GOSSIP.

Southern Cross, Volume 4, Issue 2, 11 April 1896, Page 6

GOSSIP.

One of the greatest English piano manufacturers says his firm alone turns out 2,000 pianos a year, that London turns out 35,000 a year, Germany 74,000, Prance 20,000, the United States 25,000. The late Alexander Dumas wrote, Love i? at twenty an inspiration, at thirty a habit, at forty a piece of politeness, at fifty a recollection, at sixty an insult.’ This, however, was but an elaboration of an earlier author’s remark : ‘ At twenty love is a passion, at forty an art, and at sixty a. vi< There is only one thing in all the catalogue of female beauty that all nations are agreed in admiring, and that is a small mouth. For the rest, white teeth are admired in Europe, and yellow teeth in Asia. The English boast of their rosy maids, while the damsels of Greenland paint their complexion blue or green. We like a straight or moderately aquiline noise. In Persia the ideal nose is crooked ; and in Hayti mothers crush the noses of their children in infancy, in order to produce the much admired snub.