Week-end Chat

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Volume 81, Issue 31, 30 October 1937, Page 10

Week-end Chat

.•'HUMBLlfi GRUBBEU."

"LADY GAY."

"NOT A 1MRS BUGGINS.'

"SPINDRIFT."

"SERE AND YELLOW.

COUSIN ROSE.

COUNTRY AND TOWN.

October 30, 1937. ■ Dear Everyone, It was interesting to read that in America the saies of type-writers are vast. These students type their work (as a few also do here), family letters are also tvped, and portable machines have greatly superseded the fountain pen. The neat old-fashioned business letter for which men tried to eultivate a copper-plate hand-script, has been entirely forgotten, and a typed letter, with an utterly illegible signature, is the idea to-day. But here one may urge that all young people who have 'the cbauce to Jearn to type shouJd i^ke tlie opportuuity of adding this art to their knowledge, l'or typiug is so much necdcd that the s,poedy typist has moro than ever a chance to travel and secretariar work or of typing the work of others as a good niethod oi earning nioney. JNeatuess, spelliug aud correct Euglish are ueeded. Any young person who wants to earn money could soon pick up liandy- sums if they became known as an cdd-time typist. So don't i'orget to give your i'aniijy this chance, and let them savc fcr a uiachine if they wish. # * I have an interesting budget of letters in the week-end mail bag and all who have contributed are very heax-t-ily tlianked, l'or everyone will enjoy this interehauge of ideas. What kind of a garden do you iike? was a question iast week, and here are some ro plies • — Dear Cousiu itose, — Ahont gardens: What do we want oue for P If it is aJpublic garden, let it be neat, with well-dcfincd edges, piotected from the footprint of the "General L'ublic" wlio will tind it so difficult to distinguish between a patli and a bed. It for your own pieasurej have some trees ; there is great charm and rest in lookiug througb green leaves at the sky. Have some liowers that bring back niemories; oldEnglish lavender, sweet lavender (often superseded by a .handier French type), yellow primroses, t.he nodding violet, wild thyine, dalfndils, roses, a plant from your ehildhood's home, and a plant from an old friend's garden. Not very xnany of us can alford to have exactly what we would like, but we can p'ant something. Do rcaders know "The Story Li/zie told" aboUt a poor invalid who was given a wohderful plant? "cal- ' ondula rneteor," but it turned out. to-be a poor little starved marigolrl9 lMant natives if you can. There is a very little native violet, bardy ancl daintv in a mass, — Yours, vtc.,

* - « « Dear Cousin Rose, — You ask what our ideas are of a nice little garden. I like above all, a sequonce of flowers. I do not ga in for prize blooms, but I think I nearly always have something in tiower in my garden. 1 like a garden with fiowers all crowding each other and coming sinbo' bloom. 1 like a garden with a good setting, plentv of well-out grasSj especially ncar roses, to se.t them olf. You must have grass. Then it is right to have white llowers in between the vivid. reds and blues as a toi] for them. to show them np. The colours should he carefully considered. I grow Christmas lilies by Ihe deluhiniums; because they ouiue out together. nuil under tlie wisteria I have duuble pink spirea and lnauve iris all in flower at the sjime tiine, and I would like violas, too. I Have cannas among the dahlias for the brown cauna leaves set oif the iablia llowers ; and prunus above the *',reen grass looks lovely, while uear rheie are gay masses of perennial phlox. But the great point I stresB is to keep a sequence of flowers. What do other readers say? — Yours, etc.,

• * * Interest in the method of speaking at a telephone still continues and this vvell-expressed letter comes from Havelock North. Several letters have rather missed the point of the original one, but this dissects it thoroughly: WHO IS SPEAKING, PLEASE? Dear Cousin Rose, — My husband is a professional man and like many such, his staff are always instructed to ask "Who is speaking please," unless the owner of the voice has the politeness to say his narae. It is very inconvenient for a busy man at' times to lireak away from his work or an important conversation to answer the 'phone. He must judge from his staff's information, whether the telephone caller's need of him is the more urgent. it also saves time which is essential i'or the r proper conduct of the telephone i systein. It enables the busy man or i woman to ring the caller later if uni uble to answer the call at the time. II at home any mere voice over Dlie 'phone expects our immediate ettention without wishing to reveal who they are. I look upon it in the same light as I would anyone pushj ing into my home and demanding j our immediate attention no matter t bow we are engaged. a ln fact, if any one has the ixac* mannersT to get annoyed at beiag I) asked "Who is speaking please," '• and dec.lines to give their name, we '» simply hang up the receiver — Yours, etc..

w * m 8 Also from Havelock North is sent l' this interesting contribution, from a ! mau reader. Jt would be of wide iuc tefest to hear liow observant otbe» v then auJ women are. ui Dear Couaux Rose, — 1 have ^ust ' been readiug an interesting article

in JoJin O'London's, concerning '"oUservntion." When oue comes to think of it tlie ave.age person is ama/.ingly unobservant. To put it in other words, he — or she — gets so used to the general appearance of things seeu every day, that ^ome things are generally taken for grante'd. Eor mstanee, ask any housewife whether the figures on the diningroom clock are Roman or English, anid the odds are pretty heavy that she will not be able to answer on Ihe spur oi the rnoment. How many men can tell you how many eyelets there axc in their shoes; or. il they happon to be wearing heath-mixt:jre tocks what the predominating. •* i our is? Some may even hesitate when- asked if the Hastings Clock Tower has figures of Roman type or uot — it asked suddenly. How many people coula admire the outside of the Woman's Rest, and, liall an hour afterwards, tell what llowers were there? Who knotfs hoxv many matclxes tliei'e are in a box of safeties? I don't. What man could .tell you if the table-cloth at supper iast night was white or colourcd? Which shoe, stocking or glove do you put on firsb — right or lelt? How many trces are there in tlie garden jnst acx-oss the way? Has your miikman or baker or paper-boy light> hair or dark? These are but a fejv of the ordiuary. everyday things to which one gets so used that no one ever takes any special notice, ln other words, ■ we are not observant.— Yours, etc..

* « * Perhaps some kindly soul will answer this query and give hints gleaued i'lom expei'iexxce in looking neat and natty. Dear Cousin Rose, — Hoping that someone can xeally gvie advice, I write tor myseJf and two l'riends because we want suggestions as to summer clothes lor ourselVes. We are not under 61), yet we do not want to look like contemporaries of Mrs Noah, nor to imitate the young and giddyl There does not scem to be. any middle road to an appearance that is neat "but not gaudy." Berhaps some readers have ideas to hand on to the crrateful.— Yours. etc.

In Hawke's- Bay many hxxndreds oi picture-goers have enjoyed a picture by Mark Twain. There are many amusing stories told by this famous humourist and this is one: — Mark censured tbe multi-million-aires for their extravagance. For example, "Just consider these new travclling bath-tubs wbich are getting common on Fit'th Avenue." A reportur called on Mark Txvain about this matter and he called on a eotton millionaire on Sunday morning. The liiillionaire told him about tlie wonders oi the .nexv hodse and its furniture and gold-piated plumbing. But he specially boasted ot his travelling bath-tub of onyx of a goiden shade. "It runs by electricity," he said, "on tiny pneumatic tyres." Ib?canxe gliding into the magnate's room whenever he pushed a buttou. "Bush it now," said the reporter. 'J'he rioli man pushed the button, the door slicj magically open, and tbe great onyz bath-tub glided silently into tbe rooin. But in it sat the millionaire's horrified xvife. * tr m Hoping l'or some more eberry contributions for next Saturday.