WOMAN'S WORLD.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 135, 29 November 1911, Page 6

WOMAN'S WORLD.

(Conducted by "Eileen.") LATEST HEALTH WARNING The latest health warning appears in the Xovember London Magazine. There is a widespread belief that common salt is a requisite in diet —that we cannot be well fed unless a fair quantity is eaten with our food. Now we are to consider that the instinctive craving for salt is one of the faults in present-day civilisation. The ''crude mineral sodium chloride, which has come to be universally adopted as an adjunct to diet," only satisfies the taste, while it fails entirely to fulfil all the good uses which the eater vaguely ascribes to it. "It is a law of .Nature that man can only assimilate the mineral salts after thoy have gone through the process of vegetable growth and become living substances. The raw minerals have no life ■that can communicate itself to him." Therefore, man should ;be content with the vitalised salts consumed in fruits, vegetables, and in the flesh of grassfeeding animals, without further sprinkling these foods with stuff that remains "a foreign substance in the body," displaying all the obnoxious qualities usually attributed to foreigners. The oversalt diet has, of course, long been convicted of evil, and vegetarians have now and again united the salt-cellar in the ■ condemnation dealt out- to the meat dish. "I believe the time is not far distant," wrote Mrs. C. , \V. V Karle, in 1002. "when it may be discovered that' the great cause of cancer is meat and salt, as leprosy is supposed to originate in eating salt fish in large quantities." But, then, do the vegetarians cook their cabbage without seasoning, aad deny themselves any dash of salt with their potatoes? If not, they, too. come under this new risk of rheumatic and nervous affections due to that unfortunate diet of salt-eating. In the cases adduced to illustrate the theory, only '"the abstainer from salt had no ailment whatever." Why grass>eating animals themselves should know the hunger for commoi talt is a point not touched upon in this article; but the London essayist and his friends not only agree with Hotspur's popinjay, "that it was a great pity, so it was, that villainous salt (petre) should bo digged out of the bowels of the harmless earth," but even resent the appearance of the most refined domestic variety. Porridge without salt, bread without salt, unsalted butter, must make for them, indeed, a vapid and sapless world!

GORGEOUS PARADE OF FURS The annual display of feminine fashion witnessed in the Longchamps enclosure on the occasion of the autumn Grand Prix resolves itself this year into a gorgeous parade of furs (writes the London correspondent of the London Daily Mail). It may be doubtful iE such a display of costly and magnificent furs of all kinds and employed in every imaginable way has ever been seen in the stands or in the paddock of the historic racecourse. From the beautiful vmodels worn by the mannequins and the fashionable Parisiennes it is quite apparent that dresmakers are resolved to make the most extensive use of fur in the execution of the coming season's fashions, in which black and white once more predominate as the color combination. Except for the strident tones of [ an occasional "tailor-made" there was hardly any bright color visible, but an unending procession of rich heavy costumes, in which sealskin, sable, ermine, silver fox and velvet predominated. With a white gown black furs were generally worn, with white sitlt stockings and black shoes. Complete costumes of fur were seen consisting of a separate coat and skirt. One magnificent model was of the thickest and softest ermine, 1 the hem of the skirt being fringed with the tails. Another "creation" which excited general attention was a frock silk velvet brocade, over which was worn [a mantle cloak of chiffon and a deep border of sealskin descending from the knee. White embroidery was noticeable on black velvet gowns, while one costume had the hem of the. short skirt edged with a long black silk fringe, through which the white tops of the boots were seen. Some black costumes were trimmed with borders of maeramc lacework, which I believe our grandmothers employed for fringing mantelpieces. Several tailor-made Costumes in colored ratine resembled in material the gaudy bath-gowns worn by fashionable youth. ■ One .smch. in crushed strawberry, was edged on the top and at the hem of the skirt witl) moleskins, and looked extremely well. There was an unending variety in fur toques, a student's ''beret" of ermine with black velvet brim being a successful model. Mull's appeared to be bigger than ever, and one girl was carrying a Pekinese dog in an immense wallet-shaped creation of magnificent silver-fox. There was a very large gathering of dressmakers, who. notebook in hand, wnlked about the en-, closure industriously taking notes. The money taken at the gates amounted to .€liSo».

IN DEFENCE OF THE BRITISH GIRL. In this month's issue of the Empire Magazine. Mrs. Cloudsley-Brcreton takes up the cudgels on .behalf of the British girl, who, she declares, is now compelled to face a fiercer fire of criticism than any other individual in the community. Mrs. I'loinlsley-Brcreton says that the faults eommonlv ascribed to the English girl are not so much hers as faults of the age. "The English girl's difficulty," she continues, "in this year of grace seems largely to be to know what the rules of the game are. The game of life seems to be altering so much and so rapidly. The fact is that the field for Life's (Same is visibly broadening, and the rules of one locality do not apply, except as to broad principles, in difi'e'reiit portions of the field. The true sporting spirit, the will, and the power to play the game at all costs must always be there. The rest is a matter of local conditions. Sometimes the unfortunate player comes to grief by learning the prairie rules and finding herself placed in Mayfair. "■But let. us look at. the processes by means of which the British girl of to-day lul* been evolved.

"Passing over tlio savage stage, wherein she fought and worked and bore, her children in privation and hardship side I>\- side with hev men folk, down through Hie Middle Ages and days of chivalry, when her training was largely that of the cloister before marriage, and still imbued with the cloisteral ideal even after marriage, wo eome gradually to our own day, when the primitive sportawoman and' (lie cloistered scholar are united, in varying stages, in one healthy, human being. For if asked to describe the average girl of to-day of the middle, upper and aristocratic classes, the first impression is of a strong, well-built, H-011-lialanced yonns animal, the counterpart of what her young brother has been for generations past when emerging from his public school. She may at times run the risk of being too boyish; she niav have in her a little 100 much of th» young lioness rejoicing in her strength. "Rut- this matters little unless in later development she becomes "mannish' where she should become 'mnnlv.' For she compares favorably on the

whole with the young miss of a past generation, who considered it vulgar to have a bright color or a bright eye; who supposed it correct to faint or simulate order to bo elegant."