FEMININE REFLECTIONS

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 91, 8 July 1927, Page 5

FEMININE REFLECTIONS

CAMBRIDGE TENNIS BALL

BRILLIANT SUCCESS The annual Cambridge tennis ball was held in the Town Hall on Thursday night and proved a brilliaqt success.' The hall was tastefully festooned with coloured streamers. Dance music was provided by Crawford’s Band, Hamilton. The supper tables had been beautifully decorated by Mrs. Mervyn Wells. It was surprising the effect obtained, considering the scarcity of flowers. The hostesses were Mesdames A. R. Cox, F. Swayne, Mahoney and Miss I. Garland. Messrs. F. Swayne and F. Entwistle carried out the duties of masters of ceremonies.

all into a preserving pan, and bring to boiling point, then simmer until quite thick. Turn into hot, dry jars, and cover at once. LAMB TURNOVERS “Mrs. R.”—Can you suggest a tasty way of doing up cold lamb? At the same time, would you pl'ease tell me how to pickle Spanish onions? Ingredients: Half a pound of cold lamb, quarter of a pound of ham, a teaspoonful of mushroom catsup, salt and pepper, a. sprig of fresh mint, short pastry. See that the meat is free from gristle, put it through a fine mincer, mix it with the catsup, a sprinkling of pepper, and a little salt if the ham is mild. Roll out the pastry, cut it into rounds with a saucer as a guide. Put some of the mixture on each, sprinkle with chopped mint, fold over, and join with white of egg. Pinch the edges, brush over with beaten egg, and bake for 10 minutes in a quick oven. Pickled Spanish Onions.—Fill jars with Spanish onions that have been peeled and thinly sliced. Take sufficient vinegar to cover them, and to every quart add one ounce of whole mixed spices. Boil these together for five minutes. Strain, and cover the onions with the spiced vinegar. Tie down when cold. THE ROLLING STONE “N.F.R.”—As you point out, most people do appear to be content with staying in one place most of their lives, but if you questioned people closely I think you would find that, hidden somewhere in nearly everyone, is the desire to travel and see the world. Remember* however, that the greatest travellers are often those who stay at home. It is much better fun to live in one place with your eyes open than to travel round the world, as so many people do, with their eyes shut. Again, persistent travel makes people so restless that they cannot settle in one place for any length of time, and thus they miss many of the things in life that are most worth having. Nevertheless, your restlessness is quite laudable, because I think it simply means that you have not yet found an adequate outlet for your energies. If you can, by all means find, work which will involve frequent changes of scene, but don’t let changes of scene become indispensable to you.

Women the World Over

SYNCOPATED MUSIC Miss Edythe Baker, the. young American pianiste, has won a great reputation for herself in her own country as an expressionist of syncopated music, which had its birth in America.

she has run many “one-man” performnces, singing, accompanying herself md also dancing. She is enormously iopular in her own land, where she lommands huge salaries. She comnenced her career in the Ziegfeld Folies and in “Innocent Eyes,” supported he famous French star, Mistinguett.

A f OUR IST AGENT

The Queensland Government has appointed a woman, Miss Harrie Newland, to act as publicity agent for that State. After completing a lecture tpur of the coastal districts of New South Wales, with the object of inducing settlers to go to the vast ...areas of newly opened land in Queensland, she is travelling in Victoria with a like object. She has written many descriptive booklets and travel pamphlets relating to Queensland, and in addition to trying to induce settlers to take up land, she is acting as tourist agent for that State. A TALENTED NEW ZEALANDER Mrs. Maud Sherwood, the wellknown New Zealand water-colourist, is making a name for herself in England and in France. In one of the best French art magazine, “La Revue Moderno,” one of her pictures is reproduced; and Clement Morroy, a famous art critic, devotes a good deal of space to her work. Mrs. Sherwood has been so successful as to feel warranted in holding an exhibition of her own in Paris. ,Th.e position of assistant director of the United States Mint is held by a .woman, Miss Mary M. O'Reilly, who knows more, perhaps, than any other woman, and more than most men, about how coins are made and what becomes of them after they cease to circulate. For over 20 years she has worked in the Mint, and for ten years has held her present important post. A GOLDEN HARVEST The “Sydney Sun” reported the other day that what is probably a record figure to be paid to an Australian for a serial story has been secured by Mrs. Walter Cottrell, of Ularunda, Morven (Q ), who recently received a cable from the “Ladies’ Home Journal” (U.S.A.) accepting her story, “The Singing Gold,” and intimating that 5,000 dollars (£1,000) would be paid for the United States serial rights. Mrs. Cottrell, who is a Quensland woman, says the story, which is Australian, is about 30,000 words in length, and that the editor of the “Journal,” who describes “The Singing Gold” as “brilliant; and inspiring,” has asked for any other work she can supply. Houghton, Mifflin and Co., well-known publishers in Boston, have accepted the book for publication. A FINGER-PRINT EXPERT One of the world’s few women fingerprint experts is Mrs. Millicent Cooper, the first woman to be employed in the Bureau of Identification at Washington (U.S.A.) Mrs. Cooper was at one time a school teacher, but she gave that up to face duty as a policewoman. Since the nshe has made a special study of the finger-print method of identification.

THE MOTHERS’ CLUB

ENTERTAINS MISS SELLARS OF THE Y.W.C.A. _ Miss Sellars, house matron of the Y.W.C.A. was the guest of honour at a delightful social evening given recently by the Mothers’ Club. The little function was held in view of Miss Sellar’s approaching marriage and consequent resignation from the position of matron that she has held for several years.

Miss Sellars was the recipient of a dainty salad bowl and a beautiful bouquet of flowers and the good wishes of all those present. Mrs. Fergusson. the president of the Mothers’ Club, spoke of the appreciation that was generally felt for Miss Sellars and the loss the Y.W.C.A. would sustain with her departure.

During the evening a number of musical items were contributed and some amusing games and competitions indulged in.

MUNDANE MUSINGS

DANCE FACES! First of all there is the serious face, the owner of which seems to consider •that dancing is a serious undertaking. The whole time he is dancing his face is as solemn as that of an owl, no matter how cheerful his partner may be, or how gay the music. I often wonder if the owner of the serious face really enjoys dancing, or whether he merely indulges in order to stimulate the brain, and whether, as he jigs and prances up and down the ballroom, he is turning over some knotty problem in his mind. Then there is the ferocious face. As I watch him pushing his way through the crowd of dancers I quake in my shoes and thank my stars that I am not a dancing man, for his brows are drawn together and his chin sticks out like that of a heavy-weight champion about to deliver a knock-out blow. His partner never glances up at him, her eyes being fixed on the top button of his waistcoat or the gleaming expanse of his shirt-front. Poor soul, I expect she is praying for the dance to end before he murders her or something. The Sentimental One Following close upon the heels of the ferocious-faced man appears the man with the sentimental face. What a contrast! This face seems to have slipped. The mouth iis drawn down at the corners, and the eyes are misty with unshed tears of love. He gazes down into the eyes of his partner, and I am sure he is murmuring through those tremulous lips: “You sweet little girl!” or “Your dancing is divine, dear!” Anyway, he appears to be rather a nuisance, because he is so occupied in making love to his partner—or attempting to make love —that he rarely looks where he is going, and. in consequence he is continually barging into other couples, which, however, disturbs him not at all. The Jazz Face On the other side of the room, jigging up and down in the throes of a violent exposition of the Charleston, gleams a jazz face. It is red—very red, and it perspires freely. The hair is long and dances in time with the music. The mouth is open while the eyes are fixed upon the owner’s feet. The whole expression can only be summed up in the word jazz. The face is symbolic of this god which rules in the hearts of those misguided mortals who place jazz before everything else, not excepting their food. Slightly to the left of the jazz face is a talkative one. Its tongue is never silent from the first crash of the cymbals to the last whine of the saxophone. Generally, as in this case, the owner is short, and rather on the plump side, while his partner is quite a head taller. Ah! They are coming this way! “Ha, ha! He, he! My dea.r girl, he was . . . Yes, really . . . No, not on Sunday, my dear, I’m sure it was a Saturday. . . I didn’t tell you about Jack . . .” Not Very Numerous! But I mustn’t forget the bored face. These faces are not very numerous, but if one is lucky one can generally manage to pick out at least one dancer, head and shoulders above everyone else, dancing Avith such an expression of boredom on his face that one wonders whether his partner is ftis country cousin sent to town, to be amused, by a rich aunt from whom he has expectations. He pays not the slightest attention to his partner, and should she be so unwise as to make a remark, he elevates his chin a little higher and drawls out an unutterably bored “Really!” How Some Must Suffer! Then, apart from the faces I have described, there are many others of less importance. For instance, there is the painful face. This face can readily be understood because it belongs to a man who has been unfortunate in the choosing of his partner, having asked her for the dance on the recommendation of a so-called friend who was anxious to get rid of her. She is stumbling all over the place, and his pained expression is his way of registering: “I-am-a-good-dancer-really-but-just-look-at-this-girl! ” Then there is the vacant face. This is quite distinct from the bored face, because whereas the bored face has got an intelligent Jook about it, this vacant face is completely devoid of intelligence. With eyes fixed unseeingly in front, its owner dances, answers questions, makes remarks, and says: “I’m sorry!” as in a sort of imbecile dream. Getting Enjoyment Out Of It! Then finally one gets the happy face. The face which belongs to the man who likes dancing, but not too much; the face of the man who can dance, but not too well to get swelled-headed about it; the face of the man who is determined to get the maximum of enjoyment out of the dance without going to extremes in order to try to get more than the maximum. And then, of course, there is the shy face —or perhaps I should say the shy person. The man, and he’s usually rather young and new at the job, who cannot say a word to his partner for fear of being put off his stride—who daren’t hold a girl in a reasonable embrace for fear—presumably—that she may stick! It has occurred to me that I have dealt entirely with the faces of the male dancers. That I have only mentioned the feminine jiggers and gliders and prancers, en passant, so to speak, and considering, the matter, I can only conclude it is because women, when they dance, remain just—themselves. They have no dance faces. They only have their ordinary faces attached to bodies which are dancing. When women like chess, they are usually keen players. Miss Vera Menchik, a. Russian girl, is a new genius at the ancient and complicated game. Not yet 21, Miss Menchik, captured the girls’ open championship at the Hastings, England, tournament this year. She won the same championship last year. For this year’s victory she was awarded a huge silver cup.

FOR CHILDREN’S FROCKS

By JOAN ROSSITER Surely, never before have there been so many delightful materials waiting to be made up into frocks, jumpersuite. and £he smartly tailored coats that little girls wear nowadays. The woolly fabrics, and the light, gossamer materials all show a variety of very pretty colourings. This spring there is a craze for jumper-suits for children. Skirts of serge are popular when p- terned with large checks, and the jumper made on the severe-cut of grown-up’s models are of fine woollen materials. If the skirt happens to be of plai serge or repp, then the jumper will probably be patterned with checks. The fashion is for coloured checks, stripes being sadly neglected for children’s wear this season. Suitings, covered by hundreds of tiny squares in gay schemes of red, orange and brown are used, to make dainty two-piece suits. For instance, I have seen an ensemble for a child of about ten years, in a fashionable dress shop in town, which consisted of a short, box-pleated check skirt of no more than 10 or 12 inches, over which was worn a long-

sleeved jumper of plain fawn, trimmed with the checked suiting. To complete the ensemble were a straight coat of the suiting, made with large triangular patch pockets, and a little pull-on-hat of the plain material, banded with the check. Designers of children’s clothes favour velveteens, when they are printed with tiny patterns. Dark grounds and gay, conventional flowers are found to be most becoming. Silk stockinettes are not often used, though jersey cloth in the form of jumper and skirt, or slip-on frock, is still extensively seen, with* knickers to wear underireath of the same material and colour. Frocks of jersey cloth are invariably accompanied by a selection of gay, suede belts; few* frocks are complete without such belts. Little dresses in print materials, which wash well, always appeal to busy mothers, so the manufacturers are not negligent about producing these fabrics. Prints in very soft colours are not only made up into plain magyar, romper frocks, but they are also seen with short sleeves, sashes of velvet ribbon, and skirts in three or four tiers. For party wear, fine taffetas are making a big appeal. Such silks, patterned in bright pla,ids. or with a ground of shepherd’s checks, in black and white and touches of pasted blues, rose or mauve, make very becoming party frocks. Tucking is a favoured

trimming on these froc ks, just &s it is on the silky organdies. Other “best” frocks are made from voiles, oj which there are some pretty new geometrical designs, and these look most effective when blended with plain, coloured voiles.