WOMAN'S WORLD

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 202, 5 December 1910, Page 6

WOMAN'S WORLD

(Conducted by "Eileen"). FRENCH HOUSEKEEPING. Tlie keynote of French housekeeping is its lack of pretension . In England most people do not feel in a position to possess a manservant —except, of course, a coachman or gardener —unless a fair number of maidservants are also kept. j A man and his wife, with a single bonne [in addition, testifies, however, to a cer-' tain affluence to a French menage de province. Two women servants are considered a luxury in many homes in France, where, with still smaller means, they would be regarded merely as necessities in England, and would indicate if not exactly poverty, at least the existence of a very tiny income. The oneservant menage at home is an acknowledgment of slenderness of means which even flat life in towns docs not exactly explain away. In England, of course (says a Home paper), we expect to be waited upon to a far greater degree than would be expected by those in the same position in France. A French bonne a tout faire leaves undone many of the little attentions which are supposed to be indispensable to an English standard of comfort. It is, however, a moot question whether, after all, these matters are indispensable to comfort, and whether the French menage, with its simpler ideas, its essentially plain living, and its disregard of any of

the mauvaise honte in the practice of economy, does not make for more solid domestic peace and well-being in the end. In France the day begins early. Halfpast six is the hour for getting up in many households, the servant rising, of course, long before that hour. The first, and admirably slender, breakfast is over before eight. The coffee and rolls—or more economically pain de menage—take 'little time to prepare. Served on a tray in the bedroom, the servant is saved the laying of a cloth in the dining-room, the clearing away of crumbs, and washing up of endless plates and silver, and the preparation of breakfast dishes, the thinking out of which is a nightmare to most British housekeepers. If the means are small, it is considered no shame for the mistress of the household to go to market twice a week, with her bonne to carry the basket of overflowing proportions. A woman in a far lower social position in England would almost shrink from being seen choosing the meat or fish for dinner. She would certainly object to being seen walking home beside her maid, bearing the week's larder for all her neighbors to see. The service at meals in French provincial households is, besides, most unpretentious. The servant places each course in turn on a brass or copper stand, on little wheels, in the centre of the table. This is pushed in front of J one person after another. If there is a joint someone carves it, and places the slices on a plate to ba handed or wheeled round. Perhaps the greatest advantage lies in being able to choose one's own favorite piece, and indulge liberally in sauce or gravy, or the preserve. Merely • the changing of plates between each course gives the bonne little enough to do. Meanwhile she prepares the coffee, which follows every meal in France, instead of representing a luxury as it does in so many English homes, in any case at lunch. Parquet floors, which for some unaccountable reason are so much cheaper in ' France, make the household work a quicker undertaking than at home., Sweeping, when there are no carpets or 1 rugs, is an affair of a minute or two daily. Many a Frenchwoman, too, would not dream of using a carpet in the salon except on her jour de reception. Her '' Aubusson is then laid under the legs of 1 her Louis XVI. tapestry fauteuils and e tabourets, and she spreads her silver sets 3 in the adjoining salle-a-manger, and serves her friends with coffee, chocolate, and petits fours in what she fondly believes is the English fashion. On other days, afternoon tea is a superfluity. Per-

baps a Frenchwoman does not, however, know what she misses by this economy. Half-past six rising entails early bedtime. Family dinners, which begin at seven, are over early, and lights are oft«n out by 9.30. SINGULAR WEDDINGS. Although the vast majority of brides and bridegrooms are quite content to have the nuptial knot tied in church, there are, says the Globe, a few who prefer it in an odd environment. To be "spliced" on a swinging trapeeze would not be everyone'e choice, yet that was the scene selected on one occasion by two couples of circus performers. The contracting parties, gorgeously arrayed, climbed on to two aerial perches, one on each side, while the officiating clergyman stood on a pyramid in the centre and conducted the service.

In 1907 a wedding occurred in a still more curious and dangerous place—in a lion's cage at the Boston Zoo. Something like four thousand people witnessed the event, a Methodist clergyman conducting it. The reverend gentleman, however, stood outside the cage, and, at the proper moment, the bride and bridegroom followed the keeper in to the cage, which contained two large lions, and the steel-barred door was closed behind them. The whole thing was over in five minutes, but it must have seemed years to the couple, considering that the lions walked round the cage at the unusual sight, and then laid down, roaring and yawning alternately. On, another occasion a couple had the romantic idea of being married inside the head of the colossal figure of the Goddess of Liberty, which stands in New York Harbor. The head being a hollow chamber, the feat was made feasible and was duly carried out, after the bridal party had mounted the three hundred feet of narrow stairs to reach their destination.

Marriages have now and again taken place on horseback, one such being between an eloping couple some years back. While a service was in progress in a village. church th« noise of clattering, hoofs was heard. An official going to the entrance found a man and woman mounted on palpitating animals. After some persuasion, as the pair were armed with the necessary authority, the clergyman promptly married them, the lovers not dismounting during the process. As soon as it was ended they put spurs to their horses and galloped away into the darkness.

Another instance was afforded by a country gentleman, who was so enamor-

Ed of hunting that he resolved not to kneel at the ceremony, but to go through the marriage performance while seated on the back of his favorite horse. The bride, being also a keen rider to hounds, at once agreed, and she and all the rest of the wedding party appeared similarly mounted. The gentlemen wore red coats and top-boots and the ladies riding habits; when the knot had been tied a regular hunt breakfast was partaken of. During the Chicago World's Fair some years ago the Ferris Wheel, of which the Big Wheel at Earl's Court was a near [ relative, was one of the chief attractions, | and an enterprising couple elected to be married in it. Accordingly they were •united two hundred and fifty feet above the heads of the gaping and interested crowd.

And, as there is no accounting for tastes, it is not surprising to learn that even the bowels of the earth have been chosen for a wedding. Such an event in a coal mine would be a matter-of-fact affair in comparison with a marriage in the Mammoth Cave of Kentucky, whose wonders and creepiness have been pictured by many pens until the reader has been made almost nervous by the descriptions. Nevertheless, this eerie cave was the scene of a knot tying.' It was performed by the light of torches, which made the darkness of the cave, if anything, more intense, the spot selected being something like nine miles from the entrance to the cave, and only reached : by crossing Styx-like waters and crawling on hands and knees.

SOME FACTS. The average number of teeth is 32. The weight oi the circulating blood is 291b. The average weight of an adult is 150 lb Goz.

The brain of a man exceeds twice | that of any other animal. A main' breathes about 20 times a minute, or 1200 times in an hour. The average weight of the brain of a man is 3V-lb; of a woman 21b lloz. Five hundred and forty pounds, or one hogshead and one and a-quarter pints, of blood pass through the heart in one hour. The average height of an Englishman is sft 9in; of a Frenchman sft 4in; of a Belgian sft 6%in. The heart sends nearly 101b of blood through the veins and arteries each beat, and makes four beats while we breathe once. One hundred and seventy-five million cells are in the lungs, which would cover a surface thirty times greater than the human body. The average of the pulse in infancy is 120 per minute; in manhood, 80; at sixty years, 60. The pulse of females is I more rapid than that of males.