WOMAN'S WORLD

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 289, 26 April 1911, Page 6

WOMAN'S WORLD

(Conducted by "Eileen''). SOCIAL NEWS. A Dance. —To celebrate the event of their daughters' debut into society, Mesdames Bewley and Glasgow gave a most enjoyable dance in the Brougham street hall, which will ever remain green in the minds of the merry throng asembled there. The hall was prettily decorated with evergreens and mirrors, while the supper table, massed with appetising | dishes, looked a picture, daintily finished with white cosmos and ferns erected in silver vases. Excellent music was rendered by Mrs. Woods' orchestra. The guests were received by the hostesses' at the far end of the hall, which was cosily arranged as a drawing room. All, I feel sure, thoroughly enjoyed themselves, as the men were in the majority, and that it a great thing to say, for the men are getting in such a blase, bored state now-a-days, that they hate to turn out to anything, even if it is a private function. I will open first with a description of the debutantes:— Miss Gwen Bewley looked extremely well and was much admired in a white chiffon taffeta veiled in ninon, the overskirt being finished with silk insertion 1 and silken tassels.

Miss Midge Glasgow looked charming, in white ninon over a satin foundation,! silver bugle finishing decolletage. | Miss Constance Leatham looked sweet i in white chiffon taffeta, with an over-1 dress of ninon braided with silk Itfcel insertion.' ■<, Miss Roy, cream lace robe over satin.' Miss Whitton, pretty primrose satin, relieved with scarlet roses on corsage. Miss Sturtevant, ciel blue satin, finished with silver guimpe. Miss N. Dempsey, very pretty heliotrope satin, tunic and corsage finished with violet flowered silk guimpe, cream net vest and sleeves. Miss E. Atkinson, maize colored satin, veiled in net and finished with gold guimpe. Miss Leatham, very pretty pale blue ninon, caught in with bands of silver guimpe. Miss Blumlell, cream silk. Miss M. I'ookes, pale pink satin, veiled in net. Miss W. Bradbury, saxe blue silk, decolletage finished with floral guimpe. Miss Kirkby, ivory colored silk, trimmed with silver spangled net and passementerie trimming. Miss S. Thomson, cream satin, overskirt braided with oriental trimming. Miss M. Thomson, white satin.

Miss Webster, pale blue silk, veiled in black net. Hiss W. Webster, pale heliotrope taffeta, trimmed with darker shade of velvet. Miss C. Bayly wore a lovely robe of white ninon over satin, the latter being banded with rich jewelled lace insertion, pale pink roses in coiffure. Miss V. Kirkliy. looked charming in pale pink silk. Miss Simpson, vioux rose silk trimmed with blue and pink flowered guimpe. ! Vks D. Si:. ;,sou. white taffeta, veiled in net. Miss Skinner; dainty silver grey spangled net over white satin. Miss L, Skinner, was much admired in apricot pallette, trimmed with gold! guimpe. Miss Matthew, white satin. Miss Kyngdon, pretty rose pink silk, piped with bladk. Miss B. Evans, cream satin, veiled in lace, corsage draped with folded satin. Miss F. Evans, pale blue silk, veiled in gold spotted net. Miss M. Evans, pale pink and gold spotted net over pink silk. Miss Bedford, emerald green satin, veiled in black net. Miss D. Bedford, pale pink chiffon over tomato colored satin, chemisette and sleeves braided with gold guimpe.

Mrs. F. Robertson, ivory tinted charmeuse, tucked tunic finished with pearl trimming. Miss Baker, white silk, veiled in net. Miss Grant, vieux rose silk. Miss Arden, pale blue silk, veiled in white net.

Miss E. Bayley, cream lace robe, with pale blue ornaments. Mrs. R. George, cream lace robe over taffeta, eorsage relieved with pale pink roses.

Miss W. George, pale blue eharmeuse. Miss Warren, pretty pale blue floral chiffon over a silk foundation, cream silver net sleeves and chemisette. Miss Anderson, vieux rose silk. Miss Colson, white crepe de chine. Miss Saxton, rose pink satin, veiled in spangled net. Miss Fitzherbert, very pretty eau de nil brocaded silk, with over-dress of apple green fisher net, edged with silver bugle fringe, corsage slashed with wide band of lace insertion.

Miss L. Fitzherbert, very dainty vieux rose ninon over satin, the ovcrskirt finished with silver headed fringe. Miss Robinson, cream silk. Mrs. Stowe, black satin, finished with lace and sequinned passementerie trimming. Miss Whitcombe, white silk. Miss Mills, turquoise blue silk, cream net chemisette and sleeves. Miss Brewster, cream brocaded silk, veiled in net, lightened with pale blue. Miss R. Clarke, canary colored silk. Mi.ss K. Pcnn, white chiffon taffeta. Miss Standish, dainty white satin, veiled in ninon, edged with silver guimpe. Miss Brown, white net over silk. Miss Maginnity, cream figured net over silk. Miss 0. Mackay, pretty powder blue satin, tunic and corsage edged with tiny pink roses. Entertainment.—Last Monday evening, in St. Mary's Hall, the Classical Comedy Amateur Club produced Goldsmith's "She Stoops to Conquer'" in aid of the Back Blocks Mission Fund. The company consisted solely of girls,' and although the production of the male parts produced much humor (especially in the smoking scene), great vigor and strength of character were shown. T will not describe individually, but en masse. All sustained their parts wonderfully well, but I must say great thanks is due to Mrs. Chancy for the lending of her rooms for weeks past to hold the practices in. Also to Mrs. Fred Watson, as stage manageress. She is ever ready to help, and more especially as she takes such keen interest.

in amateur theatricals. The principal organisers of the performance were Dr. and Miss Constance Leatham, and it is hoped by many that it will be produced again at an early date.

SCHOOLGIRLS OF SORTS. ''ln my wanderings through Europe, in any town in which I have made a stop, one of the 'sights' that I have alwavs asked to be shown has been the best girls' school in the place," writes Miss May Baldwin, the well-known storywriter. Summarising her experiences in l.Wwo interesting articles published in Chambers' Journal, she says that "one point which strikes an Englishwoman in Continental establishments—and this applies, more or less, to all European countries—is tlie status of the teacher.

"In no country does she hold the honorable position which is hors* in England. The French saying that a woman who leaves her home to earn her own living is declasse, still holds good to a great extent; though this prejudice is being weakened, thanks to British influence. "Only the other day, however, a broadminded Italian lady said to me, with a shake of the head, "It may do for you English, who are so independent; but, in my opinion, for a girl to teach in a girl.-,' public school —it is impossible. If she must earn her own living, let her i go as governess into a private family, j where at least she would be protected; I and the average Frenchwoman of the upl per classes will say the same thing.'

"The Germans and Russians are more advanced in their ideas; but even the latter nation, when seeking an honorable employment for the widows'and undowered daughters of their officers and Government officials, give them the charge of depots for the sale of vodka, the brandy of Russia, and a Government monopoly, which they sell from behind a wooden partition of their depot, through a small window. "On entering a school abroad the first thing that an English pupil notices (and generally dislikes) is the dress. "Tn all nood schools on the Continent uniform is worn by the girls; and in Russia and Italy the teachers in the schools I visited all wore black—which is, I believe, obligatory in Italian Government schools.

"Simple dresses of blue, grey, black or ? brown, with simply-trimmed hats, are the rule for boarders; while in many! day schools the pupils wear black over- / alls—'to hide the ink-stains,' as a little girl once confided to me; and English,' girls soon get used to their uniform, and") like it as saving trouble. [ "German schoolgirls." says Miss Baldwin, "are very industrious! What they do they do well: and they do many other kinds of needlework than the cross-stitch which we English u«"<! unfairly to say was their one idea of fancy work; though this is a very favorite way of ornamentation—gowns, aprons, towels, linen and antimacassars being elaborately worked in this manner. i

"The work may not be beautiful or artistic. I)ut it lasts for ever; and it teaches a habit of industry which makes the German schoolgirl later the proverbial good'Hausfrau. "But whether it be needlework-, music (in which they excel), literature, mathcirrt'ies nr history, it is well taught and well and thoroughly learnt." In an Italian convent school visited by the w-.iter of the article, "holidays spent at home weTe discouraged, and the girls only went home for one dav every halfyea •;.

"The argument was that they would Inve their minds filled with frivolous thoughts and distracted from their studies; so. instead of going home for the holidays, they spend them at school, and for the three or four months of holidays the whole school migrates to a villa by the sea or in the mountains.

"The intercourse of the girls with their parents and relatives is restricted to a visit once a week in the large re-ception-room or parlatorio of the convent, which is provided with a cushioned scat all round the walls and little groups of chairs for each family. "It was with great pride that the teacher next showed me a number of bathrooms, which she supposed I had not expected in Italy; adding gracefully that they had learnt their benefit from the English. The attempt made to introduce gymnastics with apparatus into girls' schools failed, as the feeling was against it; the girls confined themselves to simple drill." Among her stories of Russian schoolgirls, Miss Baldwin tells the following: "My young friend was fourteen, but her friend was older, and a revolutionary (so, she remarked in parenthesis, was she); and at a students' meeting which she, like many other Russian schoolgirls, attended; it was decided by the secret society to which they belonged to kill the Governor of Moscow.

"The elder girl was chosen, or may have offered herself, to drive round the town with the youth (be was not more than eighteen, I believe), who was to throw the bomb. Her presence, my friend explained, was in order to give the drive an innocent appearance. "The bomb, as it happened, killed a sentry; but this did not distress my informant. What did was the fact that their escapade ended the school career of her friend, who was put in prison; and I nearly imperilled our friendship by observing that it was the best place for her."