WOMAN'S WORLD

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 309, 24 May 1911, Page 6

WOMAN'S WORLD

(Conducted by "Eileen.") COOKING—A NEW SPORT FOR MEN. A writer in an American magazine dilates upon the possibilities of cooking as a new sport for men. "For the ordinary man cooking is always a real diversion. 'lt is a change. 'lt is just as much a change as leaving the office to play golf, and more change than going to the club to play poker. Cooking requires skill, intelligence, and considerable training. It combines in the most favorable ratio the requisites of manual dexterity, with mental aplomb and moral Self-control. These are precisely the qualities that make a man's game of billiards, or a man's sport of duck-shooting, automobiling, or bull fighting. Ttiere are wives, I hear, who would like to know how to keep their husbands at home. Unquestionably a fundamental reform would be worked in such families by introducing the wayward husbands to the sport of cookery." | A TIARA EXHIBITION.

The London correspondent of the Adelaide Observer discourses on the tiara exhibition recently held in london. She writes: Tf any members of the Royal Family take an active interest in any charity its success is assured, so that the governors of Middlesex Hospital were extremely fortunate when they gained the interest of the late' Prince Francis in their affairs. Some bright soul evolved the idea of prevailing on English peeresses to lend their tiaras for exhibition, charge a guinea for admission, and devote the sum to the hospital. No sooner said than done. Cartier, the most famous of Bond Street jewellers, shouldered the responsibility of having the display of these titled tiaras on his premises, and tickets for admission are only to he obtained through the most exclusive channels—that is, from the exhibitors themselves. The exhibition is open for a week. I went in the other day, and was duly dazzled by the display of tiaras and titles served lip for one! guinea. It certainly was the most unique j and gorgeous sight I have ever seen. Abe ut a hundred tiaras, no two precisely alike in design, were displayed, each 0110 in a glass case, and set on a pedestal of pearl grey velvet. At one time the tiaras of peeresses were nicknamed "fenders," on account of their stiff, straight, high and half-round shape, but nowadays it is not an appropriate name, for tile modern settings are more graceful, and the latest idea is to have the diamonds set on a swinging wire, so that they swing loosely like sparkling dewdrops, with each movement of the wearer's 1 head. This style is particularly favored by Queen Mary. It was most difficult to pick out any one in this show and say it was more rarely beautiful than its neighbor. All were so lovely. But that of the Duchess of Westminster impressed me wore than some of the others. It was very tall, patterned in a series of' diamond wreaths, in the centre of each wreath bpir\' one diamond of immense size and exquisite lustre. Princess Alex-, ander of Teck had sent her favorite upstanding setting of wheat ears, which' she wears across the front of her xiead,| but it is scarcely l:\i-i" or imposing euough to b" di'.'iiilieil In- tin- tide of| tiara. The DiHie« of Albany had lent! her all-round crown of diamonds, but Princess Christian sent one of diamonds and turquoises. Lady Tweedale's consisted of brilliants with a superb pigeon's blood ruby in the centre. The superiority of diamonds only was fully demonstrated when one saw Lady Aberdeen's costly but heavy and inelegant all-round j tiara of gold, thickly studded with emeralds and pearls. The Duchess of Sutherland was represented by a graceful set] of pearls and diamonds, and Lady Newborough had sent a stately creation in diamonds with great emeralds perched on each upstanding spike. A quaint piece of jewellery was that of Lady Clementine Waring, shaped like a Marie Stuart cap, with one huge diamond in the centre. The Duchess of Newcastle lent a smart low-set tiara with an ostrich feather lin diamonds sprouting out from one side. I cannot remember any more, for | my attention was so divided among the | tiaras and those who had come to see them. The Duke of Norfolk, who is the Court Marshal, and had all the arranging of the late King's funeral, was present, an ordinary man, with one of those I old-fashioned. un-hygicnic sweeping beards. He was looking at the Duchess of Norfolk's exhibit—a diamond tiara in a design of oak leaves and acorns—when I saw him. Lady Essex was walking] around with two friends, and I quite) agreed with them when they told her, that her neat diamond tiara with one' large diamond hanging from the crown to rest in the centre of the forehead was "quite charming." Lady Ross, of Balnagowan was one of the most interested spectators. All the afternoon well-known peeresses were dropping in and out, and again I was struck by the two distinct characteristics displayed in the gowning of the aristocracy. They are either dowdy—and even shabby—to a degree, or richly and lavishly overdressed. These is no halfway, and none of them seems to have the knack of putting on her clothes just so. One of my everlasting disappointments is the lack of sartorial smartness in the average Englishwoman. And oh! how tired they look, these aristocratic women of the great world of society. They cannot hide the dreariness of their faces, even under the face powder and cosmetics which are so lavishly used nowadays.

| LADIES AND THE AEROPLANE. A desperate desire to look down on one's fellow-mortals is prevalent ill Sydney jnst now (says a writer in the Australasian). One well-known society lady is willing to pay almost any sum for (.lie privilege, and may he ahle to gratify her desire, if Mr, Hammond is willing,' The successful flight of the liiplane "to the Light Horse camp at Liverpool, where Mr. Hammond literally ''dropped in'' to breakfast oil Wednesday morning, brought on a sudden attack of aviation fever among the oflieers. They all wanted lo fly. That, being impossible, they pooled contributions towards one aerial fare (.€'2o), and then drew lots for the honor of ascending. At this stage the J authorities began to stir, and an ulti-

matum was issued forbidding married men to fly. This narrowed the choice down, and it finally fell upon Lieutenant Pridham, whose delight in his luck was, however, short-lived. Headquarters had been cogitating some more over a situation for which no guiding precedent existed, and it occurred to them that if per mission were given to an officer to ascend in the biplane and there was any hitch in his descent, complications of an undesirable, nature might ensue. Therefore a memorandum was issued which quenched nil upward aspirations by directing that "no officer, non-commissioned officer, or man in this brigade is to be permitted to make a flight in the Bristol biplane now in camp," signed by order, J. M. Arnott, Brigadier-Major.