WOMAN'S WORLD.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 5068, 29 September 1894, Page 3

WOMAN'S WORLD.

The Dowager Duchess of Abercorn, on her eighty-second birthday, recently gave a dance to her living descendants, a hundred and one in number. Mrs Jennie Northen, who for one hundred and ten years braved the ills that flesh is heir to, succumbed at Princeton, Kentucky, the other day to a mild attack of measles. The Eepublicans oE North Dakota not only pnt a woman-suffrage plank in their platform at the recent State Convention, but they unanimously nominated Miss Emma F. Bates of Valley City for State Superintendent of Public Instruction. One girl is kept partly employed in shelling and skinning walnuts for the Queen's table. The nuts have to be extracted and peeled whole ; any broken ones are discarded. Her Majesty iB also very fond of blanched almonds, and a large dish is always provided for the Boyal dessert. The author of « Littlo Lord Fauntleroy," Mrs Francis Hodgson Burnett, was at one time a teacher in a little country school. She was so poor that she had not even enough money to buy stampa with, and she earned th 6 wherewithal to post her firßt manuscript to the publishers by picking berries. Germany ia at last opening the doors of her universities to women. Heidelberg, the aristocratic and conservative, loads the way. To allow young girls to prepare for a university career, four special gymnasia have been created within two years, at Berlin, Carlsruhe, Leipsic, and Munich, and others are to follow. Miss Ida Piatt is the first coloured woman to be admitted to the bar in Illinois, or, indeed, of any State. She was recently graduated from the Chicago Law School, where she had made an exceptionally bright record. She is a young woman of excellent ability and high proficiency in the languages, German and French, and is, besides, an accomplished musician. Her appearance is made distinctive by a mass of gray hair above a regular and finelyfeatured, expressive face. Mrs Humphrey, perhaps better known as " Madge " of Truth, has her home in Maida Vale, and a cosy little home it is. She is rather above the middle height, with a keen impressive face, sharply cut features, a bright youthful complexion, and grey hair, which once was fair and golden. In manner she is pleasant and unaffected, and above all she is a good talker. Mrs Humphrey claims that she is the busiest woman in London. An amusing incident occurred at the recent celebration of the silver wedding of Lord and Lady Middleton. In replying to the to&_t of his health at a luncheon to the tenantry, Lord Middleton Baid tbat he had received a silver medal from a young lady cousin, with a request that he would wear it at all public functions. The medal bore thiß inscription: — "'Needleß and pins, needles and pins.' Won by Digby, Lord Middleton, after twenty-five years matrimonial martyrdom, borne with the utmost resignation." The donor, added Lord Middleton, is herself a model wife. Perhaps (remarks the writer of "Woman's World" in the Bt James's Gazette) the popularity of white iB due to the recent utterance of a Frenchman, who declared that a man instinctively doee homage to a woman dressed in white, as it has the effect of virginity and inaccessibility. Almost equally* in favour is a certain delicate shade of yellow, which, once exclusively appropriated by brunettes, is now being extensively patronised by fair women since the blonde Queen of Italy revealed its becomingncss to a fair skin and hair. "Edna Lyall," otherwise known as Miss Ada Ellen Bayly, has type-written all her own novels. She liveß in a charming little house at Eastbourne with her brother, who is a curate at one of the fashionable churches. Unfortunately, however, she Buffers from very bad health, and at times Bhe has to lay down her pen for long weary intervals. On becoming convalescent the novelist usually goes on the continent to Italy or Norway if possible, and it was in tbis way that she gathered the impressions of foreign life which she has portrayed so cleverly in several of her books. Madame Sarah Bernhardt'- recipe for always looking young is worth noting. " I always burn my boats behind me," she has stated. "What is past is past; I trouble no more about it. And the same as regards the future. I enjoy the moment, and give no thought to what will happen to-morrow. So long as I have sufficient money for the needs of the day I am happy. Whenever a notion seizes me that I would like to do a certain thing I carry out the idea at once, be it never so eccentric." The moral of this lies in the application of it, and certainly Madame Bernhardt has displayed the courage of hor opinion in the course of her eccentric career. Most of the leading actres.es in England, in spite of their being Bpoken of as Miss This and Mibs That, are married ladies. Miss Ellen Terry's real name is Mrs Charleß Wardell (Charles Kelly), Miss Nellie Farren is Mrs Bobert Souter, Misa Julia Neilson is Mrs Fred Terry, Mies Maud Branscombe is Mrs Everard Stuart, Miss Fanny Brough is Mrs Bichard Smith-Boleyn, Miss Connie Gilchrist is the Countess of Orkney, Misa Virginia Bateman ie Mrs Edward Compton, Misa Alice Atherton is Mrs Willie Edouin, Miss Minnie Hawk is the Baroness Von Hess Wartegg, Mdlle Christino Nillson it the Countess de Casa Miranda, Mdlle Nordica is Mra Gower, Mdlle Adelinn Patti iB Mrs Nicolini, and Mdlle Marie Boze is Mra Henry Mapleson. M. Rebiere, who lectured early in the year before the Oercle Saint Simon, Paris, on " Women in Science," is preparing a book on the subject, and has published a preliminary pamphlet. Thero are many nameß between those of Hypatia and Mary Somervilie. Some of them are noted, and all are of interest and deserve to te better known; so we shall be glad (cays the Echo) to learn from M. Esbiero more about the Abbess Herrade, who wrote, in the twelfth century, the " Hortus Deliciarum," a cosmogony whioh had the honour of being burned at Strasburg; and of St Hiidergarde, who summarised the science of her time in her "De Physica;" of Sabucco; and of Baguenel, wife of Duguesclin, "well verged in astronomy." Mr Syed A. M. Shah makes, in the pages of the Indian Magazine and Review, a defence of his countrymen ao regardß the status of Muslim women. In tne course of his article he deals with the subject of Indo-European marriages, his object bping to warn tbe public at home against tbe danger of thia fast - growing evil. Such unions, he warns them, are most unpopular, and have not turned out to be i happy. Eu^liah women who have not been out in the East have not the remotest idea of Indian life, and therefore do not realise ! the gravity of the question, and the men who propose to marry tbem do not-., for the^r own reason t_ulif{bten them. But he wains thorn tir-at 'he E'lgiiflh wife ct an Indian is cut oif from every one of her own race; Indiana do not have much intercourse with Buch a couple, and though all ; these unions may not have turned out ! badly, the chaucea are in favour of degradalinn, lews-., pud m'snr.y-. Mr Sy.'i S-.hs.l-. -.yh«':-< i'- <i; "•*<« •.■■■; rents ..I -ii st t. f ;:i .. i».._ r, *, i-_ ■-.. lio.-ic . *.*.uo represent iht-maelv-aB to l c whr.t tney ure 1 not, and urges parents nob to consent to 1 suoh. unions.