WOMAN'S WORLD

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 7, 3 July 1911, Page 6

WOMAN'S WORLD

(Conducted by "Eileen"). EMPRESS EUGENIE. Most interesting are tne following extracts from an article oil the impress Eugenie in ji London journitl: A little old woman all in black, even to the great spectacles behind lier crepe veil, flighted from the train at Menti>ne recently. She had one woman companion, but there was not a soul to mee.t her save only tlie coachman and footman 01 a simple carriage. There were many people in the railway station, but scarcely one of them recognised the woman in black who walked troiu the train to tlie roadway. But this aged woman in black, arriving with only one attendant and ftway unrecognised, ungreeted, unsaluted by the cosmopolitan crowd at the popular Riviera resort, was Eugenie, who within the memory of men by no means old was the queen of fashion, the ruler of the gayest court in Europe, the model of elegance. "The Empress is too mischievous in a domino," used to be Said of her in those gay (lays. She loved nothing better than devising fantastic costumes in which to dazzle the four thousand odd courtiers that flocked from all over Europe to dance at her masked balls and those of the Princess Mctternich. A favourite costume of hers used to be that of Marie Antoinette. It seems as if there must have been something prophetic about : this predilection. True, ■ Eugenie did not lose her lovely head, but she lost everything else.. Perhaps even fate was kinder to the last Queen of France than it has been to the last Empress. Eugenie grew to womanhood with a rare beauty and a somewhat madcap cliarni; A description of her as seen at a bullfight in Madrid at that time is worth reprinting: —"Her slender figure is set off -bv a bodice which enhances hei beauty and elegance. Her hand is armed with a riding-whip instead of a fan, for she generally arrives at the circus on a wild Andalusian horse, and in bet belt she carried a sharp-pointed dagger.

Her little feet are encased in red satin "boots. Her head is crowned by her broad golden plaits interwoven with pearls anti. rich flowers;, her'clear brow shines with youth and beauty, and her gentle blue eyes sparkle from beneath the long lashes which almost concoal them." It was on New Year's Evc.j 1853, that Napoleon asked her in marriage. On 22nd January the engagement was announced. The wedding took | place in Norre Dame Cathedral on 28th and 30th January. The ceremony was almost a duplicate of that most sple*- | did of weddings when the first Napoleon was married. Then began a reign of revelry, Eugenie dipped into international politics, with results that heaped up disaster upon her and her husband. Then the crash came.' A howling mob, maddened by the disaster to the French arms, attacked the Tuileries, crying for the head of the Empress. Eugenie escaped by a 'back door, and Dr. Evans, the American dentist, smuggled her out of France and over to England. At Chislehurst the exiled Emperor .and Empress lived quietly with their son. | the young prince was a lad of great promise, and did more than well at the English military college. His father died in 1873. The Prince went a? a volunteer with the British Army to the Zulu War. There he was killed by the assegai of a savage. Eugenie journeyed to Africa and brought home the mutilated body of the son she adored. She laid it beside that of her husband j* the chapel at Chislehurst, and there she has spent years of her time, weeping and praying. When she was told of the Prince Imperial's death, she said: "Fate is very cruel. I feel now that I shall live to be a- hundred." Perhaps she will, for, though 85 now, she is still strong and active, and—wonder of wonders! she can still smile! HEALTH VALUE OF FRUIT. Generally speaking (says Good Health) fruit is to be looked upon as Nature's laxative. Some are much more beneficial in their influence than others. Figs, either fresh, stewed or made into a syrup; prunes (stewed or in the form of ' a puree), stewer raisins, sultanas and j currants; oranges, tanegines, grape fruit, bananas (fresh or in the form of a puree, which may be plain or mixed with equal parts of cream), apples and pears (fresh, naked or stewed), most plums, and especially greengages, cherries, etc., are tha most reliable, particularly figs and prunes. After fruit comes cereals, especially whole oatmeal, or, better still, coarse brown bread and coarse oatmeal porridge, or porridge made from rolled I oats. Most vegetables are valuable, | salads usually having a mild laxative effect, after which come fats and oils. (

TEN HEALTH voMMANDMENTS. Tlie Jiji Shimpo of Tokio publishes ten rules which will guarantee those who follow them life for about two centuries. Here are the rules:—(l) Pass as much time as possible in the open air; (2) only eat of meat once a day; (3) take a hot bath every day; (4) wear thick woollen garments; (5) sleep for at least Mix hours, but never more than seven and a-half, in a room with the window opened, but the chamber darkened; (8) rest one day in seven; (7)' avoid giving way to anger and excessive brain work; (8) widows and widowers should remarry; (0) work moderately; (10) do not talk to excess. For whom is the last commandment intended? AMERICAN MAXIMS Mr. En. Howe, an American journalist, in his Town Savings," a vol-1 ume just published, has 298 pages of quaint proverbs, from which the following are taken: Don't be ashamed if you can't play the piano; be proud of it. Every time a woman disappears into the kitchen she comes back eating something, but she eats very little at the table. Nearly every unsuccessful man we ever met was a good billiard player. You may easily play a joke on a man who likes to argue; agree with him. Do something for the town in which f you live and you will do something fori yourself. j Look at any mans clothing, and you J

will find from seven to seventy-five spots that should be removed. I A woman is as old as she looks before breakfast. When a friend is in trouble, don't annoy him by asking if there is anything you can do; think of something appropriate and do it. What lial become of the old-fashioned man who said to his boy: "Pull off my boots, my son, and the next time I see a dime rolling up hill I'll give it to you"! ■ y- -p| If you see something that no one else sees, or hear sounds that no others hear, that is what it means to go crazy. Every day thousands of people exclaim, "I can't stand it!" But they do. Sometimes I think 1 have nothing to be thankful for, but when I reflect that 1 am not a woman, I am content. Any one who is compelled to kiss a man, and pretend to like it, is entitled to sympathy. How early do mothers begin spanking their children? So far as we have been able to learn by enquiring among mothers, it is necessary to begin spanking girl babies when about a year old and | bov babies when about sixteen months old. When you were a boy, did you have any timmcial dealings with your father? If you did, they were conducted on this plan: Your father gave you a calf. When you had taken care of it for some time, and it became a cow, he sold it and put the money in bin pocket. Almost every boy has a grievance of this kind against his father. TWICE WIDOWED BY SUICIDE. London, May 19. A case of a woman twice widowed through the suicide of her husbands was disclosed at Sunderland yesterday. The second husband of Mrs. . Emma BaTnes was found hanging with a scarf round his neck from the bedrail in his room. A son of the first marriage at j the inquest yesterday said his stepfather had muttered threats of doing the same as witness'. father had done. The first j husband hanged himself similarly two years ago. A verdict of suicide while temporarily insane was returned.

GENERAL. j An original club exists in New York, where the members, who are all what is known as "business women," pledge themselves to restrict their expenditure on clothes to £2O a year. One of the members explains how she manages to' keep within the limit. She gives the following hints:—"After setting nice tilings, much depends on the way they are kept. I never put up a garment without dusting it or straightening out the -folds. I wipe off my shoes and hang up my stockings where they can air. I mend my gloves when there is the first sign of a broken stitch, and keep the braid of my skirt 'firmly sewed on. If this braid gets shabby on one edge I rip it off and turn that edge up, letting the fresh edge show . When vou consider that £2O a year is less than eight shillings a week you will see that the question is not so much getting the money as saving it and making the best expenditure. This is the chief object of the club."

Like a puppy dog with a slipper, so ia woman with a piece Of news; she likes to shape it and twist it, and tear it to pieces, and find out just exactly why and how and when and where.—The World.

At the Oriental Circle of the Lyceum Club in London, Dr. Yamei Kin, the Chincso lady doctor, gave an address on ttie condition of, things in China. She said that woman's work lay in the household, and her power was in the home; when the man crossed the threshold he e*me into her domain. Religion was largely left to the women in China; men only attended the temples on special occasions, such as the New Year. Hitherto it had been considered that only men should be educated, but that was found to result in man having one leg short and one leg long, so the education of women was steadily advancing, though it was not yet compulsory. Women who were educated made the "best marriages.; and the Chinese were now beginning to realise that the mothers of the future ought to be educated. She was herself the first lady doctor in China, but six others were now studying medicine in Europe. In explanation of the Chinese divorce law, Dr. Kin caused laughter by admitting that a wife could be divorced if she were too talkative! But there was a compensation for this barbaric law. If, with the consent of the community, a woman divorced her husband, he ceased to exist socially, because no one would have anything to do with him!

A German woman advises "compulsory" domestic service for girls and -women, as an equivalent to the universal military service incumbent on men. High dignitaries in the Roman Catholic Church are advising their women parishioners and school girls to perfect themselves in the art of housewifery. The German Emperor emphasises the same demand for skilled labor in the home. At the same time, Mrs. Ellen H. Richards, president of the American Home Economics tells the students of the Teachers' College that the woman who has been trained in domestic science will take her talents out into the world and run hotels, delicatessen shops and laundries. Her domestic science, in fact, will be domestic no longer. It is vain, she arjrues, to tell women to stay at home and attend to their household duties, for there is little work left in the modern home which it is worth while for an intelligent woman to uo.