FEMININE INTERESTS

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXV, Issue 18490, 4 February 1930, Page 3

FEMININE INTERESTS

SOME PERSONAL NOTES. Bridesmaids in Blue: Miss Peggy Leigh’s wedding to Mr Charles Graves, at St. Margaret’s, Westminster, was notable for the fact that her bridesmaids, who were headed by the Hon. Pamela Boscawen, carried neither prayer books nor bouquets. They were dressed in an unusual way, too, for they had picture frocks of sapphire blue velvet, with turbans to match. The bride herself looked lovely in a long gown of ivory ring velvet, with an ivory bound prayer book and an emerald cross. Her tulle veil was held by an ivory wreath and her train, which was carried by little Lord Wilton, was of tulle trimmed with lace.

Mr Rowland Leigh, the bride’s brother, who writes songs for Mr Rex Evans, was chief usher, and Mr Victor Gordon-Lennox was Mr Graves’s best man. Black was popular among the guests. A few who favoured it were Lady Mary Limerick, Lady Hammond Graeme, Lady Ossulston, Cherry Lady Poynter and Lady Bloomfield. Lord Leigh, the bride’s uncle, brought his attractive young wife, who wore blue, and others present were Mr and Mrs Rudyard Kipling, Lord Lauderdale. Lady Dynevor, and Mr and Lady Cynthia Slessor.

Dinners to Royalty: The fashion for greeting foreign royalties with dinners typical of their native countries and with surroundings decked with the appropriate national colours is growing. After the red and yellow dinner, arranged for the Queen of Spain came the red and white supper dance given by the Danish Society for the King and Queen of Denmark, states a London write :. Danish butter, transported from Denmark specially for the occasion to the hotel where the supper-dance was held, was utilised for cooking a wonderful dish of sole, poached in cream and white wine and accompanied by mushrooms. Red and white carnations were the table decorations, those being the Danish national colours; many of the guests, too, were in red and white, which happen to be popular winter colours at the moment.

Bagpipes in the Ballroom:: The bagpipes are more popular than the wildest jazz band in fashionable ballrooms this winter. This is no doubt in compliment to the Duchess of York. The Duchess loves dancing, and she is particularly fond of Scottish dances, such as the eightsome reel, and in order that the Duchess shall have as much opportunity as possible of enjoying these dances, many keen dancers are practising the Highland steps (states “The Leader”). “The revival of the eightsome, the Scottish reel, and some of the old Scottish country dances, which is being keenly watched in dancing circles at present,” said Miss Belle Harding, the distinguished teacher of dancing, in an interview, “is hoped will help to create a new spirit of sociability among dancers. All dancers, except perhaps the most youthful, are suffering somewhat from the one partner all through the dance idea. Hostesses think that it is time that introductions were made more frequently. Waltzes are likely to be extremely popular. The Ancient Order of Foxtrotters which exists to preserve slow foxtrotting, is working hard to keep the original foxtrot in the ballroom.” This rivalry should have quite amusing consequences. Clever Artist.

Many forms of art have served their turn as the fashionable media for portraits. An English artist, Miss Phyllis Simpson, has now evolved a new form of portraiture, and perpetuates her subjects in porcelain. Although the reproductions of her subjects are necessarily in miniature, the likeness to the originals does not suffer on that account. She has been particularly successful with her portraits of children, which are reminiscent of Dresden china in their colouring and charm.

Girls as Travelling Barbers: Many girls unable to obtain work as hairdressers in London and other cities are visiting villages as travelling barbers. They make their rounds with a white unform, scissors, curling irons, and beauty lotions, packed in a box in front of a bicycle or motor cycle. One girl, living at Lingfield, Surrey, covers a radius of 10 miles from her home. Her fees are lower than in a hairdresser’s shop, and she has found many customers among the countywomen, who are as particular about the smartness of their shingle as any women in town. Every day she receives post cards or letters asking her to call at some remote village on a particular day, when several residents and their children will require attention. Another young woman has regular clients in a country hotel. In addition to trimming and waving hair, she gives beauty treatment. One travelling beauty specialist told a press man that she earns on an average £5 a week. A girl of 18 has saved enough in six months to buy a small second-hand car to replace her bicycle. She not only cuts the hair of women and children, but also trims men’s hair and shaves them.

The Queen’s Needlework: The Queen is so intensely interested in social work of every description, from educational movements to the alleviating of poverty and suffering that it is a little difficult to decide which is Her Majesty’s favourite charity. The needlework guild, in j which her mother, the late Duchess of ! Teck, was also interested, is, however, perhaps justified in being slightly considered to have a prior claim, writes I the London correspondent of “The Leader.” No matter where Her Majesty is in residence, or with whom I she may be staying, she is never parted l from a brocade work bag. and that bag invariably contains a piece of# wool crochet for the guild. Sometimes it ■ is one of the dainty little matinee I coats, which the Queen makes so beau- | tifully, for the sick babies in one or I other of the children’s wards of the ' great hospitals; sometimes the sec- | tion of one of the neat quilts she I crochets for the cribs. The daintiI ness of Her Majesty’s work is one of ■ its most charming features. The baby : occupants of these hospital cots often | —indeed, invariably—come from the poorest homes, where their wraps con--1 sist of the first rag which comes to hand. There is, however, no question ; with the Queen of just anything being good enough for these pathetic little ■ mites of humanity, who know so little | of beauty and true babyhood until they , reach the hospital ward. The colours of the wool and the stich which the i Queen employs for these little garj ments are the same as those employed on the garments for little Princess Elizabeth. Next week Her Majesty will be coming to London from Sandringham to superintend the unpacking and classifying of the garments made during the year by her thousands of guild workers. One of the large galleries of the Imperial Institute at } South Kensington is lent for the purpose, and the Queen spends two days there with guild presidents, who are also her personal friends. Lady Bertha Dawkins is usually among them. Lady Simon’s Work: Lady Simon, the wife of Sir John Simon, who is devoting herself to the movement for the abolition of slavery,

and whose aim is to see the noble work begun by Wilberforce cimpleted in the present generation, has written a challenging and an outspoken book on the subject, entitled “Slavery,” which Hodder and Stoughton are publishing. “It is very encouraging,” she told an interviewer, to see how the present Government is taking more active steps to bring to an end the system of Mui Tsai (child slavery) in Hongkong. But slavery in China is so much an integral part of the domestic life of the Chinese that it will be more difficult to bring it to an end than when it exists simply as trading. With all this I have dealt in my book. “The book deals, too, with slavery in Abyssinia, in the Sudan, in Arabia, and elsewhere. At the very least there are still in all parts of the world five million slaves, and probably six million. They are held as property to be sold at the will of their masters, just as they were in the days when Harriet Beecher Stowe wrote her memorable book on slavery, “Uncle Tom’s Cabin.”

America’s Page Boys: At a dinner party recently a discussion arose concerning London’s smart uniformed workers; while one or two of the guests were in favour of giving the laurel to commissionaires, an American woman was emphatic that the page boys in the hotels and cinemas were the smartest. “You will never get an American to click his heels and §alute so smartly as your page boys,” she said, “and, moreover, they are polite without being servile. The American boys are polite only if there is a big tip in the offing.”

Prominent Social Worker: One of the best-known of Wellington’s social welfare workers is Miss Cybele Kirk, third daughter of the late Professor and Mrs Kirk, who lived in Pirie Street, Christchurch, for thirty years. Miss Kirk is visitor for and head official of the Society for the Protection of Women and Children. A woman of wide experience and much culture, she is well equipped for her very interesting work amongst our people. She has a sense of humour and plenty of that diplomacy so needed in any official whose duty is to enter a home torn with internal dissensions. The aim of the society, which Miss Kirk always bears in mind, is to keep the home together, and to patch up quarrels, to give wholesome human advice to distracted mothers of wilful sons and daughters. When there is no hope of happiness in the home, Miss Kirk and her committee try to make a private agreement for the separation. Where necessary the aid of the law is invoked, especially for maintenance cases. Thanks to the kindness of the Wellington lawyers, the society’s legal fees in these cases are remitted. Miss Kirk, who had the honour to be one of the first women Justices of the Peace that were appointed in New Zealand, is very keen on her work, which is being extended in all directions, from Marlborough as far as Palmerston North.