WOMAN'S WORLD.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 5733, 28 November 1896, Page 3

WOMAN'S WORLD.

Tho Dowager Lady Tennyson was a poefc and a critic who did not exempt her husband's work from her criticism. Golden hair is in such domand by the wigniakers of Paris and London that contracts for the entire supply for the next five years are recorded. The Princess Zuleikha, the favourite daughter of Osman Pasha, the heroic, defender of Plevna is the onlywomanof the Turkish race who is known to possess poetical talent. Thirty thousand dollars a year was the sum the Empress Josephine found necessary to spend at her dressmaker's, which, for a Court that claimed to be democratic, was a decidedly good figure. Miss Charlotte Mary Yonge, the author of the " Heir of Kedclyffe" is seventy-three years old. Since 1853, the year in which her best-known book was printed, she has written something like three books a year, in addition to her regular editorial work. The Princess of Wales has a hobby for collecting clocks, and she now has more than a hundred, in variegated sizes and styles, at Sandringham House, where they are kept running to please the Prince. This, however, is an old-time custom. The finest collection of clocks in the world is said to be at Buckingham Palace. Miss Lina Eckenstein's " Woman under Monasticisni " has surprised German scholars. The Literarisches Cetdralblcctt remarks solemnly that "it is a decidedly remarkable phenomenon for a woman to •vmto a learned book which demands a j thorough study of original authorities," j and compliments Miss Eckenstein on having wcrked in an earnest and scientific fashion. Mrs Elizabeth Cady Stanton wrote the following in a copy of "The Woman's Bible," which she presented recently to a young woman reporter: — "The first reporter ever sent out to collect news was Noah's dove. With such a refined, harmless ancestry we need not wonder at all the charming qualities that mark this class of our fellow-citizens ; they always come to us olive branch in hand. Lord bless the reporters I" The Princess of Wales has odd names for her four pet ponies. She calls them Huffy, Puppy, Bene, and Beans. She is very devoted to them, and every-day when she is at home goes out to their clean, airy stables and carries her basket of dainties to them. These are the things wliich they specially like, and which they reach and whinny for when they see her coming: Apples, carrots, Vienna rolls, and a lump of sugar apiece. Madame Dimbourg, an eccentric old French lady, has just died at Bouloeme. She was not wealthy, but was wildly generous to thoso who needed help. She lived very meanly herself, while her servants w r ere nearly starved. During her illness she scolded the nurse for rinsing a glass with filtered water. " Filtered watenvears out the filter, you must be more economical." Yet this woman, so parsimonious in her own concerns, lavished benefits on the wherever she found them, and made princely gifts out of a lifo annuity by ho means large. Lady Henry Somerset and Miss Frances Willard are untiring in their labours against the opium trade and for the-cause of temperance, and the Queen has recently shown them gracious recognition by consenting to receive a "giant petition" signed by 7,000,000-of her women subjects, who ask for protection against-these two evils. It has taken years-to collectthese: names, and the petition is written infortyfour different languages, making such an immense roll that the pages have been photographed, handsomely illuminated, and bound in two volumes to present to her Majesty. The St James's Gazette, says that the gold plate of Windsor Castle consists of about 10,000 pieces. It is kept in the gold pantry, which is an iron room situated on the ground floor under the royal apartments. The clerk of the pantry gives ib out in iron boxes and receives a receipt for it. It is carried by special tram, under escort of a guard of soldiers, and delivered to the butler at Buckingham Palace. He gives a receipt for it, and is responsible for it while it remains in the palace. The same formalities are observed in taking it back, and all persons concerned are glad when it is once more restored to the safekeeping of the gold pantry. The total value of the plate in this department isnearly .£2_000,000. A great deal of it dates from the reipn of George IV, but among the antiquities are some pieces which were taken from the Armada. The Emperor of Germany is said to be the best dressed monarch of modern times. He is most punctilious as to the details of his attire, but much of tho credit that he receives for this is, in reality, due to his wife, who looks after her husband's clothing with an assiduity that no valet could equal. Sho takes upon herself tho sole charge of her husband's linen, andshe prefers to replacehis buttons, and dam his socks. Augusta "Victoria is.agood housekeeper; that goesrwithont- saying, fpr she is a German woman. She keeps as-<slose^ watch upon the daily details, of domestic life within the Imperial household, as the emperor does upon the affairs of his army or work of his ministers. Charitable work occupies a good share in her time. She knows everything about the charities ■of Berlin; but any institution that is ' jyi-ißCßsta-her. - ■" ' " "■ ''""•'. •'-" *;.