WOMAN'S WORLD

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 329, 16 June 1911, Page 6

WOMAN'S WORLD

(Conducted by "Eileen")

A LETTER FROM STRATFORD.

The meeting of tlie Hospital Ball Committee will l>e lield at the Council Chambers nn Friday next at 4 p.m. to make final arrangements in connection with the ball which is to be held in the Town Hall oil June 22. A large attendance is expected. The object is a very worthy one, and it is to be hoped ail will assist and do their utmost to make the function an unequalled success.

The Girl Peace Scouts will collect for the Hospital on Hospital Saturday, June

Mr. Salinond, late D.C. at the Bluff, has been moved to the Hawcra Post Office, and has accepted an invitation to address the Stratford Girl Peace Scouts at an early date. The Stratford Amateur Dramatic Society will stage "Handy Andy" at Eltliam at an parly date. Mr. Coffey, who has toured the north with several leading companws, is acting as coach and manager. The three skating rinks here are well patronised, and there is no want of amusement at present. The Oddfellows' social on Monday night was a great success. There were, between 70 and 80 couples present, the lloor was in excellent or<le.\ and tlie music left notning to be desired. LADY WARD IN LONDON. IMPRESSIONS ON TOl'R. CANADIAN v. AMERICAN WOMEN". London. May 111-luck lias dogged the footstep?; of the ladies of the Premier's party >ince their arrival in thi-s country, and. though Lady Ward has now practically recover-1 ed from the serious cold that laid liorj low all last week, anil Mrs. James llislop, i wife of Sir Joseph Ward s private secrc-1 tarv, is about again after an attack of J tonsilitis, Mrs. Find-lay, wife of the .U-j torney-Gencral, is still too ill (also Willi, tonsilitis) to see visitors, and has been unable to fulfil any of her engagements, though it is hoped that she'll be about again in a few days from now. Lady Ward gave an interviewer some impressions of their hasty trip across Canada. "This as the third time I'd visited the country," she said, "but I'd never before seen it clad in snow as it was this time, and Canada alters immensely with the seasons, so that I actually couldn't recognise some of the places again. We I |>assed cottages embedded in snow right up to the windows, and saw dear little children running about in warm scarlet cloaks. The women, who, one noticed,

dressed a great deal in furs and velvets, reminded me. with their beautiful bright complexions, or New Zealanders, and are very different from the American wolnen. who don't resemble us in any way. "The hospitality of the Canadians we can't say c:.nigh fur—it was so warmhearted and delightful that we have most grateful recollections of our visit. "This was our second visit to Niagara, and this time it was very different, since parts of it were frozen. All the same, it 1 was a perfectly beautiful sight, and I think no one who has the opportunity should ever lose a chance of seeing it. "On going the journey under the Falls as we did again, looking like rows of monks in our great capes and hoods, ■ we found everything altered—the outlets where one can usually get out were frozen and too slippery to walk on. Nevertheless, we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. "In Toronto, where we only had a da)', we went for a motor drive. It is a fine city, well built and with beautiful streets that are remarkably well kept The coM. however, was intense and, over there, the hotel? are so tremendously I heated that one undoubtedly feels the keen air all the more.

"In New York, that city of hustle and bustle, we stayed five days and there—from those same extremes of heat and cold I fancy we all laid the foundations of our various ailments. We had done u good deal of sight-seeing before in New York, and this time took things more quietly, going only once to the theatre and spending most of our time with friends, who have left us with very happy remembrances of their thoughtful ness. AMERICAN WOMEN. "At the theatre we were all greatly struck by the magnificent gowns and costly-looking apparel of the American women, and, m the street, too, one cannot but remark on the American woman's smart and extraordinarily wellgroomed appearance.

"The displays in the snop windows are very fine, but are not. as attractive, I think, as those in London.

j *'Tn Xow Yorlc wo motored a good final, and one Sunday had a delightful spin of forty miles out 'into the country around Xcw York, an experience that astonished me. Everything was just get- ! tin g green—we were there a month "too j soon to see the trees in all their verdure —and we passed beautiful country houses and grounds and great open spaces that seemed countryfied and restful indeed after New York. "It was so delightful, too, to see unfeneed gardens and grounds surrounding the houses, so that it was like passing through one big park." From Xew York Sir Joseph and his party came to England by the Lusitania, and since they have been here, and she' has been well enough, Ladv Ward's and Miss E.leen Ward's time lias been occupied in attending receptions, dinners, and oilier social /•ngagenw.nt.<.—Wcllin'r' ton I iines' correspondent. °

TIGHT-LACING. SAPPHO AS A SUFFRAGETTE. Melbourne, >lav 25. Miss Enid Derham, M.A.. delivered u lecture °" "Women and Literature" at the elubroom of tlie U'omen's Political Association. Touching ou tight-lacing, ,?he sa id that it was a modern habit; it wa s also one of the most ancient. In the kingdom of Minos. 3000 years women had discovered the beauty of the wasp-waist

Terracotta figures had been found sliowI ing the fair sex draped in costumes much resembling the dresses in which our grandmothers walked abroad, a hooped skirt like a crinoline, and very small waists. Nor has woman's nature changed much, for Miss Derham recalled the discreet Nausicaa, who did not want to be .seen walking through the city streets with the disreputably-dressed Odysseus, after finding him upon the seashore. The first literary woman was the Lesbian Sappho. SapphoNvas also a suffragette, or political lady of some sort, for she had to leave Lesbos for a while on account of political trouble. Sappho's works were lost to lis, but luckily tlie Greek critics had quoted her in some measure, and these quotations were available. Horace spoiled Sappho's original metre. The Athenian comic poets took her poems, torn them to shreds, and slandered poor Supplio in a shocking manner. In Athens women had to lie either respectable and bored, or unrespectable and happy.

QUEEN AIEXIANDRA'S BEAUTY. What a sad lot of nonsense is talked abo'it kings and queens, about everyone, in fact, whose head is above the crowd. That Of "en Alexandra has some "secret" I of youthful beauty is an article of pious | belief with half the women of the world. I and they hVive just the same conviction about Sarah Bernhardt. It is no uso for Mine. Bernhardt to deny the possession of any secret of hard work and unI dying enthusiasm. The women know I better. Tiler are neisii.nlpd tlctf Hiorn

ii/cttn. xm'j an? (jcittiutui'U lIUIC UlOrC is some -hidden triek of massage, or unguents or cosmetics, and they are determined to learn it or die in the attempt. Now comes a story that so far as Queen Alexandra is concerned the whole mystery is one of diet. At length the Royal bill of fare has been disclosed, and if we will only go and do likewise we ,may all be beautiful and bathe in the fountains of perpetual youth. Queen 1 Alexandra, wo are told," never touches red meat, confining herself to chickens, turkey, cluck and game. That seems simple enough, given the necessary in- | come. She eats caouage, spmnach, peas I and beans, and she drinks nothing but I hot niilk. Of nuts she is particularly j fond, often making an entire luncheon of walnuts and almonds dipped in salt. There seems to be a much more reasonable explanation. Queen Alexandra presumably has a natural tendencv toward I a juvenile appearance, as her father had before her, and she can supplement this ' by the highest human sJcill in such mat-\ ters and by every resource known to ' science and art. We need none of us be quite so ugly in we are—God help us —il we would only spend the money and take the lime to improve ourselves.