WOMAN'S WORLD

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 300, 28 January 1910, Page 6

WOMAN'S WORLD

' WHAT THE QUEEN WEAK!?.''

The following is part of ail interesting article in the "Gentlewoman,'' untitled. "What the Queen Wears": The first Drawing-room of IS<s3 was await h 1 with considerable impatience by that J a rye section of the line flour of English aristocracy who had not yet seen the young wife of the Heir Apparent. It took place on .Saturday, Kith .May, and she was quite resplendent in a train and petticoat of white satin trimmed with white crepe ami wreaths of white lilac with festoons of lioniton lace, presumably the same as she wore on her wedding day. The second Drawing-room of that year was on 22nd June, and then she wore a mauve satin robe with puffings of tulle, draped with some of King Leopold's lovely lace, caught here and there witli white roses, and a white moire train with a deep mauve border, veiled witii more of the same Brussels' lace.

The giving of a first ball is an event in the life even of a Royal bride, and the invitations to the first one given by the Princes of Wales at Marlborough House were worded, ''To an evening party and dance oh 29th June.'' It was not a large gathering compared .with the balls of the present day, and the young hostess was dressed in snowy tulle made up over white glace silk, veiled with white spotted tulle, and adorned with white roses and periwinkles. Iler ornaments were emeralds and diamonds, and 011 her head was a wreath of flowers matching those on her gown, with a few small diamond ornaments interspersed with them. Early 111 October, ISG3, the Princess went to Scotland for the first time, and the inhabitants of the northern capital turned out in thousands to see her as she drove with the Prince of Wales from Slaney's Hotel to Ilolvrood Palace. She was charmingly dressed in mauve, with a pretty black velvet cloak lined with white silk, a small white bonnet trimmed with very natural white ros'es and green foliage, and a white veil. Surely 110 fairer vision had ever passed through those streets since the days of Mary Queen of Scots, whose fascinations, after all, must have been chiefly in her expression and manners, for site could not have been, strictly speaking, beautiful, if her portraits are veracious. Prince Albert Victor, the late Duke of Clarence, was born in the following January at Frogmore, and his proud young mother spent the three succeeding winter months in comparative seclusion. But ill the spring slio was out again, looking as bright as ever, and appeared at the Drawing-room of 10th March in a white satin petticoat with Honiton lace flounces and garnitures of blue velvet with silver flowers. The train was blue velvet with silver cords and tassels, and the diamond necklace given her by the City of London a year previously was arranged as a corsage ornament. From her diamond tiara fell a long tulle veil with silver stars embroidered on it.

Whenever her Majesty has. had an opportunity of expressing a kindly feeling for the Emerald Isle by her'attire she has always done so, and at a State concert in July, IS7O, it was noticed that she wore a green satin robe with a tunic of fine Irish lace looped up with sprays of white may. Many approving glances were cast at her that night, for the members of the Irish aristocracy are the warmest-hearted people in the world.

Two years later, on a dark, cloudy 29th of February, when a keen east wind was blowing, the Prince and Princess of Yi ales made that solemn and memorable progress through London to the Thanksgiving Service at St. Paul's uitncurai winch marked tlie rrince u recovery from typhoid fever, by which lie was' laid low in the previous December. and the nation's gratitude to the 1 ind Providence that restored him. On that occasion jt was universally remarked how' simply yet sensibly th« Princess was attired. She wore a dark bine satin dress with a velvet polonaise to match, bordered with rich sable, and a blue velvet bonnet with ostrich tips' of the same color.

TIIE WASTE OF UNMARRIED DAUGHTERS.

The he < ilma-.ter of Eton declares that English home-life is weakening, and that girls ought to be taught in such a way that they will be able to take their places in the homes. "Girls must be fitted to take their places in the homes; but in what homes —uieir tattlers' or weir nusoancts >. asks the London Times. "It is not at all the same thing; for the wife's function in a properly-ordered home is clear and well defined. The function of the growu-up daughter, especially if there arc several of them, is not. Parents, nowadays, cannot count upon their daughters marrying, TIIE FATHER'S PROBLEM. " A father with half-a-dozen daughters must face the fact that none "ot tlieiu may marry; and, if they are all to remain spinsters, how is he going to train them all to take their places in the home? However well he may tram them, the home will not provide them with enough to do; and if, as Mr. Lyttelton says, English home life is weakening, it, is weakening because there arc too many women with nothing to do in our homes. It is easy to say that they can find something to do if they like.

"The fact tliat so many of them da tiot find it is a proof that there is something wrong with our domestic system, that it lias not adapted itself to new conditions. Xlie ordinary girl can De

educated in the duties of a wife. The girl of unusual or special abilities can have a special education. But how is the ordinary girl to be educated so that, she will be both happy and useful if she does not marry? '•Of course, the main cause of the trouble is the fact that in the middle classes marriages are fewer and later than they used to be. The middle-class home, as we have it, is an institution designed for husband and wife and children. It is not designed for children wuen they grow up. The idea underlying all its conventions and relations is that sons and daughters alike will in due cours'e leave it and make homes of their own. If they do not, they may not seem to linger 'like an unloved guest,' but there is no provision for their remaining. THE DAUGHTER'S PROBLEM.

"lire son who stays at home because he cannot make a living for himself is obviously failing in life. The daughter who stays because she docs not find a husband is! often conscious or halfconscious of the same failure, not because she is evidently inferior to the women who marry, but because, unlike them, she has not found her proper business in life, she has not done that which was expected of her. Many homes, of course, manage to adapt themselves more or loss successfully to the new conditions. But in many there is boredom, and friction, and uneasy hope that gradually gives way to dull resignation. In these cases the home is a failure. A WASTE OF lIUMAX LIFE. '•The practical question is: What do we mean to do? If we want more marriages, we must either give our children a freer hand in arranging their own matches, or we must arrange them ourselves more after the French system. Our present attempt to combine love with convenience makes marriage too difficult. D

"If we do not want more marriages, we must face the fact that English family life does not make enough provision for unmarried daughters. These are treated as' mere accidents, though they have ceased to be accidents. They are still often educated as though marriage were certain to be their profession, although every one knows mat they have 110 certainty of marrying. Hence there is a vast deal of waste,' and waste of the most precious thing in the world—namely, human life."