The Evening Star. TUESDAY, JANUARY 17, 1871.

Auckland Star, Volume II, Issue 319, 17 January 1871, Page 2

The Evening Star. TUESDAY, JANUARY 17, 1871.

The usual weekly parade of the Battalion Auckland Rifle Volunteers was held in the Albert Barracks last evening. Major Gordon was present, and informed the members that on Thursday evening next he should commence the new drill (1870), and ordered them to muster without arms and accoutrements.

We are all of us more or less excited by the news from France, but even amidst the horrors of war, the ladie3 will doubtless feel a special interest in an item of news which arrived "by balloon" from Paris. It is about the fashions—yes, the fashions, for ladies in the beleaguered city, harassed though they may be by thoughts of possible bombardment or starvation, or both, have not ceased to study the fashions, or lead them, we may perhaps say. I read that the " Parisian ladies have restored to liberty their own locks, so long hidden under the despotic, artificial chignon. Brown plaits, carefully smoothed clown, light ringlets, at once graceful and natural, have alone adorned for some days the delicate and pretty heads of our young ladies, who are delighted to have their most beautiful adornment restored to them. It is quite refreshing to hear this. The chignon has been perhaps, one of the most hideous monstrosities of fashion, and still is so, but it is to be hoped our fair sisters, now that the example has been set in Paris, will soon show their good sense by abolishing that monstrous appendage which almost makes one doubt sometimes which is the head and which is the chignon.—English paper.

Masters of vessels trading to the Thames and Piako, are requested by the Inspector of Telegraphs to lower their topmasts while passing under the telegraph wires.

A gentleman of this city tells a good story of how a susceptible youth from the East, who prided himself on his delonaire appearance and the ease with which he ingratiated himselt in the good opinion of the fair sex, was saved from the toils of a scheming enchantress. He was traveling over one of the railroads leading to this city, when there entered the car an elderly lady, then the matron of the Indiana State Prison, at Jeffersonville, accompanied by her daughter a beautiful as well as accomplished, but very mischevious young lady of 18. The young man immediately " took a shine to her," and after much managing obtained a seat by her side, and endeavoured to lead her into a conversation. This 'she, in her vivacity and roguishness, was not at all loth to accept, and the youngster was fairly intoxicated with her brilliant repartee and the music of her low sweet voice, "that excellent thing in woman." After this had gone on as long as the old lady thought proper, she took a seat beside the young Adonis and said, " Young man, you are a total stranger to me ; but it is my duty to warn you of impending evil. That young lady is just out of State Prison." It is needless to say that the young man wilted. — 4.1 ta.

A young housekeeper gives the following for the benefit of her sisters :—" Clothes iron much easier soon after they are dry than when they are allowed to dry for two or three days. If dry, they should be taken from the line and sprinkled and folded, in the evening of wash-day, and ironed next morning. If the shirt fronts, collars, &c, were not starched before being hung out, they should be starched and folded down with the rest, whether cold or cooked starch is used. To give any fabric a good polish, the starch must be carefully prepared. If cooked, it should be well cooked and the following articles added :-— To each pint of starch, a large tablespoon of salt, a lump of butter the size of a hazel nut, and a tablespoon of mucilage or gum avabic may be added with advantage."

It is in the middle rank of life where we behold woman in all her glory —not a doll to carry silks and jewels ; not a puppet to be flattered by profane adoration; reverenced to-day, discarded to-morrow; admired but not esteemed ; ruling by passion, not affection ; imparting her weakness, not her constancy, to the sex she would exalt; the source and mirror of vanity —we see her as a wife, partaking; the cares and cheering the anxieties of a husband; dividing his toils by her domestic diligence; spreading cheerfulness around her, for hi 3 sako ; sharing the decent refinements of the world without being proud of them ; placing all her joys and happiness in the man she loves. As a mother, we find her the affectionate, the ardent instructress of the children whom she has tended from their infancy ; training them up to thought and virtue, to piety and benevolence ; addressing them as rational beings, and preparing them ' to become men and women in their turn. Mechanics' daughters should make the best wives in the world.

Special Notice.—R. Hobbs considers it necessary to inform the public of his reasons for withdrawing his advertisements from the daily papers. He is so thoroughly disgusted with the lengths some parties have gone to in the advertisement line, that he does not intend to advertise after this notice, until an alteration takes place. As to the system of advertising goods at " catching," or very low prices, R. H. would simply remark, that it is no test of value, as the quality must be seen to test the value. Should R. H. at any time advertise any special line, of which he may have bought a large quantity, the public may rely that the quality is good ; and he will not be ashamed to forward patterns to any part of the province, post free ; and buyers may depend on getting tho goods according to pattern. R. H. has yet to find that any man in Auckland can buy or sell cheaper than he can, notwithstanding all the absurd and very questionable pretensions of some houses.—R. HOBB3, Wholesale and Retail Draper, Queen and Wakefield-streets. —[Advt.]