AS SEEN THROUGH Woman's Eyes

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XXI, Issue XVIII, 29 October 1898, Page 578

AS SEEN THROUGH Woman 's Eyes

Mothers are themselves responsible for the vanity which they may deplore in their daughters. The atmosphere of the home is too largely one of perhaps millinery and dressmaking. The dress of young children is often so exquisite that continual caution is necessary to prevent its injury, and play is robbed of spontaneity and activity.

A mother who had educated her children to all these punctilities of dress, said: ’I regret so much the exquisite wardrobes of my little children. 1 see now that it hurt their character.’

A dress of little girls should be as simple and substantial as that of boys. Everything which prevents activity and fosters vanity should be conscientiously avoided. Love of dress is also fostered by the passion for dolls, which is said to be inborn in every right-minded girl.

Doll-playing is really doll-dressing. Every bit of gewgaw is eagerly sought to bedeck this miniature travesty of a tine lady.

If doll-playing is the legitimate occupation of girlhood, we oug'ht to have dolls which do not cultivate a taste for wasp waists and the trivialities of fashion.

Mothers should be careful about their children's teeth. Until the little ones are old enough to attend to them themselves, the mothers should not neglect the young teeth, but should have them cleansed night and morning. Children’s nails should be watched. too, and neatly and regularly trimmed and kept free from dirt.

TRAINING SERVANTS. A woman who has had considerable experience in training servants says some of the best have been those who come directly from the ships, with no preparation but docility and some natural quickness. The hardest cases to be managed are not those who have been taught nothing, but those who have been taught wrongly—who come self-opinionated, with ways which are distasteful and contrary to the genius of one’s housekeeping. FOR THIN NECKED WOMEN. The high embroidered collarette will always be worn by the thin necked woman who does not want to show her throat. But, truth to tell, the thin necked woman looks better in a low neck dress than the fat one. Any artist will corroborate this. He will tell you that the thin neck is more interesting, with its hollows and curies, than the fat one, with its cushions and bagginess. The thin neck is lithe and willowy and suggests the fawn. The fat neck is elephantine, and the artist will turn from it in disgust, while his eyes will longingly seek the thin necked girl who passes by. DEVELOPING GIRLS. What is required in the establishments for the education of girls is that more time should be allowed for health-giving, out-of-door exercise; if this were done the number of neurotic women would be greatly lessened and the services of the doctor could in most eases be dispensed with. In the words of Dr. Playfair: ‘lt is not the work which, in my judgment, hurts, but the perseverance in work after nature has hung out its danger signals; work in an unhealthy body; the attempt, in fact, to fight nature. Then, indeed, the careless, prejudiced, or unwise mistress or parent may well find that “over-pressure,” the very existance of which so many deny, is a stern reality and may shatter the whole future of the girl. CHEERFUL GIRLS. Good and healthy girls are almost always cheerful. No novelist would consider his youthful heroine complete if a ’ringing laugh’ were omitted from the list of her charms; and in real life the girls who do not laugh now and then are seldom liked by their companions. Even beauty’ will not save them. A belle who fails to understand the jest of her admirers and smiles in amiable bewilderment while other people are laughing is soon left with no consolation save to wonder what anybody can see in her rival—a girl with ‘tip-tilted’ nose, perhaps, and a large mouth and freckles, but , the happy possessor of a pair of merry eyes and a cheerful mind. The gift of gaiety is, indeed, of great value; but it must be gaiety which originates in a kind and eheery heart, not that which is born of mere excitement or gratified vanity. NOVEL TEACLOTHS. A pretty way of embroidering a cloth for afternoon tea is to copy and adapt as far as possible the pattern on the c ips and plates used and work it on ’.he cloth in the right colours. Of course, some china is very difficult to copy, but on some of the old Crown Derby and Worcester china the colours and designs are both effective and good. The work looks best on a white ground unless the china has a very decided tone, when it is best to get a linen to correspond. Washing silks or linen thread should be used. Other novel teacloths have a monogram of the lady embroidered in gold I bread on a pale blue or pink silk foundation and placed at the corner of the fine damask cloth, but in this ease the silk has to be removed when the cloth is washed and reappliqued with fine silk button-holing when again to be used.