AT HOME WITH THE LADY EDITOR.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume IX, Issue 35, 27 August 1892, Page 866

AT HOME WITH THE LADY EDITOR.

Under this heading lam very pleased to reply to all queries that are genuine and helpful to the querist and others. Kindly write on one side oj the paper only, and address to the Lady Editor.

Some of the questions which come before me for answer are difficult enough. One is : ‘ Why should not a woman wear man’s clothes if she likes?’ I think, my friend, that a great many ladies have already adopted some masculine garments which our grandmothers would have considered as strictly belonging to the braver sex. How about those shirts, collars, ties, and studs which have lately adorned many a gentle demoiselle, ay, and demure dame, too? Are not they sufficiently masculine for you? In France ten women are exempted from the provisions of the law which strictly prohibits the wearing of masculine raiment by members of the fair sex, and which punishes any infraction of the statute with severe penalties as a misdemeanour.

Among the ten entitled to this peculiar privilege the oldest is Rosa Bonheur, the celebrated painter of animal life, who is now in her seventieth year. There are likewise three elderly dames, ‘ star ’ attractions of peripatetic shows, whose faces are adorned with bushy beards, and who are, therefore, permitted to dress as nren. There is a woman who for twenty years past has been a master house painter, and last, hut not least, there is the favoured Oriental traveller, Madame Jane Delafoi. who received from President Carnot the Cross of the Legion of Honour, for her services in exploring the town of Susa, in Persia.

‘ Molly B.’ says :— ‘ Please tell me something new for a tableau, and how it should be done ?’ I was going to suggest the ‘ sweep,’ when I recollected a nice description of Pandora, which lam sure you will like. Here it is: A charming picture can be made of Pandora opening the box the gods confided to her care. The actress chosen to take this part should be capable of looking very young, and should therefore be of what I will call the youthful type ; small features, delicate round arms, and a slender figure. Let the hair be. or be made, golden. (Powder of various shades to be simply dusted on the hair can be had of any theatrical perruquier.) The cheeks are tinged with the flush of excitement. The dress should be of crepe, creamcoloured, a ribbon of the same colour being used for the fillets of the hair, and the sandals and sandal-thongs being of gold. Let the floor be gray or dun-colour, the curtain amber, the plain curtain nearest the front being of a brighter and richer tone of the same. The screen set at the back of the curtain should represent distance, not a wall, and therefore should be of gauze, dark amber or rich brown, and very faintly lighted, not to give light, but only transparency. You will be considerably limited, probably, in the choice of a box. If you have no very handsome carved one, an ordinary wooden box. lined with yellow and covered at that end nearest the audience with some bas-relief easily got at any plasterer’s, of a classic design and gilded with rich gold paint, with a border manufactured in the same wav, would make the effect very handsome. Let this tableau be lighted from a point not yet tried, viz., the front at the top, slightly to the right. Use the hemispherical reflector, and cast the light through a rose coloured glass. Pandora kneels in profile to the audience, with arms outstretched, holding the lid of the box, half-opened, in both hands.

Rather a novelty in the way of dancing took place last winter at Portsmouth. It was called ‘ A Royal Minuet Party.’ The party consisted of four pretty young girls who danced various figures with the utmost grace and beauty of movement: two were dressed in palest blue satin veiled with a single tissue of thin blue tulle printed with gold and prettily trimmed with garlands of flowers. The other two of the quartette were in a deep shade of russet coloured satin. During the whole of the dances coloured limelights were thrown on the performers, the satin dresses taking the colour of the light, and occasionally gleaming with almost opalescent brilliancy. Do you not think it would be pretty to get one up in our large towns?

My next correspondent has a very sad tale to tell. She asks advice, her trouble being that she does not know whether she ought to live with a husband who drinks or not. She says he uses fearful language to herself and the children. He allows her no money, except a few shillings occasionally. ‘He is hardly ever sober when at home, and gets very little work to do now, because people will not trust him while he is so unsteady. I have done everything I can to make home pleasant to him, but it. is all of no use. I could earn money for myself and the childien, if only he would go away. But whilst he behaves so dreadfully, I have no heart to do anything. I attribute his drinking entirely to his father giving him sips of wine from his glass on Sundays as a treat ever since he was a year old.’ This is a most melancholy state of affairs. Surely parents will soon learn to have more common sense in their way of bringing up their children. I hardly know what to say about your leaving your husband. It does not seem right to expose the children to such scenes, nor for them to learn to despise their father, as they must do when they see his debased condition. I should be very glad to hear what my readers think about this problem. Is p woman bound to remain with her husband, when he so far forgets his vows tocherishher.and does so much harm to thechildren ? Which ought she to consider most her husband or her little ones ? lif course, on the one hand, she is bound to him *as long as ye both shall live.’ And, on the other, she is responsible for the moral training of her childien, for their happiness, and physical well being. Can she do her duty to them whilst the father’s influence is exerted for evil all the time ?