WOMAN'S WORLD

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 184, 14 November 1910, Page 6

WOMAN'S WORLD

(Conducted by "Eileen*")

ETHEL LE XEVE,

SIXTEEN OFFERS OF .MARRIAGE.

London. October 28,

Since her acquittal, Ethel Le Xeve.j Crippen's pafaimmr, has been inundated J with all sorts of offers— otter* of marriage, oll'ers of theatrical engagement,j I and oilers from' newspapers. | There are no fewer than 1G suitors for her hand, and hundreds of theatrical managers have tried to secure her as an attraction on the most tempting terms.

Of the many newspapers that have bee:a keen on getting from Miss Le Neve a story written by herself, at least one has offered as high a price, as £2OO for an account of her life with Crippen. Crippen was interviewed yesterday by his solicitor, Mr. Andrew Newton.* 'He. was quite cheerful for a man who is lying under sentence cf deatii. He tola Mr. Xcwton how glad he was that Le Xeve had been acquitted, and expressed a wish to see the girl, adding that he did not doubt that she would visit him at the earliest opportunity.

Vancouver, October 27. Commenting upon the verdict of the jury in the Crippen murder case, the Seattle Times remarks that in America the prisoner would never have been convicted of murder in the degree that requires the imposition of the death penalty. There would be no chance of convicting a man to that extent without at least jwoving that the victim was dead.

Summing up the case the Times adds: "The English system is too fast and too severe, and the American system too soft and too lenient. The ideal law is something that lies between the two."

LOVE AXD MARRIAGE. Talk of cynical man! He will nevei be so worldly wise as a score of anonymous ladies who tell ns what they think of love. A fashion paper (says the Paris correspondent of the Telegraph) Jias instituted a correspondence anion? its readers, which seems to have caught on considerably, judging by the pages of questions and copious answers. Some correspondents wYint to know how to make gooseberry jam or mend a china flower-pot. But one of them signs "Love or Death," and asks for appropriate information. She is two-and-twenty. Sht loves the wrong man, and she hates the man who loves her, and whom her parents want her to marry. Shall she marry the man she hates, or die a maid! Even cynical men would hesitate to answer "Harry." The immense majority of the ladies, however, who reply in the fashion paper under cover of curious! pseudonyms, say in substance, "Marry the man you hate. Love is not of the slightest importance for gqtting married." "Rainbow" advises: "You have no sympathy for the young man, bui if you marry him he will certainly cease to be indifferent." The lady writes this without any conscious humour. "In time you will certainly learn to love him. I have ?. friend who was exactly in your position. She has been marriea three years, and has two. charming babies, and says she js quite happy." The last remark is cautious. Another adviser writes: "You have no idea what a bore an affectionate husband becomes. Marriage and love don't agree for anj length of time. Mutual esteem is the real foundation of marriage." "Marry by all means," says a lady who signs herself "Shy Daisy," "don't let the chance go by. Don't sniff at it. In a few years your romantic notions will I pass away, and you will acknowledge that romantic passion is all nonsense, and that the only real happiness is to have a comfortable home. I know from experience." Yet another worldly-wise lady writes: "Girls have all sorts of wrong notions about marriage. They think the passion of their betrothal days going to last for ever. Happiness may 'last, but passion doesn't, because life does away with it. Very often the nicest men to be engaged make the worst husbands. You don't love the young man, but if he cares for you he will be nice to you, and you will like him and end by caring for him. One of my friends hated the man she married, and now she thanks me for having persuaded her to marry him." What rational, sensible souls these French ladies are!- I

FASHIONS. The familiar saying that "history repeats itself" is equally true of fashions. Almost every modern fashion that comes in is a revival of something that has gone before. The large hats tilted ai the side that we see so often are revivals of a fashion that prevailed about the year 1778. Pepltims were revived in 18G9, and the same classical garments appear at the present day in various forms and shapes adapted to show the figure, and always with a border, often of a key pattern. The long coats now so prevalent have a sort of resemblance to the pelises of our great grandmothers. Satin pelises and huge muffs, such as that shown in the fashion of 1805, were once quite the thing to wear; so also were toques with dropping feathers at one side. There was a whisper not long ago that caps were to come into fashion, and this is, as we all know, a revival of a fashion which prevailed in the 18th century, when every woman, young and old, More a cap. Dr. Johnson, who was a great critic of women's dress, after I looking steadfastly at Fanny Burnev—"the sly young rogue, the charactermonger," as he called her—burst out! with '"Yes, it's very handsome." "What J sir?" cried Fanny amazed. "Why, youi cap! I have looked at it for some time, and I like it much; it lia-s not that vile bandeau across it that I have so often cursed." Near-sighted as the great man was, nothing in the way of dress escaped him, and he gave a certain Miss Brown Tio peace about her "vi'.e cap." Once he cried to Mrs. Burnev (Fanny Burnev'* stepmother), who was going, to church in a' linen jacket, "Why, madam, tliis won't do! You must not go to church so!" Caps were of all sizes and shapes —worn at right angles, worn over the front, curls, worn t'ilted back—and to

some faces they were very becoming. Jane Austen is represented' in the best portrait of her that have as weiring a cap, though at that time she was quite a young woman. Somehow it suited the bright archness of her face. She was often much exercised about the choice of her caps. When she was only '.'•'i she wrote from Rath, then the seat'of fashion: "I am not to wear mv white-satin cap to-night, after all. 1 am to wear a mamelouc cap instead, which Charles Fowle sent to .Mary, and which she lends me. It is all the fashion now, worn at the opera, and br Lady Mildmay at Mack wood lulls."' It would be strange indeed if the fashion of wearing caps by quite young girls should be again revived. Turbans, too, may get. another lease of their lives. Mme. de Stael is generally represented as wearing a huge turban, and the charming Pamela —Lady Edward Fitzgerald—never looked so well as in a turban, the brilliant eojours of it contrasting well with hei brun vert eyes and arched eyebrows. It is always advisable to refer to the fashions of former days. One is generalh sure to find something which suggests ideas. Many of the great French dress experts go to picture galleries in order to consult the cut and fit of the garments worn by bygone beauties. Perhaps it was some such study which brought back to the light of day' the Empire and Directoire styles. What are they but revivals of last century's fashions—fashions which that arch-priestess of dress, the Empress Josephine, wore with such grace and dignity.—Transvaal Weekly.

A CURIOUS WILL. The opinion which a Spanish ladv, formerly residing in Paris, held of her" relatives is expressed with considerable venom in her will, which was proved in London recently, as follows: "As to my sisters, nieces, nephew, brother-in-law. and cousin, nothing— NOTHING shall come to them from me but a bag of sand to rub themselves with. None deserve a good-bye. I do not recognise a single one of them. It is useless even to communicate my death to them, they have too much abused and lied against ™e." '

The testator loft £I.OOO on trust for her husband, saying:—

"He cattnot touch this £I,OOO or do anything whatsoever. He must live on the interest which he will have from this sum, and if he .remarries, from that clay the income and the capital shall no longer be his. ':He may dispose of them only if he becomes a monk in an Order, otherwise it is only income, and I repeat it—if my husband remarries, from that day neither capital nor interest shall be for him any more, and on the day, say, of his death, if he remains a widower, this £I,OOO, with the rest of what remains oi my estate, shall be to found a house of refuge for couples without children who cannot find means of housing, and who are in the most complete need of shelter."

The testator bequeathed the following amounts to charity:—Four hundred pounds to the Society for the Protection of Animals, on.condition that they hang a picture of lrer in their meeting hall under the title, '-'The Protecting Friend of Dogs," and that they care for her dogs and cats.

Two hundred pounds to the Little Sisters of 'the Poor, on condition that "six of them pray so long as my body shall remain exposed in my apartment, and accompany it to the cemetery."

FANCIES AT FLEMIXGTON. Some of the accessories of dress that attracted attention at the Melbourne Cup last week were handbags and footwear. Some of the former were large in the extreme, and dazzling to behold. The onlooker often wondered—rather audibly at times—why a well-dressed girl needs to carry to the races a handbag 20 inches long and twelve high. There seems no rational reason why these decidedly clumsy reticules should be considered smart,'but certainly for the moment they appear to be almost indispensable. As for the footwear, it came somewhat as a shock when one saw black velvet shoes in conjunction with white open-work stockings peeping out beneath a pretty-coloured frock. To begin with the combination of white hosiery and black shoes has an enlarging effect ot the feet. Next in order, not because they are less remarkable, but because thev are not so grotesque, are the shoes with gilt heels and buckles; but here again, the inclination to wear stockings of a contrasting colour should be sternly repressed. The red-heeled shoe is another vagary which catches the eve of the passer-by very quickly; and all these extraordinary departures were to bt noticed on Cup Day. Satin walking shoes with welted soles are a novelty which doubtless the rage of bizarre footwear has forced on the" market, and this, together with the bi-coloured dancing shoe, with lines of alternate gold ana blue or gold and white is frequently worn with silken hose.

Sunshades called for special attention seeing how great is the change that ha* come over these things. Never were they seen in greater variety than at Flemington, and never have the large ones heeii quite so large as they are at present, when high hats demand so much in the way of protection. They measure as much across as the family umbrella. They are bell-shaped or flat, according to fancy, but big thev must be in order to be fashionable. One of them held a brief for China. It was simply a big Chinese umbrella, black and gold—no imitation, but simply the real thing. Its nearest neighbour was a delicate affair in Paisley patterned silk, and all aboufc l it were beautiful affairs in blue satin, in green satin, in stripes and in embroidery, with here and there something in embroidered tussore. It gave the '•'necessary note of black," and its quaintness certainly commended it to notice even on a Cup day. The stick of an umbrella may not give matter worthy > of comment, but there were jewelled' sticks,-and carved sticks, and sticks so beautifully ornamented with gold and silver repousse seen in sunshades that it is small wonder their owners carried them with an nir of distinct importance'.