WHISPERS OF EVE

NZ Truth, Issue 1195, 25 October 1928, Page 18

WHISPERS OF EVE

Pan-Pacific People MOW that the tumult and the shouting of the Pan-Pacific Conference has calmed down a little, Mrs. Osborne, speaking at the Auckland Lyceum, gives us some clear pictures of conference personalities. Miss Seaton, who, represented the New Zealand Free Kindergartens, was, the only Wellington delegate. Mrs. Fraer did . the honors for Christchurch, Miss button for Dun- ; edin, and Mrs. Osborne herself was picked out to represent industrial New Zealand. •■;■■. She is 'glad Co say that our small country comes off very well, both as regai-ds general ' economic and factory . conditions, even with /such progressive places as the good old U.S.A. Said United States sent. over an interesting lady m the person of Miss Mary Anderson, Swedish by birth, domestic servant when first; she went to America, and now head of the Women's Employment >Bureau. '-. So it looks as if there -might be something m this "God's Own Country" talk after all. ' ''7 .. *. *-,•:-.■ *-■ No Kicks From Chorus.. ABOUT, twenty girls are l-ehearsing **■ on the big, half-lit stage. A young, lady m a brilliant feather, hat on the piano, while -a caretaker is doing his languid best with a mop and pail. Everything looks dim, dusty and unreal. Most of the tragic - stories : . about giltless stage gingerbread would be indignantly denied^ by the little; chorus girls, who, .frbm time to ■•"time, smile enticingly at: you over Fullers', foot-, lights; ■■'■■-.■ -■•"••-. -■•'•■'! •■■'; They- are nearly all young, -slim and hard-muscled, for dancing- is too strenuous .-:a, .pursuit .to allow any chorus girl tb: break the scales; The girls are taken on at a very early age while ;".tlifeir ■ limbs- are ' still plastic. The unanimous answer, to the question: "HoW do girls get on the stage?". Is '.'They Just .drift, on." Says Comedian Mori'ce. from E.ng--. hind: "Most of the lassie's are happy'; arid happy-go-lucky, too. • They .are mere children when they start and perhaps the,;late" hour's take a little of the dew off the"'... roses. But ninety-nine girls m a..; hundred want to go On the stage .-and., none want's to leave it;" .;' ■Upstairs— T-'iiicl nerve-racking, neckbreaking ; stairs they are— :the -girls'-.dressing-rooms are built. They' are mere, cells, /"brick- walled, windowless' and dingy, but the. chorus' girl, takes a great deal of'i'fide in' the shimmering gowns. which she, wears m fine-lady acts. . •■■,''•■'■■. ;;Us.ualiy t.he. girls pay for their own dresses, .which -means a large slice of Salary gone west. But, on the other hand;7^it :also. ?■ ■hiejans;., that Cinderella ;paji7^Avearl7h : cr^^n&^!eathers .when, off-:-" 'sit&geZ'p-r^J^rWgS^Z;: V "' - .. ' .' 7 „'' , •^T:hahk7thevLbVd,(Kaijyhow,''. fervent-, ly'-says i'-Cifiiy ' Sherwood, .Who came from 'America ' and \ has stayed here eight years, because the New: Zealanders liked her," that the plump figure is coming back again and a girl can' look liko a girl. I'm not fat, you know — just pleasantly plump" revealing a dimpled knee), "but I do hate all. this early morning -exercise business*. '. "■■■'■> "What's .stage', life, like'? ' WpU,7 the people who ;give it a bad. name; are the 1 hangers-on.' A girl, leaves iiiekville and act's in,/ a pantomime onee — and. ten years later she.m eets up with the police. Then she gives, her profession as actress, - It's not fair -and' it ought to be. stopped. These^kiddies" (waving a sisterly hand at the little dancers), "are too busy' and too keen to ruin 7-their complexions; and figures at the gay life." ' ''■ . -. '. Dark purple stick-paint is used for .the eyelids,, scarlet for '"'the lips, and Cheeks-^all applied after a facial massage with' the .grease paint. "And," says Curly, "be sUre, you always, put your perfume on behind your ears. It lasts longest and doesn't smell as if there'd been a flood of Florida water." Spring Sends Regrets TT may seem a little unkind to talk "*■ about spring, with , equinoxes and what-nots still ■ parading the streets m the most unlicensed way. But spring has certainly dropped Wellington her visiting : card. There was a girl on Lambton Quay this week with a great mass of pale-starred clematis m her amis. ■ Clematis m Wellington means that spring ought tp be here, even if the jade isn't! How goes it with the ■other centres? Christchurch, I think, celebrates the occasion by bursting into a riot of purple wistaria bloom. Auckland will, (unless the gales have left it stark and shivering) be full to the brim of lilies — tall, white ones, and the scarlet, and pale gold cannas. But. the Scottish. south can plume itself upon the finest display of kowhai — great trees of it, dripping blossoms all along the' roads. The southern Maoris once had a proverb: "Spring comes When the red flame leaps m the kowhai." ■ •