WOMAN'S WORLD.

Star (Christchurch), 30 September 1893, Page 3

WOMAN'S WORLD.

It is a table vagary with some people to salt tea and coffee instead of sugaring it. And they assert.it is preferable. The Japanese, whose floral, taste ia acknowledged to he singularly pure, never mix different varieties of flowers together in one vase. An Oregon, 111., young woman is making a crazy quilt of the silk ties which have been given her by her devoted admirers. Her pillows are to be Btuffed with their love letters. Mrß Albert Barker, an English elocutionißt, iB said to knew aa many pieces as there are days in the year. She imitates many voices of nature, from the trill to the canary to " the awe-inspiring howl of the hurricane." Worth, the great Paris dressmaker, says that some years ago a Peruvian heiress paid hia firm J26000 for a single gown, .86100 beiug the coat of the lace alone. A few weeks ago he sold a oloak for .-2500, of which .£2440 went for the fur. The legend runs that the fruiting of the almond tree beside the house whence a bride-elect departs is a happy omen. Princess May was probably glad to Bee that the almond tree at White Lodge was in full bloom when she said good-bye to her old home. Mrs Sarah B. Cooper, who organised the first Kindergarten in Sau Francisco in 1880, has received more than £60,000 to enable her to carry on the work. There are now sixty-five kindergartens in the city, aud more than 10,G00 children have been trained in them. Pink and heliotrope has been a faahionable combination through the London season on smart dinner tables. In midsummer green and white is delightfully cool-looking, and bas not been improved upon. Dou't bave masses of flowers on the summer dinner table; a few in each of several low bowls and vases is preferable. The Queen of Madagascar takes a State bath every year, being escorted to it by a solemn procession of attendants. A richlydecorated tent io prepared, and while Her Majesty is within, prayers are said, guns fired, and drums beaten outside. After the ceremony ehe appears in gorgeous attire, and wearing all the Crown jewels. Lady Brooke, "Society's champion," has two great hobbieß— horse- taming and gardening. She attends every horße sale in Essex, aud. boasts that Bhe. never allows an animal to conquer her. Her gardening operations are unique.-. Each shrub or tree or perennial has .been planted- by some distinguished visitor, aud Bhe .cultivates every flower or herb mentioned by Sbakspere. An effort, was recently made to secure the admission of women to membership in the Laryngqlogical Association in England. Although the attempt was unsuccessful the women regard it as au evidence of advance tbat the question shoold have been debated in the Society. They gained a good deal, anyway, as women are to be admitted as vioitors with power to take part in discussions. The conteat over the admission of women to membership in the Eoyal Geographical Sooiety has been decided, adversely to the women, by a vote of 172 to 158. As the Society numbers many thousands oC members, this iB scarcely conclusive evidence of the feeling of tbe majority, especially as 116 J. out of 1700 members who responded to a written query, were in favour of admitting women. John Strange Winter was not Mrs Stannard's first now. .de • 'plume. For several yeais she signed herself Violet Whyte, and before ahe was thirty had written and published forty-two novelettes under that pseudonym. But when " Cavalry Life " was about to appear, her publishers advised a masculine no-m 6,c plume, and she accordingly chose John Strange Winter, the name of one of her favourite characters in one of her own delightful stories. Madame Patti has kept every bib of stage clothing she baa ever worn. For instanoe, all the costumes iv which she sang Marguerite, in " Faust," are put away together, oven including the shoes, I caps, and stockings, aud sometimes when i ahe and her visitors have no better "way o£ amuaing themselves at Craig-y-noa they go up and spend an hour in the suite of garret dressing-rooms where all theae things are stored away. This idea of keeping everything ehe weara was suggested to Patti by the ex-Empress Eugenic, who indulged in the same fad during her few happy yeats in the Tuilleries.