I'LL DO THE THING PROPERLY.

Shannon News, 26 February 1926, Page 3

I'LL DO THE THING PROPERLY.

«. (IF I DO IT AT ALL) "ETON CROP MY HAIR AND SMOKE A PIPE." DECLARES DAME CLARA. In the course of his interview with Dame Clara Butt, a Christehurch Star interviewer drew the famous singer's attention to the present storm which is raging in Auckland over the remarks passed by a Norwegian visitor concerning New Zealand girls with their shingled hair and their alleged whisky drinking and smoking habits. "Smoking and drinking is certainly overdone amongst women in England," said Dame Clara, "but I think it is just a phase we are going through. We are victims of the times and all this restlessness will go out when people s'ee the folly of it all. Personally. I do not smoke,'but I have noticed that women never even ask you if they may smoke in your presence. At least a man does that. And what's more, the women do not smoke their cigarettes properly. They hold them out, or if playing bridge they put them down in trays and you get all the benefit of the j fumes. It' is particularly annoying to 1 mo, as it affects my throat. I have I often said that in sheer self-defence I would have to start smoking myself, j But I'll Eton crop my hair and take to the pipe. I 'll do the thing properly when I do start." (Needless, perhaps, to add -hero that Dame Clara has 0 j beautiful head of dark hair slightly tinged with grey). "I have threatened my daughter with an Eton crop if she dares to get shingled. She has a beautiful head of hair and she is one of the exceptions in England, where you hardly find a head that is not shingleTT. It is love of freedom that makes women do this sort of thing. They like getting away from any bother. The easiest way appears to be the best nowadays. It is the same with everything." All the while Dame Clara had been fondling a four-months-old parrot which she had brought with her from Sydney. They are her favourite pets, and' she invariably takes two or three back with her from Australia. It is her desire to take back with her an opossum and a Teddy Bear, but she had rehictantlv be'en compelled to leave thorn behind'on account of the fact thnt there is no food suitable for them in the Old Country, and they would' not survive the voyage.