WOMAN'S WORLD.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 78, 22 September 1911, Page 6

WOMAN'S WORLD.

(Conducted t>y ''fiileen"). A BABY MILLIONAIRE. The birth of a baby' millionaire at a fashionable Fifth Avenue hotel, New .York, was recently the newspaper topic of the hour, and the event was deemed so extraordinary on account of its rarity that the New York Herald began its account with no fewer than fifteen headlines. It is only a few months ago that a fierce controversy was excited by the statement of an English novelist that not a single baby had been born in New York's Mayfair for two years (says the London Mail's correspondent). Suibsequent investigation showed the novelist to have been too sweeping in his statement, but statistics proved that babies are not often met with in Fifth Aveßtie. This partly accounts for the excitement at the arrival of little Henry A. Alker, who is destined to inherit the millions possessed by Mr. Andrew W. Rose. The babe is the first ever born in the Plaza Hotel, and as a precedent to other millionaire's children he occupies a suite of rooms costing £3»O a month. As it is only three months ago since a similar 'event' occurred at the St. Regis Hotel, in the next block, the New York Herald seems to think that there is still a chance of cradles and baby carriages becoming- fashionable in the circles of the wealthy. At present, however, the lack of baby carriages, although not «f babies, is the only point of similiarity between •New York's east and west, and the old song crooned by generations of New .York nurses still holds good that: "On a hot day in the summer, when the breeze blows off the sea, A hundred thousand children lie on the Battery; They came from Murphy's Buildings, and their noise would stop a clock, There's no perambulators for the Babies on our Block."

MILLIONAIRE'S YOUNG BRIDE. COLONEL J. J. ASTOR TO WED GTRL OF EIGHTEEN. In view of recent cable messages referring to the refusal of certain clergymen to perform the marriage ceremony of Colonel ,J. .T. Astor, the following from a London paper is of interest:— It was announced in New York on August 1 that Colonel John Jacob Astor,' the multi-millionaire, is engaged to marry Miss Madeline Talmage Force, the eighteen-year-old daughter of the head of the exporting firm of William H. Force and Op. The wedding will probably take place in the autumn. .During last, season in New.York.it was noticed that Colonel Astor was paying Miss Force marked attention. She and her mother were often in the famous "Golden Horseshoe" box at the Metropolitan Opera House. The engagement has existed for some time, but at Colonel Astor's request was not made public. Rumors of it got about, however, and Mr. Force was so pestered with enquiries that he insisted on Colonel Astor making the facts public.

Colonel Astor, who is forty-seven, is a director of corporations ■with £40,000,000 capital. Since 1893 he ha* managed the great Astor estate in New York.. He was with General Shafter in Cuba during the Spanish-American war, and he afterwards organised and equipped a mountain battery, which served throughout the Philippine campaign. He has tried his hand as a writer of fiction, has a taste for mechanics, and among his inventions is an improved steam turbine. The colonel has been married before, but was divorced some eighteen months ago. His former wife lives on England with her son Vincent (now at Eton) and daughter Muriel.

Miss Force, a tall and graceful girl, with a wealth of brown hair, is a year younger than Vincent, but a, little older than Muriel.

OFFICIAL FLIRTS IN AMERICA A month or two ago the authorities at Los Angeles made a new and singular departure in connection with the maintenance of the peace of the city. They appointed women policemen, and invested them with all the authority of ordinary officers of the law. The experiment, it is said, has worked successfullv up to the present, and now the idea" has been elaborated, and female officials or another and still more extraordinary type have been created. The official "flirt" is the latest American notion. In the United States it is a misdemeanor for a stranger to stare into the face of a passing female, but notwithstanding that fact women are frequently annoyed by the insolent admiration of'wouldbe "mashers." In order to try to put down the practice (lie official ''llirt' has been introduced, and it seems that it is her duty to look out for offenders against the law of public propriety. The idea has been adopted by the Chicago Police Department, and "it is said to have proved eminently successful.

CHILDREN DISINHERITED. FAILED TO SHOW LOVE AXD RESPECT FOR MOTHER. "It is my intention that my two De Stenrs children and their descendants shall not inherit any part of my estate, for the reason that they have not shown me -any of the love and respect due to a mother, although they have heen <iiven a chance of so doing." .So runs a passage in the will of Countess Margaret Laura Zzorowski, who died recently in London. The children (a son and a daughter) alluded to are the result, of the Countess' first marriage with Baron de Rti'urs. formerly Hutch Minister in Paris. The son lives at Canterbury and the daughter at Vienna. The countess, who was a niece by marriage of (In- late Mrs. As tor. made England her home after the death of her second husband, Count Elliott Zborowski, whom she married after a divorce at South Dakota. She inherited £((0,000 from him, which, with her own large fortune, she leaves to her sixteen-year-old son Louis Zhorowski, who is to be educated in England. The boy's guardians have instructions to spend £3OOO a year on bringing him up. and the will states that she wishes her son to live on an estate she purchased in Kent.

The will contains elaborate provisions to keep tilt; children of the first marriage from onjoyinjr any portion of the wcalt.li in the event of the death of Louis Zborowski.

NOTES A London correspondent slates that Miv. Carbery, of Stratford, and her daughter, Mrs. Uniackc. arrived in London some months ago. and have so far spent a very ga.v time. They spent a month in London, -participated' in (.'owes week, saw part of the aviation race, have been in for the polo match fin which the Kin;; of Spain played), attended Covent Harden and hoard Mclba. T'etnuzini and Dentin: Earl's Court; the festival of Empire; White City, etc. They leave for Treland shortly, on a round of visits, and intend j to spend October in London. Mrs. I iniaeke sails for New Zealand by the

Mooltan, but iMrs. Carbery intends to winter in Rome,

An elopement, not without a touch of romance, occurred from Oamo.ru the other day (says the North Otago Times). An old couple, whose united aged totalled something like 140 years, flitted northwards by one of the trains. The man repented before reaching Christchurch, and sought shelter in a wayside town. The lady, it is believed, is returning to the institution from which her amative inclinations tore her away.