WOMAN'S WORLD

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 217, 22 December 1910, Page 6

WOMAN'S WORLD

(Conducted by "Eileen"). j CHARM OF SPEECH Many women overlook the fact that nothing betokens true refinement more tmetringly tlfiui a pure, earnest, well nft),dulated voice, free from affectation, la fact, it is in the voice that the secret Of the oharm of many women lies. Not every person may have the advantage of lessons in elocution, but every person who will may cultivate a pure tone and pleasant voice. The first step in learning to talk well k to breathe correctly. Let your tones be clear and as musical as you can produce them. Did you ever hear a person speak the name of Brown so that it sounded really musical? Most people pronounce it with the throat almost closed and from the front of the mouth. There must be a resonance in the voice. Do not waste your breath in speaking, but let your last tone be as distinct as the first. Do not speak in monotone, but modulate your voice to give expression, just as you would follow the signs of music. Pitch your voice to suit the time and place—not so low as to appear secret nor so high as to seem bold and nervous.

GIRLS' CHARACTERS ACCORDING TO HEALTH AND AGE. We are apt to think sometimes that health can be attained by following carefully a certain set of definite rules, and that if everyone would observe these there would be an end to all ailments (remarks a London physician). The only difficulty is that if we tried to frame rules which would do for every state of life, every age, every temperament, they would have to be so loose and general that they would lose all definite outline. Infancy, maturity, and old age have each different requirements, and even within each of these sections there are numerous varieties, according to the sex, constitution, and circumstances of the individual. In the case of infants we generally recognise the fact, but as age creeps on we are apt to let it slip out of mind* We may say that almost always the middle-aged and the old eat and drink far more than is good for th'em. Growth has ceased, usually exercise is diminished —often, indeed, reduced to a minimum—and the digestive functions become less and less competent to deal with large masses of food. The general results are unwholesome fatness, shortness of breath, giddiness, susceptibility, And mental sluggishness. Old people require more protection than the young and vigorous, but that is not saying that they should coop themselves up in stuffy rooms. They require moderate exercise, avoiding violent exertion and arm-chair laziness with equal caution. Nourishing food carefully prepared they must have, but they should err if at all in the direction of under eating. And, lastly, it is the greatest mistake to give up using one's intellect, and to allow oneself to sink into that unwholesome mental torpor which is associated with old age.

THE CHARACTER OF THE BALLET DANCERS. In "London" Mr. James de Conlay describes the training, sufferings and character of the ballet dancer. The physical strain is terrible:— To see Genee pirouetting on her dainty toes was a Jhing of joy. How many among her myriad audiences knew that almost always after she had fluttered away from them iher slippers were filled with blood, and that real agony would wring tears from her as she wept over her bleeding feet? How many people know that Odette Valerie had to lie almost all day long nursing her nerves in a dark and silent room? Why is the delicate Britta absent from performances at frequent intervals? How many know t'hat, after their wonderful dances together, Pavlova goes to her devotion, and Mordkin to his diet and his diumibells? Who has followed Leonqra night after night after the Spanish dance in the fourth scene of "Femina" at the Alhambra, when she has fallen utterly exhausted at the feet of her two dressing-women—the pulse of her heart halted, her lungs empty ol' breath, and for . the moment the light gone out of her eyes?

The demands of the work make an, irregular moral life all but impossible. Dancing is, the writer insists, the one art which prescribes cleanness of life. The great dancers are only promoted after a well-nigh inhumanly severe course of study in the strictest schools in the world. "It is an absolutely true thing to say that the ballet brings up the most hard-working, honest and clean-J living girls in the world":— i These girls of the ballet are, in tKe main, usually attracted towards reli-| gion. A remarkable percentage of them are Roman Catholics, and almost any evening some of the girls may be seen at their prayers in the little church at Notre Dame de France, off Leicestersquare, before they turn in to their dancing. At the present time there are several girls in the corps de ballet who have graduated from foreign convents. The dancer goes to the Alhambra school when she is about six years of age, and every step takes a year to learn. As a child she begins at a few shillings a week, and in due time works up to" the front row at £2 a week. As an understudy she may reach to £3 a week. Then comes a great gap; there are no salaries in the ballet between £5 and £2O a week.

A QUEER CREATURE. Here is a little pen picture which "Mrs. "Bull"—the new English paper for ladies —gives of somebody she saw in the! street: "A few days ago, in Piccadilly,' in the early afternoon, I saw an object at which all the world and his wife turned to gaze in wonder. It wore a scanty covering of some flimsy material, which began rather late in the neck anil ended rather early at the ankles, and in the interim carefully exposed every line of what I suppose was its body. If it wore stockings they, were invisible to the naked eye, and its shoes were hideous. J Its gloves were of the style beloved of Yvette Guilbert in the theatre, and its' face, if it had one, was carefully eon- i cealed under an erection not unlike the j Dome of St. Paul's. Perhaps it was as I well." About the modern figure there is |

sttll rather more "line" than there ought to be for pleasing effect, and any exaggeration of it brings about appalling results. One quoted is a typical instance of what may still be seen dozens of times during an afternoon spent in Re-gent-street, Bond-street, and Piccadilly.

WOMEN IN CRIMINAL COURTS There was considerable animadversion in the London Press on the action of the Lord Chief Justice, who, during the progress of the Crippen trial, gave a seat on the bench alongside of himself to a famous musical comedy actress, whose object wa"s to gather sensations and find a "real dramatic school" in court. The objectors' views were voiced by Mr. E. H. Cameron, who wrote in the Time:— I go so far as to say that the judge alone has any right to be on the bench. The presence of even city dignitaries is anomalous. A woman, be she a Kitty Give or a Mrs. Siddons, is unseemly at a murder trial, and doubly so i£ her object is to gather sensations. We do not put a prisoner .in the. dock for the benefit of the emotional stage, but to find out if he be innocent or guilty. The drama has nothing whatever to do

with it. Sir Henry Poland, the eminent criminal lawyier, chivalrously came to the rescue of Lord Alverstohe, and declared that a woman, equally with mere man, was entitled to hear a criminal trial, »which is one of the most interesting things in this country. - ' There would have been no objection if the lady had been a tragedy actress, nor to other ladies who were present, wearing enormous hats and expensive furs. What did it matter whether the ladies present wore the enormous hat of the present day or the porkpie hats of half a century ago, or whether they wore sables or dyed rabbitskins? ''lf our mode of trial in a murder case," urged Sir Henry, "is capable of being improved, let the matter be discussed with calm reasoning, and let not an effusive display of sentiment lead people astray on this subject.

THE QUEEN AS A HOUSEWIFE. It is a well-known fact that Queen Mary is a pattern mother and a skilled housekeeper, who would put many mid-dle-class mistresses to shame by her accurate and up-to-date knowledge of details. She is an expert coOlc, a fine needlewoman, and no mean student of domestic architecture in its bearing upin health; while so careful is she of domestic finance that it is stated on good authority that not only does she dictate in detail from an artistic point how her gowns shall be made, but insists on a business-like and accurate estimate of cost. THE NOTORIOUS "HOBBLE."

The hobble skirt has been responsible (according to the Washington correspondent of the Daily Chronicle) for a little scene at the entrance to the United Sta'tes Supreme Court. Miss Adeliua Burd, a lady lawyer from New York, appeared 'before the justices to argue a case, and as she was wearing a hobble skirt the attendant at the door, who has occupied his post for many years, refused Miss Burd admittance. He declared that she was not properly dressed to appear before the Supreme Bench, and that a hobble skirt was too undignified for anyone to wear who expected to address the Court. Miss Burd, however, challenged him to keep her out, and insisted upon entering. Her persistence won the day.

cuvo nvu WIG BEAUTY COMPETITION WINNER Fraulein Mela Bybicka lias just been declared the most beautiful woman of Austria, which is the home of beautiful women. She was the winner at Vienna of u ibeauty competition that was confined- to Austrian ladies of title and to the wives and daughters of military arid professional men. Actresses and professional beauties were religiously excluded.