PROPOSED "BEAUTY SHOW " AT NAPIER.

Observer, Volume 9, Issue 520, 8 December 1888, Page 3

PROPOSED " BEAUTY SHOW " AT NAPIER.

Napier is talking of holding a ' Beauty Show 5 on the lines of the exhibition lately held at Spa. Ambitious Napier! And yet, well conducted — properly 'run,' that is— the show would doubtless prove a strong attraction and a splendid advertisement for the capital of Hawke's Bay. Pretty girls might be drafted from all parts of the province, or the colony for that matter, and all New Zealand masherdom would doubtless make an effort to be there. I would suggeßt that Auck-. land's only Hannaford should be invited to superintend the arrangements and. boss the distribution of prizes. * # * The Spa affair does not appear to have been a glaring success, indeed, but tbat was principally due to bad management, I take it, and an insufficient supply of i eaily nice girls. There were twenty-five entries, and all the competitors, attired in ball dresses, went every evening for a' fortnight to the Casino, where they were gazed at by people who had paid five francs a piece for the privilege, # # * Mary Stevens, a native of Vienna, despite her name, and the winner of the third prize, has given the following account of the wind-up of the affair, which was far from being the financial success anticipated by its promoters :— The prize winners, apart from all the rest, were not only hideously ugly but bad-tempered and ill-bred. You cannot imagine how they behaved when the names of the most successful competitors were read out. The scene was indescribable. There were groans, and shrieks, and imprecations. When wa (ths winners) received our bouquets lhe others rushed at us like wild beasts, snatched our nosegays out of our hands, and trampled on them. Somebody spat upon the dress of Mdlle Soukares, the Gaudeloupe Kiri, and Mdlle. Vilain, who obtained the last or fourth prize, whacked me with her fan and cut my arm. She had to be ejected from the place by the police, and Mdlle. Soukares and I had to fly literally for our lives. M. Soukares, the brother of the Gaudeloupe beauty, states that his sister only consented to compete owing to the pressing solicitations of friends, and that then she was entered under an assumed name.' *# . * If the proposed? Beauty Show at Napier . were followed by a ' Masher Show,' the combined attraction would prove irresistible. Auckland would be able to supply quite a lot of entries.