Mundane Musings

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 274, 9 February 1928, Page 4

Mundane Musings

The Value of Flattery There is a good deal more in flattery than people think, says the Countess du Hameau in the “Daily Mail.” In the first place, it is nice to be convinced that the mental image of ourselves is not an erroneous one—nice to have our judgment backed up as it were by independent opinion. It warms the cockles of our hearts to see ourselves as others see us (when the vision is flattering), for the least vain and the most stoical among us appreciates admiration. I always think that the mistake made by the majority of married couples is that they cease to flatter after marriage. Most of them go to the other extreme and become brutally candid. Husbands and wives should cultivate the art of kindly flattery. Continue the compliments of courtship into married life. Men Like Compliments A man thinks very kindly of a woman who has paid him a well-turned compliment. She lingers in his memory as intelligent and pleasing. Flattery is, after all, only an exaggerated politeness. It is reported that during the war an American officer said to a French officer: “What’s the use of all this politeness? There’s nothing in it. It’s only wind.” The Frenchman replied: “There is nothing but wind in a pneumatic tyre, but it gets you over the jolts of the road very comfortably.” A little intelligent flattery (not fulsome praise, of course) has much the same effect. It greases the wheels of life, so to speak. It is as if we all looked through rose-tinted spectacles at our fellow creatures, and, really, it is a good deal more profitable than looking through smoke-coloured oaes. Honey will catch more flies than vinegar, any day. In its way, intelligent and kindly flattery is as great a magnet as beauty. Beauty, with nothing behind it, soon palls, but the woman who can make kindly speeches in a gracious manner, who has always something sweet Or good-natured to say, who makes a point of praising and appreciating, is certain to be popular with the opposite sex. Men are very human, they do love to be appreciated. Besides, there are enough critics and grumblers in the world. We need a few flatterers. Cheering Effect of Kindly Praise Deep down in the hearts of us all is a love of kindlj flattery. It is very human and natural, a sort of longing to bask in the sun for a time. And very often the little compliment has its effect. We rise to its level, we make an effort to live up to it. Flattery, applied with discretion, is like the sun bursting through the gloom on a foggy day. STRAINERS AS WALL ORNAMENTS AN UNCOMMON DECORATIVE SCHEME Too would not imagine that the perforated strainers that are placed in vegetable dishes could form a very promising medium for wall decoration. But if you had seen a room wherein nothing else was allowed to invade the wall area, I think* you would have pronounced the arrangement to be of extraordinary effectiveness. It is necessary, of course, to form a collection of such strainers, preferably in blue and white, like the willowpattern and the “Old English Scenery” models. In second-hand and curio shops, such strainers are seldom highly priced, for the demand for them is small at present, comparatively few people having realised their decorative value. Those who are lucky will discover a number of examples that are decorated after well-known pictures. Teniers and Constable are among the artists whose work has been reproduced in this manner: carried out in various shades of blue upon a creamy ground, the result is full of charm and quaintness. A group of five strainers, with the largest as centrepiece, makes a fine and interesting wall scheme for a din-ing-room. If the walls be divided up into panels* a single strainer in each most appropriately takes the place of a picture. The shelves of an old oak dresser will look more handsomely furnished with strainers than with an array of plates all identical in character. The perforation of the strainers makes them especially easy to hang, for wires are readily passed through and fastened securely at the back. Old services of Coalport, Crown Derby and Chelsea china also had their strainers, and these form exquisite ornaments against a background of coloured distemper. H.M. The sleeveless fashion is most charming in the summer for girls in their teens, whose evenly tanned arms suggest* a Venus in bronze, but after the teens, she is a wise lass vrho does not go in for indiscriminate sunburning and is satisfied with baring her arms for dancing and the theatre.