A MAID IN MAYFAIR

Taranaki Daily News, 8 February 1934, Page 14

A MAID IN MAYFAIR

GOSSIP FROM LONDON TOWN ROYAL CHRISTMAS CIRCLE. MOST of- family present. CBYetn Our, Own Correspondent) December 14, 1933. According to provisional arrangements for the Royal Christmas at Sandringham, the King and Queen will have all the members of their family around them, with the exception of the Princess Royal, the Earl of Harewood and their children. The Prince of Wales, the Duke of Gloucester, and Priijce George, the bachelors of the family, have adjusted their engagements so that they will be able to join their- parents, and the Duke and Duchess of York have arranged to be at Sandringham, with the Princess Elizabeth and Princess Margaret Rose, for a week or ten days at Christmas. It has been the wont of the Earl of Harewood, and the Princess Royal since their married life to spend Christmas Day at Harewood House. This conforms to a tradition of the Harewood family, but another reason is Sandringham Hou?e is not big enough to accommodate them. Their visit to the King and Queen to be in the New Year, and it is so arranged that all the Royal grandchildren can be there at the same time. Royal Tourist

king George firmly believes in the Baconian theory of travel, and. trips to different parts of the Empire form a regular part of all the Royal Princes education. It is in this spirit that n?xt year’s South African tour. by Prince George is inspired. Prince George is looking forward to his .voyage with mtense interest, and none the less so because, for motives of national economy and at the King’s suggestion, he will not travel to. the Cape on a naval vessel. He will book his passage in the normal way by Union Castle liner, sailing about the middle of January on the Carnavon Castle, and returning towards the end of April on the Windsor Castle. Life on a regular liner will be far more to his taste than the routine of a battleship. His trip will include Rhodesia, the Belgian Congo and Angola and he will embark for home at the port of Lobito.

King in a Fish Market The King and Queen of Denmark, who arrived in London this week, are staying'at Buckingham Palace despite the fact that their visit'does not count as an. official one. King Christian is a great walker, and his habit of going for long jaunts, sometimes very early in the morning, is. a source of some anxiety to the special police detailed to see that his movements are not impeded by the curious. Nearly every morning the King

takes a walk before breakfast, often through the Green Park to Hyde . Park and Kensington Gardens, striding along always at a good four-miles-an-hour. On occasion he visits such places as Covent Garden at its busiest hours of the early morning, and once got as far as Billingsgate, where he watched with keen interest the handling of: the fish brought in from all parts! of the coast. During the stay of their Majesties King George will give a dinner privately m the Palace in their honour, and it . is understood that King Christian will give a dinner also at the Legation before he returns to Denmark.

Telephone Tactics. The consuming passion of suburban ladies for- camouflaging the utilitarian telephone as a work of art has given the Post Office authorities an idea. Before the newer and neater “microphone form was available, the old-style instrument was concealed by the crinoline skirts of a Pompadour dolL The new type does not lend itself to such treatment. But, if you want to be really chic, you must take advantage of the Post Office offer to replace your sombre all-black telephone with one that harmonises with your colour scheme. They even bank on your artistic altruism to the extent of suggesting a £1 addition to your next quarter’s telephone account, in exchange for which they will send to any one of your friends, as a charming Christmas gift, a coloured telephone painted to your instructions. This is doubtless the direct result of their discovery that the odd spot of joyous telephone-painting on their own account had been giving innocent pleasure to many “arty” ladies before the P.O. found them out, and proclaimed. their. legal guilt financially punishable as “a form of defacement.” Flag Days.

Sophisticated nicotine merchants are evidently under no illusions about feminine smokers. They realise to what extent the inclusion .of gift coupons. in cigarette packets and boxes has indubitably influenced sales so far as the fair sex is concerned. One devotee of the counon habit showed me to-day how a certain well-known tobacco firm is getting over the “no-coupon” decision. Side by side with the usual little tickets with their printed list of prizes, now intimating in red ink that they must be presented not later than February 28, 1934, her box of gaspers contained a collection of British Empire flags, printed on handsome white satin. Immediately one had visions of devoted maiden aunts stitching those little white-satin flag squares into handsome cushions for the household that boasts a naval or military nephew. Or they may be worked —steady the Buffs ! —into new-style sampler pictures, elaborately framed, for the suburban drawing-room. Another Bright Note.

One Mayfair hostess who belongs to the now rather jaded order of the Bright young People has had a brain-wave. For her next party, guests of both sexes are politely requested to bring their own mouth-organs. That joyously " plebeian instrument, so popular with our khaki

come scarcely less popular with the postwar generation, notwithstanding • their marked pacifist proclivities. The very last-word mouth-organs, however, are equipped with effects and gadgets of which the war-time regimental performer never dreamed. They would have delighted the real virtuoso. A lever worked by the’ right thumb, for instance, miraculously facilitates the professional production of sharps and flats. But I regret to say the improved edition is not of British make. It hails from Scandinavian and German workshops. Nevertheless, I have little doubt that an improvised mouth-organ orchestra will stiffen up the sinews of a wilting Mayfair “rag.” Arcadia. To the amenities of Piccadilly has. been added a new shopping arcade. This reversion to a Victorian scheme is a curious modern symptom. The old Lowther Arcade has gone, Gatti’s restaurant now occupying its former site, but within ■half a mile of Piccadilly Circus we now have at least five or six new arcades. The latest, on the south side of Piccadilly, displays an enormous glass bowl of goldfish in the centre. Tha bowl is supported on a porphyry base, through which shine electric rays that are heating as well as lighting agents. One. of the most attractive of the shops specialises in such fascinating delicacies as orange-blossom jam. What a perfect gift for the new bride’s larder! No less alluring, to the feminine smoker who rpfn.qp.q to be inalienably attached to one particular brand, will be the exotic aura of Grecian cigarettes. More Marriages.

If toere is any significance in the figures of the Registrar General, the improved trade outlook is making Hymen busy. There was a notable increase in the number of weddings during the quarter ending September 30. The number of persons married was 205,736, which showed an increase of more than 35,000 on. the number in the preceding quarter and nearly sixteen thousand more than in the quarter ending September 30, 1932. The total, indeed, is the highest reported since 1920, when the figures were very high following a “slump” in marriages in the closing years of the war and immediately afterwards. On the other hand there is a marked decrease in the number of births—a significant commentary on the new trend which has been given to public opinion on one of the most vexed and controversial social problems of the day. Not Always Preferred.

Mr. Stanley, of Whitechapel, made an extraordinarily bold prophecy when Lady Pamela Smith opened his East End beauty parlour. He solemnly declared that, in 1940, women will-have gone 100 per cent, blonde. This, in a region of Rachels and Rebeccas, is making short work of age-old racial predilections, not to mention the self-evident fact that many gentlemen of lesser antiquity, with all due deference to Anita Loos, definitely do not prefer blondes. The battle of blonde versus brunette allure has

been waged long and fiercely, and always with the same result. A considerable proportion of not unenlightened masculine opinion allots all manner of commendable qualities, quite apart from the appeal of dark-haired beauty, to the brunette whose doom is now so confidently predicted. And—the point to be most reckoned with—the psychological make-up of the brunette usually makes her quite content with her own colour scheme. NEW PLYMOUTH ITEMS. Mrs. Harold Bayly, who has been the guest of her mother, Mrs. L. M. Monteath, returned to Toko on Wednesday. STRATFORD ITEMS. Mrs. G. A. Adlam and Miss Hazel Adlam have returned after a three weeks’ camping holiday at New Plymouth. Mr?. J. R. Rowlands and Mrs. Fred Carter, New Plymouth, have been the guests of Mrs. G. Collingwood for the Avon croquet tournament. HAWERA ITEMS. Mrs. J. Fitzgerald, Hawera, Mrs. J. McCarty, Ohangai, and her sister, Mrs. Dwyer, have left for a holiday at New Plymouth. KAPONGA GIRL GUIDES. The monthly meeting of the Kaponga Girl Guides was held on Monday, the following being present: Mesflames Guy (chairwoman), Brewer, Betts, Cook, Bennie, Evans, Crighton, Tatersall and the secretary. It was reported that the Taranaki provincial executive meeting was to be held at New Plymouth on February 23 and the secretary, Mrs. F. N. Gardner, was appointed delegate.' Founder’s Day service, which is held throughout ' the province, will be observed at Kaponga St. Mark’s Church on Sunday, February 25. Mr. R. A. Law wag appointed examiner for the pathfinder’s badges. WOMEN’S INSTITUTE. Ketemarae Maori: There was a good attendance of members and pakeha visitors at the monthly meeting. The president, Mrs. Minhinnick, welcomed the visitors, among whom were Mrs. King, of the Red Cross Society, and Miss Paterson. A lecture was given by Sister Small on the cause, symptoms and treatment of the commoner skin diseases and offered to assist the Maori institute in any way possible. The results of a darning competition were: Mrs. B. Eynon 1, Mrs. R. Rio 2, Mrs. D. Toa 3. A prize for the first baby born to an institutue member was presented to Mrs. Tea’s baby. Another new baby, Mrs. Rai Robinson’s, was also the recipient of a gift. The hostesses for the afternoon were Mrs. Rio, Mrs. Eynon and Mrs. Walker.