Miss Colonia in London.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XXVI, Issue I, 5 January 1901, Page 38

Miss Colonia in London.

CONFIDENCES TO HER I’OI'SINS ACROSS THE SEAS. LONDON, November IS. My Dear Cousins, We have Welcomed the CXV.’«, given General Buller a rousing reception, and now we are enjoying a little rest from patriotic ecstaey until the arrival of Lord Roberts and our gallant colonials. ERIN’S GIFT TO "BOBS.” The women of Ireland have decided to greet their victorious fellowcountryman on his return with something more substantial than the waving of handkerchiefs. At the suggestion of 'Lady Abercvrn -the gift of the Irish women to Lord Roberts will be a star of St. Patrick in diamonds. In heraldic language “ the star consists of the cross of St. Patrick gules on a field argent, charged with a trefoil, surrounded by a blue enamelled circle, containing the motto and date, and encircled by four greater and lesser rays of silver.” • The collar is beautiful in design. It is of gold, and composed of roses and harps alternately tied together with a knot of gold, and the roses are enamelled nMernatrty, white leaves within red and red within white, and in the centre of the collar is an Imperial crown surmounting a harp of gold, from which hangs the badge Of the Order, also of grtd, surmounted with a wreath of shamrock or trefoil, within which is a circle of blue enamel containing in gold letters the motto of -the order, Quia Separakit, and the date of the foundation Of the Order. MDG£Z-

XXIII, and encircling the cross of . Kt. Patrick gules, , »u> mounted with a trefoil vert, each of ate leaves charged with an Imperial crown or, upon a field argent. Lord Roberts, who was installed as • Knight of the Order in 18*7, has already such a nnmlrr of decorations that he will with difficulty find room for Erin’s star. I wonder iq what ■way you colonial girls are going to honour your commanders an their return ? ‘•CITY GIRLS" AND THE ENTER- , PRISE CLUB. I hope, my dears, that you will not object to being called girls, as the “young ladies” of the city did. The Enterprise Club was not long since founded for their benefit with fine quarters in King William-street. It is managed by a strong finance guarantee committee of gentlemen, which includes the directors of the chief typewriter companies, who know, how their clerks are apt to endeavour to satisfy the inner woman with only a cup of tea or a glass of milk and a bun. The • actual control of the club is in the hands of a duly elected committee of the members. The club undertakes.its own catering and provides a dainty and satisfying lunch in lieu of the somewhat meagre fare of the A.B.C.’s so frequented by lady clerks and type-writers. An article described the members of the new elnb as ‘*city girls,” whereupon one of them wrote to the unoffending journal an indignant protest, explaining that the club was not for “city girls” but for “ladies engaged in city offices.” Verily this is a genteel age, as one of the haughty Primrose dames discovered the other day, when ■calling at a cottage to solicit the occupants vote she was told that “tlie gentleman you want is the sweep next door."’ CONGRESS OF WOMEN WORKERS. Since I last wrote the National Union of Women Workers has held its conference at Brighton under its president the Hon. Mrs A. T. Lyttelton, wife of the Bishop of Southampton. A' number of well-known leadens among women workers attended, and the gathering was a smart, well-dressed one, proving to the other sex that to be a reformer in women’s cause H is not necessary to be dowdy. Some ■veiy interesting papers -were read sad 'speeches made, but on the whoM very little fresh ground was broken. Mrs Humphry Ward gave a fascinating account of the scheme of instruction at the settlement in Tavistock Square for crippled and afflicted ehii-

dren, of vtoieh I g*v« you Mana partfculMß MB «B Mvy tong ago. Mrs Ward to toe etouve of her narrative told a pathetic story of a lame little lad whose mother, with infinite devotion, had carried him daily for months to a school at a distance where other children with like infirmities were taught. The London School Board opened one of its branches for feeble-minded children,

and the poor mother, on whoos the weary trudge was a sore harden, listened to advice to her boy there. The little fellow became very unhappy, and after a week or two his parents asked the cause. “Oh mother,” he said, “God has taken away my legs, but I have got my head,” an answer which led the brave woman to renew her trying labour.

Hospital problems came in for a good deal of discussion, and the members of the Conference seemed very generally agreed that women ought to be represented on the courts of management of London hospitals. The Drink question received a great deal of attention. Dr. Branthwaite, of the Home Office, dealt with the question of homes for inebriates, and declared that the number of licensed establishments and the number of patients admitted increased year by year, and large numbers had to be turned away for want of room. Lady Battersea, who is a visitor to female convicts for the Home Office, commended the recent establishment by the London County Council of a retreat for women drunkards, and said that the crime of at least 60 per cent, of the women in Aylesbury prison was due to drink. This liquor question, the solution of which will be the problem of the next century- is one that especially affects women, not only because drink among men brings ruin into so many homes, but because inebriety among women

themselves in nn the increase, and these ia as inesmee of inaauity among them due to that cause. The reused

of the Charity Organisation Society is fact, held a apectol meeting the other day to dmevan the subject. Mrs Flora Annie Steele, who ia, of course, a leading authority upon India, threw a bombshell into toe eamp when she complained of the Engbshwoman’s want of sympathy with the Indian natives, and hazarded the opinion that Englishwomen “hatve undoubtedly been responsible for almost every serious trouble that we have had in India.” THE DOMESTIC’S STATUS.

The eternal “domestic question” evoked a great divergence of opinion, some speakers attacking the mistresses for their lack of consideration, others declaring that in many cases mistresses showed their employees almost too much consideration. Mrs

Bunting, who read a paper on “Training for the Profession of Domestic Service,” claimed that mistresses should give their servants more freedom, and complained that the increasing habit of having dinner parties on Sunday, which kept the servants in, was au infringement of their rights. Servants, too, should have an improved status. An interesting contribution to the debate was made by Mrs Lucas, who herself had been in domestic service, and had a happy time. She found the objection of so many girls to domestic service in the way so many mistresses treated servants as if they were mere maehines. We have ourselves discussed this thorny question ad nauseam, and

come to the conclusion that while on the one hand the mistress by a very little self-sacrifice could often extend the hours of her servants’ leisure, on the other, the servants only too often have too little regard for their part of the bargain, and either from want of training or from carelessness or idleness do their work in a slovenly fashion and dawdle over it. How

many girls, tor Mtaaee, «■ UnwAoa can lay a lire? The deamlM servant should be as expert, who cam io b»‘r work expeditiously and thoroughly, not a mere dilatory dnidgte. If she were really an expert, ehe voM then hare the status «f an expert, and her duties and leisure time would he lined by contract. THE CO-OPERATIVE KITCHEN. The difficulty of getting a decent plain eook for a small family—a cook who will work without a kitchen maid—has led to a scheme for cooperative kitchens. The scheme is at present a counsel of perfection, rather in the air, as the suggestions that have been made generally put the financial and business footing rather in the background. You can easily understand the tremendous waste of labour there is in the cooking in a block of small flats, each of which for a family of two to four has its own cook and its own kitchen tire, and its own tiny supply of provisions bought at retail prices. If all the occupants of the flats combined to “run” one kitchen for their mansions, they would need only one kitchen fire, a very small number of cooks, compared with the number employed on the individualistic system, and thoroughly good cooks could he obtained instead of the at. present iueapables and undesirables with which the small family of limited means has to put up, to the detriment of digestion and the destruction of domestic bliss. Another advantage is offered to women by the scheme. Eadies who have made cookery their profession have a natural aversion to going into service as cooks under the present regime, and living in the not too refined atmosphere of the kitchen, subjected, as some friends of mine once were, who for a freak went out to service as cook and housemaid, to the amorous attentions of the butcher and baker. Tn the co-operative kitchen the lady cook would find her proper sphere of action as manager

*ad auatret*, not as menial. The following picture of the Meal cuisine has been presented in the “Humanitarian.” (At present, says Tom, too many cooks, like Kruger, “stagger humanity”) Imagine the bliss if every morning, instead of the butcher-boy. a smart boy in buttons handed you in the menu Tor the day, consisting of the usual dishes in favour. You select your dishes, and name the hour, early or Inte. At the appointed time a cart, fitted with hotwater vessels, will deliver you your dinner, hot, well cooked, anti daintily garnished, and next day the dishes will be called for in the morning. That the dinner sent in would cost more than if the materials were bought and cooked at home goes without saying, but when one remembers the saving of the cook’s wages ami her keep, and the large saving in kitchen coal, the additional eost would be reduced to a minimum. A district should be chosen of welltenanted houses of the upper middleclass families, and the co-operation of not less than twelve should be secured before starting: a home should be rented in the centre of the district, and suitably fitted for extensive culinary operations. A good start, with a smart boy in livery, properly fitted carts to carry the goods, a liberal but not extravagant menu, say of one soup, or fish, a choice of two entrees, a joint, a sweet, a savoury, and enough capital in hand to bear the first year’s expenses, and the scheme would not only be self-sup-porting, but very remunerative. The profits would necessarily have to be just sufficient to pay, not to expect to make a fortune all at once. There would have to be more or less fixed hours—a margin of from 1 to 2 mid-day. and 6.30 to 8 p.m.—most households eould fall in with. The dishes would be sent so hot they could very well be kept hot for a short time if the family were accidentally late. What anxiety guests cause us now! But

with thio scheme the hostess, instead of racking her brain and worrying all dav as to what extra cooking sue dure attempt or set her unreliable Servant to prepare, would simply select oue or t»u more dishes from the menu than usual. If any pa.ieular delicacy were ordered, such as oysters or game, then there would be an understanding they must be paid extra for. for the "kitchen” could not provide them without extra proportionate expense.

Another writer suggests that there might Is* a daily a "nouse dinner” at a fixed sum. amt another menu submitted with dishes for choice. There is a great future before the co-operative kitchen in the twentieth century, and it will help to a solution of the domestic question. Uy and bye. in fact, we shall get our cooking done at the co-operative kitchen, and our house cleaned by the co-operative charwoman, and our hair dressed at home by the co-operative lady hairdressers. “TH EKE’S ’AIR.” Hairdressing a: home seems to afford an opening for those ladies who are clever at coiffures. Latterly several girls who have been employed in hairdressers’ shops have gone into private practice, they have gradually worked up a connection, and attend every day at West End houses to dress hair. The charge for dressing at the customers’ own house is usually half-a-crown. but no doubt if the customers increase and do not require too elaborate coiffures the charge could be profitably reduced by half. The Amalgamated Hairdressers' Schools of Ixindon, by the way. in their exhibition of hairdtessing in St. James’ Hall the other evening, confined the efforts of the thirty experts engaged to the pompadour style, which has been decided on for 1001. The hair is softly waved from the forehead with just a suspicion of a parting. One or two tiny curls rest on the face, and the hair is gathered into coils or curls at the nape of the neck, leaving it full at the sides, where it is kept in place with combs. This fashion will abolish the enormously

high head-dress favoured of late, and introduce once more the pretty jewelled combe once ao popular, but for its proper execution the dresser demands hair S 8 inches long. Talking of hair, 1 wonder if you have heard anything of the wonderful plait of golden hair. 8 feet long, which attracted so much attention in the coiffeur section of the Paris Exhibition. The glorious tresses, it is said, were once the pride of a young peasant girl in Normandy who, quite in the story l>ook style, sold her suuuy locks for 100 francs to save her father from bankruptcy. The local hairdresser sold it to a celebrated coiffeur for 1000 francs, and the latter, after securing a splendid advertisement for himself by the exhibit, sold it to a mysterious lady of fashion for 3000 francs, who. Tom says, “must have gone for the pigtail Italdbeaded." 1 take bis meaning to lie that the purchaser wanted it for a wig. DRESSES AT THE DRAMA. I have not as yet seen any very striking costumes iu the street to descril>e to you. Some of the smartest modern gowns. emv from Machinka, are worn ' Patrick I’ampliell at the Royalty in ‘"Mr and Mrs Daventry.” which has been described as the most immoral play produced in modern times on the English stage, and to which, in consequence. all “smart" society is flocking. I. as a “young person," which term has lieen defined by Mr Gill. Q.C.. as oue who should not lie jiermitted to witness a play with a doubtful plot or with a lady with a past, have not been permitted to witness the amours of the Daveutrys, so that I ean only give you a second-hand description of the dresses. Here it is, and I think you will find it both trustworthy and enticing. The first dress is of Mrs Campbell’s favourite colour, a goldjuyellow taffetas, flowing in charming lines at her feet. The bodiee has a bolero effect made by a wide black velvet band that encircles her somehow, and ends in a queer gold buckle in front. The inner vest is of stringcoloured lace, embroidered with gold, and there are choux on the ends of

Jong streamers with a glint of gold in them. In the second act her evening gown is also glinting with gold, and steel embroideries are deftly worked into the gold tissue; the form is pri license, very long and graceful, with a beautiful gold belt, fastened by a jewelled clasp. The third act dress is an afternoon visiting one, and the colour is that soft yellowless green that one sees in the old picture—a grey green full of depth. The skirt opens at each seam at the foot, showing fans of ecru coloured lace, fleeted with gold. The bodice is a swathy fulness of soft ivory chiffon, and a bolero of the green cloth has a pretty fichu ot old lace, also just touched with gold. Over her shoulders she wears a wonderful new kind of boa. made of a wide, thick niching of lace, edged with very narrow lines of chinchilla, ami her large sombrero hat of glossy beaver has two great black plumes starting over her forehead from a gleaming diamond buckle. Then there is an ideal tea-gown in the last act, the substance of which seems like de •chine stamped with raised velvet roses and leaves in palest hues of pink and green. Over it hangs a little loose eoat of lace, festooned with frills of pink chiffon and caught up at intervals with roses, the whole thing falling in unbroken lovely lines to the feet and opening over an inner softness of white chiffon and delicate lace. 3IEROD HARMONIES. A great contrast to these frocks are the gorgeous and harmonious dressee worn in “Herod,” at Her Majesty's. The Queen. Mariamne (Miss Maud Jeffries), who has long almost blood red hair, wears under robes of goldglittering tissue, into which rieh col--ours are woven in rainbow-like gradations. No embroidery is used, and the folds float freely, save that a wide band of golden gauze is passed loosely round the waist, with a gold cord above it, and that at one side the robe is finished with a line of jewelling. A gold cap-shaped crown is worn, with jewelled band above the forehead. From this depends at the back a veil of deepest ivory’ tint, studded thickly

with gold. This falls on a long trailing tvftui looking mantle of crushed dead gold tissue, finished with deep bright gn-eu silk, into which is introduced purple blue silk, with zig-sag lines ot gold between the two, three deep. A touch of qzure is supplied by large turquoise ear ornaments. The Eastern Princess (Miss Calhoun) has robes of a rich red. Her train is striped with gold, the dress wrought with it iu star-like design. Over the entire front of it fall chains of uncut jewels iu barbaric splendour. Ixing sweeping sleeves of red, gold-wrought, thin fabric, are worn over equally long black sleeves of semi transparent material, embroidered with beetles’ wings and bullion. The band across the forehead, finishing at either side with large drooping circles over th« ears, was in this case of turquoise, with emerald points above. The ear ornaments are diamonds and emeralds. Over the cap-shaped central part of this gorgeous hair ornament was worn a veil of black gauze, closely gok( flecked.“ Indeed the glory and harmony of colours in the costumes of "Herod” has seldom been surpassed on the stage’. Just a brief mention of a new gams to conclude. THE SMELL TEA. I wonder, my dears, if you have yet had the Smell Tea introduced into your social circles. It is a more fragrant performance than appears at the first blush, and is a summer rathe* than a winter game. You blindfold the candidates who compete for the prize, and then bring before them sprays of plants and flowers, each possessing a distinctive odour of its own, such as rosemary, heliotrope, lavender, violets, pinks, roses. To each candidate in turn the sprays are offered in confusing succession, and he. or she, has without hesitation to name the flower or plant from its smell. Whoever makes the fewest mistakes winq the prize. The task seems a simple one. but the smeller soon gets confused and causes roars of laughter when she declares that a bunch of violets is mignonette.