Social Gossip

Free Lance, Volume I, Issue 21, 24 November 1900, Page 8

Social Gossip

By Christabel.

Dear Christabel — PROFESSOR ANDERSON, who gave a performance on Thursday last, is at his best when he is extracting shillings out of giggling young women's back hair, or catching them floating in the air before him. The trance part of the entertainment was not up to the mark, and the spirit form that danced a breakdown and tried vainly to get into the sphere of the red light, was hopelessly substantial. We are all too sceptical nowadays to be frightened easily, and there was a decided tendency towards mcmlin" as the white-robed visitant pranced about. The greatest fun perhaps was caused by a boy. whom the Professor caioled on to the stage to assist in his experiments. He was a slouching, lumpy youth of tender years, but nevertheless he was a born comedian. He is doubtless wasting his talents in a foundry or some equally inadequate occupation. It is positively sad to think that that grotesque leer and those expressively absurd attitudes should be lost to an appreciative world. * * w There was an interesting competition— or rather a series of competitions— during the entertainment. A prize was ottered for the best conundrum, and sheaves ot riddles were sent up, obliging little boys being kept continually on the trot carrying the papers up to the stage. They were ludaed by a committee of three anxiouseyed men, who wrestled manfully with their task. It must have been uncommonly difficult to judge, for the one finally decided on was so bad that the worst must have been terrible. Only a strong constitution could have stood it. Then came the prizes for the prettiest girl and the handsomest man. This was also decided by the literary committee, notwithstanding that letters and a due appreciation of feminine beauty do not also go together. They were assisted by a pair of opera glasses, with which they raked the horizon of the stalls and dress circle. * * * We were all intensely interested, and Mr Hall-Jones and Mr McGowan put on their most becoming expressions. Some men sat back, as if magnanimously willing to give less handsome individuals a chance, while another is reported to have left the circle. He said he did not care about the publicity of getting the prize. The awards fell to a red-feathered damsel in the front row of the stalls, and a black-haired young man in the dress circle. The latter's girl eyed him with a comical air of increased respect after he had received the hideous green glass lamp— a sort of metaphorical tribute to his looks, which should never be lost to the world by darkness. Evidently she had never looked upon him as an Adonis. But I heard one matron say regretfully, as she elbowed her way out, "If only Jim had been there, no one else would have had a chance," tfi V * There is something distinctly familiar about the name Rafalewski, especially

when taken together with the luxuriant crop of auburn locks. But the violinist's concerts were rather poorly patronised, and, as even a crowded Wellington audience is not extremely enthusiastic over a musical programme, a thin house must be positively refrigerating. Miss Sharp is said to have a lovely voice, and a pretty taste in frocks. Some women would have put the last first. Her gauzy white gown with its satin stripes was charming. * * • There is a rumour afloat in the colony that is causing delightful perturbation in some feminine minds. It is said that the best of these exceedingly cheap photographs that are being taken at present are to be utilised to put in cigarette packets, so as to be an extra inducement for the gilded youth to waste their substance. Doubtless many of the pictures are worthy of such a distinction, but it is hardly probable that they will achieve it in face of the keen competition from other countries. There would be a decided piquancy in getting a picture of your chum's best girl in a packet of cigarettes. It might lead to complications. • * • A very enjoyable garden party was given last week by Mrs Fitzherbert in her beautiful grounds at the Hutt. # * * The Wellington College sports on last Friday, to which a large number of guests were invited by the Headmaster and Mrs Frith, were well attended, find proved a very pleasant affair. The day was one of the most agreeable of the week, though that is not saying much certainly, and the various events in the picturesque surroundings of the College were watched with keen interest. The afternoon tea, served midway through the programme, was most acceptable. w • • One of the most delightful features of beautiful Christchurch is its plentiful supply of seats for the footsore and weary pedestrian. Beside the lovely river, under spreading trees, here and there about the town, are benches placed, and very often these are occupied. Even if our City Fathers did grant us seats about Wellington, there are no nooks or shady spaces in which to place them. It would be too brazen-faced to rest on a bench placed along Lambton-quay or Mannersstreet. There is nothing at all idyllic about Wellington, whereas Christchurch overflows with poetic suggestion. A rustic seat under a willow, with a red-para-solled girl and a straw-hatted man on the seat — not the willow— a blue river with picturesque black swans floating upon its ripples. Could anyone imagine a more charming picture, or one more suggestive of romance ? Given the girl, the man, the willows and the river, find the sequel. There is a decided handicap in living m the Empire City. w # * In Japan the women are quite up-to-date. This is the form in which a fanJapanese advertises in a paper for a husband. She is evidently a young person with a high opinion of her own charms, but she has formed an equally high ideal of a husband :—": — " I, the undersigned, am a pretty girl, with abundant hair, flowerlike face, perfect eyebrows, and a good figure. I have money enough to take life easy, and to enable me to spend my years with some beloved man, who will ever be my companion, and who can admire the flowers with me by day and the moon by night. If any clever, accomplished, handsome, and fastidious gentleman is disposed to accept this offer, I can assure him that I will be true to him for life, and that, after life is over, I will be ready to be buried with him in one grave." One wonders whether her modest programme was ever carried out. (Continued on Page 9.)

Mr Levin, son of the late Mr W. H. Le-v in, was one of the passengers by the Delphic on Wednesday. * # * Mrs Stafford ga^ c a most delightful progressive euchre party on Tuesday night. The pretty drawing room and hall were decorated with quantities of roses — crimson, yellow, and white — and the supper table was gay with artisticallyarranged nasturtiums. The first ladies' prize (a dainty bonbon tray) fell to Mrs Findlay, Mrs Baxter, who came second, getting a silver and blue enamel hat pin. Mr Molesworth Tolhurst, who -gained the highest number of games, got a pretty souvenir spoon, and Dr Young a silverhandled knife. Mrs Stafford wore black satin, with a fichu of real lace, Miss Stafford black silk with transparent tacked sleeves, and her sister white muslin and lace, with a collar and sash of white satin. » • * On Wednesday ever so many whitefavouved cabs, suggestive of orange blossom and white satin, were flitting about between one o'clock and three. The brides should be happy, for there was fair sunshine overhead. Miss Annie Powles, daughter of Mr C. P. Towles, was married that day to Mr Maurice Smith, son of the JateJy retired Surveyor-General. The bride was dressed in white embroidered muslin, with a wreath and veil, her two bridesmaids, her younger sister and Miss Hewitt weaving blue and white. ■^f w W Mrs C. W. Adams, of Blenheim, is at present in Wellington, and is staying with Mrs Cecil Adams. She goes to Christchurch on Friday. # * * Miss Richardson was married to Mr J. Tripe on Wednesday. Her wedding gown was of white satin, worn with a graceful chiffon fichu. The three little maids, Misses Ghlie and Audrey Richardson and Miss Dorothy Tripe, were dressed in quaint long silk frocks of eau-de-nil, Leghorn hats with wreaths of roses, and they carried Empire staffs. The presents were very handsome, a great many being of solid silver. The brothers of the bridegroom gave a large cabinet stocked with all the table silver. I hear that a magnificent house is being erected in Selwyn Terrace for the hoppy couple. # * * Miss Coates, accompanied by Mr Coates, left for Rotorua last week. * * * Mrs W. Moorhouse and Mrs Rhodes have gone for a few days to the Hermitage, Mount Cook. • * * Miss Parker, the cle\er daughter of Lord Kitchener's sister, who resides in North Otago, is one of the candidates for the position of Parliamentary Librarian. Miss Parker has recently returned from Newnham, where she successfully passed the college examinations. She also went to France, where, for about a year, she studied French and filled in the time by teaching English in one of the Government schools. She will be a decided acquisition to scholastic circles in the colony. The wedding of Miss Margaret Nimmo and Mr Frank Grady, jun., took place at St Mark's, on Wednesday afternoon, in the presence of a large assemblage. The bride wore a cream brocaded dress with the usual veil and orange blossoms. She •was attended by three bridesmaids— Miss Agnes Nimmo (sister of the bride), Miss Grady (sister of the bridegroom), and Miss Hilda Callis (niece of the bride)— who wore dreases of grey cashmere trimmed with chiffon fichus, and grey chiffon hats. The bridegroom's gift to the bride was a bicycle. Mr C. E. Archibald attended as best man. The newly-wedded couple have gone to Christchurch for their honeymoon. Yours truly, Phillida.

Captain Mackintosh is inviting honorary meinbei s subscriptions on behalf of the Wellington Highland Rifles,, which are at some considerable expense in procuring the full-dress uniform similar to that worn h\ tlie Seafoi th Highlanders The object is one that commends itself to patriotic Scotsmen