NOTES FOR WOMEN

Taranaki Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 16869, 16 October 1920, Page 5

NOTES FOR WOMEN

BY SISTER ANN

Miss Scully (Wellington) was a visitor hero this week. Mrs. J. L. Perry is visiting Auckland. Mrs. J. H. Stevens (Palmerston N.) is staying with her daughter, Mrs. Cutfield, Inglewood. Mrs. H. Brookman has returned from visit South. Mrs. and Miss Wake returned to Auckland this Vveck from California. Mrs. Campbell Jackson returned to Stratford on Wednesday. Miss M. Hamerton (Inglewood) is the guest of her sister, Mrs. W. N. Stephenson. Miss Wolferstan has arrived from Blenheim and taken up duty at the Technical School. Mrs. R. H. Quilliam has returnee from Napier. Mrs. A. Coleman has returned to Stratford, j ** * * Miss K. Mills (Auckland) is the guest of her mother, Mrs. C. T. Mills. Mrs. H. Ashton and family (Stratford) are spending a holiday at Ngamotu Beach. Mrs. 8. W. Shaw and Miss Shaw left for Auckland on Tuesday. Mrs. and the Misses Lysaght (Hawera) arc staying at Raimi. Mrs. Geo. Hobbs (Hawera) is spending the week-end in town. Miss Agnes Wilson left for Wellington this morning. « « * Miss Koch (Dunedin) is the guest of Mrs. Alfred Webster. Mrs. J. Bullard (Gisborne) is a visitor here. Mrs. Lane (Ashburton) is staying at Chatsworth. t t t Mrs. A. H. E. Wall (Wanganui) is visiting New Plymouth. Major and Mrs. R. Matthews (Christchurch), after spending a few days in New Plymouth, left on Tuesday to visit their son, Mr. W. Matthews, Inglewood. The engagements are announced of Mr. C. B. Webster, youngest sou of Mr, and Mrs. W. D. Webster, New Plymouth, to Miss Mirah Kerr, only daughter of Mrs. Kerr, New Plymouth; of Mr. L. B. D. Cogan, of Christchurch to Miss Doris Bradbury, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. A. M. Bradbury, New Plymouth; and of Mr. Tiros. Ellis Valintinc, eldest son of Dr ; T. 11. A. Valintine, to Miss Muriel Nina Bayly, second daughter of Mr, and Mrs. B. W. Bayly, Otorohanga.

Visitors at the White Hart ine'udo: Miss Munro (Auckland), Mrs. Wilcox and Mrs. 'Watkins (Auckland), Miss Ward (Napier), Mosdamcs Walker (Napier), Dalzicll and Cook (Christchurch), Cowley (Australia), Ashton, Wallace and Dean (Auckland), Matthews and Rothschild (Christchurch), Logan and Wall (Wanganui), Iverson (Gisborne), Campbell and J. N. Williams (Havelock North), Aliases Brownlie (Wellington), Lysnar (Hawern), Faulks (Christchurch),' Fairlie and Bell (Wanganui),

The passengers by the Niagara from London included Sir. and Mrs. G. Knowles. Mrs. Knowles (nee Miss Beatrice Dormfer Maunder) will be remembered for her .splendid work in Belgium military hospitals throughout the war period through the medium of the society of which Mrs. Percy Wootton was the enthusiastic president. In this connection it is pleasing to know that Mrs. Knowles, before leaving Belgium, was commanded by King Albert and- his Government to be the bearer of a message expressive of their great gratitude for all that was done by Mrs. Wootton and her co-workors. during the war, and of a token of his Majesty’s special recognition of Mrs. Wootton’s self-sacrific-ing sendees.

A French invention —now on the way to London —will enable the woman of 50 to have a face like a girl in her teens. The London Daily Mirror was told by a doctor who is one of London’s loading beauty specialists that there was nothing painful in the new face process. The skin of the face was pulled tightly hy a process which made all lines and wrinkles vanish. “The process,” it was declared, “is guaranteed permanent. Women can look 20 for ever.”

It is a curious thing that one very rarely meets a woman who stammers or stutters. Even specialists cannot account for this, but it is a' fact that stammering is almost exclusively a masculine trouble. This is the more remarkable as stammering is a nervous affection and women are in general more liable to nerve trouble than men. It is also remarkable that colour blindness is very rare in women; it is said that of 12 oases only one women to 11 men will bo found.

Quite a reliable weather-teller is to bo found on the breakfast table. When you drop the lumps of sugar into the cup of tea or coffee, up comes a cluster of bubbles. Now the manner in which these behave will give an indication of the conditions for the day. If the bubbles remain in the centre of the cup, one may bo sure that rain is not coming. When they are very much heaped up, a clear sky and plenty of sunshine is likely. Should the bubbles spread all over the surface of the liquid, the weather is likely to be uncertain; showers may be expected with bright intervals. If the hubbies adhere to the sides of the cup it is a bad sign, llain, and very likely wind too, is coming. In tho winter such a grouping of the bubbles signifies the approach of heavy snow.

FASHION NOTES.

(By an Expert.) PARIS, Juno 28. The little coquetries of tho toilette, exemplified in scarves, neck chains, feather neckwear, and those jolly little degago coats that are so frequently slipped on nowadays for house wear, are very much to tho fore just now. To tho male mind the expenditure lavished on these trifles may appear inconsistent and extravagant, and the only answer wo can give to this charge is that they afford such an opportunity for pretty graceful poses and gestures. Ono can make us much play with a long scarf of tulle, a wide stole of fur, or an ostrich feather hoa, as a Spanish lady with her fan and the folds of her mantilla. Quite recently I have been shown

perfectly enchanting little draperies that arc half scarves, half coats, fashioned of various transparencies that are hung with tassels, or lightly decked with metal embroideries. One of those, in a rich shade of rose crepe do chine, comprised a straight length mounted on to ; a yoke piece of dull silver laco, the sides just caught together beneath the arm to suggest sleeves; while in another of jade-coloured georgette, the centre back formed- a capuchin, which was weighted with a silver tassel, and almost touched the hem of the garment. Extraordinarily beautiful, too, are the shawls, the cashmere shawls of our great grandmother’s time—.the chosen wrap of all women who go in for wide skirts. It imparts a certain dignity -and importance to women with the “grande dame’’ air about them. To go with these cashmere shawl wraps, there are cashmere hats and bags, 'The economic fashionable women of to-day has dug among the lavender-perfumed folds of old-timo luxuries, and brought out the rich old shawls. _ The pride of her great-grand-mother is now being cut up to rc-appear ns the “dernier cri’’ in u cashmere bag or hat.

Taffetas has taken up much of the foreground of the dress stage. Some of the smartest women in Paris are picking out the lovely now foulards, many of which are in black arid white. Two other materials hound to be taken up by the fashionable are crepe meteor and crepe do chine. Of all colours jadegreen is the tint which bids fair to he as popular all through the summer as it has been during the spring, Witli the limited skirt has pome a fancy for the most elaborate stockings and footgear. The short French vamp is much to the fore for street and day wear, and is to be seen in suede, patent leather and kid. A friend of mine was exploiting a pair of kid shoos the other day which had one strap about the ankle and several over the instep. “One hundred and seventy-five francs,” she remarked, and with a sigh she added, “Oh, well, 1 was tired of my car anyway.” That it is a question of some such alternative, is found in the prices affixed to all the shoes and stockings, and sometimes, although the cut may look perfect, some of these now shoos are just on the wrong side of a perfect fit. Very elaborate are the evening .shoes. Gold and silver slippers, for example, frequently exploit jewelled evening shoes with Inco or with_ ostrich feather tips if you feel so inclined.

Equally sumptuous are the stockings over which the skirt curtain rises. For wear with black kid nr black leather pumps, we have exquisite stockings of black silk which are either embroidered or inset with weh-like lace. As to the short vamp shoe, it has almost necessitated a new kind of stocking. At all events you find the hose designed for these often embroidered low down on the instep. And then, too, we have some favoured models, among which, of course, one locates the Egyptian type. WHAT IS A WIFE WORTH? The writer, a legal expert, has assessed the economic value of a wife in the following article; — “Five shillings! That’s all she’s worth.” This was the assessment made the

other day by a husband when required by the police magistrate to provide an allowance for his wife. > Well, of course, it is just possible that this particular. wife’s value was not “far above rubies.” At the same time, the wife of a working man is usually the hardest worked and the poorest paid of all woman workers.

Let me figure this out. She is, first of all, the housekeeper. In all weathers she buys in the market the requirements of the household and carries her load home. She cleans the house from top to bottom, and everything within it. That is a job for which people nowadays demand at least £3O a year and board and lodging. Then she cooks every atom of food consumed in the house. She does it morning, noon and night, with no “evenings out.” People who take on that sort of job are asking to-day anything from £35 per annum, and “live

Then she is nurse to the children—oven when there arc six, seven or eight, of them. What’s that job worth today? I put it down as low as £3O and her hoard and lodging.

Further, she is needlewoman and tailor to the family. In the happy hour when she ran sit down for a wliile siie is cutting out and making up and generally repairing her husband’s and children’s clothes. How much is that worth Shall 1 say £‘2o per annum? And is she not also the laundress for the farnilv ?

And how Is she paid? As a rule, she is paid nothing. She is given no wages, nor is .she entitled to a fixed proportion of her husband's earnings. I'or her own personal needs she scrapes something off the small portion of the housekeeping money. Commercially, hers is the poorest job in the labour market. Solomon, the wise king, said: “Give her of the fruit of her hands”; but there are many husbands who arc saying to-day: “Five shillings; that’s all she’s worth.” —Express.