HER VARIED TASTE.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1687, 1 March 1913, Page 15

HER VARIED TASTE.

WHAT "SOCIETY WOMEN" BEAD,

■The literary taste or opinions of women of fashion or ■ "society. wometn," aro, not popularly regarded as matter for very serious study. Yet ono of their number maintains that in England mt least, tho books they read are of a better class than those affeoted by the women of the provinces. "However frivolous society women tnay be.-aiid howxsver superficial, as they tujdonbtedly are, yet it is the'serious , writers, tho strong man, who really grip them." Like the society women of Paris la. tho time of Louis XIV; tho favour revolutionary writers. After Louis came the deluge—what is in store for usf ■ Revolutionary Tastes. A hint along this line is given by a, (writer who tells '.of ,'their likes and dislikes in the London "Daily Mail." Ho remarks that "in one way or another it is the academio ioanoelasts who, always precede revolution, and 1 ' when. they get hold of the upper' classes as thov are undoubtedly doing to-day, and as they have : bever succeeded in, . before, what may we not anticipate., in that stormy - future?" He seem s w have been m</re or less surprised • when, one member of • the eocisty set told him that "the . women who count" read such books (is Ellen . Key's "Love aaul and her "Love and Ethics." These books, are liked because they-help women "to such a broad Outlook." In tact, all books which touch ■on the' feminist question are favoured, it'-ls deolared. This and tho religious question; seem mainly to oooupy women , of fashion.' English women especially poad books on the East, having so infctnate ft relation with its life. -' i ' (The Agile-Mind.. : The woman thus Interviewed 1 recounts i— History of-Egypt and' Professor, Giles's 'Civilisation of China—•&&n t oh yes, dear Mr. Mariano's 'John BuLesSas i true, they aro not Oriental, but ho is, and of course we all love books about Buddha. Those are really religious, so different from sermons. I..beli6ve in the religions of the East. And'then,.;of courw, we. read Mr. H. G. Welta He' taore than any one else ! haa helped to .break down the silly, old conventions. T. ■don't want to soimdi'pedaiitio,' but heV pnoh a splendid iconoclast. Yon mustn't sneer too inutih' at" Society women for fceing frivolous. Frivol, . like everything else, has its good .'side. It is because we are what you call superficial that J our minds are always open to_ new* questions. , >VVv© ail-ways got a new vision oflife, and eo we jump about from one thing to another and don't . get Btodgy. " That is our advantage .over / $he Women, of the suburbs -and the

provinces,-who are nothing but a mass of prejudices. And after all, our frivolity leads us into all . sorts of serious subiects. Heaps of us read Strindberg's works—l love his 'Confessions of a Sbiil/ tot instance., - . - ' ' ' "Science, popularised and Interpreted by Sir Olive* Lodge Or, In the form of Sir pay Lankester'a 'Scienoo from an Easy Chair,' always finds a heap of readers. • "And I think you will find We all like I'abre's. book on spiders { but, then, , all liooks' about animals," she went on with' quaint unotmscious humour,' "are delightful. Books on the poetry of animal life, I lofre Chalmers Mitchell's 'Childhood of Animals' and 'Wild Life and the Camera,' by Dugmore, or 'The Life-story of * a 'Hare.'" iNo Tast«, for Poetry. )Of course women liko novels. They lead Hewlett and Locke, and at present "are crazy" over Mason's political and, it is supposed, autobiographical story, "The Turnstile." The three Bensons, and Wells, llichens, Arnold Bennett, and "Saki with a wry. critical public—his and 'Tho Unbearable Bassirigton,"' are. writers . who must be read. Other names such as "Frank Dauby," Cosmo Hamilton, and James Stephens, the Irishman who wrote ''CJharwoman's Daughter" and "Crock of Goldj" are mentioned. With a light, disfeprd of logic, Sidney Webb comes along m this train, ind is declared "just as interesting" as (lotion. , ; "Lots of us butterflies, as they call us, joad Sidney Webb or go to his lectures, and wo are interested in labour questions, (ind know quite a lot about them, bcoauso he has mado us think and puzzle things out for ourselves. lam now reading Sfeakin's TVorrian in Transition,' and [ quite feel I am one myself." The society womaii 'shakes her heiid wheli poetry'is mentioned. An authority (a referred. to who confesses: "Well,: I'm afraid iff not much in demand, though: 'The English Review,' Which Is doing so\ much to influence thought all round, has helped them to appreciate Mnsefipld's work. I find ballad poetry like his, and Kipling's and Newbolt'tf, is really popular. Brooklyn, Wellington, 13th December, 1912, Dear Mrs. HullenrFor years I was tortured with superfluous hair oh my face, and fearod I should never rid myself of the distressing disfigurement.,. Being extremely sensitive, I suffered considerably, being often reminded of tho fact, which I realised only too well. I tried several so-called cures, -also spent a great deal of money on electrolysis, but all to no purposo. In .faot, I got worse. Then I heard of "Rusma," arid, as a last resource, decided 'to give it a trial, though having little faith of ever being cured. Imagine my Burprise and delight on discovering that, With each treatment, the hair grew finer, /Until finally I was cured.

plane going faster than liis tried to pass over- him, and at the li'ight of 170 feet bo/ji fell crashing to the'ground. The other man .escaped With a scratch; my brother was terribly injured. It took them twenty minuted to dig him out of the debris, happily unconscious. While he was ill in hospital, the bank in which alii his money was deposited, went smash and ruined him. Nothing happened to any; other members of the family' who did not come in contact with the mummycase. several of wfcam were travelling, and might have oome in for adventures. One, for instance, was elephant shooting in Malay/', .■" ' ■