A MAID IN MAYFAIR

Taranaki Daily News, 21 December 1929, Page 7 (Supplement)

A MAID IN MAYFAIR

GOSSIP FROM LONDON TOWN. ROYAL CHRISTMAS CARDS. (Special to News). London, October 2-1. The Royal choice of Christinas cards is very interesting this year. The King has chosen a ship scene—the Victory, with all her sails set, painted by Bernard Gribble. The Queen has chosen another of Flora Pilkington’s gardens, of > which she has several originals in her collection of flower rtjjd garden paintings. This one is called ‘‘Life's Garden,” ‘and is very delicate in colouring, with the dark green of trees to throw up the daintiness of the English flowers. The choice of the Prince of Wales has also fallen on a Bernard Gribble scene showing Queen Victoria and the Prince Consort reviewing the Fleet at Spithead in 1855. The Duke and Duchess of York’s card shows Richard the Second returning in the Royal barge to Westminster. Princess Mary, who loves old English scenes, will send to her friends a reproduction of carol singers with the familiar line, “God rest ye merry gentlemen.” PRINCE’S NEW HOME. It is not expected that the Prince of Wales’ new home, Fort Belvedere, near Sunningdale, will be ready for occupation for some time. Extensive alterations are being made, in view of this property becoming the Prince’s permanent country residence. Speaking of the Prince’s domiciles, there is a good deal of speculation concerning the future of Marlborough House. It was originally intended he should take up his .quarters there after the .overseas tour in the Renown, and a large, sum of money was expended on modernising, the interior, a sumptuous suite being designed and completed for his accommodation, tinder the Queen’s special supervision. His Highness, however, has never displayed any enthusiasm about changing his residence from St. James’ Palace, and it is now virtually decided that he will remain there in his present comfortable and spacious apartments; in fact, it is an open secret that the Prince has expressed the wish that Marlborough House may be placed at the service of some other member of the Royal family.

MISS ISHBEL’S “ENGAGEMENT.” Lord Arnold’s friendship for the Prime Minister and his eldest daughter was almost bound in America—which loves romance—to give rise to those rumours of. an engagement which have just been denied. Before the little' party left for America all these rumours were rife in London, for there is a very firm friendship between Lord Arnold and Miss Ishbel. The fact that the former travelled unofficially to the United States with the MacDonalds probably suggested that the friendship was ripening into something more in- - teresting. Indeed, there arc still friends of the Prime Minister’s family who insist that a betrothal will eventually materialise. Miss MacDonald is' the type of girl who is sometimes attracted io a man much older than herself, and one looks up to Lord Arnold and values his opinions. A TYPICAL SCOTCH LASSIE. Her mother’s premature death made the transition from girl to woman unpleasantly early for Miss Ishbel MacDonald. Long before she was out of her teens she had to assume the part of hostess for her father, with the result that she has a maturity of manner beyond her years. From what I know of her I’ suspect she envies her 'two younger sisters their opportunity to be “undergraduates” at Oxford and Edinburgh, and would rather be living quietly at home, than sharing the paternal limelight. She is a typical Scottish girl in appearance and tastes and in nothing does she show the latter more than in. her filial devotion and self-ef-facement. But Mr. MacDonald would be the last to desire that she should sacrifice her own career for his. DANCING AFLOAT. The society hostess who, two years' ago, organised a ball on an Atlantic ' liner in aid of charity, set a fashion ; which young folk, at any rate, appear to relish. There have been several of these dances since then, all of them well attended, but it is regarded as a drawback to have to travel to town from Southampton when they are over. In the season, when the journey is done during a beautiful dawn, nobody minds, but winter early mornings are a very different proposition. The next dance afloat is to be held on a boat lying in one of the London docks, and it is to begin and end early. A special train will run from one of the termini right, down to the dock, and it will bring, the dancers back again before midnight, So those for whom a. ball on a ship has such a special fascination will be able I to have their fun without the discomforts of the long return journey. It must be a very long time since any London dance, was over before midnight. Most of them are only just beginning to get into their swing by then. AN ENGLISH LIDO. A little group of society women, led ' by Lady Louis Mountbatten, have on ] the tapis a scheme for creating an Eng- ( lish Lido on the South Coast. They have chosen for their centre a pretty little village near Bognor Regis, on the Craigwell House side, which has a suitable beach. It’ is called Pagham, and the Queen attended its church several i times while she was staying at Bognor with the King.early this year. Lady Louis has already formed a small syndicate, and it is hoped in the next year. or two to develop the idea and make it a workable proposition. A little col-

ony of well-known people, with Lady Diana Cooper as the central figure, already have villas and cottages on the South Coast, and there is quite a social centre at Angmering. But Pagham would be properly organised as a bathing resort, and suitable attractions somewhat similar to those on the Continent would be introduced. A PRESS WAR. Women seemed at the beginning of the autumn dress season to take to longer skirts very meekly at the suggestion of the big dressmakers. Here and there one heard a protest, but the trailing draperies appeared almost at once at fashionable functions, and at every dress show there were longer skirts for every occasion. All but the ultra-smart dressmakers are finding now, however, that their clients are not submitting so meekly as they did to the extra inches. After wearing skirts which reach midway between knee and ankle . women have realised that they are dowdy compared with the skirt which only, just covered the knee, and that coats which are long give a dowdier effect still. One dressmaker -said yesterday that every freok and coat which she sold'at a recent dress parade had been returned to her since for shortening, and that before the winter arrived the long drcSs would be confined to evening wear only. “PRINCESS 1930.” It was a little startling to go into the stationery department of a big London store yesterday and find more than a dozen people buying Christmas cards and calendars. The stock had been on view, apparently, for more than a week, and an assistant said that one or two styles of calendar were already sold out. Suggesting that people were buying possibly for the overseas mails, the reply I got was that every year the number of customers who buy their cards and calendars in October was increasing. The best choice was available then. The cards had not been ‘‘turned over,” and the - customer got the display pretty well to herself. Princess Elizabeth’s little smiling face will be seen in a gfeat many English homes next year. Every possible portrait of her seems to have been requisitioned by the calendar makers. They have reproduced them very charmingly both in etchings and colour. . A NEW WINTER GAME. Most of us found mah-jongg, the fascinating old game which belongs to the East, rather too complicated as a pas-

time to dislodge bridge from its popularity. In its simple, form it is very easy to pick up, and the thoughtful player can put almost as much as he likes into it. But the player wanted to get on to the advanced .form in double quick time, and, because this was impossible without a pretty close study of the way in which mah-jongg was built up, the game was left alone by all but the enthusiasts. This winter there is a new Chinese game, played with tiny red and black discs on a board rather- like that used for ludo and halma, and public demonstrations of it in London this week have attracted any number of middle-aged people. A pretty Chinese girl in a kimono plays it with a looker-on, to whom she explains the rules as the game advances. It is so fascinating that it looks like being “a winner” for those who brought it from the Fast. ’ BEAUTY PARLOURS. Fascinating as this year’s hairdressing exhibition most certainly is, it is also slightly terrifying. There are so many new aids to beauty; so many more “treatments” which are now looked upon as a necessity. Most of us already spend far more time and money than we can afford on our coiffures and our complexions, and it.is devastating to think that what we do is as notN b "'

y to what we shall be doing in that dirl- ection in a few years’ time. Hairdresse ing, in fact, grows more and more com--1 plicated. An Eton crop or an ordinary 1 shingle may have given a boyish effect, and so shocked our elders, but it was a t much more economical proposition than I the feminine idea of curls in the neck which will involve weekly, instead of fortnightly, visits to the hairdresser. Face-packs, too, are an everyday occurrence now, instead of being a very f occasional luxury before a special party. > And so we go on. • “THE WORLD'S SWEETHEART.” ' Alary Pickford, who is in London this week with her husband, Douglas Fairbanks, may have lost her “little girl” look when she shingled her hair, but ’ her face, since she was over here last, seems, to have taken on a newer softness, which is very attractive. Success . and adulation never spoiled “the world’s sweetheart,” but there was a time, just after her marriage, when her nerves i were strained by the mobbing she ex- ■ perienced wherever she went. .Her voice for a time became a little harsh andher expression slightly petulant. Miss 1 Pickford is now the very antithesis of the petted Hollywood star living on her nerves. She seems quietly happy, keen to a degree about her work, of which she talks seriously and intelligently, and full of admiration for everything English. It is likely that she will meet the Prince of Wales during her visit, for she is staying with one of the leaders of his set, Lady Louis Mountbaften, in Park Lane. ICE-CREAM SODAS. I Mixing of sodas is as much an art as mixing cocktails. The adept acquires a reputation in her profession equal to that of one of the famous Mayfair cocktail shakers. A girl who is a successful ice-cream soda mixer in a West End store can make as much as £7 to £lO a week in salary and commission, and the prosperity of her “bar” will depend almost entirely on her skill and personality. A department store which opened a fountain, imported a well-known ice-cream soda “queen” to preside over it, and within a month the innovation was paying handsomely. The store then thought it would be a good idea to open another fountain in an- { other department, but cheaper to instal an inexperienced assistant. The second fountafn was a complete “flop.” The expert was then moved from her own fountain to the new one, and within a. fortnight the latter was making profits. NOVELIST IN RUSSIA. Interesting revelations of conditions in Russia are being furnished by Vera Simonton, author of “White Cargo,” wno has returned from Moscow after a month’s visit, undertaken for the purpose of gathering materials for a new book. “Russia is on the verge of famine,” says Miss Simonton. “The housing conditions are appalling, home life having entirely disappeared. Divorces are so frequent that there is a Government tax of £5 for every divorce, and as the people are wretchedly poor, they no longer go through the Communistic term of marriage, which merely consists of having the names registered. One of the most depressing features for me in Russia was the number of Russian-Ainericans, who were formerly United States citizens and came over in 1917 under the glamour of the new movement. To-day they have lost all their savings and, as they renounced their American citizenship, are not allowed to leave the Republic.” Miss Simonton had some close calls herself, barely escaping arrest for taking pictures without permission. LONDON’S BAZAAR. A friend took me this week-end to see the Caledonian market. It has changed vastly, as well as developed greatly, since I last saw it. Nowadays it is London’s great bazaar, and has much in common with those of the East. Huge crowds gather, giving the scene all the animation of a football cup final, and I noted that the patrons of the market are by no means of one class. Rows of motor-cars, some of them luxury cars, bring their owners, who mingle with the huckstering throng while their superb chauffeurs endeavour to look nonchalant amid incongruous surroundings. West Enders put on their roughest clothes, and camouflage themselves in mackintoshes and coats, but the stall-owners recognise them, and assert that they are among the keenest bargainers of all. What did amaze me was to • find that Lady Vere de. Vere buys even her silken hose at the market. TETRAZZINI IN LONDON. With her palace in Rome and summer “paradise'” on Lake Lugano, her 18 dogs and five eats and a presiding genius i of a parrot, Madame Tetrazzini admits ’ that she is a wealthy woman. But what will you? She has worked hard and I saved, her money. Now she sings for 1 pleasure, but it was rather surprising < to hear from her at the Savoy Hotel i this week that she had not sung in i public since her farewell to England four < years ago. To oblige her impressario, i Mr. Lionel Powell, to whom she con- j

siders she owes so much, she is coming out of retirement, and may —no more than “may”—be induced to go to the i provinces this time if he has his way. Tetrazzini has kept up her practising all the time, but confesses that her remarkable parrot not only mimics her, but can go higher than she. But then she has a way with all inarticulate creatures, as her audiences would agree. AN 18TH CENTURY FEMINIST. The latest volume of the representative women series is a delicate study by Mr. Francis Birrell of the Duchesse de Maine, the diminutive wife of Louis NlV.’s son by Madame Montespan. This insane little lady, by gathering round her all the bourgeoise intellectuals, unconsciously laid the train of the revolution. The Duchesse de Maine, however, for all her petite stature and empty head, “wore the trousers.” Her husband never dared contradict her for fear it might destroy her reason. She had a diet —roast chicken—and her cook had to keep one always ready done to a turn. When the Duchesse was late the ..sixth chicken would be on. the spit. This recalls Plutarch’s story of his uncle, shown over Mark Anthony’s kitchen by the chief cook, and finding six wild boars roasting at different stages at the call of “the curled Anthony.” WHERE DRESS NOVELTIES GO.. Everyone who has walked down Regent Street or Piccadilly knows the “novelties” that regularly appear in the windows of men’s shops, but are never seen elsewhere. The vivid scarlet shirts, the bright green hats, and the saffron-col-oured plus-fours attract the eye of the passer-by—which incidentally is" their function—who must often wonder what happens to them. I have learnt this to-day. Apparently there is a regular and considerable trade ip these “outrages” for export to the “nativb trade,” and the greater number of them, when they have done their work in London, go out to*Africa or India. It is a not displeasing thought that some African chief is able to buy these “exclusive London designs," and appear in the green or scarlet shirt that once agitated polite eyebrow’s in Regent Street. MISTRESS AND MAID. A friend who has a house in Mayfair this week paid a visit to one of the leading registry offices for the first time in seven years. She quickly was made to realise the change in the respective status of mistress and maid which has taken place even in that short time, and was amused to find all the consideration that used to be shown to prospective mistresses is now lavished on the maids. The mistresses are left to sit round the counter in the outer office and in the passage, while the maids are ushered through to the inner room where mistresses used to wait seven years ago. While my friend was waiting, a prospective mistress arrived in a RollsRoyce, and a prospective cook on foot. The manageress herself came out to lead in the cook, while the mistress was left to the attentions of a small girl behind the counter.

NOTEPAPER CONCEITS. REALLY SMART FASHIONS. (By Mary Lovat. —Special to News.) London, Oct. 17. The latest ideas in writing paper irisist on having their little jokes. It is amusing to find, in place of the dull words “telephone number,” a small illustration of a telephone itself; and, where formerly appeared the legend “Nearest Station,” a quaint drawing of one adorns the top left-hand corner of the letter-paper. Sometimes a railway engine replaces the station, and sometimes when a telegraphic address is to be indicated, a telegraph pole complete with wires will serve this purpose. If the locality be a particularly remote one, a signpost with the names clearly printed on its various arms will serve to convey an idea of the surrounding district. To be really smart, all brightly coloured papers should be left severely alone. The correct colours are grey, beige and cream, -with borders carried out either in a single tone or in two. If in. two, one should be a deeper shade of the other; thus cerise and pink combine well, jade and eau de nil, and mauve and purple. Half sheets of notepaper are being replaced by large wide unfolded sheets. It is now generally conceded that the old-fashioned four-page notepaper is troublesome to deal with. Two sides are as much as any ordinary intelligence and patience should be called upon to cope with. The futuristic or daring correspondent may have one corner of an otherwise plain paper embellished with a large triangle, or a lightning streak of bright colour. In the centre of this her initials may appear. Some particularly “fancy” examples bestow a mother of peal background 'to golden initials. Sealing-wax must in every case match the tone in which the address and other information . are printed.