreeable letters invariably arrive by the fir6t post—there should be an

inviolable rule of silence. Though startline Cabinet changes be announced or the most eligible peer in the kingdom has married a chorus lady, though Agatha's letter contains the news that vour •'mutual" sister-in-law is about to seek a divorce, or someone else has written to advance a family disagreement another stage, yet should compete silence be observed until later on. the breakfast hour is not one in which to argue or to think unnecessarily. In short, every possible means should be taken to make it as soothing as possible to the nerves. It is even irritating to come down morning after morning and see exactly the same china and silver, especially if one is out of sorts, if the weather is hon-id, or an unpleasant task lies ahead. One wonders why people do not hurl cups and spoons and jam receptacles and butterdishes to the ground from sheer ennui at their dailv recurrence. If there is not much variety in breakfast dishes one can at least'secure it in table appointments, and it is so delightfully easy to do this nowadays. The latest craze is to take one's meals on the floor and dispense with all possible table implements. This may be very good for the soul, but it is not attractive to the eye. When it comes to this. I even prefer to risk monotony and bad a conventional breakfast table, where politics, the plans of the day,' and family brawls are under discussion. Figure to yourself the various members of your household breakfasting on the floor, with a fine disregard for knives, forks, and spoons, and you will then feel, I am sure, that madness lies the wav of the soul cult by which so manv people are obsessed just now. Go where you will, they are worrying about their aurae or their soul vibrations or forces, and clearly things have come to a pretty pass when we can only keep our souls in order by doubling up our bodies and taking our food like the Persians and Siamese and other Far Easterns.

Jsever vrae there a time when charlatans had a clearer field and foolish women were more easily to be preyed

upon than this present.—" Ambrosia," in the World.

A Romantic Story Recalled. The death the other day of Viscountess Ashbrook at Knockatrina, Queen County, recalls the romantic story of the second Viscountess, which bears some resemblance to the story of Cecil and his humbly-born bride, the Shropshire farmer's daughter who one day found herself Countess of Exeter and mistress of lordly " Buxghley House by Stamford Town." William 'Flower, second discount Ashbrook, when a Magdalen. Oxford, fell in love with Betty Ridge, a lovely rustic beauty, daughter of a ferryman on the Thames, who plied his calling at Northmoor, close to Cumnor. He was greatly charmed with the girl, and sought every opportunity of cultivating her society, making many fishing excursions for the purpose; but, though so mucn enamoured, he did not rush hastily into matrimony, to repent —as so many do —at leisure. Ashbrook himself was very young, too yc .ng for matrimony, and besides he was dependent on his "guardians. He was wise enough also to recognise the fact that the ferryman's daughter—though, in addition to her personal charms, she had great amiability of temeper, and was verv sensible, with an unusual aptitude of "mind and intellect for one of the peasant class —would be no fitting mate for the wearer of a coronet, so he conceived the romantic idea of placing her with some lady capable of making her,

through the influence of refinement and education, equal to the position of mistress of Durrow Castle. For three years the girl received tuition in various polite accomplishments, and at the end of that period she became the bride of "Viscount Ashbrook at Northmoor Church, in the register of which is her signature "Betty Ridge " in a hand which shows she could •write fairly well. The ferrvman's daughter had doubtless heard, and probably seen, the great palace of Blenheim a few miles away, but she little imagined that a granddaughter would one day be its mistress. Yet such was the case,' for the daughter of one of her sons wag married to the sixth Duke of Marlborough, as his second wife. At Durrow Castle is a portrait of the peasantVisconntess. which gives a good idea of her early charms, and looking on. this it is not'difficult to believe that she fulfilled her husband's ideal. In after life she proved more than worthy of the promotion she had gained, and died at a good old age, honoured and loved by all who knew her.

ft iris Who Propose —The latest from New York. — During the last 20 years the emancipation of women has been steadily proceeding, and to-day the fair sex are finding themselves thai they are the equals of man in every respect. What our Victorian grandmothers would think of their presentday descendants is impossible to say, for they would Tcfuse to believe the evidence of their senses. Mrs Grundy has been effectually murdered by the dashing young women of to-day and the results, while in some cases novel, can certainly not be called pleasing. Even now, accustomed as we are to the changing ways of the feminine mind, it will come as a shock to most of us to learn that in New York it is now becoming the custom for young women to propose to the young men who are the objects of their choice. It is no longer a case of dodging pressing invitations to musicales and bridge parlies afi in the dear, dead days beyond recall. Nor (says the New York Tribune) is it merely a case of receiving valentines

in disguised handwritings, bearing the quaint but utterly harmless inscription, "Will you be my valentine?" and noway to guess the sender except by examining the postmark and one's conscience. It is now getting to be a case of "Jack, will you marry me?" followed by a ghastly pause that leaves no earthly doubt that a genuine answer is being awaited. —A Case in Point. — Here, for instance, is the example of a young man who was called up on the telephone at his home by a girl he knew and asked to meet her at lunch that morning, and the following conversation took place :

! Seated at luncheon, busied pleasantly over a thick chop and some potatoes au gratin, etc., she finally began. ' "Ed. it isn't exactly easy to do what I've decided to do, but I don't know any department of life that doesn't take nerve, so here goes. You and I have seen a ' good deal of each other for a couple of | years now, and it seems to me we like each other pretty well. At any rate, what I want to say is this—l don't know if ; you care for me much or not. You seem afraid to let me know. Is it because you can't stand being turned down?" I "Really, Constance —" he muttered. "Never mind," she said. "I don't see why I should not be perfectly square with ' you. I do care' for you, care for you ' enought to —enought to" marry you. Now 1 vour pride is saved. You have the privi- | lege of turning me down. Will you?" ! And she was paying for the luncheon!

What could he do'/ What would you have done? Who or what is to blame for this dangerous change in woman's methods? —The Novelist to Blaine.— Those who are accustomed to books and people will not be surprisod to hear the theory that the woman proposer did not originate in life at all, but in fiction. Fiction writers took their cue from George Bernard Shaw, and the woman proposer, in less than a year's crop of novels became the heroine of the hour. The strange and often amusing situations in this most novel and alarming matter, though, occur when the girl, taking some fiction heroine model, sets her 6cene and poses her victim as both are done in the book and begins the dialogue as the masterful author has arranged it.The man who, no doubt, has not read the work in question dully misses hie cue ; the girl labours on to restore the lost effect, and finally the whole affair winds up in the polite equivalent of a row. Another instance? Here is one maiden fair who took advantage of a box party at one of those Viennese waltz romances in a Broadway theatre the other night. When the curtain closed on the second act, an act of sweet old-time romance, the girl in the box feli languidly back in her cushioned chair and said, sotto voice, to the man who was beside her. "Oh. Jack, I wish we were to be married, too, don't you?" The next thing that could be heard was the girl's voice again, very softly murmuring— " Why didn't you say so long ago, instead of making me propose to you, you bad boy? - ' ■=> —Man's Precautions.— AU of this adds a spice to one's daily experience, but how to cope with it? Most men have a mysterious, perhaps centurylong, horror of hearing the truth from a woman. That is one side of it. Another is, well, fancy the situation! Fancy hearing yourself coyly murmuring in your astonishment —"Oh, really, this is so sudden!" Somehow the sentiment and the way one would have to eay it don't seem to fit a bass voice.

One of the lions of th© hour, in order t< protect his bachelorhood, has decided, ij this proposing tendency spreads, to take { male chaperon about with him, especially when he goes calling or takes a youn( woman to the theatre. Other young men are planning to pro< tect themselves by «m£*ant personally de< livered bulletins as to the state of theil feelings, affection*, (Ao.

Hints and Suggestions. It is a good plan to place tins near thi fire after they have been washed and dried, ae this prevents them from rusting. To preserve lemons for a length of time, bury them in a box of sawdust. In this way they will keep fresh for several months.

Wash parsley and free it from stalks. Steep it for a few seconds in hot water, when it will be found to chop very easily. To line a mould of ices allow the mould to stand in salt and ice until well chilled. Remove cover, put in the mixture by spoonsfuls, and spread with the back of a spoon or a cake-knife, evenly, threequarters of an inch thick. In order to make boards white they should not be washed with soap and water. Instead of soap use one part of newly-slaked lime and three parts of common white sand, and the boards will become white and clean.

Sheets of newspapers spread between the wooden boards and the carpet are most effectual in keeping moths out of the carpet. They dislike printer's ink, and will not go anywhere near it. Stains on water-bottles will be removed quite easily if you stand tea-leaves and a little water in the bottles all night. In the morning shake the bottles well and wash them. After draining, polish with a soft cloth. Another method is to put potato-peel into the bottle and proceed as above.

The following is an excellent way of cleaning marble washstand basins. Mako a paste of whiting and eoft soap, and apply it with a eoft cloth. Rinse it off again with cold water, and repeat if necessary. When buying apples always be guided in your purchase by weight. The heaviest are best, and especially those which on being pressed by the thumb yield to it with a slight crackling noise. _ Prefer largo apples to email, for waste is saved in peebng and coring the fruit. When storing apples arrange them on dry straw in a dry place. A mixture of lemon-juice and salt i* excellent for cleaning an enamelled bath. Gut a lemon in half, and have a saucer of coaree kitchen salt readv. Dip the lemon into thi6, and keep rubbing it over the surface of the bath until all the dirt ir removed. Then wash well with hot suds, and you will be delighted with the result. One method of cleaning motor veil* and scarves of fine Shetland wool is that of using a dry cleaner, consisting of a mixture of flour and ordinary salt, in lien of soap and water. The flour and salt should be well sifted together and then heated, the mixture being then placed in a bowl, and the veil or scarf dipped in it and rubbed between the palms the hands, as when washed in the ordinary manner. If this is repeated once or twice duet and dirt will be eliminated aft less risk to the fabric than if soap-suds are used.

It may seem extravagant cleanliness to rinse out a pair of stockings whenever they, are taken off, but, after all, washing stockings is less work than darning them. A pair of stockings kept clean will last a long time without a hole or a break, even if of cheap quality, while if worn till dirty and sent to the laundry, they come back with holes that necessitate mending and mending again. This applies to most clothes, though in a less degree. Tveep them clean, avoid the hard scrubbing that wears out the cloth, and you wilf save much of the bother of mending.