Social Gossip

Free Lance, Volume I, Issue 37, 16 March 1901, Page 10

Social Gossip

By Christabel.

Dear Christabel — MRS. WARD invited some guests on Saturday to play croquet and have afternoon tea. A very pleasant time was spent in the beautiful gardens of Awarua House. « • • Mrs. Fitchett has returned from her Northern trip. • ♦ • Quite a number of Dunedin people were in Wellington at the end of last week. Mrs. W. G. Neill and Miss Neill, Mr. and Mrs. Lintolt (on. their wedding trip). Miss Fotheringham- (who came up from Masterton to see her sister, Mrs. Lintolt), and Mrs. James Hislop, who is going to settle here tor a time, Mr. Hislop going into partnership with a local architect. • • • There has been some discussion as to whether the frivolous fichu should be preferred to the severe and serviceable linen collar and cuffs in the uniform to be worn at the coming bazaar. It is said a nurse's dress has been decided upon. If so, an airy, floating fichu would be as inappropriate an addition as a picture hat. It would be interesting, as well as picturesque, if each stall were to choose and copy an actual costume of a nursing sisterhood. It is said the Netley Hospital dress, so familiar to us, with its little red cape, in the recent war pictures, has been fixed on by one stall-owner. • • • A propos of chiffons, there is a man in Wellington at present, whose luggage consists of a tall hat, some collars, and the clothes he wears. The collars, ot course, will go into the hat-box, and the hat-box he can carry in his hand. What a minimum of worry and trouble he has reduced travelling to! He is an artist, notwithstanding the tall hat, and he yearns to paint battle pictures. He has evidentiv gone off the track in coming here, and has to be content with scenes of peace. His first sketch of a ship was rudely interrupted by the unfeeling and inartistic vessel's hoisting her anchor and sailing off from the wharf. He is now painting another boat, with a man lying asleep on its deck. Let us hope the figure wont move away until the sketch is completed. # A great many people were looking forward to hear Miss Hollander again, and were disappointed that the arrangements for Monday night's concert fell through. Mr. Bethune has gone off to Sydney. # . # Among the many pretty things that are to be on view and for sale at the coming bazaar, there will be a quantity of Wedgewood ware sent out as a contribution to Mrs. David Nathan by her father in England. • ♦ ♦ Quite a number of people are sorry now that they did not go to see the Human Frog. He appears to have reached the acme of grotesque contortion. When clothed in everyday garments, and with his limbs in conventional positions, he is said to be goodlooking and gentlemanly. Also, he is French, and speaks with an interesting accent. There is a distinct connection between a frog and a Frenchman. • • • So the powers that be have recommended the City Council to abolish the ladies' reading room! They aver that it does not serve its ostensible purpose. If it was intended as a place for eating lunches in or fixing up one's back hair, then it answers very well, but when it was instituted, it was intended as a room to read in. The people who munch sandwiches and eat apples there do glance over the papers while refreshing the inner woman. There are greasy marks on the magazines, and cores under the tables that tell a tale of combined mental and physical refreshment. • * * To toll the truth, theic is very little to read now in the ladies' room. It was found, alas' for the frailty of feminine nature, that the higher-class magazines were not safe there, and so they were transferred to >' o Reference Library. Those left arc presumbaly magazines that do not

tempt one to thieve. But even they are shamefully torn. Whole pages, with sweet toques or the latest in Pans gowns, and cut out, and carried away, and pictures are greatly in demand. The next step to tearing pictures out of a book that belongs to somebody else would be the taking of flowers from a cemetery. Tt is no wonder then that it is proposed to abolish this alleged reading-room, and convert it to some other use.

(Continued on Page 11.)

On Monday last, at St. Peter's, Wil-lis-street, Mr. John Bain, of the Government Stores Department, was married to Mrs. Charlotte Sparke, late of Hawera. The Rev. Mr. Davys, M.A., was the officiating clergyman. The biide looked handsome in a fawn costume, with toque to match. Her bridesmaids were her sisters, the Misses Millie and Alice Wortley, who were dressed in white and pink, and wore large black velvet picture hats, trimmed with pink. Mr. E. J. McGuinness, of the Government Stores Department, attended the bridegroom in the capacity of best man, and Mr. Chas. H. Lewis, of McKee and Co., was extra groomsman. The happy pair have gone to Napier for their honeymoon, the bride's travelling costume being of electric blue, with hat to match. Among the many wedding presents was a beautiful hand-worked scarf, which was presented to the bride by the bridegroom's fellow-clerks. * ♦ • Three-cornered hats are again fashionable , some in white or fawn felt, are trimmed with gold ribbon and tagged ends without any other trimming, save a few rows of narrow gold braid sewn on the edge of brim. » » • While Miss May Seddon vai> "doing" Australia with her father not long since, she attracted some feminine attention by her habit of carrying a black tasselled stick a la Grace Palotta instead of a gamp. Gossiping on the subject, one fair Australienne writes . "The idea is a pretty one, but would hardly suit our burning sun."

At its present rate of progress Waihi will very soon be the largest mining township in the colony. It is going ahead at a very rapid rate. The latest evidence of this is the advent of "The Waihi Daily Telegraph," which started its career as a daily evening paper at the beginning of this month. It makes a most creditable appearance. Its get-up is a model of systematic arrangement and neat display. It is both carefully edited and smartly written. Very complete telegraphic news, which is right up to date, occupies four columns of space, and, by means of striking and appropriate headlines, is set off to the utmost advantage. The advertisements are copious, and reflects the progressiveness of the place. In short, the "Daily Telegraph" is a real live paper of which Waihi may justly be proud.