JOURNALISTIC LOYALTY.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume VIII, Issue 43, 24 October 1891, Page 515

JOURNALISTIC LOYALTY.

LUCY (indignantly): ‘To think of our names appearing in this paper—your paper—an being engaged ! And there's not (sol>) a word of truth in it!’

Von Fairer (calmly) : • Then, as a loyal scribe, let us make it true. Will you be my wife ?' Lucy (faintly): ‘Well, for the dreadful paper’s sake—yes.’

It would be superfluous in a journal concerning itself solargely with the very important question of dress, to insist upon the enormous boon it would be to society if ladies would make a practice of wearing dresses of a non-inflam-mable nature. Possibly some of our readers will, upon the mere suggestion, have horrible visions of hideous fabrics perfectly impossible for any lady of taste to wear. Nothing could be a greater fallacy. There is no reason why a lady wearing one of the daintiest and flimsiest of ball-dresses, perfect in design and exquisite in material, should not enjoy the additional pleasure of feeling a sense of absolute security from accident by fire. In the course of an extremely interesting lecture given by Mr E. L. Fleming, at the Society of Arts, John-street, Adelphi, recently, it was stated, and proved, that by steeping it in a solution of borax the most delicate fabric may be rendered completely fire-resisting. No hesitation need be felt in adopting the borax system of rendering a dress non-inflammable on the score of injuring the fabric treated, as borax will not injure it in the slightest degiee. How valuable the knowledge of such a fact may be is easily understood when some of the awful catastrophes of recen 5 years are recalled, notably that of the unhappy children at Leeds, many of whom were burnt to death through their fancy dresses catching fire at an entertainment; and it is to be hoped that not only ladies, but theatrical managers, will adopt the idea, rendering non-inflammable their curtains and the diaphanous draperies of the ballet, and thus eliminating the risk of fire from their entertainment. As borax is so cheap, costing, only threepence or fourpence a pound, there is no possible reason why it should not be universally adopted, and the lecturer was good enough to explain that by steeping a dress of any material in a solution in the proportion of one pound of borax to agallon of water it could be made perfectly non - inflammable.. Mr Fleming proved his case by submitting a strip of borax steeped tulle to the fire test with obvious success. The lecturer also gave hi audience a host of interesting information as to the application of borax to the preservation of food, to medical purposes, etc., and also as to the sources of supply and the