WOMAN'S WORLD

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 155, 29 December 1911, Page 6

WOMAN'S WORLD

(Conducted by "Eileen.") GIRLS AND SINGING '■' l find parents far. too willing to excuse girls from their singing practice," said Miss Butler, lady principal of tlio Auckland Girls' High School, in her report at the prize-giving recently. ''We are fully aware," she continued, "that every girl cannot sing, but it has been the endeavor of Miss K. Grellett to teach the girls pure enunciation and correct voice production, and so to improve their s-peaking as well as their singing voice. Of the .success which she has achieved it is scarcely necessary for me to speak, for all who know Grammar School girls cannot help being struck with the improvement. May I, therefore, beg parents to be very grudging with their excuses?"

FRENCH ENTERPRISE. There really is no end to the enterprise of the French dressmaker (writes the Paris correspondent of the Daily Express). He has made the Paris theatre his own to an extent quite unheard of a few years ago. Nowadays the makers of the dresses in a new play in Paris have a rehearsal all to themselves, and .occupy as prominent a position on the programme as the scenic arti-t. They read the play before they make the dresses, and are allowed to take unheard-of liberties with the characters they dress. It is no unusual tiling in Paris to see a simple little village maiden on the stage in a frock the price of which would buy the village. Now a dressmaker in Paris has goue one better than over-dressing a play. He is doing without any play at all. He has rented theatres all over the provinces of France, and he is touring with a dozen pretty mannequins and about a hundred dresses. His idea is that hundreds of wealthy people in (lie provinces would be quite ready to buy dresses in Paris if they could do so more easily. And as Mme. Mahomet has not come to the mannequins, the Paris dressmaker is sending the mannequins on tour to see Mme. Mahomet and U Set tee thw.

THE DANISH WOMAN. At a recent congress of women in London a Danish woman stated that if a woman in Denmark wanted a house there it could be built almost entirely by woman's work—from architect to insurance agent. Certain it is that in no country in the world is there such a land of equal opportunity as Denmark. There are city mothers as well as city fathers, while the country, with its rural high schools, sets an example to every agricultural 1 centre in the world. It is in relation to her home, however, that the Danish woman is specially interesting. After a girl is engaged to be married she usually passes two years in preparing herself to be an expert housekeeper. She frequently leaves home and takes a position as assistant-housekeeper, or she attends one of the many schools of domestic science. At the same time domesticity does not mean the absenting herself from the active work of the world. Quite recently a woman who i was an official stenographer in Parliament, married a man who was elected Prime Minister. She never even thought of resigning the position, but took down ! her husband's speeches just as she took down the speeches of the other politicians for the archives of the State.

TABLE LINEN. The woman is not made who does not appreciate goo'd linen, and if alio keeps her eyes open for bargains in this material it is wonderful how soon she accumulates a respectable store. The marking of linen is an art in itself, and if instead of the usual initial, a monogram, a device and motto are chosen, the linen develops an individuality of its own. Table linen was recently seen marked with a lover's knot, intermingling with which was the motto, "Cheerful looks maketh a feast." It is easy to think out designs for bed and house linen that will serve just as well as ordinary marking. The best effect is gained by utilising the design in a circle or oval about Cin wide. The scallop border for linen goods retains its popularity, while the plain hemstitched border is its only important rival. PERFUMES A LUXURY With all commodities bidding fair to become dearer, it is hardly surprising to hear that scents and perfumes are likely to rank among the more costly luxuries. The already harassed housekeeper may not be greatly distressed by the news, but. from the wider commercial point of view, the matter is of some importance (says a Melbourne Writer. One of the reasons for the probablo rise in price is that there is a shortage of oil of lavender, and the result of the earthquakes and eruptions at Messina are still being felt by a scarcity of essence of lemon, both .substances being used largely in the manufacture of the cheaper grades of eau de Cologne. Real attar of roses. never an inexpensive preparation, is said to be at present almost unobtainable. As a matter of fact, a choice perfume is never cheap, and this can be demonstrated any day by a comparison between the delicacy of a relatively small quantity of essence of roses or violets, costing a guinea, and the assertiveness of the bottles of scent costing a shilling or half-a-crown each. To obtain perfume from real flowers is a long and tedious proces?;. and chemistry has stepped in to supply what are known as the synthetic forms, or artificial preparation of natural odors. For example, the scent of heliotrope is extracted from camphor and sassafras. A herb common in America has been found to yield'the delicate perfume of ''new-mown hay." and so the rule goes on through a host of technically-named materials, which are responsible for white lilac, wood violet, and other sweet-sound-ing mixtures. Present fashion, however, favors only those scents that are delicate and almost imperceptible. All that is needed is a suggestion of something fragrant, and then it becomes a personal attribute.

LANDLORDS AND CHILDREN. The dislike of landlords in Paris to families in which there are several children is rapidly becoming a public scandal. To understand what it means (states a correspondent of a London journal), one must remember that in Paris rich and poor alike live in flats. Houses for one family are very rare in Paris, and with the exception of the few little cottages at fancy rents, to live in a house of your own in Paris means a Park Lane income. The landlords are ruled by the concierges and the concierges of Paris object to children. Regularly, twice a month, the newspapers are filled with accounts of unfortunate people (people sometimes who are quite comfortably off) whom landlords turn out of their flats because they have three or four children, and who cannot find house-room anywhere else. Politicians are taking up the question, and there is some talk of legislation to meet it. It seems curiously paradoxical that in a country whose greatest danger is the decline of the