WOMAN'S WORLD

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 260, 13 March 1911, Page 6

WOMAN'S WORLD

(Conducted by " Eileen ")

DRAMA IN REAL LIFE. '•STOP THE WEDDING; HE'S A MARRIED MAX!" London, January 27. In the class of fiction dear to Mary Jane, the heroine is not infrequently rescued from the villainous matrimonial clutch at the very steps of the altar, but in real life such dramatic happenings are few and far between. At St. Luke's Church, Sheffield, last Friday, 1 however, there was a matrimonial drama in real life. The heroine of the piece was a buxom lassie of twenty named Miss Lily Connel, and the villain of the piece was one Albert Butcher. No hero put in an appearance. Lily and Albert were in process of being made one by the Rev. E. A. Sturdy, and that worthy had all but completed his task. Bride and bridegroom had plighted their troth, the ring had been placed on the bride's finger, the clergy - I man had pronounced the words, "Those whom God hath joined together Jet no man put asunder," and Lily and Albert had just kneeled down to receive the final blessing, when a shrill shout of ''Stop the wedding!" rang through the church. And down the aisle rushed an elderly woman waving a paper and shrieking at the top of her voice, "Stop the wedding; he's a married man!" It was the bridegroom's mother, and the paper she exhibited was the certiticata of her son's marriage to .another 'woman in 1909. After carefully examining the document, Mr. Sturdy demanded of the bridegroom whether his mother's allegation was true. At first he denied it, but eventually admitted that he had been married- and that his wife was still alive. Whereupon the clergyman ordered the bride to take off the ring. This the horrified girl did and then sank fainting into her father's arms. The ceremony, of course, ended at this point, and with a few stinging words to the bridegroom the clergyman left the marriage party to their own devices. Strange to say, the Connells allowed the would-be son-in-law to accompany them back to 'their home, but in the evening his real wife and his two sisters appeared on the scene, and he went off with them. Next day Butcher was arrested a*d now stands remanded on a charge of bigamy. MRS. STIRLING RE-MARRIES. A recent cable stated that Mrs. Stirling, who was divorced by her husband in March, 1909, has married Lord George Cholmondeley. Mrs. Stirling is a young American woman, twenty-six years of age, and before she married Mr. Stirling was a chorus girl in the musical comedy, "The Earl and the Girl." The co-respondent in the divorce case was Lord Northland, heir to Lord Ranfurly, formerly Governor of New Zealand. Mrs. Stirling brought a cross-action against her husband, which was unsuccessful. Lord Guthrie, in summing up, dealt severely with the parties. Eigteen days, he said, or a time equal to, a Scottish University winter session had been spent in deciding whether four "selfish idle ..people" • were adulterers or merely flirts. The judge, caustically describing their habits, declared them to be of a low mental endowment, lacking good taste and feeling and serious human interests, and given up to self-indulgence. The wife breakfasted in bed at mid-day, and the whole party spent one Sunday in manicuring each others' nails. These people, said Lord Guthrie, all treated life as a comedy, but they had made a pitiful and costly tragedy of it. Mrs. Stirling, he said, was ostracised from society by her own incapacity to adopt or ape its manners, to take or affect an interest, in its conventional pursuits and to adhere to its standards. THE Value OF TRIFLES IN DRESS. CRITICS OF THE BRITISH SHOPPING WEEK. London, January 20. Now that the plan for an All-British Shopping Week has been fairly discussed ■by a special council of shopkeepers and manufacturers, objections are being voiced by many of the giants of dressmaking, millinery and drapery, who declare that the scheme is altogether impossible. All the greater credit will, of course, be done to those who manage to stick to their guns for a short week and refuse to show or sell anything not strictly British, but the state into which affairs in the dress world have come is clearly shown by no less a person than Sir J. Prichard Jones, of Dickens and Jones, who stated at a meeting of the Drapers' Chamber! of Trade this week that his firm cannot fall in with the plan for a British Shop-! ping Week, because British manufacturers cannot produce the class of goods required for West End trade, and also acknowledging at the same time that foreigners can produce finer quality materials, etc., at a cheaper price than the same stuff supplied in this countrv. Another draper, in agreeing with the last contention, went further, and said that British manufacturers are, compared with the French, so behind the times that they have not the necessary machinery for turning out fine goods, lie also contended that trade cannot, be maintained on BRITISH GOODS ONLY. All of which is very sad, if true; but the scheme is being taken up with such geifiine enthusiasm by other firms that is is hoped to prove it a suceess, in spite of gloomy prognostications and faintheartedness. Fashion is still at a standstill as far as any radical change from the style of the last few months is concerned. Large fine straw hats are already shown, so that spring, at least in the realm of dress, is held to be within hail. Some of these shapes are in very bright colors, cerise and magenta being so far prime favorites. Some of the straws, black on top. have some vivid e»lor underneath the brim, or vice, versa. For these there is to be the same, simplicity of trimming that has reigned for sonic time past. Silver roses, with tile i inside petals linted a delicate shade of pale green are very popular, and. bunches 1 Of scented artificial violets share their fame. It is a pity that the value of

trifles with regard to dress is so often forgotten. A good dressmaker can do much in the way of turning one out to look well gowned and up to date, but the injudicious use of certain jewellery not suitable to the material or color of the dress worn, of frilling, gloves, belts, ever hat pins, can not only lessen but abso- . lutely ruin the smart efl'eet of a toilette. IMPORTANT TRIFLES. Hat pins are oomomn offenders, since a hat is a very important item, and it is well to remember that a white-headed hat pin—one studded with paste, even a cheap amethyst one, can completely spoil the distinction and sombre richness of a black velvet hat. The same rule applies to any dark-colored headgear, so that, in tlieir way, hat pins are just as important as hats. Frilling, though it is just now not nearly so popular as it was last year, gives a soft and delicate finish often to an otherwise hard outline against the neck, but there are people whom frilling does not at all become, and whose jgiown at once becomes commonplace when finished so. She of the very short neck must beware of its wiles more than any. The writer has seen (and readers will conjure up many instances) a pretty and graceful frock wholly robbed of its grace by the belt worn. One such I saw this week. It was of clinging black crepe de chine, very rich and picturesque, and yet, cut in half as it was by a narrow straight belt on a large wearer, it looked only a travesty of a beautiful dress, and its dignity was completely wasted. A few people can afford to draw attention to their belt, but not all, and the ones who can't afford to do so are wise in wearing a belt of the same color as their costume. Small waists are not by any means always to be admired, but if the hips are a litle wide, as in these days of athletics they are apt to be it is inartistic to concentrate the beholder's attention to them by an inappropriate belt. In this respect, of course, summer | and winter dresses differ, as one can often take liberties with a soft, light material that are out of place 011 one of heavier and more costly texture. A celebrated woman writer, who is something of a satirist, made one of her woman characters say, in a recent book: "Your white gloves and your teeth are the two most important things in giving away prizes at horse parades and that sort of thing"—a statement that would not bear too much investigation, perhaps, but that contains a grain of truth. As character is undoubtedly expressed in the liands, so, it must be taken, is it expressed in the dress of the hands. Jewellery, of course, adds the final note of individuality and distinction, or otherwise, to a feminine toilette. So many people will plaster themselves with trinkets and jewels, as.if the finest effects were produced by the number displayed. The result is a very triumph of vulgarity, could they but realise it. Where a few appro-priately-chosen jewels might have drawn admiring eyes to their loveliness, a conglomeration is in every way inartistic. The woman of few jewels may any day, with an unimpeachable taste in dress, successfully rival the possessor of diamonds worth thousands of pounds. A GLORIOUS TRIBUTE. In Harper's Magazine for January is printed the last thing that Mark Twain wrote—a touching and beautiful tribute to' his daughter Jean, who died just one year ago. It was written on the day of her death. He says: "Jean's dog has been wandering about the grounds today, eomradelcss and forlorn. I have seen him from the windows. She got him from Germany. He lias tall ears, and looks exactly like a wolf. He was educated in Germany, and knows no language but the German. Jean gave him no orders save in that tongue. And so, when the burglar-alarm made a fierce clamor at midnight a fortnight ago the butler, who is French, and knows no German, tried in vain to interest the dog in the supposed burglar. Jean wrote me, to Bermuda, about the incident. It was the last letter I was ever to receive from that bright head and her competent hand. The dog will not be neglected. There was never a kinder heart than Jean's. From her childhood up she always spent the most of her allowance on charities of one kind and another. After she became secretary and had her income doubled she spent her money upon these things with a free hand. Mine, too, I am glad and grateful to say. She was a loyal friend to all animals, and she loved them all—birds, beasts and everything, even snakes—an inheritance from me. She knew all the birds; she was high up in that lore. She became a member of various humane societies when she was still a little girl—both here and abroad —and she remained an active member to the last. She founded two or three societies for the protection of animals, here and in Europe. She was an embarrassing secretary, for she fished my correspondence out of the wastebasket, and answered all the letters. She thought all letters deserved the courtesy of an answer. Her mother brought her up in that kindly error."