LADIES' GOSSIP.

Otago Witness, Issue 3429, 2 December 1919, Page 58

LADIES' GOSSIP.

A woman who was for many years a housekeeper in the family of the late Alfred B. Nobel, the Swedish founder of the Nobel Prizes, was leaving to be married. Mr Nobel wished to reward her services, and asked what she would like for a wedding gift, saying that he would bo glad to give her whatever she asked. After consulting with her fiance, the woman approached Mr Nobel, and said she had decided what she wanted, but doubted whether she would get it. "Go ahead," said the rich dynamitemaker : "I told you to ask for whatever you wished." " Will you give me you? income for one day, then, Mr Nobel?" It took 11 men to reckon it up: but the housekeeper received for a wedding present the sum of £7OOO.

- The Prince of Wales, by his ready smile and frank manners, captured the hearts of the people of Halifax. At the laying of the corner-stone of the women's residence at Dalhousio University, replying to an address from the Board of Governors, the Prince, alluding to women's work, also referred to a happy incident

r about which the town was talking. He landed incognito on Sunday, and was trolling along the shore when he saw four girls bathing at the club floats. He and his companions sat down and watched the scene. One of the bathing girls said to her friends, " Perhaps he is the Prince of Wales. Let's ask him." They swam ashore, and one said, 'Are you the Prince?" "Ties," he replied, and they chatted together, much to the delight of the girls and the evident pleasure of\ the Prince. LOVE LETTERS—PAST AND PRESENT. About a.d. 1906: " Your message came to me like a gift of silver roses. Ah! why is a feast day followed by a fast? Is.it that the feast day should seem, in memory, more full and fair, or sweeter and more full of joy? " I send you some gardenias, and all my loving heart as well." a.d. 1919. The lady writes: "My Dear Old Top,—Bored stiff without you. Dance a dud "show as well Band not bad. And fancy, when I wanted a whiff of a Woodbine the old ladv semed quite surprised. We got a gasper in the garden afterwards, though. Well, it'll be perfectly toppina; to see you again. If you've got to go off to-morrow we might meet. If not, I've made >t all right about Scotland. Ring me no before 9 to-morrow morning. Good-bye, old thing. I must buzz offski now."— Ada Leversen, in the Evening Standard. "AWFUL NEW YORK." One of the 60 Parisian women who recently abandoned their American hus-* bands and returned to Europe thus unbosomed herself to a representative of I'CEv.vre : " You ask me. why I came back. Moh Dieu! That i 3 simple enough. Because I was bored. " From the moment of our landing in New York I was the unhappiest of women. This New York is an awful city. No air, no horizon, an infernal din. an all-per-,'meating dust. PeGple running hither and thither without a glance at one another " If you are not an artist, a fashion expert, or something in the selfadvertising'line, but simplv an ordinarv married woman, uobodv troubles about your existence. The men are phlegmatic The voung .ones are as keen on moneymaking as the old. This is nob pleasant. ■ "From the moment that we trod on American soil John was another man. Hardly had we landed when he said: 'My darling, now that you are an American you must wear longer skirts and have your blouses cut higher at the neck.' '"The onlv good thing about America Is the circumstance that it is so easv to obtain a divorce. I took the opportunity." AN ARTiST'S HOMAGE TO ENGLISHWOMEN. " During the war," writes a British artist, " women's beauty was clouded with anxiety and war strain. War led to a free use of cosmetics, which never have

and never will suit Englishwomen. . Even fehe open-an: life and activity of the women engaged in war work could not compensate for the nerve-strain which wrought havoc with pretty faces. " But peace has brought back to the Englishwoman all her old radiant beauty, and with accumulated interest, for while worry and anxiety may temporarily have clouded good looks, it has added character and expression to some otherwise uninteresting faces." Mr IT. A. Olivier, honorary secretary of the Royal Society of Portrait Painters, who has just returned from Versailles, said that he lias come back convinced that there is none to beat the cultured, wellbred English girl for real beauty. "And in England," he said, "the most beautiful girls from all points of view are the girls one sees in secluded country homes, who have not learned to mar Nature with make-up." Writing from Yelverton, Devon, an Italian woman correspondent, who is on her first visit to England, says: "The biggest surprise is the beauty of your women. My sis'ter and I had an English governess. She had a heart of gold, but her toilette was very severe. I remember she disapproved of wearing earrings. We imagined that Englishwomen must dress in a way like men. But what do I find here. Quite the opposite. Your women have charming robes, and all the bestdressed ones wear earrings. Their appearance is most pleasing. Oh, why do we not see more Englishwomen like these in my own country?" ' HINTS SNH ""^HESTIONS. Always bruise caraway seeds before putting into cakes. Cayenne pepper is excellent for ridding a cupboard of mice. Lace should ae ironed through muslin, and never touched with the bare iron. Sour nilk is excellent for mixing cakes or scones. Wash a potato, wipe dry, and put '.t in your bread pan. It will keep the bread fresh for days. If eggs you are about to boil are cracked, add a little vinegar to the water, and th.ev can be boiled as satisfactorily as undamaged ones. Don't throw bones that have been boiled for soup into the dustbin. Put them at the back of the fire, and bank up with well-damped small coal, and they will burn for hours 1 . Remember beef loses only 3oz to the pound in baking, 4oz in boiling, and soz in roasting. Thus roasted meat should be avoided when butchers' prices are high. If the boiler immediately after use, and while still warm, is rubbed all over with any good household soap, it will prevent rust, and will help to make the suds when the boiler is filled for the next washing day.

To clean a black dress take a dozen ivy leaves and steep them in boiling water. Leave till cold, then rub well over the stained parts. This liauid will remove all stains and make the cloth look quite fresh. To patch the ringer of a kid elove turn the glove inside out. Then take a menthol cone and insert it in the finger to be

mended. The kid by this means is kept properly stretched. Next take a little liquid glue and coat all round the holes, and finally press a small piece of kid over the hole and leave it until it is perfectly drv.

Keep a small bottle of collodion in the house in case any member of the household gets burnt or scalded. Immediately the accident happens, paint over the surface with the collodion. If blisters appear, gently pierce them with a fine needle, but not so deeply as to touch the skin beneath. When the worst of the pain is over, apply a little -pure olive oil, and cover with a piece of medicated wool till the skin peels off. This, however, is only for minor cases, and when a child has got seriously burnt a doctor must at once be called in.