ABOUT WOMEN.

Evening Star, Issue 4039, 5 February 1876, Page 1 (Supplement)

ABOUT WOMEN.

Two English ladies have resolved, it is stated, to enter the legal profession. They are named Richardson and Orme, and they have taken chambers in Chancery lane. The latter lady acquitted herself remarkably well at the Ladies’ College at Cambridge, and she is a sister of Professor Masson’s wife.

A writer says:—lrish nuns excel in the making of beautiful, delicate needlework and of lace. Persons learned in such matters can tell instantly on looking at a piece of work at what convent it was done. The crochet made under the superintendence of the Youghal nuns is exquisite, and so fine that it has in many cases been mistaken for other kinds of lace, I have heard of a lady who purchased a quantity of what she believed to be old Roman point, in Italy, at a great expense. On bringing it home she took it to her dressmaker in Dublin, and gave it to her as a trimming fora dress, with many cautions against waste, and repeated orders not to cut it unnecessarily. The woman smiled when she heard the discolored work called antique point. She got a magnifying glass, and showed her customer that she had in reality bought Irish crochet lace, which had been dipped in some yellow fluid in order to give it the appearance of great age.

The Hon. Mrs Norton has been sued by her milliner, and, it must be allowed, for most respectable items. “A court dress, with black lace and train, with plume and veil (price 35 guineas), to wear in Her Majesty’s drawing-roomand a dress, “the materials alone of which cost L 54.” The noble poetess, it seems, wrote a letter to the ‘Morning Post,’ signad “Justitia,” which had this very dressmaker for its topic, and that while the trial was going on, was very shocking, you know. However, the gallant Judge Huddleston declared that the opposing counsel had no more business to read it than “the contents of any of those beautiful poems she had given to the world. ” Mrs Norton conducted her own case in person, and—lost it.

As the favorite daughter of the late Lord St. Leonards, the Hon. Miss Sugden was taught by him to understand not only those matters of business which are generally so alien to the female intelligence, but the nicest technicalities of the law; and she was fully cognisant of the contents of that lost will which has been so long engaging the attention of the law courts. As the will could not be found, Miss Sugden undertook to reproduce it, if not verbatim, yet in all important particulars, just as her father made it, and she has done so. And notwithstanding that she herself benefits largely by the will, such was the confidence felt by the Court in her integrity and in her intelligence strongly, corroborated, of course, by circumstantial evidence, that it has pronounced in favor of what may be termed the testatrix, acting as it were on behalf of her dead father. Such a judgment is most exceptional, since the law holds that a man has died intestate when his will cannot be found ; but in this case industry, application, sagacity, and a good character have triumphed over the law itself, and attained a practical benefit for their possessor such as not even the most sceptical can question. DRESS AND MORMONISM. In his latest work, ‘White Conquest,’ Hepworth Dixon devotes a chapter to the above :—“A Mormon elder pointsjout to him the influence before which polygamy is doomed to fall. It is fashion. Ten years ago our women were content to dress like rustics. Since the railway brought us into contact with the world, our women see how ladies dress elsewhere ; they want new bonnets, pine for silk pelisses, and satin robes, and try to outshine each other. All the finery is costly ; yet a man who loves his wives can hardly refuse to dress them as they see others dress. To clothe one woman is as much as most men in America can afford. In the good old times an extra wife cost a man little or nothing. She wore a calico sunshade, which she made herself. Now she must have a bonnet. A bonnet costs 20 dollars, and implies a shawl and gown to match. A bonnet to one wife, with shawl and gown to match, implies the like to every other weather.” So we are told that “ this taste for female finery is breaking up the Mormon harems. . . . Women who dress like squaws may obey like squaws. The sight of a pink bonnet wins them back into the world, and arms them with the weapon of their sex.” ONE LOVE IN A LIFE. A widow of seventy years died in Portsmouth the other day, the youth of whose life was stranger than any fiction. At the age of fifteen she married the choice of her heart, a young sea captain, and after a brief and happy honeymoon he left for a foreign voyage. But his ship was never heard from, and doubtless foundered at sea with all on board. The young husband, as he was dressing for sea on the morning he left home, playfully threw a paw of stockings backwards over his head, to test some sailor’s charm or other, and they chanced to land on the top of a canopy bedstead, he remarking, “Sarah, let them stay there till I come back.” And many and many a long year they have lain, but alas! he never returned. But neither love, nor hopes, nor expectations ever died out in her faithful heart during all the years of her lonely pilgrimage. To the last, whenever a door opened, or a step was heard approaching, she turned to see if it might not be he whom she mourned and sought. But he never came back to her— let ua hope and trust that she has gone to him. By her desire she was buried in her wedding dress, with white gloves and wedding ring, A GOOD WOMAN. There died at Launceston the other day, at the ripe age of 64, Mrs Crouch, whose good deeds are as “household words,” in Tasmania. It is of her that the ‘ Examiner’ writes thus :—Though almost a cripple for the last seven years from paralysis, her active mind has still directed and advised in many a charitable work. She has left numerous descendants, and as a proof of her vigor and energy, we may mention that "at the age of 64, when paralysed in the right hand, she learned to write -with her left, so as to correspond with her children. We may briefly mention some of her many good works, which can justly be regarded as evidences of that innate pious faith which always characterised her. Mrs Crouch was either secretary or president of the Magdalen and Dorcas Societies and the Female Temperance Association. She formed one of the Ladies’ Committee to visit the Orphan Asylum, Brickfields, and Cascades Factory weekly for years, She always kept a dispensary for the purpose of supplying the poor with simple drugs. Mrs Crouch was a strong and consistent supporter of temperance principles, and was mainly the cause of getting up a large and influentially-signed petition by females, about twenty years ago, and presented to Parliament by the late Captain Fenton, in favor of a Maine Liquor Law for the Colony. She also took an active part in getting the public-houses closed on a Sunday. During the time that female immigration was going on to Tasmania, and seeing many being led astray, Mrs Crouch started a female home for servants out of place, commencing a small house in High street. Mrs Gore Browne, the lady of our then Governor, took a warm interest in the movement, and became the patroness. ■

ENGLISH LITERARY LADIES. Mrs Henry Wood, the popular and prolific novelist, who is perhaps best known oy the

story and play of “ East Lynne,” was bom in 1820, and bore in her maiden days the name of Ellen Price. Her father was a leading manufacturer in Worcester, and her husband is connected with the shipping trade. It is said that she has educated her family by her labors with the pen. Miss Braddon, one of the most sensational as well as successful writers of fiction, is the wife of Mr Maxwell, the publisher of Shoe Lane, and lives near Blackheath, on the Thames. Gossip, whose words are to be taken with great caution, says that one time Miss Braddon’s imagination became demented through excessive action, and that she had to endure enforced retirement for a term of two years.

The lady who bears the nom de plume- of “Holm Lee” lives in Devonshire, but an nually spends a portion of time on the Continent. When past the period of her youth, “ Holm Lee ” lost her property through the failure of some banking or mercantile house, and was obliged to resort to the pen for a livelihood.

Of Miss de la Rame, who writes under the signature of “Ouida,” rumor keeps afloat very puzzling aud conflicting statements. Her residence has been for some time in Florence. A portrait published in one of her late novels represents her as a fair woman, in years somewhat between thirty and forty. Her face has an expression of amiability, but, judging from her books, her heart must be full of gall. She delights in nothing so much as in deadly sarcasms upon love and upon women. At some time in her experience “ Ouida ” has undoubtedly been sorely wounded in her pride or her affections, and she revenges herself by the most savage attacks upon the character of her own sex. She deserves whatever aspersions are cast upon her name, for there is no woman living whose influence is more blighting. Miss Charlotte Mary Yonge is the daughter of an English army officer, W. C. Yonge, and her home has been for many years in Hampshire. She began publishing in 1848, at the age of twenty-five, and has ever since been a most industrious writer. The number of her books, many of them three-volume novels, had several years ago reached about fifty. • She attempts history and biography as well as fiction. Miss Yonge is a devoted.church woman.

Julia Kavanagh, although bom in Ireland, may be included among English authoresses. Her favorite stories, “Nathalie” and “Grace Lee,” were popular in America twenty or more years ago. Her last novel, recently published, has been severely treated by the critics, who declare that it is a very weak successor of her early works. Miss Kavenagh is one year younger than Mias Yonge, having been bom in 1824. There is a prevalent impression that Mrs Margaret Oliphant, the popular novelist, is a native of Scotland, but she is simply of Scottish descent, her birthplace being Liverpool. Her maiden name was Wilson, and her mother was a Scotch woman of pro nounced character. Mrs Oliphant was twenty-nine years old when, in 1849, her first work “Passages in the life of Mrs Margaret Maitland, of Sunnyside,” was given to the public. It met with immediate approval, and has been followed by a long train of publications, separated from each other by slight intervals. Mrs Oliphaut’s fame rests most securely upon her “Chronicles of Carlingford” and the “Life of Edward Irving.” Mrs Elizabeth Charles, formerly Miss Bundle, will long be cherished as the author of the “Schonberg Gotta” books, a series which have enjoyed extraordinary popularity both in England and America. The sale of these books in the United States alone has been upwards of two hundred thousand volumes. Mr Andrew Charles, a London merchant, left the authoress a widow some six or seven years ago. Their union was not blessed with children, and Mrs Charles has devoted 7 her life to literature and to active deeds of charity. “George Eliot ” (Marion C. Evans) is the daughter of a clergyman, and was born in Derbyshire in 1820. The story of her union ■vrith Mr George H. Lewis, the author and philosopher, is thus related by Miss Louisa Alcott, in the letter from which we have already quoted:—“Mr Lewis, having forgiven and received back an unfaithful wife, cannot, according to English law, obtain a divorce, although the wife has since deserted him. Miss Evans is considered his wife, and called Mrs Lewis by their friends, in spite of gossip and scandal. Owing to her peculiar position, Mrs Lewis seldom goes into general society or sees strangers, though every one is anxious to meet her, and many of her warmest friends are among the wise and good. All whom I saw loved, respected, and defended her; some upon the plea that, if genius, like charity, covers a multitude of sins in men, why not in women? Others, that outsiders know so little of the' sorrowful story that they cannot judge the case; and, though they may condemn the act, they can pity the actors, and admire all that is admirable in the life and labor of either.” The first wife of Mr Lewes has died since this account was ■written, and George Eliot legally bears the name of Mrs Lewis. Her home is in St. John’s Wood, and in her salon is to be met the most select literary society of London. Mr Gladstone is a frequent visitor there, and Mr Browning is especially fond of both the author of “The Life of Goethe” and the author of| “ Adam Bede,” and spends much time with them, George Eliot is remarkable for her plain face as for her great intellect, and is quite sensitive to the fact. Her head is massive, and is said to resemble that of the late Ford Brougham in contour.