WOMAN'S WORLD

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 211, 5 March 1912, Page 6

WOMAN'S WORLD

(Conducted by "Ellee*.") MISS MARIE BAINES. Mis Marie Raines, the brilliant English commedienne, will produce "Miss Lancashire, Limited," at the Theatre Royal on Wednesday evening, and as Mary Ellen Thompson, Miss Baines offers a performance which must take high rank in the history of farcical comedy. A humorist with the rare quality of comic characteristation, puts everything and everybody to humorous account. The plot of "Miss Lancashire, Limited,'' hinges on a servant girl, who for some few weeks changes places with an heiress, and the part of the servant girl is, of course, taken by Miss Baines. One of Miss Baines' songs, "The Trip to Blackpool," describing the first holiday railway journey of a pert little English maiden, is without doubt the cleverest recitation delivered on the Australasian stage for years. BREACH OF PROMISE SUIT. WOMAN SUES WOMAN IX SCOTTISH COURT. P 888 htereifing and unusual ease was heard in the Court of Sessions, at Edinburgh, on January 14, when one woman sued another for breach of promise, sajd to have been committed by defendant's husband, deceased, j Miss Georgina Soutar, of Caverton street, London, brought an action against Mrs Agnes Lorenz (or Napier; or Petcn), of St. Andrew's Drive, Pollokshiehh, Glasgow, executrix of her late husband, Melville Gordon Peters, manufacturer, of Govan. Plaintiff sought payment of £4OOO damages for alleged breach of promise, etc., on the part of defendant's husband. She said that she met Mr. Peters in a Glasgow hotel, where she was einployr.d as a reception clerk, and in 1895 he proposed marriage, and she accepted him ; At his wish the engagement was kept secret, but he gave her a diamond and sapphire ring. Subsequently, they resided at a hydro in Carlisle, and elsewhere, as man and wife. Plaintiff was under the belief that, according to the law of Scotland, they could be declared man and wife. Then, in lflOl, Peters became engaged to defendant, and begged the plaintiff not to take action. He promised her £lo* a month for life, and the payments were made for one year. Plaintiff was informed that Peters was J in financial straits, and she was offered, 1 but declined, £IOO in settlement of her j claims. > ' • | Peters died in 1910, leaving £24,000. [ Defendant denied plaintiff's material . averments, and pleaded that as the al- ' I leged annuity was capable of constitution only by the writing of .Mr. Peters, and no writing being found on, the action should be dismissed. The estate, she said, amounted to I £18,371. ILord Ormidale allowed a proof of the statements relating to breach of promise and seduction.

A GORGEOUS WEDDING. Washington was in a fever of excitement a few weeks ago over a wedding which was declared to be the most gorgeous the city had ever seen. It was the union of Mrs. Oliver Oioiiiwell, who is to win immortality as "the millionpound bride," with Mr. E. T. Stotesbury, who is known to fame as Mr. Pierpont Morgan's partner and head of the great Philadelphia banking house of Drexel and Co. The ceremony was performed at the bride's parents, her son giving her away, and it was, of course, t.he occasion :'or a great gathering of fashionable people and men of mark in politics and diplomacy; but the magnificence of the ceremony, according to some veracious chroniclers, "was not a circumstance to the gorgeousness of the presents." Their value exceeded £1,000,000. The bridegroom's gifts to his. wife included "giltedged" securities worth £BOO,OOO, and a pearl necklace valued at £IOO,OOO. It is asserted that this'necklace is the finest in the, world, but Mrs. Stotesbury's pride in its possession may be discounted to some extent when she has to wear this rchiarkablo ornament, since it "reaches to the floor when circling the bride's neck." The lady will not lack jewellery, Mr. Morgan having sent her a necklace worth £BOOO, which contains 200 diamonds', and other friends having contributed numerous rings and bracelets for her personal .adornment One of the gifts js a--sapphire valued at £20,000, one of the- costliest single stones in the world. Perhaps-by way of affording appropriate settings for all this wealth of precipus.possessions the bride included in her trousseau eighty Paris gowns and sixty house dresses. Har .friends in Washington, it is reported, have named, her "Queen of Sheba," and certainly there appears to be good reason for this tribute to her gorgeousness. Mr. Stotesbury,-of .course, seems to have cut quite,an, insignificant figure alongside hismagnificent (bride". The only gift mentioned in a lengthy newspaper report as having been received by him is a set of three dozen plates which once belonged to Queen Adelaide: Happily he is a man of simple tastes,' and no doubt he is quite content. TAXING BACHELORS Several months ago Mrs. Charlotte Smith, of Boston, suggested a tax on bachelors, but the Massachusetts Legislature did not see it quite that way, and the suggestion was suppressed. Then came Dr. Bertha C. Downing, of Worcester, Mass., calling for a tax on spinsters. Dr. Bertha Downing believes that women should wed, or pay a tax for the privilege of enjoying a life of single blessedness. She also.blames th's, tendency to intellectuality among -women ! for the lack of marriages. Her pro-1 pbsal, she declares; will make a girl hesitate before she decides to reject sin eligible suitor for the sake of her books and independence.- It will also prompt her to avail herself of the leap year privilege and do the proposing herse'f, in case the eligible young man is at all bashful. ;

COLLECTIVE HOUSEKEEPING An English paper tells of an experiment in collective housekeeping in what is known as Bren Garden Village. The dwelling houses contain all improvements except a kitchen. Meals for everybody are cooked at a central hall, and may lie either eaten .there or sent home. A four-course dinner only costs Is Gd. Servants are supplied when needed from the central hall, at a cost of about 6d an hour. ROMANCE OF A MILLIONAIRE. Mr. James Raynor Storrs Wells, a. young millionaire famed for his escapades, has furnished society with a new sensation by secretly marrying Miss May Maloney, an attractive New York girl, who four years ago sued him for £20,000 for breach of promise (writes a New York correspondent). The suit, which was eventually abandoned, followed the marriage of Mr. Wells to Miss Bishop, a New York chorus girl. The millionaire, who. to escape the university career desired for him by his father, enlisted in the Navy, met Miss Bishop during leave

of absence. The honeymooning led to his overstaying his leave, so, when he returned to his duties, Mr. Wells was imprisoned on a training brig. Eventually his wife divorced him, after starting / a suit against her husband's mother for j £IOO,OOO damages for, she alleged, alienating Mr. Wells' affections. This suit,. like that brought by Miss Maloney, was ■ discontinued. Mr. Wells and Miss Maloney were married last month, the welding being kept a secret. The bride's friends describe the case "as that of one person loving another, and finally realising it." RISE AND FALL OF FASHIONS Those interested in the rise and fall of fashions relating to articles of dress will find much that has a bearing on what we wear in the Chamber of Commerce Journal, published every year in London. In it we learn of the astonishing advance in the manufacture of artificial silk, which has for its basis a certain vegetable fibre. The glossy embroideries and lace, which have come into such favor the past few years, are apparently silk to the uninitiated, but as a matter of fact they are manufactured from vegetable substances and wood pulp. The journal says that over twenty tons a week of the material is produced! in Coventry. From Nottingham, the \ English lace-making centre, comes the ' I news that though colored veils went completely out of fashion in 1911, they i are likely to be worn again in the near future. However, the demand for thp three-yard long lace curtain is rapidly dwindling, for the new style of architecture has introduced the casement window, and consequently the short and narrow brise-bise is taking the place of the longer curtains, which a few years ago represented Nottingham's staple industry. Although the hat-pin has replaced elastic as a "hold on" for our hats, still it is made in large quantities at Leicester, and from there it is exported to the Continent, where the hat-pin is not to popular as the under-chin elastic band. The preference shown for the silk or satin-covered hat, which has been so marked this season, has had its effect on the English straw trade, but, according to the- report from Luton, where fine straw plaintihg is done in immense quantities, the business is picking up again, while the continued craze for the short skimpy skirt brought trouble to both walkers and manufacturers, of dress materials, it created an exceptional enquiry for all kinds of better class boots and shoes. Consequently English boot manufacturers have had a wonderfully pros- f perous year. Patent or enamelled lea- I ther has been in great vogue, and "if j wearers would only take a little more \ care of their footwear, such as putting in | boot-trees, and warming gently before | pulling on, there would be few com- I, plaints of patent leather."