THE SOCIAL ROUMO

Sun (Christchurch), Volume I, Issue 197, 24 September 1914, Page 4

THE SOCIAL ROUMO

Lady McLean (Dunedin) is visiting Wellington. Mrs Babmgton" (Hororata) is staying at the United Service.

Mrs Percy Brandon (Wellington) is visiting friends in Christchurch.

Mrs J. P. Peter and Miss G. Sealy (Mount Somers) are at the Clarendon. Mrs A. E. Standish (New Plymouth) las. come to Christchurch for a short visit.

Mrs R. H. Bhodes and Miss Rhodes '(Blue Cliffs) came into town yesterday, and are at Warner's.

Mr and Mrs W. H. Bullock, of Mauugawera, Otago, arrived in Christchurch last night. Mrs Davison, whose husband is with the Canterbury contingent, is at present the guest of her sister, Mrs Matthew Holmes, Wellington. Miss Sinclair Thompson, who came into town for the Dennistoun-Pyne wed--"ding last week, has returned to Geralv tUne. Miss Gould (Fendalton) accom-

pariied her. Mrs Hugh Buckler, better known by heritage name, Miss Violet Paget, is beentertained in Wellington? On Tuesday Mrs Hales, Oriental Bay, gave an afternoon tea in her honour, and amongst the guests was Mrs Bernard Wood, who is at present staying,fwith her parents, Sir Joseph and Lady Ward.

Ail interesting naval wedding took place in Auckland on Monday, when Lieutenant G. H. T. Glenny, of H.M.S. Py ramus, and Miss Flora Gordon, youngest daughter of Mr H. A. Gordon, of Epsom, were married by the Rev. C. A. B. Watson. Miss Ruby ■McKenzie was . toridc&naid, and Engineer-Lieutenant J. C M. Boyle was best man. Among the other naval officers present were Lieut-enant-Commander T. S. L. Dorman and Sub-Lieutenant E. R. A. Farquharson. • The English hockey team will arrive -in Ghristchurch from the South on Saturday, aiid will proceed to Wellington the: same uight, returning here on Thursday, October 1. On the following dayf Mrs Stead, '' Strowan,'.'• will entertain the English, Canterbury, and New Zealand teams, together with the officers •f the Canterbury Ladies ' Hockey Association, at an afternoon tea at her residence. The next day '(Saturday) will see the test match, England against !New Zealand, played at Lancaster Park. The English visitors will stay with the ladies who offered them hospitality on their last visit to Ghristchurch. The Patriotic Flower Stall Committee were kept busy at the Art Gallery yesterday, and sold numerous pot plants and , bunches of cut flowers within a very short time of opening. Their dis-play-was a most creditable one in both sections. Those'who were responsible for the organisation were Mesdames A. Boyle, G. E. Rhodes, R. Heaton Rhodes, Ifrs-Murray-Ay nsley, and Mrs A. E. .G. Rhodes. Of course,.a good many helpers came along to give their services, arid almost all brought donations of lseautiful flowers. The auction sale of prize blooms and unsold pot plants will eommeuce at 9 o'clock to-night. Two interesting weddings took place in Wellington t on Wednesdav. At St. Johnys Presbyterian Church Miss Dora Saxton, only daughter of Miami Mrs Arthur Saxton, of Kelburne, "Wellington, was '•married to. Mr J. R.. Gullen, '.'Belvedere," Montville, Queensland. Her only bridesmaid was Miss Lulu Hine, and the best.man was Mr F. Saxton. At ' St. Peter's Church, on the same day, Mr Martin Luckie (Wellington) was married to Miss Geraldihe Martelli/ i the ceremony being performed by the Rev. Archdeacon Harper. Miss G. Craig ■was bridesmaid, and Mr Organ best man. ~The. bride wore, a gown of soft crerile satin, and an overdress of lace and net. „

Writing from London on August 6, a Wellington lady says:—"The excitement here is intense. Opposite, in the Park, soldiers 'are being drilled at all hours, and motor cars in. hundreds just le.ft to the authorities to make use of. English people, or, I should say, British people, are so wonderful in time of trouble, and draw together to help oi\e another. Coming down in the train from Scotland yesterday, we saw many pitiful sights, poor young t wives saying goodbye to their husbands. In our compartment we had a general's wife and another, coming down to their husbands, and. all talking war, otherwise, as you know, they would never have spoken. The hotels are nearly all losing their waiters and cooks, and altogether things are fearfully disorganised. We have just been told we can post letters to-night, but nobody knows when we can get another through."

German women are beginning to take a leaf out of the suffragist book, or, at least, it would appear so from a'Stutt-

gart incident. A Conservative paper in that town, reporting a Socialist meeting convened to protest against the illtreatment of soldiers in the army, spoke of the hysterical exclamations of females without character. This was regarded as a reflection on all the members of the sex who had been present, and two of them determined on revenge. Either by accident or design they called at tiie offices of the paper at an hour when, the managing editor was in sole charge, and the moment they were shown into the room they set upon him with dog whips and flogged him unmercifully for several minutes. Their victim was so prostrated by the fury of their attack? that he could do nothing to have them stopped, and they left the premises and got clear away without their identity being discovered.

Not/long ago Queeii Helena of Italy and her eldest daughter went shopping in Genoa. In a fancy goods store they made several purchases, and the Queen talked so amiably to the saleswoman that the latter said: '"Do you know, signora rf you are so like our good Queen that if I did not know you were no relation I should take you for her sister?" The Queen only smiled, and would have walked out pleased with the incident, but Princess Yolanda, who»is impulsive, exclaimed: "Mamma is your Queen; don't you know that?" The saleswoman was. overcome with confusion, and began to murmur excuses. The Queen tried to smooth things over, and gently reproved her daughter for having put the saleswoman to shame. Publication of M. Hector Fleischraann's "Pauline Bonaparte and her Lovers" has recalled Arnault's description of this heroine's behaviour at a dinner party: —"What a curious mixture she was ofaeverything that goes to the making of physical perfection combined with all that was morally, grotesque. While she was the prettiest woman that anyone could set eyes on, she was also the most irrational that anyone could imagine. As deficient in equilibrium as a schoolgirl, she talked at random, laughed apropos of everything and also of nothing at all, mimicked the most dignified personages, put out her tongue at her sister-in-law when the latter's eyes were not on her, prodded.me with her knees when I did not pay enough attention to her torn- \ fooleries, and every now anil again j brought down on herself one of those terrible glances with which her brother i recalled to order the,most refractory of | men. . But they had hardly any effect on | her, for the next moment she was off I again." ! -; Some Australians on the Continent have had very great difficulty jn getting back to England amid the mad rush for last trains from the cities, Which are in the throes of mobilisation (says the " British-Australasian " of August 6). Professor Marshall Hall was in Zurich (when mobilisation began in Switzerland. The people, he says, seemed very calm and determined —everything was being done in perfect order, but nothing could prevent congestion at the railway station, where English, French, and Americans were struggling for places in what was perhaps the last train for Paris, for all railway material was wanted for the soldiers. During many hours men, women, and children had to stand packed like a bundle of upright sticks in the corridors. The weary could not sink down because there was no room to do it. Some passengers were without tickets. The guards considered the problem deeply, but eventually shrugged their shoulders and in kindly fashion took no action. At the frontier, at Ponturlier, there was a mad race for another train to Dijon. Many were left behind, families were separated, luggage was abandoned. At Paris, where ' the necessity arose of changing trains again, and not only trains, but stations, there was further thinning of the ranks of the fugitives. Some never reached the Gare du Nord to set out for Boulogne. Others could not push their way through the crowd to- the platform. An English lady who ; had left her hotel at Paris, was sitting hopelessly among a pile of unlabeled trunks, unable to find a porter to.carry them, and plaintively telling those who would listen that another section of her luggage had been put into a train going to the frontier. The only advice possible was to abandon her belongings—or the hope of,leaving. Paris that day. • A special cable an American newspaper says:—The health of the Prince of Wales is becoming more and more a matter of anxiety to the King and Queen. Before going to camp w r ith the Oxford Cadet Corps last month the Prince was medically examined with the rest of the corps, and he was among the six declared unfit for training. The Prince has been specially warned against the danger of chill, as it is feared that a bad chill would develop chest complaint, and make him an invalid for a considerable time, if not for life. The King's medical advi'sers have constantly recommended a long sea voyage, for the Prince, and the intention has beeli to send him on a cruise to Australia. Early in the year details of the tour to Australia and Canada were planned for the autumn. Political reasons also rendered a visit by the Prince to the colonies desirable, but his detestation of the sea seems likely to prevent the materialisation of these plans. .