WOMAN'S WORLD

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 185, 15 November 1910, Page 6

WOMAN'S WORLD

(Conducted by '•Eileen.") j

WAR OX WOMEN GOSSIPS. EDICT AGAINST SCANDALMONGERS. Tlie thriving town of Ilattersheim, in Hesse. has declared war 011 women gossips. Scandal-mongering women have played such havoc with the connubial bliss of the community that the bur«o-l | master has resorted to the drastic ex|treme of issuing a municipal proclamation designed to check the garrulousness of the teminine population. The following is the text of his homily on the evils of gossip: "Prosecutions for libel and slander have recently attained widespread dimensions in a certain section of our community. The consequences are bitter enmities and heavy financial sacrifices in the shape of litigation costs. The cause is usually the same. While the men folk are hard at work the women fritter a\?av their time in gossiping and quarrelling. The training of the children is neglected, and the household suffers from their lack of care. hen the breadwinner comes home at night the day's events are untruthfully related to him. Then he must betake himself as the protector of his angry wife to the police, to a solicitor, or to an arbitration court. Such is the family life of many who seek vainly for true domestic happiness. All teachings that woman should busy herself at her own fireside, drive scandalmongers out of her homo, and provide k i comfortable home for her husband and! children are lost on such persons. "This is to make known that poor re< lief will henceforth be given only in exceptional cases to people who involve themselves in scandal prosecutions. The police have also been instructed to compile a list of these persons and warn landlords and tenants against them." SARA BERXHARDT. Madame Sara Bernhardt has arrived in London (writes a London correspondent), and is giving a month's performances, twice daily, at the Colosseum. This will be a wonderful effort, for though I dare not mention the "divine Sara's" exact age, all the world knows that she is a great-grandmother. Her vitality is marvellous. Parisians call her "Notre Dame d'Energie." Here is an illustration of her activities which justifies the title. On a Saturday night she was performing at Roubaix, in France, commencing at half-past 8, and finishing at midnight. After supper, she retired before 3 a.m., but rose again at 5 a.m. and motored to Boulogne. On her way she narrowly escaped being run into bv another motor going at top speed. After crossing the Channel, Madame Bernhardt re-entered her motor car, and came to London. For two hours after her arrival at the Carlton Hotel she was giving interviews to journalists and personal friends. When she made her appearance on the stage of the Colosseum on Monday afternoon, in the second act of Rostand's "L'Aiglon" (the son of Bonaparte and young King oi Rome), she received such an enthusiastic demonstration as one rarely sees in England, Some of the audiences this week have numbered over 8000 persons. This shows, as everybody knows, that Sara Bernhardt is a great favourite in England; and she likes England and the English. The present is her first appearance on a music-hall stage, for which she is receiving a £IOOO a week. Sara. Bernhardt declares she would not act in a French music-hall, for they are so very inferior to the English, both in atmosphere, tone, and programme. She confided to one of her interviewers that she liked English fashions, but there was one fashion she had never been able to acclimatise in Paris. She had never succeeded in inducing fair Parisians to remove they; hats at matinees, as many ladies do in England. In Australia, the part of "L'Aiglon" was played by Miss Tittell Brune, and Australians can form some idea of the difficulty of portraying that part by a woman who is nearer 70 than (iO years of age. But Sara Bernhardt's figure, in her boy's dress, was as neat as ever, and her wonderful voice was as tender and melodious as of old. Her action, too, was that of a bright young woman. THE WOMEN OF BURMA. For the woman Burma is a veritable heaven on earth. Xo country elsewhere furnishes her more freedom, more opportunity. Even Occidental countries cannot vie with Burma in this respect. Mrs. Burma outshines everybody and everything. Moreover, she is übiquitous. You find her here, there, and everywhere. You stop at the jewellery store containing millions of dollars' worth of precious stones, and the person in charge is a woman. The sales-people are also women. You go to a fruit stand and it is a woman who owns and conducts it and sells you a banana or a mango l . At the railway stations a Burmese woman sells you the tickets, and a fair daughter of the land is ready to take your dictation and do your typewriting. The Burmese woman is not only an efficient business woman, but a good mother. Her duties as mother and merchant do not interfere with each other in the slightest degree. Added to her superior intelligence tlie Burmese woman has good looks. She has eyes of a deep liquid black or brown bordering on black. Tlie forehead is .usually high and well filled out, and there is a purity of expression about the face. Her head is oval and shapely, this effect being heightened by the manner in which she dresses her hair in a big knot on the top of the head. Her dress is white, with a tight-fitting jacket with lai'ue sleeves; the lower part of the body is covered by a single bright silk petticoat, which also is tight-fitting, and displays the figure like a modern sheath skirt.—Southern Workman. SET-BACK FOR THE "SMART SET." A considerable change in what is called "smart" society, it is openly rumoured, will signalise the new reign. Neither King George nor Queen Mary has any particular taste for what is known as "smartness." Their friends do not belong to the "set," and thev have been voted a dull pair by some of the dis-

contented butterflies that fluttered around the Royal circle in the late reign. A rather good story is told in this con- , nectio.i of the present Queen Mary. Some time last autumn she was staying at a house party in the country, which included three or four of the ultra smart set, whose conversation at dinner was also ultra smart, and the Princess, as she then was, participated very little in it. Afterwards, however, when tiltladies were in the drawing-room, the Princess opened a work-bag, drew from 1 it a woollen sock, and, taking her stand | on the hearth-rug, proceeded to knit. | For over an hour she remained stock still almost, absorbed in her work, and while she stood the ultra smart ladies, whose usual form would be liqueurs and cigarettes, had to stand too, until they were absolutely dead beat. PRINCESS AS TYPIST. Princess Mary has recently learnt to type. There are two lady typists attached to the secretarial staff at Marlborough House, one of whom, at the Princess' urgent request, instructed her| Royal Highness in the art of typing. The Princess proved an apt pupil, and devoted herself so assiduously to her work that after a few weeks- instruction and practice she was able to work a typewriter at quite a fair rate of speed. Her Royal Highness during her holidays at Balmoral will assist in the typing of some of the more private correspondence of King George. The Princess also intends to learn shorthand, and is keenly looking forward to helping Queen Mary regularly with her correspondence when the Royal Family settles at Buckingham Prince. Princess Mary is the first English Royalty to have learnt typing, and it may be also noted that her Royal Highness was the first Royalty to open an account at the Post Office Savings Bank, which the Princess did on her tenth birthday. | NOTES. The Argonaut states that a patent has been secured for a hat for women which is fitted with a water reservoir for natural flowers. It is affirmed that the re--1 se.rvoir can lie "concealed in any hat." which is quite credible, and that it is made of light material and fitted with • numerous tubes into which the flowers can be inserted. The possibilities of the ! invention are obvious. A new hat will J mean nothing more than a visit to the florist. The scheme of decoration can be changed twenty times a day if necessary, ' and may range from the flaming jreran--1 ium to the variegated orchid. Think, ' too, of the symbolism of such head-gear'. ' Regent-street (writes an observant ' correspondent to a London journal) had ' a spasm of mild excitement on the after--1 noon of 2lst September. A tall lady, 1 attired in the very latest thing in liob- ' bles, suddenly appeared opposite the 1 Piccadilly Hotel. The lady was fair of ' countenance. She was surmounted by a 'hat of beehive designs with egret feathers ' pointing to the zenith, wore sleeves cut 1 off short at the elbows, and carried an ' effective display of bunting in the way 1 of a dainty, flowing shoulder shawl of 1 gauzy substance. But it was the hobble 1 that finished the picture. This was a 1 hand of some oin or 6in in width, of rich colouring, that effectively bound the black silk dress an inch or two below the knees. Several inches of open-work stocking and a pair of high-heeled shoes were delicately visible. In thirty seconds she was the head of an interested and delighted procession. Away towards Oxford Circus she hobbled,'and the crowd lined up to let her pass, and then fell in behind or trotted along, admiring the way she did it. Opposite Conduit Street, however, she had had enough, and swiftly tacking across the road, she sought cover in a large shop. It took three policemen to guard the entrance.