WOMAN'S WORLD

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 8, 4 July 1911, Page 6

WOMAN'S WORLD

(Conducted bv "Eileen"). —* ITI'C MY SUMMER AT HOME. A NEW ZEALAND GIRL IN LONDON. London, May Ift. It is simply too terrible to have to ait down and write. Fancy writing ooherently in this rush and glitter, with Piccadilly outside the window like a great wiggle-woggle or witching waves. I am sure I should lie able to walk right along it on the top* of the taxi cabs; they are so close. I can't imagine why they are still closed in. The heat is simply stifling, and has been for weeks, tliey tell me. I suppose it means that "the date" has not arrived yet. Lighting-up times and fixed feasts and things like that always seem so absurd. Besides, everybody who has a car has been drivI ing without a cover of any kind for weeks past—half the winter, they tell me.

You want copy? Well, the whole week I have been trying to consider myself in the place of the sub-editor, and to wonder what you would like to hear about, you poor dears who have not come Home, but have stayed at home. Well, I am afraid you will be better oil' than I at the end of the next throe months.

What comes first? Oh, yes: I arrived by the Tongariro after a fine passage, rough between New Zealand and ihe Horn, calm between the waves, dreary between meals. Have seen my re"itives in Devon and Wales, and hope to return to New Zealand for the tennis ball. T have been studying the West End, and have found out a good deal about it, except where it leaves off. Jack says that it doesn't leave off at all; that it is the beginning and the end in one. And I think he's right. I live in the West End—Bayswater. I write in the West End—'Piccadilly. And I don't see much prospect of ever getting out of it. If one goes to Brooklands to see people fiy, the West End hurries out to Brooklands by motor and train. I diii it last week, and found Sir Joseph and Lady Ward and the whole party there. If one goes to the Crystal Palace, the West Eiid is stronger than ever, with its motors and morning suits and the rest. But it was perfectly lovely to meet so many New Zealanders. Honestly, a New Zealand girl feels more at home in London this summer than in Melbourne, or a Cnristchureh girl than in, say, Auckland, there are so many one knows.

Tt was simply perfect at the Palace—a blazing May day and beautiful surroundings. I almost felt I was at Riccarton. But there were no horses. At least there was one, but it made a false start when the water was turned on in the fountains, hnlted, and knocked over two or three ladies, and made me feel sick. It was horrid. No. to mc the West End will always consist chieflv of beautifully groomed men in morning suits, and beautifully dressed women in blue, and very-, high prices. The men look perfectly lovely —mostly in gray, with ,one button of the coat fastened, and a light-colored vest showing above and below. I made Jack get them. Ho looks a little brown, but quite all right. .All the women are slight and willowy. Not a stout one among them. The hobble skirt has relaxed a bit, and they look very shiny and dainty in some sort of net stuff over silk—all Bhades of rich blue, black and white stripes, and grey.

I have rushed about a great deal this week, and eaten a great deal too much. Thinking it over quietly, I am certain that the thing that matters is the Victoria Memorial. Of course it is very wonderful to see Lewis Waller playing the valet and Lyn Harding with scarcely a speaking part to boxes full of kings and princes and Kaisers and all that. But really the Victoria Memorial was too wonderful for words.

You know I am not given to kings and things, but I do think I shall stand on the kerb in the Mall again to-morrow and try to see these two again. They, looked just like twins, skipping up the stops, dressed exactly alike in field-mar-shals' uniform, with the blue sash ot the Garter. The Kaiser is a little taller than our King, buo he is not much broader. He is very Brown, but he doesn't look a bit fierce. It must be the German helmet he wears in the photographs. And they seemed quite friendly, too, So did the officers. The Kaiser had a lot of his own officers with him, in a strange sort of blue—is it Saxe blue?— and some of his beautiful white bodyguards with the brass eagles on their helmets. But they were not so terrible as I expected. They were all clean and nicely shaved, and they chatted and laughed with the British officers and saluted quite nicely when our King came towards them and when the band played "God Save the King." In fact, I am told that that is their national anthem also. I really don't think they would fight with our people—except one, perhaps. He had a black pelisse and a sioill on his busby—the "Hussars of Death," they call them, and I believe they are the Kaiser's own. I saw this one quite close and I dmn't like him u bit.

The Kaiserin was the only figure in black. It was a black cloak. Our Queen is splendid, and she looked it. She was dressed in white or cream or something, with a large feather hat, and there seems to be heaps of little princes standing about. The Prince of Wales, as usual, had his naval uniform ou. You would be surprised what a fine voice the King has. I was too far off to hear what he said, but the voice carried splendidly. He spoke for quite a time, and I think he was a hit nervous, because he shifted from one foot to the other a great deal, raising his hand to the paper and dropping it again. But he was quite all right. Afterwards he presented heaps of people to the Kaiser, and Wilhelm shook hands so warmly, just as if he were glad. All of a sudden I knew something was going to happen, and I told Jack! to look. Somebody was disclosed kneel-

ing on one of the steps, so lew seemed to notice it. The lung leaned forward and extended his hand. Somebody in a cocKcd hat put away a sword; and I guessed aloud what had happened. He had knighted the little gentleman who was scuttling away into the wings. Jack said I was dreaming, but the papers announced Sir Thomas Brock all right. I saw quite a lot of New Zealanders. Sir Joseph and Lady Ward were on the dais close to the Kings. The High Commissioner and Lady Hall-Jones, Sir Clias. and Lady ISowen, Mrs. Boys, Mrs. Ghaytor, Mr. and Mrs, Arthur Rhodes, Mr. R. H. Rhodes, Mr. and Mrs. Rutherford, Mrs. Seddon. And in uniform were Col. Chaytor, Captain Samuel and Captain Seddon, and two of King Edward's Horse (Lieutenant Robison, of Christehurch, and Corporal May, of Dunedin). But they couldn't stand about the New Zealand peers, as the Canadians and Australians ana the others aid, because there are none.

But T simply nave no words to tell you what that great crowd looked like. I mean the privileged crowd in the Queen's Garden —the hoi polloi was | packed like sardines all the way down the Mull, and they saw nothing. So cheerful!-, too. Queens Garden was ablaze, like a vast flower-bed, with roses and peonies and carnations and tulips and jonquils and radishes and 'black pansies with white tops. The last were the members of the House of Commons—l saw Dr. Chappie and Mr. Wason with my own eyes, in black velvet levee dress, knee breeches and cocked hat. The radishes —only the tops, I mean—were some sweet Lancer officers in olive green. All the red ones were knights and diplomats and field-marshals and lieutenants, gorgeous in gold braid and buttons. The jonquils and tulips came from the Foreign Office and the Colonial Office, and so on, right down to beardless-young clerks, fresh from Eton and Haileybury. They have to wear it on pain of death. And I must say the black frock coat looked out of it. —"Nancy," in WellingI ton Post.

BABY PLEADS OWN CASE. A rosy, prattling two-year-old pleaded liia own ease in the Court of Multomah ; county, U.S.A., and, as a result, little Jens ITassing, the convicted wife slayer, will become the legal child of Mr. and Mrs. H. T. Burntrager, of that city, instead of being sent to California. , On one side were the sisters of the condemned man protesting that it was for the best interests of the child that he be given to Mrs. X. J. Nielsen, of Berkeley, a former friend and neighbor of the babe's parents, with Mrs. Nielsen herself holding out her own childless condition and her ample means, backed by a strong love for the baby. On the other hand, the two brothers ami sister-in-law of the dead mother upheld the claims of Mr. and Mrs. Burntrager, who have had the custody of tne child for the last four months. | But small Jens, or John, as he will be i called, made the most eloquent plea of [ all when lie toddled up to the bar of justice, climbed up on a chair at the right of the Judge's own, and, craning his baby neck so that he could see over •the bench, called out in a clear voice, "Da-da, ma-ma," to the Burntragers. "We cannot take this child from these people to whom it is so attached," said the Court. "It is hereby awarded to the custody of Mr. and Mrs. Burntrager."