"THE ISLAND OF GIRLS."

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 224, 27 January 1911, Page 6

"THE ISLAND OF GIRLS."

Rottnest Island, off the West Australian coast, has an amusing derivation. Mr. George Gollingridge told about it in a paper on the early discovery of Australia, read before the geography and history section of the Science Congress (says the Sydney Telegraph). "This island," he says, "is plainly shown on the old Lusitano-Spanish charts, but bears a strange name, which has led to some stranger mistakes. It is called 'llame de Sille.' Now, in those days, navigators and geographers were constantly in search of more or less fictitious islands, among which, the 'lsland

of Men' and the 'lsland of Women' had been sought for in vain. Could this lie one of the lost islands? The old-fash-ioned letters, resembling ail 'fmade 'Hame de Sille* look like 'Hame de Fille,' and a French geographer jumped at the conclusion that the word was i 'fille,' and that he had found the longlost island. He called it accordingly 'T. des Fillcs'—'lsland of Girls!' The Dutch translated the name on their charts, appropriating other national discoveries as was their wont; they called it "Meisje Eylandt,' but instead of the girls they expected to see the island peopled with, they found it overrun with beautiful creatures, it is true; but, alas! of the small wallaby kind—that pretty, brindled kind peculiar to the outlying islands of West Australia. It goes without saying that they did not know of the term wallaby, and, taking! those pretty creatures for overgrown rats (they described them as being as large as a cat), they called the island 'Rat Island,' or 'Rat's Nest,' and Rottnest is the Dutch form thereof, preserved to this day." EXTRAVAGANCE OF AMERICAN LADIES SOME AMAZING FACTS. In an article published the other day in the Xeues Wiener Journal some statistics are given of the enormous sums spent by American women on clothes. The lavish outlay of Marie Antoinette pales beside them. Throughout Europe the spending capacity of American women is watched with an interest much deeper than it attracts in England, perhaps because they find more to buy, or it may be that lavish expenditure on clothes is not so common abroad as it is in London. It seems that there are 1.00 women in Xew Yorlt known to spend £30.000 every year on dress; more than 1000 others lay out €15,000 on the toilet; 15,000 others have to make £OOO suffice. A reckoning has been made that one of those ladies with millions of dollars at their disposal would probably lay out her yearly dress money in some such way as this: —Ball dresses, £8000; reception dress, £5000; cloaks, £2400; lingerie, £3000; shoes, £1000; gloves, COOO; hats, £I4OO. Almost every American woman who is in the position indicated possesses some special taste which she indulges freely. One, for instance, rhapsodises about laee pocket-handkerchiefs, and has the greatest delight in displaying her collection when she gets back from Europe. She may have searched the great cities of America without finding a handkerchief that takes her fancy, but in Paris she gets just what she wants, and pays 300 francs a dozen. "Of course," she will explain to her friends, "the design was made specially for me, and 1 could not do less than order twelve dozen.'* Another lady will make silk stockings her pet fancy. "These stockings," she will say, holding out a foot encased in a covering of silk as fine as a cobweb, "cost 1000 francs a pair. I am sorry to say I shall not be able to get any more of them, for the man who wove them has turned blind." American women, according to this writer, have millions of pounds' worth of diamonds, quite apart from 1

their collections of other stones. The jewels are worn according to the occasions, and one woman will be heard asking another about her summer diamonds and her winter ones, and so on. A practical American woman asked a Parisian belonging to an aristocratic house: "What do you do with your winter diamonds in summer?" "I wear them," replied the Parisian, for she had few of this world's goods, and the only diamond she possessed was a diamond ring. The American turned away with a shudder of disgust. In America, too, it seems, there are women who readily pay £3O for an .embroidered nightdress, and something like £4OO for a (hie linen tablecloth. A certain little dog is wrapped in a coat of real ermine and has a collar of diamonds, and there is one. more interesting tale of a New York millionaire who paid about £SO for a pair of boots for a lady. Those, lavish spenders are not regarded with any surprise in their own country, and any comment is met with a glance of surprise. "Why," says 1 an American, when any criticism is made of the way in which his countrymen 1 spend, "it is their own money. Their : husbands made it; why should they not ; spend it as they like?"