WOMAN'S WORLD.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 5427, 30 November 1895, Page 3

WOMAN'S WORLD.

Instead of sponges, Madame Sarah Bernhardt ÜBes small sachete containing finely grated soap and small quantities of bran or fine meal.

A West End of London tobacoonist stated recently that fifteen pounds of his weekly turnover came from lady devotees ot tho soothing weed.

Moat authorities are agreed that the birthplace of cheßS was India, and that Mandodari, wife of Bavane, King ot Oadb, invented the game.

Madame Sarah Bernhardt has a convenient way of disposing of her animal pets. When she is tired of her tigers, lions, vipers, and apes, ehe makes a handsome present of them to the " Museum," whioh iB the official name for the Paris Zoo.

While European ladies spend their time curling hair which is naturally straight, it is the ambition of every n egress to remove all vestiges of a kink. An enterprising inhabitant of New Orleans, U.S.A., has discovered a method, the effects of which are lasting during the best part of a year. This method is kept a profound ssoret, and a charge of £1 per head is made. A company is now being formed to purchase the secret, and to set np shops for this form of hair-dressing all over the Sonthern States.

The Dnchesa of Aosta, who will ba better known to the English pubiio as Princess Helene of Orleans, seems to be pursued by ill-luck. Soon after her marriage ahe waa thrown from her horse while hunting and narrowly escaped very serious injury; then she was concerned in afire which broke out in her room in the Turin residence ; then she was reported to be very ill; and recently she was in a carriage the horses of which made a bolt. Fortunately the Dnchess escaped with nothing worse than a shock to her nerves.

Madame Patti'a home, Craig-y-Nos, is said to contain one of the handsomest billiard-rooms in the world, the furniture of which cost more than any other apartment in that famous castle. Madame Patti is a most enthusiastic player, and few women can handle a one with the ease and success of this clever woman. No matter what the hour may be after singing at the opera, the diva does not retire until she has had a game of billiards with her husband, M. Nicolini, and frequently a professional is invited to join them.

Madame Patti is said to ohooie her servants for Craig-y-Nos with an eye to their vocal powers rather than to their domestic attainments. The oaßtle is always foil of company, and aa operatic performances in the theatre of the castle are of constant occurrence, Madame Patti must recrnit her troupe from the servants' hall. She is said to be so admirable a mistress that the double avocations of her employes do not clash. She pays them very large wages, and treats them as companions. The little opera house costs her about £10,000 a year.

A Hungarian lady, the wife of "Obergespan" Georg Szmercszany, had a dangerous adventure while out shooting at Palhorn, near the Galician frontier. While separated from her companions, a large black bear stepped out of a thicket. Her rifle waß ot light calibre, but she fired a shot at him from a distance of twenty yards. The bear bled profusely, but came on with a rush. When he had approached to within three yards of her she fired again. The shot struck the beast in the nsck, and he fell dead at her feet. The bear measured something over six feet long.

St Andrew's University haa long taken an honourable load in Scotland in regard to the higher education of womea, and it is in keeping with this that the university ia now erecting a hall of residence for women students, on the model of the similar establishments at Cambridge' and Oxford. Mißs Louisa Lumsden, who took classical honoura at Girton College, Cambridge, and was the first head mistress of St Leonard's School, St Andrew's, haa been appointed warden of the new hall. In some respects St Andrew's is better suited for such an institution than the large university towns of Scotland.

The widow of the great Mr Phineas Bwnum, and bis biographer, has married again. The circumstances of her first acquaintance with her second husband, Demetry Callais Bey of Constantinople, are somewhat romantic. The lady, who was many years younger than the great showman, haß travelled a good deal in her time. One day, while ascending the Great Pyramid, one ot the guides who was accompanying her slipped ahd released her hand. The poor lady fell backwards to what seemed inevitable doath when a gentleman who waa some ten yards behind, opened his arms and caught her. Her saviour is how her husband.

Miss Conauelo Vanderbilt, will bo only the third lady of American birth to become a British peeress of the first rank— a duchess. At present seventeen out of nineteen "reigning" ducheeses are unquestionably British. The two exceptions are the Duchess of Devonshire and the Duchess of Fife, the one of whom is German and the other of whom, in view of the recent controversy, it may be best to describe aa " European." Of the seventeen duchesses who are British, eleven are English (though one of them waa born and bred in Scotland, and another is an Anglo* lndian), fivo are Scottish, and one is Irish.

Near Paris is a beautiful house, surrounded by large gardens and orohards, which Yvette Guilbert haß built for herself, and where she liveß in extremely simple etyle, studiously avoiding society. Here 6he resides all through the summer months, driving in the cool of the evening to the cafe chantant at which she happens to be appearing. The pleasure grounds round the house are well laid out, and backed by a big kitchen garden, overflowing with vegetables and email fruit. A fine drive taads up to the house, with its magnificent courtyard, decorated with trellis work, and ivy, and her own room is reaohed by a beautiful staircase, painted wbitaifttbeiguiaftuiMßßiyle. j