WOMAN'S WORLD

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 387, 12 May 1910, Page 6

WOMAN'S WORLD

SHIFTING THE JOKE "It's perfectly horrid," stormed Helen. "Your Aunt Cynthia is a dear, and I've just the dearest dady in the world, but he is 54, and your Aunt Cynthia is " "Non-committal!" declared Keith Telford, promptly. "It is never polite to ask a lady's age, vNell." ''Anyhow, she's old enough to know better," cried Helen, with a suspicion of a sob. "Daddy's old enough to lcuow better, too, and after all the sacrifices I've made to give him a happy home, for him to go off and get engaged to your aunt is simply scandalous and ungrateful."

"I say. It's not exactly scandalous," protested the shocked Telford. "Is assure you that Aunt Cynthia is a perfectly proper person." "Of course, silly," said Helen, hastily. "What I meant was that it would make a scandal for me. If daddy marries your Aunt Cynthia people will say that he had to have someone to really run his house for him, and I assure you, Keith, .that night after night I have lain awake planning how to keep things running—indeed I have." "I know y#u have," assented Telford, trying to straddle the fence of debate, and "finding the pickets uncommonly sharp. "You've run the house like a veteran, dear. Everyone knows that, none better than your fattier and Aunt Cynthia. Perhaps'he is getting married because he is lonesome for older companionship, poor old chap." "And don't I do my best?" cried Helen wrathfuHy. "Hasn't 'he his club, and don't I play his horrid chess with him?" "Of course you do," soothed Telford. "I dare say thath he realises all this well enough. But don't you see, dear, that sometimes you want to go to the theatre or a party, and you stay at home to please him, and it must make him feel mighty uncomfortable to realise that lie is keeping you away from your pleasures." "I'm sure I never show it," protested Helen. "I do everything I know how to make him think that I like his horrid old chess."

Helen's mother had died when the girl was just budding into womanhood, and her last message was, "Take care of daddy, dear." Helen's devotion to her father was so ■well known that Robert Weston's marr riage to Cynthia Telford seemed almost a reproach to the girl. He could not blame her for feeling hurt. "I tell you what we might do," suggested Keith, with a sudden inspiration. "We can get married. Then when your father's engagement to Aunt Cyn,thia is announced everyone will say that it is on account ol your marriage that he is taking, a second wife." "But they will say that I am deserting him," objected Helen. "You know that I have refused to marry you hundreds of times."

"I know," assented Keith, ruefully. "You were getting so that you said 'No' before you said 'Good evening' when I called."

"We'll get married now," continued Keith, pressing his advantage, "and announce it. We can slip out and get the license, persuade Dr. Forsythe to marry us, and come hack and break the news."

The old gentleman smiled genially as they entered the room. "We're married, Daddy, Keith and I," she cried. "It's all your fault. If you hadn't been going to many Miss Cynthia I should not haye deserted you."

Robert Weston's hand reached out for Keith's to draw him into the new family circle, and the grasp was warm and welcoming. "My dear," he said, mildly, "I have always 'wanted you to marry Keith. I hope that we shall all be very happy." "I know Keith and I shall be," said Helen, dubiously. "But Tm afraid that Miss Cynthia can't take care of you as I ihave done."

"Perhaps you will go on taking care of me?" he suggested gently. "I will give you the house for a wedding present, and only a&K. that I be permitted to occupy a little corner of it during my good beliaviour." "But you can't," gasped Helen. "You must marry Miss Cynthia." "You are not the only one who can play tricks," reminded Mr. Weston, with a laugh. "We all recognised that your exaggerated sense of duty toward me would never permit you to marry Keith and be happy yourself. It was Keith's mother who" suggested that we ts-y the effect of pique. Cynthia kindly consented to do her part, and you see that it has worked."

"It was a mean trick," declared Helen, "but all the .same," she added, as her arm slipped around Keith's neck, "I'm glad that the joke was turned on us."

THE MAKING OF A HOME. The making of a home is no easy matter, and by this is not meant the actual manual labor of building the house and decorating the interior, but the giving to one's own four walls the home atmosphere. M this is lacking let the other conditions be whatever they are, even of splendor and luxury, it can never be anything tout the roof over one's head, a necessity but not a comfort. To go about it requires the love of it, a desire for order and system, patience in regard to all the small and seemingly unimportant details, and an artistic eye and sense of what is beautiful and 'appropriate.

As it is women who are the real I home makers, it is on their shoulders that all these responsibilities fall, and the woman who can truthfully say that she finds her own fireside the best in the 'world will surely find that it will

seem the best to the other members of her household. This, in fact, is one cor-ner-stone upon which the entire foundation of family life depends, the invisible tie 'which hold all the members of it together, without which there is no harmony and no unity of thought of action. Happy is the woman who can surround this fireside with this spirit of home, ft spot where the brightest and most desirable of everything is to be obtained, •and where troubles and cares may be thrown aside, or at least be temporarily forgotten. She has conquered her little world, and after that the rest is easy. Order and system are two factors in the home which should never obtrude themselves upon anyone member of it. They are necessities, but of the kind that should invariably be 'kept out of sight, for if permitted to take possession of a household they will drive to desperation all the dwellers of it. Nothing is more fearful than a disorderly home except one that is conducted entirely on system. Where there is a time for everything and 'where everything must be on time, a spot where each article should be placed and if the article is lacking then a general upheaval until it is back in its original place. Order and system there must be, but they must.be unobtrusive, the drops of oil that makes the machinery run smoothly. It is pessibly the watchfulness in* regard to the small things of the home that have most to do with the comfort of it, and it is these that require constant thought and frequently much time and trouble. A touch here, a change there. A chair arranged in just the proper position, a. light that is shaded to suit the reader by night, a comfortable lounging place, and a cosy corner for chat and confidences, and the trick is almost done. Added to these, a well-ordered table, a general air of repose and restfulness, and one's home cannot fail to ibe the most desirable of all places, a real refuge against outside cares tfnd worries. Lastly, there is the necessity for what is pleasing to the eye, v which we will crave. A lpve for color, for the gay, the bright, and the beautiful, for the things that are simply ornamental, even if not used, that will satisfy our material wants. And this, after all, is tke least difficult part of the making of a home. Individual tastes must be considered for this what is appropriate ana in keeping with one's circumstances and surroundings, and; above all, there should never be any effort for display and luxury at the expense of comfort. Attractive furnishings, soft and harmonious colors, good materials, and even works of art are within the reach of all, and the most that is required is a knowledge of what is good and the ability to■ Iput ft to practical uses.

TJie woman who expects to make herself a home, and one that will be an ever-growing delight to herself aim those "belonging' to her, must set about it as she would any other vocation of life. Nothing must be too large or too complicated for her to attempt to grasp and equally nothing must be too small and' trivial for her consideration. She must learn to select her rugs, her wall papers and ber furniture, and she must; also have a thought for glass, for china, and for the many commonplace articles t that iha.ve nothing to do with what is decorative or beautifying. In the wellregulated house the broom and the duster are quite as important in their way as are the vase for flowers and the picture on the wall, and the Wjoman who thinks only of the one and forgets to (provide the other can never expect \<j have an orderly and attractive home.

NOTES An American journal tells of how th« Queen of Italy has put a stop to- over five million dollars going out of her country to Paris for ladies' dresses. The Queen had a conierence of court ladies, and the best dressed women of Italy. They decided to have Italian fashions for Italian women. Leading dress artists and model-makers were secured to make their own designs. The work has gone on under the supervision of the Queen and her committee, and the new goods will .be worn by the wealthiest -and best-dressed Italian ladies. hi this 'way the millions of lire hitherto spent in 'Paris will oe spent in Rome and Milan, who will set the fashions. The journal goes on to say that Queen Elena's example/has spread to Spain, and that Queen Victoria, has set the same movement in Madrid working vigorously. The trend for each great nation to create tlieir own fashions has set in, and doubtless many will join in the procession that is moving away from Paris.

Mrs. W. Irving Twombly, a wealthy American, threatens, according to an exchange, to invade London in the latest thing in motor-cars—a little auto-cab that has been made to fit her like a tailor-made costume, as it is only 26in wide and 56in high.

What promises to be the most complete and comprehensive display of feminine fashions which has yet been seen is to- be held at Holland Park Rink during May, announces the Londn Daily Mail. It is a repetition of the Fair of Fashions which proved so popular in-June-July last, with the difference that on this occasion it is to be on about five times as large a scale in more central premises. All the fashion centres of Europe, including Paris, Vienna, Venice, and Brussels, are arranging to send displays to the fair, at which the principal London bouses will be represented. Coming as it does just before Ascot week, the psychological moment in the world of dress, the Mr is certain of an enormous attendance, and it is this fact not less than the success which attended- it last year which accounts for the extraordinary interest it has excited awong London and Continental modistes and milliners. A feature of the fair •will again be the display on living manne-

quins of gowns by all the well-known fashion creators.

The Chicago hatpin ordinance, which deprives Chicago women of their most cherished weapon of defence, became law on 21st March amid a tempest of hissing and booing from the 'women who crowded the galleries of the City Hall. By a vote of sixty-eight against two the corporation, after considering the new bylaw for a month, decreed: "No person, while in a public street or in any street or elevated railway or public lift or' other public place, shall wear any tat-! pin the exposed point whereof shall protrude more than one-half of an inca beyond the crown of the hat in, upon, or through which such pin is worn." After the ordinance had been passed many women indignantly proclaimed their intention of carrying longer hatpins in their hand as weapons. The ordinance has aroused widespread interest (writes the New York correspondent of the London Daily Mail). Major Sylvester, superintendent of police of the district of Columbia, proclaimed himself absolutely opposed to such legislation. "In Washington," he said, "there are IG,OOO more women than men, and numbers' of them [ are obliged to go about the streets at night without escorts. Instances are I frequent .when they have been assailed, j but have beaten off the marauders with telling effect by means of hatpins. It seems unfair to deprive them of such a weapon."

The blue eyes of a star danseuse in one of the Paris theatres was the primary cause and the ill-timed lighting of a cigar was the (Secondary cause of a Spaniard and Frenchman meeting each other on 19th February to fight a duel in the Pare des (Princes. The principals were a Spanish gentleman said to be resident in London, and M. Payer, a Paris merchant. All three met for the first time the previous week (says a Paris correspondent) when they happened to occupy the same compartment in the Sud express coming from Madrid. The Spaniard while seated opposite the danseuse lighted his cigar. This act angered the lady very much, and she declared that the Spaniard was very impolite to permit himself the luxury of smoking in the presence of ladies. The # Spaniard seems to have replied that he was within his rights, 'as smoking was permitted in the compartment. Then M. Payer, who had been seated beside the fascinating star and ba&King in her smiles, like the brave man he undoubtedly was, flew impetuously at the Spaniard like a fighting cock, and probably would have pulled his nose only that the lady, fearing bloodshed, held him back with a vice-like grip. The incident led to a due exchange of cards and the fulfilling of other formalities inseparable from a well-conducted duel. It was raining when the two faced each other, and the field of honor was thickly covered with mud. They fought with swords for over an hour with intervals of rest. The Spaniard was wounded several times, and in the last encounter touched so deeply in the sword 1 arm that he was unable to continue. So the duel was declared ended, and the principals left the ground unreconciled.

DAINTY DISHES Tongue au Gratin is a tasty way of using up the remains of a tongue. Butter a fireproof dish, scatter crumbs over, and then grated cheese. Now lay in some thin slices of tongue, season with pepper and salt, and pour a little good gravy over. Continue thus' till the dish is full, and put grated cheese and bits of butter on "the top. Bake in a quick oven till lightly browned. Wrap a d'ovlev round the dish, and serve.

Russian Mince.—Cut up a pound of cold meat into dice, chop up also any remains of vegetables, cooked ham, or suet pudding you may have. Fry all lightly in a little dripping. Season to taste -with minced onion, pepper, salt, and parsley. Add a tablespoonful of vinegar. Make thoroughly hot, and serve on a square of buttered toast, with chopped capers over, and, if liked, boiled macaroni round.

Chocolate Jelly. —Required: Threequarters of an ounce of gelatine, one quart of milk, four large tablespoonfuls of gr.a.to'l chocolate, one ounce of siurar, vanilla flavoring, cream. Dissolve the gelatine in the milk, and then add the chocolate and sugar. Boil for ten minutes, stirring all the time. When nearly cold, beat thoroughly with an egg whisk, fla.vor with vanilla, and pour into a mould. Turn out to serve, and nut lumps of whipped cream round. Beetroot Pickle.—First prepare, by steeping in a quart of vinegar, one ounce each of allspice and black pepper, half an ounce each of pounded -ginger and sliced horse-radish, salt, and two capsicums. \ Either boil or bake the beetroot until they are nearly done, and accord- | ing to the size of the roots. You will find the time required one and a-half to two hours. Drain them, and when cool, peel and cut into slices an inch thick, then place all in the pan with sufficient vinegar to cover.