LADIES' GOSSIP.

Otago Witness, Issue 3250, 28 June 1916, Page 59

LADIES' GOSSIP.

The Dowager Queen Louise, of Denj mart, is the tallest Royalty in Europe, ' being more than six feet in height. j boy of 14 can marry, but up to 21 they ! must have their parents' consent. In j France a man under 25 and a girl under 21 cannot be married without the consent | of their parents. One of the nurses who is associated j with Queen Amelie, of Portugal, in Red I Cross work says that her intimate knowj ledge often puts the professional staff to ] shame. This is really not surprising. j seeing that Queen Amelie qualified herself as a doctor years ago, and practised medicine for the benefit- of the poor of Lisbon. .She still keeps quite up-to-date. leading all the newest bocks on hospital work. Lady Cowdray, a delightful speaker, once made some interesting remarks on business men as lovers. "A man with a great business." she said, "entailing large responsibilities, may not have much time for demonstrating affection. An idle man, with no ambition, has. But the affection

of such a man would in time become somewhat tedious, whereas the less monotonous affection of the strong, hard-working man of business would remain one of the things to be treasured in a woman's life. After all," she concluded, "love-making is not the onlv interest in life."

The woman who plies her needles whether she be at theatre, concert, or drawing-room party is a familiar figure. At the Leeds i'hiiiiarmouic Society's concert recently there was a man who knitted steadily a grey stocking throughout tho music, and did net heeu the curious and smiling glances of the people near him. He is a professor at the Leeds University, and the soldier-laddie who gets those* stockings should be proud of them. We shall assume that the stockings will be comfortable : correct shape should logically follow a professor's regard for scientific accuracy.

—One of the difficulties about farmwork has been the difficulty of putting girls and women who arc ready to do tarm-work in touch with the farmers who want it done. The vicar of a Norfolk parish has made a move in the right direction by allowing a register of women volunteers to be posted up in the porch of the church. Weeks ago 60 names were on the roll, ranging from young girls to a woman of 80. who volunteered to weed corn (work of which she had had experience) for half a day twice a week. Several offered to work if ; omeone would volunteer to look after their children. This opened a new possibility of helping. and another register was started of peoplo who would look after the children of workers for so many hours a day. This system is already working quite smoothly in France.