LADIES COLUMN.

Taranaki Herald, Volume LXI, Issue 144197, 13 September 1913, Page 5

LADIES COLUMN.

OF LOCAL INTEREST. (B s' Sister Ann., Mrs. Chilman has returned to Wellington. , Miss Kelsey returned to Wellington this week. Mis. H. G. M’Allum is visiting friends at Feilding. Miss Glasgow (Wanganui! is staying with Miss Brewster. Mrs. Lewis Webster (Stratford) is visiting Mrs. Avery. Mr. and Mrs. Maurice Standish aro in town for a few days. Mrs. Horrax is expected to arrive at Auckland in the Tyrone to-day. Miss Ellis has arrived from England ana is staying with Mrs. Wylie. Mrs. and Miss Taylor leave this week for their future home at Manaia. Mr. and Mrs. Stanley Shaw have left for a holiday, to be spent in Blenheim. The Summer Club met at Mrs. Russell's, Mrs. Mills being the highest scorer. Mrs. W. D. Webstpr gave a farewell afternoon tea on Wednesday for Miss Isabel Taylor. On Monday afternoon, Mrs. Paul entertained a number of her’ friends at bridge, Mrs. .Medley winning the prize. Miss Carrington (Melbourne) left for Wellington on Tuesday morning, where she win stay with her aunt, Mrs. Sutton, before returning to Australia. Mrs. Walker, tho Misses Humphries, and Miss Ferrier, who have all been visiting tho Mountain House, returned to-day.

On Monday afternoon Mrs. L. B. Webster gave a very jolly children’s party for her little son, Nigel. Many different games were played, and afterwards all enjoyed a sumptuous tea.

Tho Central Club met at Mrs. Stocker’s this week. Miss Testar and -Mrs. iritzherbcrt being tlio prize-win-ners. The West End Club mot at Mrs. Hirst’s, Mrs. Mills handing in the best card.

“The. Country Girl” was greeted with crowded houses on both Tuesday and Wednesday evenings, and the auuiences wore most enthusiastic. Many were unable to obtain seats for either performance, but they will have an opportunity of seeing this charming opera when it is staged again in November.

Miss Grant, tho newly-appointed cooking instructress at tho Technical College, has arrived to take up her duties. Many of our readers will be interested to hear that Miss Grant proposes holding an adult cookery class on Wednesday- evenings, should sufficient pupils bo forthcoming. - ■ i

The Pa tea Press records the death on Tuesday of Mrs. Hail, wife of Mr. Frank Hull, manager of tho local branch of the Bank of New South Wales. Pneumonia, supervening on a severe chill; was the cause of her death. Airs. Hull was a Miss ’Logan, of Dunedin.

Mrs. Home gave a -delightful party last night for young people, in honour of her daughter, who is at home for tjio holidays. All sorts of progressiva games were played, some of them causing much amusement. When the scores were totalled, it was found Miss F. Crooke and Master R. Montcath were the first prize winners, and Miss I. Hirst and Master N. Quißiam the boobies.

The members of the New Plymouth Operatic Society were jt very happy party at , the dance held in the Brougham Street Hall after Wednesday’s performance. During the supper interval the usual complimentary toasts wore honoured, and the good, hard work, of tho stage manager (Mr. R. Hill Johnson) the conductor (Mr. R. Neville Renaud). and the scenic artist (Mr. A. M. Bradbury) acknowledged in felicitous terms. In responding to the toast of tho orchestra, one prominent wiolder of the bow made a very humorous speech. He said no one knew of the terrible ordeal the occupiers of the well had gone through. Tho numerous discords from tho chorus had preyed heavily on the players’ sensitive ears, and it had boon a constant trouble to try and make harmony. Another speaker voiced his regret that the girls in the ballet had not gone to the dance in their ballot dresses, but he was howled out of order by somo of the audience. However, he proposed the toast of the ballot girls, and the response was a very hearty one.

A machine for making pager bags was the thought of Margaret Knight, a Bostonian, while another American woman, Miss Mary Walton, invented not only a very successful smoke consumer, but a device for deadening the sound on elevated railroads.

Tho Duchess of Cumberland is a most accomplished musician, and as warm an enthusiast for Wagner as Queen Alexandra herself. Wlien tho two sisters do meet, they amuse themselves by playing Beethoven’s and Mozart’s and other old-time symphonies as duets on two pianos all tho morning long.

The parly of visiting school teachers from New Zealand, Canada and Newfoundland, who aro visiting England at present, arc having many pleasant outings arranged for them. This week they went down, to Aldershot, were shown the institutions and establishments of the army, provided with luncheon at t’to Royal Engineers’ Theatre, where tea was given later, and taken to the aviation ground at Farnborongh, where some good flying by members of the Royal Flying Corps was witnessed.

There is now hardly anyone in London old enough to entertain in the way I have described (says Sir. Filson Young in the Saturday Review). Tho hostesses grow younger and younger. For a season or two when their daughters come out they unwillingly play the part of the fond parent, and stand publicly revealed as such; but once the daughters are safely married they revert to their own youthful condition, cultivate their own special friends, wear larger and larger hats and smaller and smaller dresses, and remain at whatever age is fashionable. Just at present nearly all the hostesses in London are between 30 and 35, and people whom I seem to remember a few years ago as kind elderly ladies now look at me coyly from under large shade hats, and aro to bo seen with some special faithful male friend at operas or picture shows, thrilling once again to the dawn of emotion, and discovering anew what a wonderful thing life is.

NATURE’S DISINFECTANT. Sunlight is undoubtedly tho best allround disinfectant that wo possess. Light, especially the light of th© sun, has a wonderful. effect on nearly all forms of germs. Almost without exception they are killed by a not very prolonged exposure to the rays of the sun. At first it was thought that the heat of the solar rays might-be responsible for tho death of the bacteria, but it has been shown by careful experiment that the rays of light themselves have a power of destroying germs quite apart from any heating effect which may be produced. This powerful action of the light of tho sun in destroying genus is or enormous practical importance in nature. VALUE OF~SUN BATHING. For the nervous and generally rundown and debilitated, sun-bathing has proved itself a remedy by no moans to be despised, savs a medical expert in the London Daily Mail, and continues: —On the Continent, where the blazing hot sun can be constantly expected day after day for the hours about noon, nervous patients are nowadays quite commonly prescribed a course of daily half-hour sun-baths. Wrapped only in large bath towels, they literally soak in the sun’s rays through the bare skin. Tho results of a few weeks’ course of such baths have been so encouraging in this type of case that the sun treatment fn Germany, Switzerland and Austria is now a well-recognised and orthodox form of treatment. Perhaps the chief reason why even tho rudiments of sun-bathing are practically unknown in England is the rear of chilling in our not very friendly climate. The experience of the foreign sun-curo resorts, however, has shown this fear to be an altogether unwarranted one. For example, at the famous “Wcissor-Hirsch” sanatorium near Dresden the sunbathers are out m all weathers in a minimum of clothing, taking long walks through the rain, mud and snow in garments which closely resemble ordinary bathing-suits, and wearing only light sandals on their feet. That they suffer from no chilling is laid to tho fact that the heat-regulating system of the body, when no longer hampered by unnecessary clothing, soon learns to" accommodate itself to even low atmospheric temperatures. Tho effect of the air on the almost bare skin acts, in short, as a stimulant, encouraging a brisk circulation. which, of course, is the sole source of the surface-heat of the body. • A PROFESSION FOR WOMEN. The opinion that secretarial work in connection with’the Y.W.C.A. is one of tho coming professions for university women in Australasia is held" by Mrs. T. S. Gladding, of New York, who was for years travelling secretary; of th© American College Associations of the Y.W.C.A., and who is now an active member of the national board of tlie United States. Mrs. Gladding is at present touring New Zealand, mid has-boon much struck with the wide field of labour which the Y.W.C.A. has yet to cover in this country. “In America,” said Mrs, Gladding, “there are / 900 branches of the 'Y.W.C.A., of which 700 are college institutions, th© other 200 being .city associations. It is in the American colleges that the Y.W.C.A. has attained its highest degree of intellectual development, and large numbers of students, on graduating, go through tho large training school of the National Board with a view to becoming general secretaries. When I toll you that in on© association of CJeve- * land—there aro no less, than 21 secretaries, you will understand what an enormous/work there is to be done, and what a brainy woman is required as executive secretary to manage and overlook all tho departments. There is a constant call for university women to go in for Y.W.C.A. work, and bo attractive has it. become that increasing numbers yearly take up the work as a profession. Tho United States board has supplied both Australasia and South Africa with national organising secretaries for a few years, but the Australian Association has now a training school of its own, and doubtless, before long, many Australian women with degrees will be available for the work there and in New Zealand.” THE SUMMER GIRL. She used to court pneumonia with a blonse called “peek a boo,” , And hobble on the Esplanade with skirts that clung like glue; But then she wore a dainty slip of laco beneath her gown, Her hobble.skirt, though tight as wax, was closed the whole way down.

But now she wears an open dress that shows her dainty chest, And you’ll find that riuts discarded the flimsy chiffon vest; Tho skirt is slashed up from the hem, and girls are not dismayed It more than ankles trim are seen, or e’en a knee displayed.

“Girls as a rule, I understand,” remarks a'languid “nut,” “They’re problems, true, hut quickly solved, that’s my experience; but— I think in this year’s summer girl there’s more than meets the eye.” “There can’t be. much,” his friend replies, and sighs an artful sigh.