WOMAN'S WORLD

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 145, 16 July 1909, Page 1

WOMAN'S WORLD

When a younj girl entered a pawnbroker's shop in Leipzig with fourteen rings she "was suspected and detained. Enquiries proved that she was the rightful owner, and that the rings were souvenirs of fourteen fiances.

The parish priest of Xish refused to perform the wedding ceremony for Peter Go'lubovitch and Mara Hetnar in Belgrade Cathedral because the bride wore a hat instead of the traditional veil, The shops being dosed, it was impossible to procure a veil, and 1 a substitute was finally improvised from a large curtain.

Archdeacon Sinclair declared at the annual meeting of the Domestic Servants' Benevolent Institution (London) recently that he had never any difficulty in keeping servants. "If I have any difficulty," he said, "it is in getting them to go away, for they wish to stay with me for the rest of their lives, I make it a rule never to interfere with the work of a servant. Each morning I write down on a slate what they are to do, and I never impose any. censure. I like them to go out whenever possible and enjoy themselves as much as they I can."

Tea-table fetiquette was somewhat complicated in the daj's of that "hardened and shameless tea-drinker," Dr. Johnson, when many people thought nothing of drinking ten or twelve cups at a sitting. It was considered proper, notes' tile London Daily Chronicle, for the cups and saucers of a .party of teadrinkers to bo all passed up 'to the hostess in one bath, when replenishment was considered necessary, and in order that each person might be sure of getting back the right cup, the teaspoons were numbered. When the cups' were passed up, those who did not require any more were supposed to place the spoon, in the cup. And this writer remembers a very ancient dame teaching a. small boy to place his spoon in his cu,p after the first cup had been emptied. He wondered for the reason. Now he knows that tea was once very expensive, and little boys were not expected to ask again. A London reporter interviewed Mr. Isidore Salmon, manager to Messrs, J Joseph Lyons and Co., and was told; ' \\ e have JJSOO waitresses, all necessarily I of pleasant manners' and appearance; it, is not, therefore, at all surprising that I the marriage rate is decidedly liigli. Mr. Bernard de Bean, principal of Pitman's' Metropolitan School, where 3000 ne\y students enter annually, states that ouite 50 per cent, of the pupils marry. He relates from personal knowledge that not at all infrequently' the employer marries the trained and valued worker. Miss King, for fofty-tliroe years secretary to the Society for the Promotion of the Employment of Women, says that she has noticed that the nurse of equal social standing very often marries a doctor. * Miss King, moreover, added her verdict oil a seventh profession not, however, numerically important enough to be considered a representative calling. "Lady doctors," she said, "I place in the front rank for marrying among all the professions' that have come under my notice."

"Many for love and work for silver" is apparently a maxim more honored in the breach than the observance m France, observes the Paris Daily Mail. Mine. Madeleine Lemaire, the accomplished artis't, says she recently heard a young dowry-hunter declare 'that lie would not marry tiny girl unless she had £IO,OOO. lie added cynically that her character, disposition, and accomplishments were unimportant details. The dowry was the only thing that counted. Mine, Adolphe Brisson, wife of tlie eminent dramatic critic, says that one reason why the young men of to-day insist on fiancees' with money is that "the expensive and luxurious tastes of the modern young woman cannot be gratified on n small income. Formerly a girl ■who brought her husband a dowry of £4OOO was considered very eligible," but to-day that amount is looked upou as insignificant. M. Paul Marguerittc, the author, laments the exaggerated importance attached to the dowry in France ami M. Marcel Provost, the distinguished novelist, comments on the system of "love matches" obtaining in England. He and others mentioned are unanimous in hoping for the abolition of the "dot" of French marriages.

A mild sensation was produced in ' Hyde Park recently (flays a Loudon journal) by the sudden appearance of throe strangers clad in garb of the very lightest nature copied from ancient Greek vases. They were a man, a woman, and a small boy. The man had long hair and went bareheaded. He wore, so far as could be gathered on a cursory inspection, a single garment—a chiton or toga.—of white calico, wrapped picturesquely about him. His arms and legs were bare, and on his feet were sandals. The woman was bareheaded; she wore her hair parted down the middle and caught back with a. band into a Greek knot. Jier dress was a brown chiton or toga over a white peplon or undergarment, and she too walked in sandals. The boy was attired m primitive raiment. His only garment was a little white peplou ti'ed round the waist with a leather band. Round his bare head was twined a wreath of flowers, and on his feet were sandals. The movements of the three, as' they strolled along the Serpentine, were v.'atched by a small crowd and photographed by various, observers. The trio sre vaguely reported to belong to a* wealthy Greek family which has takau up its residence near Hyde Park, and is said to ibe bent on living the simple life.

Austrian girls are carefully taught in school until they are lifteen years old (says an exchange). They are not dur, ing this time kept entirely out of society. but are dressed with the greatest simplicity, never wearing a silken gown until they have left school and attend their first ball. Oil leaving the schoolroom they have one or two years'' training in tlie kitchen and pantry, either by some member of their own family or under a. trained cook in another's house. Though they may never be required to cook for themselves, tliey (know exactly how everything should be done, and long before they set up housekeeping on their own account are competent to take charge of a household. They make most affectionate wives and mothers. An Austrian lady is said to be as accomplished and learned as an English governess, as good a cook and housekeeper as a German, as .bright and witty ill society as a Parisian, and as handsome as an American. In Vienna are found some of the most beautiful women in Europe. Austrian girls are brought lip in habits of industry, and are rarely seen without some kind of work in hand. They are famous for their great piles of linen, a certain number of yards of which are every year from a girl's birth woven and laid aside for her marriage portion. The grandmothers spend much of their time ill knitting for their grandchildren, not only, supplying their present need, but laying by dozens of stock, iliL r - of every kind for the young girl's trousseau. Some of these s'toekings are as fine as the finest woven ones.