Ways of Living.

Alexandra Herald and Central Otago Gazette, Issue 361, 9 April 1903, Page 2

Ways of Living.

Tflli JEWELS OP WELL-KNOWN WOMEN,

one time the wearing of diamond a|y tiaras was almost; entirely rejKSk stricted to ladies of Royal rank and duchesses; but nowadays almost every society woman whose husband has a large income is the happy possessor of at least one of these magnificent forms of headdress, A very beautiful one is that worn by the Duchess of Marlborough on State occasions. The duchrss wbSj as everyone knows, before her marriage Miss Oonsuelo Vanderbilt, the possessor of a hugo fortune, and it is only natural that she slould have some of the finest jewels of any lady in England. Her State tiara is composed of diamonds and emeralds, and many of the gems in it are worth a fortune singly. In addition to hor tiaras, the Duchess of Marloborcuxh is famous for her magnificent parure of pearls. One of her most beautiful ornaments is a pearl-and-diamond pendant, Ihe chief gems being two wonderful pearls, pure white, and with the most delicate of satin skins.

The round pearl, which is as large as a filbert out is surrounded bj diamonds of the Hze .of peas, making a round ornament, from which hangs a pear-shaped pearl. The Duchess of Saxe-Coburg is said to have quite halt a dozen tiaras, the most splendid of which is one of diamonds and huge rabies. Another fortunate possessor of beautiful rubies is Mrs Rothschild, who has some of the biggest and most valuable of these jewels. m Mrs Bradley-Martin can also wear when she likes a blaze of rubies worth a fabulous sum, and almost as splendid as those of the Duchess of Saxe-Coburg. Rubies are especially precious just now, and those of good colour and size can command a remarkable price, for the Bupply is limited

When the celebrated Mrs Vanderbilt, who is now Mrs Belmont, was in England some five years ago, at a ball given by Lady Craven, she appeared in a number of ropes and pearls, the value of which was about £IOOOOO. It has been, estimated that at the famous ball given* by the Duchess of Devonshire at* Devonshire House last year the value of the jewels worn by ladies must have been quite a million sterling. To comfort those who have not and are never likely to have, any very magnificent jewel?, it should be remarked that the possessors of them are by no means always the happy people they are supposed to be. The anxiety of going about with ornaments worth a fortune very

often totally destroys the pleasure of the wearers, and the knowledge that one's movements are carefully watched by detectives and policemen in plain clothes, provided by a oareful hostess, is not altogether inspiriting. Lady Maple is the proud possessor of a historic necklace of black pearls, which •ras bought for her at a eale by 'her husband. Lady Maple's daughter, the BaroneßS Eokhardstein, has also some very valuable jewels. Lady Sophie Scott and Lady Helen Vincent are both celebrated for their fine collection of turquoises. PAT'S ANNUAL EXCUBSION. ' Well, I suppose it is pretty near time for Pat to go oat and see his cow,' said a man who does most of the talking in the. Curb-stone club. 'Go out to see his cow ?' repeated the other man. ' Yob, haven't you heard about Pat and his cswp Talk about the devotion to dumb animals—Pat is more devoted to bis cow than any animal-friend I have ever heard of. Somebody gave him the calf when Pat was a little fellow, and, being the only child, he made a sister of that little heifer. Wherever Pat went the calf went; he played with her all day until he had to go to school, and she slept in a little shed near his window at night. ' Bat heifers will grow, and the little calf had to be parted with. Bosie was her name. Pat would not consent to have Boßxe sold; so his fattier found a good, kind farmer some miles out in the country, and Pat gave the heifer to him—on the condition that he could go and see her whenever he wanted to do so. ' Every picnic season, be goes out to see Bosie j she is a staid old cow now, and Pat is an elderly bachelor, but he never fails to visit his pet once a year. He says she has not forgotten him, and their mutual j"y in reunion is said to be worth a trip out to the farm to see. Being a working-man, like the rest of ns, Pat has to take cheap excursion trips when he goes out to see Bosie, and he has had several railway miahape worth listening to. Once the train wouldn't stop at Bosie's station, and he had to walk back five miles. Another time, ho got off too soon, and had to walk on a number of miles. However, things of this kind have not discouraged him, and every spring he makes his long-anticipated visit to the old red cow.'

TOO MANY JONESES. At a meeting of the Cymmrodorion society. Mr T. E. Morris, barrister-at-law, lectured before a representative audience on the invenience and confusion arising from the paucity of distinctive surnames in Wales, says the London Chronicle. In Liverpool alone, he said 480 Welshmen iejoiced in the name of • John Jones, and at an inquiry held at Westminster into the county council water scheme sixteen witnesses bore the same simple cognomen. Before the Welsh land commission, out of 134 witnesses in one country who gave evidence 109 shared 14 surnames between them, and of the 109 as many as 65 bore proportionately the names of Jones, Evans and Davies. Recently at the Corwen board of guardians, owing to the numerous Joneses who are members of that body, it was decided to enter in the minutes each man's house and parish, as his full name was not sufficiently distinctive. To remedy this state of things, Mr Morris advocated the* liberal,adoption of the beautiful place sanies which abound in Wales, as was done in Scotland and Norway, and the revival of the characteristic »Ap ' with personal surnames. He pointed out that the law allowed any man to change bis surname, provided that it was done honestly and without any fraudulent purpose, and his suggestion was that a short: act of parliament should be passed enabling any person to register a change of his name with the district registrar on payment of a small fee. In this way an authentic and official record of the change would be*made at the time.