FOR WOMEN FOLK.

Taranaki Daily News, 13 November 1915, Page 6

FOR WOMEN FOLK.

•-« BY EILEEN."

" Eileen " will be glad to receive items of interest and value to women for publication or reference in this column.

SOCIAL NEWS. PERSONAL ITEMS. Mrs. Greatbatch has returned from her pleasant trip to Auckland. * * i* * Mrs. Quilliam is itne guest of lier daughter, Mrs. Leo Horroeks, Feilding. • • • • Miss K. Bennett is on a short visit to Wellington. • • • s Miss M. Moore (Hawera) spent a few days in-New Plymouth this week. » * » * Mrs. Paget (Stratford) is at present in New Plymouth. »•* • • Miss McKellar, who has been on a visit to Auckland has returned. * • * « Mrs. and Miss Ira Eollo, have gone on a visit to Wejlington. • • • • Miss Rawson, who has been the guest of Miss C. Leatham, has returned to Hawera. * * * * Miss B. Bayly has returned to New Plymouth, after a lengthy visit to Auckland. • * * * * Mr. and Mrs. Falkner (Whangamomona) have returned after their pleasant stay in New Plymouth. • » » • _ Mr. and Miss Dwyer (Sydney) liave been visiting New Plymouth, but have now left for Wanganui. **' * « Miss Beane, who has been the guest of Mrs. Grant, returned to her home in Woodville this morning. * * * * Misses Fookes (2) are the guests oif their aunt, Mrs. W. H. Skinner, at Napier. • • » • Mesdames Brodwick and Jacobson, with Miss Fraser, all of Petone, have been staying in New Plymouth, but have now left for Wanganui. PRESENTATION. A number of Mrs. J. E. Wil.-.on's friends met in St. Mary's Hall last Thursday afternoon for the purpose of asking Mrs. Wilson to accept a small token of their appreciation of her work ft's Mayoress during the past fifteen 'months. Owing to the very wet afternoon, many of the subscribers were unable to be present. The presentation, which took the form of a lovely aquamarine and pearl pendant, with brooch to match, was made by Mrs. Croote, who, -in a very charming little speech, expressed the appreciation Mrs. Wilson's fellow-workers had for her, greatly admiring the brave and cheerful manner she had always shown when carrying out her responsible duties, and asked her to accept the necklace as a souvenir from friends, who hoped to be remembered by Mrs. Wilson in later and happier times, when their Empire, please God. should have won through to an honorable and lasting peace. Mrs. Wilson, in a very short and feeling speech, suitably responded, the presentation being one of great surprise. DANCE. As a final ending up of the performance of "The Mikado," the New Plymouth amateurs held a dance in the Good Templar Hall last Tuesday evening, and as prime mover Mr. Percy Stainton is to be congratulated on its great success. Excellent music was rendered by Mrs. A. George's orchestra, and a most recherche supper was provided by the lady members of the society, end the whole proceedings were brought to a close by everybody singing the National Anthem, ORANGE BLOSSOMS. ROBERTS—SUTHERLAND. Last Thursday, in the Whiteley Memorial Church a very quiet but pretty wedding took place, the contracting parties being Miss Mary Annenr Roberts, eldest daughter of Mr. and Mrs. J. A. Roberts, New Plymouth, and Mr. Mark Sutherland, of Ccraldine. The bride, wlio was given away by her father, looked iharmhifr in a very pretty robe of ivory-tinted colienne, trimmed with guipure lace and finished with a Medici collar. From a wreatli of orange blossoms fell a lovely hand-embroidei'ed wedding veil, and she carried an exquisite sheaf bouquet. The bride was attended by her sister, Miss Doris Roberts, as bridesmaid, who wore a very pretty cream silk frock, cream crepe de chine hat, heightened with cherry-colored velvet streamers. Her bouquet was of lovely pink shaded rose*. The bridegroom was supported by Mr. 0. Belcher as best man. The oiliciatinir clergyman was Rev. A. B. Chappcll while Miss M. Canncll presided at the organ. After the ceremony the bridal party motored to the bride's parents' residence, where the. wedding breakfast was arranged, and at which the usual toasts were proposed. During the afternoon the happy couple left by motor for Hawera, their future hemic. The bride's travelling dress was :v navy blue tailor-made costume, tacfd with blue oral silk, and saxe-blue crepe de clrine hat. Mr. and Mrs. Sutherland were the recipients of many handsome and useful presents. Mrs. Roberts (the bride's mother) wore a smart costume of black silk lustre, trimmed with silk, black and white ■crinoline straw hat, finished with black and white ostrich feathers, and she carried a heliotrope bouquet. Mrs. Sutherland (mother of the bridegroom) wore a chocolate-brown costume, with cream lace vest, pretty toque to correspond. The bridegroom's gift to the bride was a pear] brooch and to the bridesmaid a cameo ring. The bride's gift to the bridegroom was a grandfather clock.

Miss Rosalind Smeaton, who plays the part of Miss O'Brien in ''Potash and Perlmutter,'' it will be remembered, last visited the Dominion with the Fred Niblo Company; since then Miss Smeaton has appeared very successfully with Mr. George Edwardes' London Company. "How very particular audiences are over details," remarked Margaret Yinton, the pretty Amerit/n actress now playing Ruth Goldman, the designer, in ''Potash and Perlmutter.'' "In the third act I wear a costume the feature of which is the appearance of a lace underdress some distance below the skirt, a good bit of the hire frill being shown. This week I have received no fewer than live letters from ladies who express astonishment that I should come .on the stage with my underskirt falling down! Isn't it funny? A designer like Ruth Goldman, who has made fortunes for the firms she has worked for, should certainly be expected to know better. But that dress, as a matter of fact, is the very latest in New York, where I bought it, and comes from the fashionable Joseph's. Will the ladies who have written the letters kindly note?"

EDITH CAVELL'S MURDER.

SOME REMINISCENCES. While lecturing in Sydney on "Ethics of the War," Professor' MacCallnin (says the editress of ''A Page for Women," in the Sydney Morning Herald) compared the murder of Nurse Edith C'avell with one of the best-known similar deeds of horror in history, the execution of Mrs. Lisle by the order of the notorious Judge Jeffreys, which the lecturer declared to be, on the whole, less horrible and revolting to humane feelings than Nurse Cavcll's martyrdom, because the heroine of Judge Jeffreys' worst and most infamous judgment had not shown any kindness to anybody who was not on her side, whereas Miss Cavell had invariably shown impartiality in tho true Red Cross spirit by nursing friends and enemy patients alike. "Her execution last week was an act of cowardly revenge, just as much as was the long ago Puritan lady's judicial murder. Alicia Lisle had harbored fugitive soldiers after the battle of Sedgemoor, she was the widow of one of the regicides, and had always herself openly proclaimed her republican sympathies. Nevertheless, Judge Jeffreys did for himself finally, as far as his character in history was concerned, by this notorious trial. Women, as well as men, have been judicially murdered in the course of ages. There have been three whose names come to every mind when the subject is mentioned, and now there is a fourth name, that of Nurse Edith Cavell. But when the war comes to its adequate writing, there will perhaps be others equally unfortunate and equally celebrated. Louise Frenay's name is one that comes at once to mind in this connection, and she perhaps will never be forgotten. Leaving out the famous queens who were beheaded, as belonging to the region of politics, about which there have always been two sides argued, Joan of Arc and Mdme. Roland, besides Alicia Lisle, are considered to have been wrongfully done to death from mean and petty motives of revenge, against whom there was nothing of any truth or worth to be said. Joan of Are seems ito have a special appeal Co all women just at the present time, for she did so much that most of us would dearly love to do; she helped her country in its hour of direst need, and she worked a great reformation in the army itself. Were Joan of Are here to-day there would be no need to agitate for the early closing of hotel bars. The Maid of Orleans by the "dread power" of her own purity and goodness conquered drink as well as the English, and it was a sober ariny that got Charles his crown at Reims. The English treated Joan in a shameful way, her execution is a blot on our "Island story." After her death a wave of repentance for the dreadful deed swept over all parties, both French and English, and it is a remarkable fact that o\ery man who was concerned in her trial met a violent death. Joan was only nineteen when she was burned, and, apart from her wonderful power of leading an army, she was a simple girl who nearly dieil of terror when she saw the bloodshed of a battle, and had only been taught to sew and knit. Mrs. Oliphant has left a most interesting life of Jeanne d'Arc, which forms fascinating reading just now. Another readable book which may be recommended as a change from novels—and, by the way, it is a great mistake to try to do without our customary dose of pleasant reading, as it a wonderful mental pick-me-up to take up a book in which we can become absorbed—another volume dealing with the other French martyr to legal proceedings, Madame Roland, in Austin Dobson's ''Four Frenchwomen." Of course, there ate longer and more elaborate treatises, but this one deals in a comprehensive way, and is very easy to read—not a bit 'dry," as women phrase it. Madame Roland was ..really a very fascinating woman, andf what is more, a very good woman. She was an omnivorous reader, and as a girl firmly made up her mind that the old royal system of government was doomed. Slie was. of course, perfectly right, and yet it was the Republican (ftveniment that beheaded her. Why? Because she and her husband—everybody said that Madame was the moving spirit—protested against the of those days—the horrible September massacres. She was a very beautiful girl, and nobody could quite understand what made her marry her dry-as-dust husband, ever so much older than herself. But she made him a very good wife, and just at the end of her life she had her romance. She really fell in love with Buzot, who seems to have been her "affinity." But she was quite frank with her husband. She told him all about it, and never saw Buzot again. But years afterwards four most touching letters from her were brought to light, written just before she died. In the terrible 'O3 she was executed; she went to the guillotine all in white with her long black hair flowing to her waist. Her last thought was for her fellow-victim in the cart. She wanted him to go first, so he would not see

NOTES. Miss Sylvia Tiroiner. who will take the role of Trma I'otasli in "Potash and Perlmuttor," to be staged hole on Thursday, recently took Miss Muriel Starr's part when the latter was indisposed during the run of "Bought and Paid For." [Miss Bremer is regarded as one of the most promising actresses the Australian stage lias produced