WOMAN'S WORLD

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 197, 29 November 1910, Page 6

WOMAN'S WORLD

(Conducted by "Eileen").. LONDON NOTES. THE DAILY MIRROR ON TIKIS. London, October 7. Tin' Dailv Mirror, on what authority one knows'not, informed its readers on Mondav that "the tiki is the seal of New Zealand," and inserted an illustration of ia Christmas card, destined for transmis-1 sion to the Dominion, "with the lucky j tiki attached.'' CERTIFICATED BRIDES. In 1011, if the rich and influential body called the "Swiss Society of Public Utility for Women," which has done much good in Switzerland during the last few weeks, prevails, all young women, wed or unwed, Will be medically and physically examined, as are their brothers who enter the Swiss army, so that Swiss bachelors will soon be able to examine certificates regarding their brides' health. The report issued by the society for 1910 in dealing with the suggested new measure urges every young woman to undergo the ordeal 'for the sake of herself, her husband, and of Switzerland.

FOR EMERGENCY OPERATIONS. An interesting exhibit at the London Medical Exhibition, which opened on Monday, is a model sterilising chamber for surgical dressings. This consists of sealed drums, which contain all the paraphernalia required in an operation—dressings gauze, etc.—and which can be bought ready for immediate use day or night. By this splendid idea half the trouble a J surgeon has hitherto been put to when | lie had had to perform an unexpected operation in a patient's own home at night will be done away with. THE FISHERMEN'S HARVEST. . Somewhat curious decorations were those displayed at the Church of St. Magnus the Martyr, Billingsgate, last Sunday at a special thanksgiving service for the fishermen's harvest, when fish of all kinds and lobsters ornamented the sacred place. ONLY REPORTING! An amusing story was told by the Bishop of Gloucester at the annual meeting of the Eton branch of the Zululand Mission, regarding a letter written by a Kaffir boy to a bishop on furlough, who had worked for some time among the Kaffirs. It was a regular boy's letter, the Bishop said, and told how the lad missed his rev. friend, whom he hoped soon to see back. The postscript was short, but very telling, and, in the custom of many English people, contained the main point of the whole letter. It ran:— "P.S.—Am sorry to tell you that I have got no trousers, as mine are broken. Still, T am not asking, I am only reporting!" ..

A RARE EVENT. A somewhat unique gift is tha. Iy made by Sir Robert Harvey, of ridge, near Truro, to a Roman churi > i_. Devon. Sir Robert is a member of U't Established Church, but he has given a peal of bells, costing £IOOO, to Buckfast Abbey in memory of his late wife, a lady who hailed from Lima, in Peru, and w-ho was a devoted member of the Roman Catholic Church. SALAD LIKE MUSIC.

An address on salad-making, a science that, according to foreigners, is not understood in England, was given this week by a Mr. W. P. Giles, a Fellow of the Royal Horticultural Society, in connection with the monthly show of the National Amateur Gardeners' Association. The lecturer pointed out that the frugal Frenchmen and Italians use in their salads many ingredients which are cheap and tender, such as the. tops of nettles, shoots of hops, vines, and asparagus, and even pods of young peas, and quoted as an axiom the saying of John Evelyn that the element of a salad should ''fall into their places like notes of music," none being too prominent, but all in harmony. The best of the foreign plans to be chosen for cultivation Mr. Giles opined to be the endive, witloof, dandelion, mache or corn salad, Belle Isle or 'Americal cress, the finocchio or Florence fennel, eeleriac (or turnip-rooted celery), chives, prache, and the Chinese winter radish.

A DUKE'S DAUGHTER RE-MARRIED. A somewhat curious fact in connection with the scale of precedence has been brought to notice bv Lady Chesham's marriage on Tuesday last to Mr. John Moncrieffe. The bride was the widow of Lord Chesham, and a daughter of the Duke of Westminster, and by this marriage, though it be to a commoner, is advanced several degrees in the scale of precedence, for she now resumes her rank as a duke's daughter, instead of as the wife or widow of a baron. CARAVAN CRUSADE.

A second caravan set out from Regent's Park on Saturday in continuance of the health crusade in the villages and towns of the United Kingdom being carried on by the Women's Imperial Health Association of Great Britain. This one is called the "Florence Nightingale," and is splendidly fitted and equipped. It will be "manned" almost entirely by ladies, who will deliver the lectures and do all the work. It is to made a tour of the eastern counties, and the lectures, which will ,be delivered by qualified medical women, will include such subjects as personal hygiene, the ■hywiene of the home, the feeding of children, the cause of infant mortality and its prevention, food and cooking, the prevention of blindness in early life, dust and disease, the open window, and the minor ailments of children. On Monday the third caravan left for a tour of the London parks, Battersea, Finsbury, and Victoria Parks. The lectures are illustrated by the open-air cinematograph, an invention which enables the biographer to exhibit pictures in daylight. This invention has been expressly pushed forward for the purpose, as it is impossible to deliver lectures in the parks after dark. A FAMOUS NOVELIST. Miss Braddon, the famous novelist, celebrated on Tuesday last her seventythird birthday. She lives in a delightful old Georgian house at Richmond, originally built for the Ear! of Abergavenny, and afterwards used as the palace of the Bishop of Lichfield. Mrs. MaxweM, as Braddon is in private life, whose white corkscrew curls give a cliarming

early Victorian air, is in excellent health. She goes out every day, and in spite of the fact that she' has well over threescore novels to her credit, she is engaged in writing another. A story connected with the now famous ''Lady Audley's Secret" is of interest. Mr. John Maxwell, the publisher, who afterwards became her husband, had decided to start a new magazine entitded "'Robin Goodfellow." For some reason the special serial was not forthcoming in time. Hearing of the difficulty, Miss Braddon offered to fill (he breach. "But you have not /time," said the editor to Miss Braddon, who was then one of the great unknown. ' "You shall have the opening chapters at breakfast time to-morrow," responded the courageous novelist, and promptly the editor forgot all about the interview. Next morning, however, when the first few chapters of "Lady Audley's Secret" (written in a single night) lay before him as he sipped his coffee, the editor knew his magazine was saved.

BRILLIANT GIRL MUSICIAN. From Berlin comes the news that the Prussian Royal Academy of Music at Charlottenburg has conferred an unprecedented honor on a young English musician, Miss Beatrice Harrison, to whom it has just awarded the Mendelssohn Prize for her violoncello playing. It is the first time that the prize has ever been won by a woman or a foreigner. Her sister, Miss May Harrison, made a brilliant debut on the German concert platform as a violinist a year ago. Their father, Colonel Harrison, is a retired officer of the Indian Army, who resided at Berlin during his daughter's musical education. WOMEN ADVOCATES.

Hailed in the papers as "Girls of the Junior Bar," three new women advocates took the oath in Paris yesterday. A PITIFUL ENDING. SEQUEL TO AX AVIATOR'S DEATH. With her head buried among the withered flowers in the cemetery of Montmartre (says the Paris correspondent of i the Daily Telegraph on October 7). the] corpse of a young girl has been found by . the police, and her death is attributed to suicide. The grave was that of the late aviator, M. Poillot, who was killed in an aeroplane accident at Chartres eight days ago, and the girl had been his sweetheart for the last, two years. The story, simple and romantic as it is, is unusually pathetic, Poillot, who was himself one of the youngest aviators, being only twentytwo years of age, had met her in one of the music-halls of Montmartre, where she appeared before the footlights as a dancer. She was pretty, just a year younger than himself, and he fell in love with her at once. She in turn became j very fond of him, and in time almost id ja "ed him. When he became an aviI ;Xzx '<e almost went out of her mind ' : q-ht at his success, and nobody ■ i-aa-ii tL. sports of his performances in I >,'-:? *rs with more enthusiasm i Sti&u ti:*t ;< r young Montmartre girl, .ig that she did every morn- | :ay . .0 look for his name' in the i „jif„ Monday mornin? she snatched up as usual, expecting to read about some new exploit of his, as he had been making some fine flights a few days before, but. to her intense horror, what should she see but the death of her lover in big black headlines announced in all the papers. She uttered a terrible scream, which was heard by everyone in the house, made a heroic effort to overcome a swoon, and rushed to the nearest garage for an automobile. She flew to Chartres as quickly as the car could carry her, urging the chauffeur to drive as fast as he could. She reached Chartres pale and trembling, rushed to the hospital, and insisted on seeing the corpse of her friend. Her lover was lying there in a coffin. The few witnesses of the scene withdrew as she took the head of he* lover up in her arms, spoke to him as if he were still alive, kissed him, and then fainted beside the coffin.

The bod} - was taken to Paris, and she followed it. When she returned to her room her se»eams and sobs were painful to hear, and for two days she remained shut up. On the morning of the funeral she went to the house, laid wreaths of flowers on the coffin, and followed it on foot to the cemetery. She returned to her room, and was heard sobbing all night. Yesterday afternoon she left her room, pale and haggard, and walked to the cemetery. There was such an expression of grief on her face that none of the neighbors dared to to her. Th'ere were few people in the cemetery, and she found herself alone near the grave of her lover. She knelt down on the fresh grave, and remained there for some time, when suddenly a shot was fired, and she fell dead among the flowers which had been placed there only a few days before. COUNTESS TOLSTOI

Much has been written about Tolstoi; a great deal less about his wife. The World's Work says that for years past the Countess has been the actual proprietor of Yasnaya Polyana. She has also been, since Tolstoi .renounced his claims, the publisher of, his books. "She is, a woman of remarkable character and nobility of mind, and her patience and kindness to the Prophet has been wonderful. She has been at once his wife, his mother, his amarfuensis, and his man of business." She is much younger than Toilstoi. "The bridegroom of 34 and the bride of 18." The Countess' father was of German extraction, the name being Belies, Although possessed of no mean intellect herself, she has from the first, through all manner of trials, believed in her husband, moulded herself to him, helped him at every turn, taught herself to be his confidant and counsellor, without losing her own independence, and the will to assert her diverging views where such occasionally occurred.