JOTTINGS FOR WOMEN.

Press, Volume LII, Issue 9238, 16 October 1895, Page 4

JOTTINGS FOR WOMEN.

THE QUEEN OF MADAGASCAR. " Les Reines en exil" (says the Pall Mall Gazette), " are beginning to feei a little uneasy at the prospect of being quite cut out by the next addition to their select circle when Gen. Duchesne brings back the Malagasy Boadicea harnessed to his triumphal chariot. Queen Ranavalona 111. »ppears to be highly attractive. She is thirty-four, it is true, rather an advanced age among Orientals, but she retains the slimness aud undulating snakelike suppleness of youth. Her eighteen-inch waist, her tiny feet, and her hands, for which a number five glove is rather large, assort well with a figure as delicate and dainty as a bit of old Dresden china. In complexion Rauavaloua is a trifle darker than most of her subjects, her skin being of a rich and bright chocolate tint. The upper part of the face does not lack dignity, with its shapely forehead and expressive almondshaped eyes, the corners of which are slightly turned up, as among the women of the Far East. Prominent cheek bones of the Malay type and too narrow and long a chin somew hat mar the general effect; but the mouth ia charming, especially when she smiles and reveals teeth of brilliaut ivory, though rather larger than one could wish. She has a mass of dark, soft thick hair, which she parts in the middle and plaits on either side, twisting it into a square knot at the neck ; but wnen her Majesty is in mourning it is allowed to flow looae like a mane. Ranavalona is a coquette in her way, and does not trust to nature alone for turning her beauty to account. Long ago she put herself into the, hands ot Madame Le Moine, a well-known Parisian modiste, who has yearly despatched to Antananarivo four or five toilettes, and the same number of plain round hats devoid of feathers and frippery. At first Bho insisted on having her frocks made all in a piece, but she has been gradually won over to recognise the advantage of separating the corsage from the skirt. WOMEN ON WHEELS. The Idler contains an article by Mrs Humphrey upon the great development that has taken place this year in cycling among women. Mrs Humphrey says—"The cycling mania has taken even deeper bold, as may be made manifest to anyone who shall visit Battorsea Park about 10 30 in the morniug. Hundreds of gently nur tured girls are there to be seen on bicycles, some of them expert enough, others still in their novitiate, and many of them accompanied by mothers who have had perforce to take to cycling in order to perform their duties as chaperons. Lady Jeuue is one of these. With her two charming daughters she enjoys many an agreeable ride, and uses her iron steed for shopping excursions as well. The convenience of • hiking' is enormous, so much so that West End cabmen complain that they do not get nearly ao many fares as they used to do 1 ; just as the livery stable keepers assert that there is considerably less demand for horses now than during any preceding season Piano manufacturers declare that bicycling ia interfering with the sale of pianos ; but this is a conclusion scarcely so clear of deduction aB the other two." Among the notable lady cyclists Mrs Humphrey mentions the Queen: of Italy, the Duchess of York, Princess Maud of Wales, the Duchess of Connaught (who was nervous in learning), the Duchess of Portland, the Marchioness of Hastings, and the Countess of Dudley. Mrs Humphrey devotes some j space in her article to the vexed question of dress :— '* The question of dress is a vexed one. The aristocratic world clings to its skirts. The ladies of a lower social { scale believe in knickerbockers, or Lady Harberton's divided skirt. Those who have ; ridden without a skirt vow that they will never ride in one again. In France hardly any woman wears a skirt when wheel riding, replacing it, as a rule, by very full trousers of the Zouave sort. English ladies of the upper ten thousand wear skirts varying in length and width, and sometimes stiffened with horsehair in the hem to keep them out from the wheel. Lady Norreys, one of the , cleverest bicyclists, wears such a skirt, or did for a time. I fancy X have seen her with unstiffened skirt of late. She has a very strong feeling against the divided skirt, j an antipathy which ia shared by Lady Wolverton. Lady Lurgan, Lady Yarborough and Lady Londonderry. For my own part, though I share their prejudice, I feel convinced that it will before long be completely outgrown and forgotten, and, should the craze for cycling last so long, in two or three years tbe skirted woman on wheels will be regarded as a survival, and in no sense up to date." THE MALE REVIEWER CAUGHT TRIPPING. One of the manifold disadvantages of the male reviewer has been illustrated in the case of Mrs Lynn Linton's novel, "In Haste and at Leisure." The reviewers (says the St. James's Gazette) hastened to identify a certain " Excelsior Club "of "new women," therein depicted, with the Pioneer Clnb, and proceeded further to identify the personality of some of the members. This dangerous mistake would have been avoided, it appears, bad the reviewers been educated in the niceties of feminine attire. For Mrs Lynn Linton, in a note to the new edition, informs them that the book was out of her hands three years ago, and that the slightest reference to its details of dress would havo proved its date to be " the sleeveless era of fashion." ADVICE ABOUT MARRIAGE. Dr. Mantegazza's book on "Marriage," having just appeared in a Frelfeh edition, will no doubt be eagerly read by women to whom the Italian version is inaccessible. Some very acute directions are given by Dr. Mantegazza as to the detection by a young girl of certain undesirable qualities in a husband—such as tyranny, meanness, illtemper; but, unfortunately, or perhaps fortunately for our brief youthful romances, at the age and the moment when girls fall in love they are hardly critical and judicial enough to reflect and analyse their lovers' mental and moral qualities. It is interesting to learn, on tbe authority of the Italian professor, that the soldier who a priori would seem as if he would make the less desirable of husbands generally turns ont exemplary and faithful, one of tbe reasons being, oddly enough, \ that> the family dinner is grateful to him after a long course of mess-feeding. But Dr. Mantegazza has not only passed his long life in the study of men, more I especially in the light of husbands, but has ! directed a considerable part of his atten-

tion to the other sex ; and some of hi« i advice is given to young men, whom he ■* warns against frittering away their l lVe . I and loves without knowing the sweetnes! > and purity of marriage. He further conn. "■ sola them to distrust equilly pronouncsd brunettes with very black eyes, who's? * passionate temperaments will causa trouble J and large fair womou, whose nooctulaacs $ aud indolence arc similarly disastrous t c I domestic happiness They should seek » I young girl who ia neither very fair nor very - I dark, and neither excessively domineering I nor feeble in character, aud above all, one 1 who lovea little children. This i 3 aa j n> | fallible sign, according to the Professor, of 1 a tender and good disposition ; aud, aa » I general rule, one would like to balieve tU*t i M. M.anteg«zzA 13 right. 1 THE CAPTURE OF AMERICAN i HEIriE>SES. § The capture of bo many American younn women by foreign gentlemen of title, many of whom have an eye to incidental pecuniary equipment, led a patriotic member o{ the 1 Illinois Legislature to offer in the House of Representatives in that State a few weeks ago a resolution (which was appropriately referred to the Committee on Federal am} Foreign Relations), in which *' the daughtcrj of Illinois" were "requested not to accept t the haud in marriage of any person who v ' uot a citizen of the United States by birth or : naturalisation, as we are of the opinion i that they should be patriotic in t| le | r , views, and should disregard tho titles ol t foreigners." This simiile-miudtd patriot . appears to have been moved to make this protest by the marriage of Miss l r ir y ' Leiter. of Clriatgo aud Washington, to the i Hon. George Curr.on, M.P. Miss Leiter ij i the daugluer of Chicago's most opulent merchant prince, and a young womau of rare intellectual accomplishments. She first met her future husband four years ago, at the time when she was presented at Court by Mr and Mrs Robert Lincoln, also of Chi. cago, the son of the martyred President being at that time the American Minister r to Great Britain. The future Lady Scars- ' dale was able to assist her husband at the ' recent elect ion, and it is an interesting fact J that her efforts were opposed to those of ; another American, the wife of Mr Curzan'* , opponent at the polls in Soulhport, Coloaol Naylor-Ley land. The Colonel married ' two or three years ago, Miss Jennie Cham' berlain, an Americau beauty well known [ in London. He recently turned his political coat with some haste, and soon after- | wards became a Rosebery baronet Accounts received here say that these two Americau ' wives displayed much energy as electioneers ' during the campaign. Among the recent ' marriages which the Illinois legislator must ' deplore was that of Mißs Virginia Lowery, of Washington, to the Duke d'Arcos, . Spanish Minister to Mexico. The bride is well provided with this world's goods, but there ia a touch of romance in this case, for the Uuke had been pursuing her for tweuty p years, since the days when he, as Count Brunetti and Secretary to the Spanish Lega- ■ tion at Washington, first saw her and was ' forbidden to enter her father's house, ' During the longinterval he had been Minister , of Spain in several South Americau countries, and he succeeded to his father's title and 1 estates four years ago. The marriage, so 1 long deferred, was approved by all the ; relatives at last. ; "CORPSE-GREEN." Konrad Alberti has written a satire against " fashion," and the manner in which ■ certain fashions in dress arise, especially at ! to colour. The book is called " Mode." A 1 rich stuff merchant, greatly esteemed in i Berlin, finds to his horror that several [ thousand yards of "Naples-blue cheviot" [ will never be sold, because the colour is not fast. He complains to his wife that the ( colour has faded to a horrid dirty green that looks like decay. His wife lends for a i pattern of the stuff, and promises to bring it into fashion if her husband will give her some brilliants. He promises iv his turn, and tho lady wears a dress made of the | faded sluff at a grand banquet given by hor in honour of an actor. She is asked what ' she calls the colour of her remarkable ', dre39, and answers, " Corpse-green." i " What! " exclaims her guest, " Corp—! Really, very witty ! iiorribly grand! '' Quite fin de siecle I" And the colour becomes fashionable. WOMEN LEGISLATORS. Referring to the New Zealand decision, that women should not be allowed to sit in the House of Representatives, the Westminster Gazette states that women have the right to sit in the Parliament of one of tha American States—that o c Colorado. Atfint speoial note was taken of them in the House. They were singled out and made to feel like intruders. Some of the male M P.'s put bouquets on their desks, and that kind of thing, so aa to create ridicule against them. But that soon passed away, and now women are recognised in the Colorado Parliament on equal terms with the men, and have, if is said, proved to be very useful members. [We shall be glad to receive ia this column brief contributions, both, from the "New Woman," and also from her sisters who do not lay claim to •• advanced " idea 9. Contributions must not exceed sixty lines iv length, and may be either original or selected. In the latter case the sourc* should be stated.]