Ladies' Column.

Wairarapa Standard, Volume XX, Issue 2030, 25 February 1887, Page 2 (Supplement)

Ladies' Column.

Rubies, “ Horrid little babies 1” chi Well. It is the fashion to despise babies now a days. In fact, this is the ago of contempt—contempt for all the things of which poets sung in by gone times. After a beautiful love song, which has been copied into a paper, wo find the comment: “Carry them out on two chips.” Should any man serenade his lady-love ho would bo the laughing-stock of his acquaintances. Married men are congratulated hy their friends on the absence of their wives, and married women are supposed to like to go alone to theatres and play girl again. “Pooh” and “ bah” are the expressions that greet any assertion to the contrary ; and love for parents, fondness for home, delight in nature's beauties, are too generally regarded as affectations. I heard a man say one day; “A woman's most wretched moment is when she finds her daughter is able to cut her out with the men in society.” “ You know nothing of a mother’s feelings,” I answered. “ A good wife gives up all that, a good mother rejoices in her daughter's attractions. ” “Oli? keep that goody-goody talk for Sunday-school hooks,” sneered the speaker ; “ you know better.”

Under such circumstances, who can wonder that the scoffers have fallen foul of babies, and regard them as miserable little nuisances t that your philosophers falsely state that “ very intellectual people never have large families i” or that many a fashionable man feels that the nursery and the nurse’s arms are the places for his child, and the ball-room the place for its mother ? An excellent caricature that I smiled over the other day shows two ladies playing guitars, surrounded by admirers who are gazing with rapt admiration into their faces ; at a little distance sits an anxiouslooking man, to whom a maid with a baby carriage is whispering : “Tile poor little fellow seems very sick. Shall I take him to missus '{” “ Oh, no, on no account!’ - cries the father ; “she must not be interrupted ; take him into the house, and I’ll follow y°u.”. This is what they would have us believe motherhood has come to in those days. Perhaps it lias, in such society ; but, thank Heaven 1 there are hosts of quiet, home-loving women yet, and let heartless folk mock as they will, each of these mothers could tell you what her bah// is to her —what a comfort when she is sad ; what a pleasure when she is merry ; what a treasure at any time ! Tired ! Why, if she is ever so tired, how it rests her to “ take baby.” What a thing it is to hold it close to her in the quiet night, to feel its little hand holding tightly to her thumb ami to bo awakened by its crows as it tangles its hand in her hair. You can buy almost anything with money, but just try to buy her baby of the proud mother who loves it truly I Try —that is all I You may make young folks sneer at love and old folks doubt all lionorand honesty ; you may make romance a thing to bo mocked at, and turn the word “sentiment” to a sneer ; but you cannot change the hearts of women to their babies, as long as they are not too fashionable to hold them in their arms, and be all that Heaven meant a woman to be to her own child. Club Life for Women. London loads in the matter of women’s clubs, which are numerous and nourishing. The first club exclusively for ladies in London was started in l.SJ’tj. It was thu work of a clergyman’s widow, who perceived that women, like men, would be glad of a permanent address, and an accessible stopping place where they could command refreshments and the advantages of a temporary dwelling in a central part of the town, when required by business or pleasure, its members now number nearly two hundred. The entrance fee is two guineas, and the annual subscription the same, with the privilege of introducing lady members of the family, at one guinea each. The Summerville club is more for working women. There is no entrance fee, and the annual subscription is five shillings. Debates, lectures, and entertainments, are held once a week, on all subjects except theology, which is strictly forbidden. This club was opened in 18“8, and has proved immensely popular. The Alexandra is an exclusive club, started iu 1884, from which men, oven as guests, are rigorously excluded. The standard of eligibility is that which would secure admission to her majesty’s drawing-rooms. It started with two hundred members, and now numbers five hundred. An entrance fee of two guineas, an annual subscription of the same for townspeople, and one pound ten shillings for country members, furnishes the fund on which it is kept up. The Alexandra and Victoria clubs furnish bedroom accommodation for ladies who wish to dross for the evening or make a longer stay. The Albcrmarlo, which takes its name from the street in which it is situated, is limited to six hundred members, one half of each sox. Five guineas is the annual subscription, Gentlemen must bo twenty-one years of age, and ladies eighteen, before they can be admitted. It has been established about ten years, on its present footing. Dogs and gratuities to servants are prohibited, and smoking privileges aro confined strictly to certain specified rooms. RECIPES. Com Starch Cake- —Whites three c f --s half cup of butter, halt cup milk, one cup sugar, one cup of Hour, three quarters cup cum starch and one tcaspoouful bakino pnwiler. Cream your sugar, butter and corn starch, add milk, eggs beaten stiff, then flour and baking powder, and flavor with teaspoonful almond. Brighton Bocks (curly peters).— Seven cups Hour, rub into two cups sugar: two cups butter, three cups currants, one nutmeg, four eggs, one teaspoonful soda dissolved in a little hot water, with quarter cup sour milk. Mix into a stiff batter and punch olf into cakes about the size of eggs. Lemon Cheese Cakes— One pound sugar, a little more than a quarter pound of butter ; six eggs, leaving out the whites of two ; juice of three lemons and grated rind of two. Melt all together in a jar. Gelatine Jelly—One box gelatine, one quart boiling wafer, a sliced lemon and a piece of stick cinnamon (let dissolve) two oups brown sugar. Strain all and pour into moulds. Boiled Frosting—°ne pound white sugar, one cup water, boil to a ropey syrup, take off the stove and stir in the whites of four eggs well beaten.