News, Notes and Notions.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XLI, Issue 15, 7 October 1908, Page 54

News, Notes and Notions.

lhe monster hat is obviously coming to the Dominion. At a very .smart wedding th.* other day in Wellington some enormous creations were, one understands, ‘•sported/’ and apprehensive males, who will have to foot the bill for race week hats will find their worst fears realised by a furtive glance into any millinery establishment in our chief cities. We have so much paternal legislation that we wonder the Government don’t bring down a hill making it penal to wear large hats in t

leatres if requested to do so. There is such a hnx in France at the present moment. It came into force on September 1 of this year, and resulted in something like a riot at first, but things are gradually quietening down. As a rule the obstruction is i emoved with that suave

feminine acquiescence that scorches and scarifies, hut sometimes there is opposition On one occasion two ladies repulsed their assailants with heavy loss di the plea that “it is really impossihl? for us to remove our hats, a-s our hair is fastened to them.” Now what does that mean? We had Supposed that the hat is always fastened to the hair, and indeed we have often admired the intrepid way with which a .ten-inch pill is plunged through the fabric of the hat and apparently into the brain of the wearer. These hat-pins have a stern reality about them, as was proved by a well-known public man in London recently who received about four inches of steel in his dorsal vertebrae from a pin that was being used by a lady behind him. to fasten her hat to the back of the seat. Of course, he remonstrated audibly and with that intolerance of trifles that distinguishes the uninteresting sex. But tve are still in doubt as to why these ladies in the Paris theatre were unable •to remove their hats. Are we to infer that the hair itself was removable and in a sort of inseparable juxtaposition to the hat? If so, we can understand at once why the law does not come into immediate operation. There must, of course, be* time to rearrange the architecture of the feminine head and to devise sonii? plan by which the hat may be put on and off without a process of general disintegration that would be distinctly humiliating outside the privacy of the l>edroom. There are, of course, adjuncts to female loveliness that are built into tho fabric of the dress, and thero are articles of apparel that were once separate and distinct and that have now entered into combination, but we did not know that there was such an alliance between the hair and the- hat or that they hunted, as it were, in couples. With ’every desire to be helpful in the matter, wc do not see anything for these ladies except to confer an entirely separate autonomy upon hair and hat. <s><s><s►_ A few days prior to the Marathon race in the London stadium an advocate of fruit diet, chiefly bananas, aged fortythree. offered to run a race with a llcsh-eater around the island of Zealand. iS?nc(‘ the banana man has earned a £ood many triumphs as a runner in the world of Denmark the beeftater-. did not show any burning zeal to accept the challenge till the wellknown paper. "Politiken.” oflefed a prize Of 100 kroner to the winner. A grocer’s assistant, aged twenty-one. was selected as the upholder of beef eating, ami for two days and a half the runners kept, abreast of one another. Then the ban«'<n;i man flagged, ami when after nearly live days the young grocer arrived at C bpcnhageii. having duly finished his Course. his opponent had vanished, The butcher- of Zealand have presented silver howl to the victor. We were under the impression that tlie hnglisb •'Utl’raget t had some real grievance-, and that (hey were ground undri the iron heel of a despotic ami effete monarchy. But not’so. It seems that there arc no less than fourteen ladies who have a legal right to sit in tiie House of Lords and •»gi>late for the nation. But they refuse to do so, ami we miht attribute their refusal to pure ru-'«<‘<lness. Fancy having the power to pass laws and neglecting it. !»♦ average woman I’cformer confidently ledipves that nothing stands lad ween Us ami the millennium but a carefully

chosen selection of laws, and yet here arc these peeresses who have the power io regulate the solar system and to compel all sorts of people to do all sorts of things that they don’t want to do, and to refrain from doing all sorts of things that they want to do, and yet fail to live up to their responsibilities. Something ought to be done. The women’s clubs ought to take it up. One of these privileged women is Lady Kinloss, eldest daughter of the late Duke of Buckingham and Chandos. Chandos Louse,, the London residence of the family, was sold some years ago to that American girl who became Countess of Strafford, and keeps royaf state there. Lady de Ros, wife of Andrew Dawson, ihe youngest brother of tile Earl of Dawtrey, is said to hold the premier--I.irony of England. It harks back to 1-64. and the title has been held by five women. The present baroness is a gre at-ganddaughter of the Diichess of Richmond, who gave the famous ball on the eve of the battle of Waterloo. She is the twenty fifth holder of the title. Baroness Went worth, who before succeeding to the title was known as Lady Alary Milbanke, derives the peerage from her father, the Earl of Lovelace, and inherited the barony of Wentworth from his mother, the daughter, Ada, of Lord Byron. The baroness is said to pcssess literary ability, and is an accomplished musician. There are two very young peeresses in the group of those who have the light to sit among the peers in the House of Lords,' Baroness Beaumont, born in 1894. and Baroness Clifton, born in 1900. Lady Beaumont was but seven when King Edward was crowned, but walked in the great proves, sion in her robes of state, which must have sadly weighed down her child’s shoulders. She owns a splendid country set t in Yorkshire called Carlton Towers, which will become her absolute property when she conies of age. Until that time she remains in the guardianship of her mother. <S> <®> <£> The proprietor of a fashionable cafe at Marienbad is the possessor of a straw hat which he values at .£2OO. The hat is not of a costly variety of Panama, but is rather a rough-looking straw hat, yet it is the pride of the proprietor’s life because it is woven of straws through which the crowned hetids of Europe have at various times sucked cooling drinks dispensed in the owner’s establishment. For many years this kingworshipper has been collecting straws from the royal lips, scorning mere nobles or statesmen. Then when the collection was complete the hat was manufactured, and triumphantly crowned the owner’s head. Possession of the precious art of small talk has now been declared by an authority to be one of the chief passports necessary to social popularity. It is a natural gift, and. it can’t ieadily be cultivated. 'J hose who have the knack can throughout the dinner-party keep up an incessant How of bright—even brilliant eon-ver-.it ion: yet their partners will find, on retrospection, that not a subject of im|»ortanee was touched, not an interesting judgment delivered. The fact is that the experienced small-taJker is never conscious of dearth of interesting subjects for discussion. Be the season never so dull and barren, he will settle himself comfort ably'in his chair, break away on the weather, and continue an amiable prattle with the ease and sparkle of one u Ito has a thousand absorbing topics at lommalnl. The desperate positing of having nothing'to say is never his. and never does he experience the mental distress. amounting almost to torture, of sitting dumbly ill company while wildly groping fof thoughts to which he can give words: Mor is he for a moment to' be eontoiiiidod Wil h 1 lie talkative type of person of whom it is said that "he liquid talk the hind leg off an elephant." It is open to grave doubt whether this somewhat unkind feat has ever been 'accomplished, but the illustration admirably serves to point the distinction between the mere talkative bore and the accomplished small-talker. If the subject of elephants crossed the minds of both, the bore would become

and remain elephantine in his speech, until his listener would for the future shudder at the mere sight of this animal. Not so the small-talker. The smalltalker would provide what may be called merely a thin slice of elephant—an amusing story, perhaps, of a boy’s remark on an elephant’s trunk at the Zoo. Trunks would lead him to the subject of the enormous Saratoga trunks in which fair Americans carry their frocks; thence it would be an easy skip to bright reflections on America in general; America might lead him to American cigarettes; cigarettes to Should women smoke?—and so on. The thing is an art. The task of the newspaper writer who in the dull season has nothing to say but a certain space to fill is infinitely harder. Yet it can be done. And this is an example. <?><s><sThere is to be no penny postage between France and England yet. Mr. Asquith says that to make up for the initial loss which would follow penny postage between England and France the number of letters would have to increase sixfold. The moment England concluded an agreement with France she would be within measurable distance of similar agreements with other European countries, and the loss to the revenue would be £325,000 per annum. The cost to the revenue of the first year' of penny post with the United States would be from £120,000 to £130.000. and the present moment is not an opportune one to undertake blindly a contingent additional liability of £325,000 per annum. «><s>■s> Advices reaching San Francisco from Vancouver show that a boycott of Canadian goods, similar to that against the United States and Japan, is threatened by Chinese in British Columbia, members of the all-powerful 18 guilds, if the- present anti-opium legislation proposed at Ottawa is passed. The largest opium factories in America are situated in British Columbia, and wealthy Chinese who have a monopoly point out that the passage of a measure immediately prohibiting the manufacture and sale of the drug will cause the loss of millions of dollars. The Oriental manufacturers ask for ten years in which to sell out their present stock. Chinese in Vancouver favour the abolition of the opium traffic, but ask that the trade be gradually done away with. <?><?><s► When the sky-scraper was first introduced in New York, the highest floors were commonly offered at a low rental or used as a dwelling-place for the caretaker. The “express elevator,” by making it as easy to reach the thirtieth storey as the sixth, has given the top of these new buildings' a new value. Nowadays-the advantages of light and air make the highest- rooms eagerly , sought after for luncheon clubs,' arc hi tects’ and draughtsmen’s studios, and business offices generally. The flat roofs themselves are being utilised for flower . gardens, for athletic “fields,” and in one instance at least for baths, the roof being covered with glass which encloses a “solarium.” The New York Weather Bureau is of necessity situated on the top of one of the highest, sky-scrapers, in order that the working of the instfu- -. ments that measure the wind’s direction and velocity may be clear of the up-and-down, and cross blasts caused by the obstruction of high buildings. i. «> 4 <?> If the camera which recently took a : ’ snapshot of the Queen on the-Scenic Railway at the Anglo-French Exhibition Uv really saw what a vxny., wealthy ftqiir merchant pf Cleveland; Ohio,, thinks jt ; did, another fairy tale of photography has been enacted. Tqn years ago this gentleman cast off his sou ftir marrying ' against paternal wishes, and he lias never seen the young man since. Bill, upon glancing at a pictufoi -bf 'the Queen’s Scenie Railway ride, he identified one of tlje other people in the car as the lost one, whom he is now anxious to forgive. Nineteen fpeople replied to an advertjse- 1 nlhnt addressed to Her jMMesty’s fellojv- '. travellers on the historic trip, 14 personally turned up, and a few of them, admitting that they were not sons of the very wealthy advertiser, hinted that they would not mind being adopted as such. But, if the young man really was on that ear, he is one of the few that have not yet answered. In this case, it will be all to his advantage to do so,, and tbo camera may have done a "real service all

round. But, as illustrating the growing difficulty of evading photography’s omnipresent eye. the incident is rather disquieting. The revealed person might just as well have been one who was “detained in the City on business” that day. <•><£•s> Dr. George 11. Moore communicated to the American Historic Genealogical Society some years ago the results of his investigation as to the origin of the term “Yankee,” and of the song “Yankee Doodle.” He arrived at the conclusion the “Yankee” is a term of reproach or derision, which was first used by the Dutch settlers to testify their dislike for their English rivals. The first public use of the term which he discovered was in 1725, when the sale of the effects of a, gentleman at Morpeth was advertised, and these included “one negro named ‘Yankee.’” The tune “Yankee Doodle,” though not used in America by the Americans till after the revolutionary war, was frequently played by the bands of British forces during the war. At the

eurrender at Yorktown the tune was played-with a view to annoy the defeated British soldiers, and afterwards it became popular throughout America as a eong of triumph. <s> <®> The latest item of fashionable intelligence from the “Daily Mail’s” New York correspondent records the return to simplicity and Hoboken of Mrs. Hetty Green. Until lately this prosperous septuagenarian lived in Hoboken on 3G/ a week; but, with her daughter Sylvia and her poodle, she suddenly migrated to a grand hotel, and went into society' at the rate of £ 100 a week and more. That is all over. “It was really too expensive,” says Mrs. Green, “and, what’s more, it's utter nonsense. Why, you have to keep dressed up ail the time.” And so she has gone back to a middle-class boardinghouse. The experiment has been an interesting one, but is perhaps not quite concisive. After 70 years of Hoboken, Fifth-avenue might be “utter nonsense,” but Hoboken would not be altogether charming after 70 years of Fifth-avenue. Mrs. Green tried a change too late; a more decisive test would be a transplantation of her daughter Sylvia, or her daughter's daughter, when they inherit her money later on. ❖ <•><?> Attention is called by the “Pall Mall Gazette” to the announcement that Dr. Charcot is taking 22,000 bottles of wine on his expedition to the South Pole. This announcement, they say, is calculated to cause amazement in temperance circles (which, as a rule, are more frigid than the frigid zones themselves). Nansen, on his famous expedition “farthest north”—the superlative has been beaten sinee-r--kept his crew mainly on non-intoxicants. For breakfast they began by having coffee and' chocolate daily, but soon altered it to coffee two days a week, tea two, and chocolate three. At supper tea only was served as a beverage.: At dinner, as a r.ule,' “stories and jokes circulated at table along with the bock-beer.” As time wore on the appetites of the men did-,not fail, owing to the carefulness with which the Fram had been provi-

sioned. There is not a thing we long for (wrote Nansen) —not even the thought of a beefsteak a la Chateaubriand, or a pork eutlet with mushrooms, and a bottle of Burgundy can't make our mouth, water; we simply don’t care about such things. If Dr. Charcot’s crew “care about” ■Burgundy, they will have plenty ready to hand. «■<s><?> Here is a “howler” from far Foochow. The scholars in one of the local Chinese schools were recently desired to write an essay in English on the subject of “Which are the healthier, Chinese or foreign dwelling houses?” One young man “spook” about the matter with his “friends,” and they said that the “Chinese building is much better than foreigners.” This, he adds, was the “senses of their debate.” “The foreign building is too heigh and coverless, and always built on the top of the hill. In the summer time it receives the most heat from the sun; the people who living in it is the same as putting in the stove, but in winter it is fully filled by the sharp air which cut the faces of whom living in. So that the foreigners is compeled to put themselves on fire. The fire would do our bodies harm. As we were prepared our dinner; we put the beef on the fire by and by the beef dry in that ease the of course man would dry too-” It is the sort of thing one would expect of the “of course man,” whom we suspect to be closely connected by ties of baseness with the “fellow who told you so,” to the demise of whom Mr Gilbert looked forward. The essayist was inclined, after all, to think his friends were too severe on the foreign architect. “They explained so many harm about the foreign building,” he says, “that I do not believe it.” ■ <®> <S> <?> A strange ease has just occurred at Fortheawl showing the effect of the imagination in causing disease and cure. A professional man on a visit there took out his four false teeth while shaving, but forgetting the fact and failing to find them later suddenly concluded that

he must have swallowed them accidentally. At once he began to suffer pains, a doctor was sent for, to whom he described his agonies, emetic'- were administered but in vain, an.l the tortures made him twist his body convulsively. Then a maid brought the teeth, whieh had dropped behind the dressing-table, and instantly the pains eeased. A medical correspondent of an English paper says that such eases are well known. Thus a lady was convinced that she had an internal tumour. The doctors could not diagnose it, but undoubtedly her condition became gradually worse. Finally an operation was performed. Nothing whatever was found, but the patient made an excellent recovery on being assured that her tumour was removed. Since then she has complained of no symptoms. In many nervous conditions such ideas are far from uncommon, anti in hysteria, the symptoms are almost characteristic. Such cases exhibit most marked simulation of the particular trouble complained of while awake', but when the patient is asleep or unconscious the simulation disappears rapidly. A limb that cannot be moved by the patient when awake moves rapidly when he is asleep. Mistaken kindness in giving way to the patient's imagination generally increases the symptoms.