THE SOCIAL ROUND

Sun (Christchurch), Volume I, Issue 182, 7 September 1914, Page 3

THE SOCIAL ROUND

- NOTES AND NEWS.

Mr and Mrs Lowry (Hawke's Bay) nave left for a trij) to Sydney. Miss M. Macdonald (Hambleden) is • visiting friends in South Canterbury. Mrs H. H. Jackson (Wellington) and fier children are amongst the, guests at Warner's. Mra Biekerton-Fisher has taken Mrs Ohrystall.'s house in Christchurch for a year. ■'.'■'". ■■;■ ■ Mrs Adams (Duoedin) is visiting y where she is the guest of Miss Coatesi. Mr and Mrs left by the tllimaroa on Friday for Sydney, ■ where they will spend a holiday. ...; Mr and Mrs Geaney, who have been at Warner's for the past week, have ' gone to Akaroa for a few days. Miss Tabart, who has -been visiting. rettirned to ' Christchurch by the ferry steamer yesterday morning. ' Misses E. and M. Clarke, of New Brighton, returned yesterday after' a five months' holiday in New South Wales and Queensland. The engagement is announced of Miss Gladys Baldwin, of Wellington South, to Mr Harry Rudge, youngest son of Mr and Mrs Rudge, Welshpool, England. The engagement is announced of Miss Elsie May Petherick, second daughter of Mr and Mrs George Petherick, Wei- j lington, to Mr "Colin Dallieth, of the Waikato district. Miss Hosking is accompanying har father,. Mr Justice Hosking, who arrived in Christchurch from Wellington this morning, and is staying at Warner 's. Mr Haggitt, private secretary to Mr Justice Hosking, is also of the party. , The Scottish Society of Wellington is giving a social, and reception to its. honorary chieftain, Harry Lauder, on Friday ■evening next. The visitors' will be present for part of the evenhig, and the society hopes to give.them a real Scottish welcome. J The high-water mark of £SOO has been reached by the "Violet Day" workers, and the whole amount has been placed at the disposal of the Women's Committee for the . of making clothes for the poor of Great Britain, Ireland, and Belgium. The Yorkshire Light Infantry—that suffered so greatly in the war—is commanded by Colonel Withycombe, who married a Miss Platts, sister of Dr .Platts-Mills, Wellington (says the "Post"). It was a surprise to leain that.he was. at the front and that Mrs Withycombe, witb> her little son, was in London, for it was thought they were in Hongkong, where he had been ordered for two years. Colonel Withycombe was in command of the first troopship sent from Britain at the time of the Boer War, and as his wife was not allowed to go with him, she went as a Red Cross nurse, being fully qualified. ' On arrival she was. put in charge of the base hospital at Wyhberg. . A pretty wedding took place on September 1 at the Anglican Church, Levin, when Miss Rene Bartholomew,- of Beach Road, was married to Mr S. G. Gascoigne,, of the High School staff, Napier. The bride was dressed in white satin, with lace overdress, and coronet of orange blossoms surmounted by a veil of embroidered tulle. Two of the bridesmaids (Miss Bartholomew and Miss Reeves) wore yellow satin with * ninon overdresses, while the third bridesmaid (Miss M. Bartholomew) wore pink corded silk and ninon, and white hat with pink and yellow roses.

Two little nieces of the bride followed as flower girls. After the ceremony a reception was held at "Tatereroa," Beach Road, and the usual toasts were I honoured. Later Mr and' Mrs Gas>J coigne left by motor for Palmerston I and Wanganui. Their future home will ! be at Napier. j There was a romance of the counter I in a wedding at St. Paneras Church recently. Two days before, the bridegroom, Mr Alfred Field, had been acting as an assistant in the dressed provisions' department of the army and navy stores, where the bride, Mrs Johnston, a rich widow living at the Euston Hotel,"had- been a very good customer. His fellow-assistants at the stores were kept in ignorance of the marriage until he handed in his notice. Mr Field, a dark man of 42, was very popular in the stores, and had been on terms of close friendship with his bride for nearly two years. Mrs Johnston paid three or four visits a week to the stores, and was always served by him. No matter what i department she went to, 'she insisted on j his attendance. When he left the pro- j vision department he changed his white j coat,to accompany her round the stores. Most of the assistants knew of the friendship between them. An ''Express' ' representative, who made enquiries at various large shops, found that though Cupid frequently presided j at the countei', such marriages of shopmen were unusual. ; Mr P. A. Best, director arid general manager of Selfridge's, said that it was more usual for a pretty shop girl to attract the masculine customer than for the male staff to attract visiting ladies. "In one week there were eight staff weddings at Selfridge's, and we have a special bureau which looks after such events,'' said Mr Best.- "On the occasion of her marriage, each girl receives ,a special marriage letter from the firm, a little personal epistle wishing her good fortune, a framed photogravure r of the building,, and her holiday money as a little wedding present. After marriage, the bureau still keeps in touch with the girls, and writes from time to time to see how they are getting'on. In one case, when the husband died some four months after the marriage, the bureau again gave the widow employment in the shop." "Her Honour" Judge Grace O'Neill, a frail-looking woman of twenty-six years, acted as a special judge in a. divorce action in the Superior Court at Vigo, Indiana, and in the opinion of the plaiutiff, as well as the lawyers, acquitted herself admirably. She was raised to the Bench as the result of the absence of. Judge Cox, who telegraphed appointing her to adjudicate for him in a divorce suit instituted by Mrs Perdita Griffith against her husband, Mr Voorhess Griffith, the City Comptroller. At the close of the case, she said to the lawyers, "You conducted yourselves admirably, and made my experience a most enjoyable one." This woman Judge has been the official Court reporter for eight years. Two years ago, at the age of twenty-four, she mitted to practise at the Vigo County Courts. The divorce suit was comparatively simple, and her Honour granted the decree sought. Miss Cowdray, principal of the Crouch End High School for Girls, London, recommends ju-jitsu as a splendid exercise for girls. She says: —"Jujitsu is unequalled as a mode of selfdefence; although, as a sport, one may prefer fencing. But ju-jitsu has also its moral virtues. It teaches the girl Self-control, hardiness, and fearlessness in face of physical dangers. It teaches* the strong not to abuse their strength against the weak—if, indeed, in the case of girls such teaching is ever necessary—and the weak, but supple and quick-witted, not to fear brute strength. Is it dangerous? We have never, had an accident at ju-jitsu, although we have had one at tennis! Does it make girls too masculine, undomesticated, self-assertive? I may tell you that our best exponents of the art are as little averse to cooking as to books, or even, in some cases, as you may see by our magazine, to writing poetry." Throughout New Zealand the story of Miss Tiria Townshend's wonderful es-. cape from the Empress of Ireland disaster has set people talking of her

pluck and endurance, says the Auckland "Herald." Another wonderful example of physical endurance by women in emergencies is afforded by the story of Mrs Anne Boeme's two hours J swim in the sea at night, while she was all the time in danger of being overtaken by a flood of burning benzine. Mrs Boeme was the' wife of the captain of the Russian steanier Kometa, 'which recently blew up off Algiers by night and was completely burned, with the loss of 15 of her company. The captain put his wife into, a boat after the. ship'had burst into flames, but it capsized. She began to swim in the black water, which was lit up by the burning ship. The benzine spread on the sea, and formed one vast; ■ burning film,, which the wind drove towards her. For two hours she swam desperately from the flames. At'-'last, when ■she" was on-the point of giving up, she heard a voice shouting in Russian,"Come here!" It was the chief stoker and some of the men in a boat, which was full of water. They hoisted her into it, and she satW water up to her hips for two hours more before they were rescued.