WOMAN'S WORLD

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 65, 7 September 1911, Page 6

WOMAN'S WORLD

(Conducted by "Eileen")

A LONDON BALL.

A girl in London, writing to the .Sydney Morning Herald, states: "With all my passion for tile light fantastic, it was not until I had been over here two or three years that I had the courage to face a London subscription ball. Friends hern had often asked me to join their parties, but it was not till last week that [ felt ifiorally acclimatised enough to venture. Most of the London ball-rooms are attached to the big hotels, and such is the case with the Empress rooms in Kensington, only a quarter of an hour's taxi drive from Charing Cross, where I ma<le my trial trip. Nearly every night a ball is held in these rooms, and except 'on a few, occasions, when they are engaged for private parties, they are subscription dances; and though got up by various clubs, just as our Sydney ones are, such as cricket , tennis, hockey, or for charitable purposes, they can be attended by anyone whose respectability can be vouched for to 'the satisfaction of the club secretary. A list of the balls with their respective club secretary's names and addresses is always to be found in the hall of the adjoining hotel. Of course it would be of no use attending one of these balls by oneself, everyone makes up sets of their own friends, and they dance with each other throughout the evening. An excellent plan would be to make up a party from congenial spirits on board ship during the voyage over; even the date could lie decided upon in mid-ocean, for there is sure to bo a good dance going on, practically every night, in these rooms. The party could be quite a small one, not necessarily large enough even 4o form a set of lancers, for the simple reason that in the "hupper succles" this dance is extinct. I am old-fashioned enough to regret it, for I always think it such a jolly, sociable a flair, but sociability is not the aim of spcietv nowadays. When I asked. 'Where are the lancers on the programme?' my partners looked at me as if I were quite early - Victorian and said that they were never danced now. You see, at a large ball tliey take so long to arrange; besides that, people come in quite small parties, and want to dance with their own set all the evening. It is no unsual thing for even a set 1 of only four people to go together, and . dance the entire programme through. The strange part is that no one thinks anything of it, and no one, least of all they themselves, would dream of imagining they had any intention of passing their whole lives together. They seeiß to treat dancing from a purely sporting point of view; they are congenial partners, their steps agree, so why not dance together all the evening, instead of risking introductions to people who possibly might not fit in so well ? This is one of the many customs of English social life which surprise me, in contrast to our habits. The programme consists of waltzes "two-steps, the former being mostly danced in. the Bosfjonian manner. This fornV I expect has already been introduced to Sydney, no doubt on the occasion of the visit of the American fleet, if not before. Considering that there lire so. many different ways of 'Bostonianing'* I. felt a little bit hopeless tljat eyen if .I learnt one I should ever Jiave the luck to meet anyone who did • the. &nme one\ but I soon discovered that if you master one you can easily add the trimmings, so to-say, to suit the partnei; o( the moment.

RAID-PROOF CLUB. SECRET EXITS FOR WOMEN GAMBLERS. Thp raid made on the Narrangansett Club last summer, when some fifteen ladies and. a score of men prominent in New York, Boston and Philadelphia society, were arrested on charges of gambling, 'has led to an interesting sequel. Owing to the skilful jkanoeuvres of their legal advisers, the wealthy roulette players filially escaped, although the authorities seized some £ 10,0011 worth of gambling fixtures, furniture, and stakes.

It "was "reported when the latest mails left that tlie managers of the club arc adopting elaborate precautions for thi protection of wealthy ladies and othen who may desire to spend their evenings in gambling;* - 'The club is situated on "sortie hundred yards of shore opposite to which the palatial yachts of the multimillionaire 'sot from Newport arc at anchor during the July festivities. Although its exteror is unpretentious, the club' is furnished'on the most lavish scale.

' It is stated that, special steel raid and ' burgJapprouf doors have been fitted' to the entrance of the club. The doors are guaranteed to resist all attempts at invasion lor' a 'period of at least feu ' minutes, which will afford the ladies inside ampl'e time to make good their escape by means of secret exits. The installation of steel doors has already been "brought to the attention of the Governor of Rhode Island, 'who .appears to have 1 difficulty' in finding effective means of checkmating the plans of the gamblers. r lie has contented himself for the moment with calling the attention of the president of the Narrangansett Town Council-to the laws prohibiting gambling anil the of suppressing all r gambling resorts.

HUSBAND-HUNTING OVERSEAS. Miss Cicely Hamilton, the famous suffragette, writing in the Empire zinc, deprecates what she calls husbanilluiuting overseas. As far as one can gather, she says that the status of women is of greater importance than the question of population for our Dominions overseas. She does not like the idea of young women going out to Australia or Canada possessed of the one idea, that they will get married there. Miss Cicely Hamilton says: "1 cannot help thinking that a great deal of harm- has been done by this continned and emphatic, demand, not for women, but for wives. The more eon>tinued and emphatic it is the move will the woman who would make the right kind of wife—the self-respecting, selfsupporting woman, and because selfsupporting. probably capable—shrink from identifying herself with a class she despises: the husband-hunting class that will marry for the sake of marriage. "Even if it be the case (which I, for one. can hardly believe) that the dominions beyond the seas offer to a woman no prospect in life but marriage, it would surely be wise on the part of emigration authorities not to lay too lunch stress upon the fact; that is to say. if they wish to attract women emigrants of the best kind; women emigrants not only self-respecting, but adventurous; accustomed to making their own way by their own work, not merely to being supported by other people.

"And, after all, a woman who can make her own way in the stress of modern competition is not loss likely to have her wits about liar, both as mother anil sekeeper, than hor sister who has failed at the job of keeping hei'shelf. Oll'er to sneh a woman, young and iiilvrnliiroiw. (lie chance of a livelihood <'ii her own account, an honest independence and the chance of success and competence, and you will get her fast enough; suggest to her that she

should go where she can easily pick up a husband, and she will take the suggestion as {in insult. "Thero are plenty, of course, who will not take it as ail insult; but they are not the sort that any land requires for its good and the good of its sons."