THE LADIES COLUM NOTES BY "THE DUCHES"

Observer, Volume II, Issue 44, 16 July 1881, Page 488

THE LADIES COLUM NOTES BY "THE DUCHES"

— Mrs Cleghorn gave a private party in the Epsom Hall on Thursday evening last. — There is very little to chronicle this Aveek, social gaiety in Auckland just now being in extremis. One-half of our big guns, with the "great ladies" belonging thereto, haA r e gone South to the meeting of the Houses and left us mourning. Mrs McCosh Clark is not yet visible, and Mrs Whitaker has gone to her country seat at the Lake for a long sojourn. NeA r ertheless, the skating rink at the Choral Hall Avas exceedingly Avell attended — better than it cA r er has been since the opening night ; in fact it Avas croAvded. — The Ponsonby "At Home," on Friday the Bth inst., was, in spite of the terrible Aveather, Avell attended, and the Hall comfortably iilled. It Avas not crowded out like the last occasion, "but that was simply a blessing to the dancers, Avho, last month, were unable to dance at all, "on the light fantastic toe" being quite inapplicable. The supper, Avith the exception of the claret cup, Avas very good. Who does make the claret cup ? It is execrable, as bitter as gall, and made, I am quite sure, Avith lemonade instead of soda water. The decorations of the hall, which are always tasteful, were prettier than ever, the ferns and flags being most elaborately arranged. HoAvever, the new programmes put everyone in a muddle, and nobody knew to whom they Avere engaged for the next dance. The gentlemen outnumbered the ladies. What makes the men turn up so Avell in Ponsonby ? Nearly all the married ladies ■were in black, I suppose in mourning for the clerk of the Aveather. Mrs Masefield, black grenadine trimmed Avith cream. Mrs Cunningham, black dress Avith steel braid and Avhite flowers. Mrs Furby, black, trimmed with pale blue plush and Avhite lace. Mrs Arthur Lewis in black A'elvet, made en 2)i'incesse, Avith a crimson rose at her neck, looked remarkably •well. Mrs Qnick wore black and white. Mrs Devore had a stylish dress composed of a crimson satin Swiss bodice and skirt, with polonaise of pompadour. Mrs Upton, black silk. Miss Evans looked very nice in a simple white grenadine dress, Avith Avhite flo Avers and pearls. Miss Harrison, pink tarletane. Miss Baker, pink sateen trimmed with black A'elvet and silver flo Avers. Miss Langsforn, blue sateen trimmed Avith AA r hite lace. Miss H. Langsford, black silk dress with black A r elvet bodice laced up the back Avith black cord. Miss Fulloon, white sateen Avith pale blue sash and scraper, crimson flowers, and coral ornaments. Miss Oldham, white muslin trimmed Avith red and blue, forming the tricolour.

' —The fashionable way of dressing the hair, at Home, is to comb it all up off the neck and make it into a knot on the top of the head. It is a style of coiffure very trying to most faces, and seems to be borroAved from the Japanese. Everything is Japanese now, in fans, decorations, and furniture. — For a specimen of almost unparalleled, but unconscious, self-conceit, commend me to a passage in Mr Larkins' letter, re the visit of the royal Princes, in the Herald of Monday last. He says, " As an old traveller, I should like to save the Princes what / haA r e often been the victim of, viz : a Avell-meant fussiness, Avhich Avill not let one enjoy anything lying around you, but is always dragging you away to something else." Can any possible concatenation of circumstances ever have placed Mr Frederick Larkins in a position when such an amount of fusbiness could haA r e been expended an him, as might be possible in the case of Albert Victor of Wales ? And is it not this very fussiness ■which is deprecated in the Avish to give the royal lads a little real fun and pleasure in a sharp trip to the Wonderland of New Zealand — the district of the Lakes?

— "Art steps in where Nature fails," says an enterprising firm which advertises " The palpitating bust" in a lady's newspaper. It is almost enough to make one "bust" with laughter to read of such things ; but woman, lovely woman, Avill evidently soon be a very composite article. When almost every female charm can be purchased ready-made, it makes a poor male creature wonder what sort of revelation awaits him when he gets among the angels. After "the palitation bust," I should not be surprised to hear of "a pair of pouting lips "as a new invention. "Dreamy eyes" would sell well, and "bewitching smiles," a dozen in a box, sent free from observation, would command a ready market. "Dimples " have long been on sale. The only things I don't expect to see manufactured for ladies are "brains." Nowadays there is very little demand for them, and men are rather apt to resent the possession of them by the other sex. — I received by the last mail from San Francisco a copy of the revised version of the New Testament. It takes a long time before one become thorougly aware of the many changes and differences introduced by the revisers ; but one thing is certain, that never before were we made so fully cognisant of the deep debt we owe to the early translators, and especially to William Tyndale. All the learning of the literary men of the present day, all the erudition of distinguished scholars and divines in Great Britain, Germany, and America have been exhausted over the present revision, which has occupied ten years and a half ; yet no single point of doctrine or of interest is elucidated by it. Indeed, in many cases, the simple, manly English of the authorised version is emasculated by the new revision. It is printed without headings, chapters, or verses. Instead of this, the Sacred Text is arranged in paragraphs, so as to assist the general reader in following the current of narrative or arguement. ( How about the giving out of texts from the pulpit ?) The marginal notes seem to me to contain the best sense of the original, and I cannot understand why they were placed simply as marginal notes. The change most likely to cause strife and dispute is in the last clause of the Lord's Prayer. Where " deliver us from evil " is rendered, " deliver us from the Evil One" interpolated. The word Hell is rendered "Hades" or " Jehenna of Fire "in the margin ; and only in Revelations is there the slightest departure from

the rendering of "eternal," Avheye "for cA r er and ever " is rendered in the margin " unto the ages of the ages." Altogether, it is a comfort to know that no extent of learning can take away, or add to, the Avoids of the Book of Life. Such as it Avas for men in the days of James the Ist, so it remains now after a lapse of tAvo hundred and seA r enty-seven years, in the reign of Victoria.