WOMAN'S WORLD.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 8832, 19 January 1907, Page 3

WOMAN'S WORLD.

The young Queen of Spain ia one of the beat of horsewomen, and is the possessor of the true horsewoman * attributes — coolness in an emergency, and fearlessness at a crisis — and can be conspicuously relied upon to furnish a striking example of the advantages' accruing from a training that includes the art of riding cross-country. Queen Alexandra is an accomplished j musician, but .- the only people who hava i heard hex Majesty play the piano-, outside her ! own most intimate circle, are some of the poor peasants in the Brompton Consumption Hospital. Princess Victoria, and her early friend, Lady Colebrooke, are both excellent at wood-carving, and the Princess also does £ood work in leather-embossing. Princess i ouise, Duohess of Argyll, has no mean, j talents as a sculptor, as well aa with the brush. To see the Queen of Italy in. her happiest | mood she must be met in the nursery with he* babies, or on the water in the yacht, which she steers with a master mariner's art, or in a boat, of which she is so perfect a mistress. When the present King of Italy wooed and won her rrom heT wild Montenegrin home, he took her for her beauty and her qualities of heart. She is one of Nature's queens — gentle, affectionate, frank *M*td winsome. She is passionately devoted to her husband and children, but her heart is in the hills or on the waters. Mdme Nordioa says that the prettiest compliment she ever received in her life was paid her by a cowboy after a concert in Texas. A snowstorm oame on, and she had forgotten to bring heT warm over-shoes. A cowboy in the audience volunteered to fetch them for her. She accepted the offer gratefully. To her surprise, he only brought one, and had_ to return for the other. Nordica, in thanking him, said ehe was sorry he had tb make two journeys for her. " Don't mention it ma'am," returned the cowboy; "I'm real sorry you're not a centipede." Miss Helen Gould, who is now visiting Europe, is one of the wealthiest women in the world. Her income amounts to about _600 a day. It is said that Bhe is probably the only woman of her time andi rank in the United States who has never allowed wine or spirits to be served at her table. She is one of the most philanthropic of women, and receives many curious requests, among them being applications for trousseaux, houses, pianos, old clothes, sewing machines, watches, Bibles, a monument to a parent, _ a set of false teeth, and a passage to England. Carmen Sylva, the Queen of Eoumania, is always interesting, even in small things. She had a letter the other day from a Bucharest cigarette manufacturer, who wrote that he had called his best cigarette the " Carmen Sylva," and had filled a case with them for the industrial exhibition which is now being held at Bucharest. Next day tha Queen drove' to the exhibition and wished to see the new cigarettes. The man in attendance showed them. The Queen asked him to smoke one that she might test its flavour. At the cigarette man's request she filled her reticule with the " Carmen Sylva " cigarettes. " I'll take them home to the King," she said to her lady-in-waiting. " They will soothe him when I read him my poetry." I Only one lady at present can wear the bhie ribbon of the Garter, and this is the Queen. This appointment of her Majesty as " Lady of the Order " is an innovation of the present reign; foi* centuries previously no lady has been a " Knight " except those who were Queens 'Regnant, and, as such, had in their own right the sovereignty of the Most Noble Order. But originally, on the oontr ary, /there were "La-dies of the G-arfcer" in considerable numbers, ns their effigies still remaining testify One of these monuments is at Ewelme, in Oxfordshire, and was consulted when Queen Victoria ascended, to ascertain in whaA manner .the distinctive insignia- — the banembroidered with the famous motto — was to be worn by a lady. It was seen on the etßgs (o be above the elbow on the left arm, and there Queen Victoria -accordingly wore her i " Garter."