WOMAN'S WORLD

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 232, 29 March 1912, Page 6

WOMAN'S WORLD

(Conducted by "Eileen,") EARLY MARRIAGES. Till: TOWN AND COUNTRY GIRLS. } London, January 2G. Mr. T. R. Macquoid, the artist, celebrated his ninety-second birthday on . Wednesday, January 24, in his home at Tooting. S.W. Part of the day he spent in painting. His wife, the well-known novelist, who is eighty-eight, said: "We have been married sixty-one years on Sunday." Giving her opinion on early marriages, she said: "I think that the London girl is quite safe in marrying early in life, where it would be a grave mistake for her country cousin to do so. The city girl sees life, and knows the ways of the world much better than if she lived in the provinces. She knows her own mind and seldom makes a mistake. "In the city boys and girls have a hard world to face, and somehow the very knowledge of that draws the bond of matrimony closer. 1 think twenty a suitable age'for a girl to marry, but I know of so many cases in which marriages at eighteen or seventeen have turned out extremely happy. Marriages are made in Heaven. If you go deeply into the secrets of everybody's heart you will find that they love only once in a lifetime. They may marry for what seems like love, but really it is not. My great aim in writing novels is to show that true love alone is necessary to a happy marriage. I think a happy marriage is the happiest thing on earth."

WHAT WOMEN WILL DO FOR BEAUTY When fashion-makers designed the sheath-like hobble skirt, straight-fronted corset and the tight-fitting bodice they little imagined the penance those society women who suffer, to quote the language of the polite lunatic, from a 'superabundance of adipose tissue' would have to undergo. Get thin or be out of J fashion! That was the problem with which they were faced. And, recognising that to be out of fashion is to be beyond the pale of society, they set to work to , get thin; and some of their methods of doing so have not been lacking in novel- ] tyOne lady, for instance, finding that dieting was no good, set herself the task of pulling up a 71b weight attached to one end of a rope slung over a pulley fifty times every morning before breakfast; while another, who apparently had read something about the rolling exercises tried in some gymnasiums, did fifty rolls a day on the parlor rug. When asked if such treatment was doing l.or any good, she replied that she lost tcii pounds in six weeks, but sighed pathetically as she continued, "It might as well have been ten ounces for all I miss it." The stationary bicycle and rowing machine have been taken up with much enthusiasm by society ladies who wish to reduce their weight. One enthusiast confesses that she does ten miles every morning and has nothing to eat till dinner time but a cup of tea and a piece of toast. Thanks to this strenuous exercise, she is now able to arouse the envy of her friends and acquaintances on account of her slim figure. Another lady, who rows five miles before breakfast according to the indicator attached to her .stationary rowincr machine, found that the only result was to give her an enormous appetite, which, when satisfied, added about twice as much weight as she had lost. Others speak enthusiastically of the wonderful effects of ball-punching, and a medical man informed the writer that it was undoubterly an excellent exercise for reducing weight if indulged in systematically. "I reckon," he says, "that sixty punches mean a loss of one pound in weight, provided that the diet is carefully studied." One of the most extraordinary experiments, however, for reducing weight was that carried out by a number of society, ladies who formed themselves into a sort <»f home club. Thevtook a house, furnished it in the simplest style, and every day went..there and indulged in such tasks as scrubbing and sweeping floors,; running up and down stairs a dozen I times, cleaning windows, and doing all | kinds of housework which was calculated • to reduce the weight. One lady, however, has given up all | these practices in despair. "I have come to the conclusion." she says, "that the only way to get rid of your weight is to worry about it. lam worrying about mine to such an extent that I am afraid before long I shall have to wear my daughter's clothes."

WAR ON PARIS FASHIONS. There is great jealousy between the tailors and dressmakers of New York and Chicago as tp which city shall lead the fashion in America, and at the recent convention of the Ladies' Tailors' and Dressmakers' Association, which was held at Chicago, words and feelings ran very high. The New York representatives declared that Xew York must lead the way as the premier city of the United States, and those of Chicago declared that nothing should take the supremacy from their fair city. Whatever may be their quarrels amongst themselves, however, the fashion creators of America are determined to strike a deadly blow at the domination of Paris. America shall have her own styles, say the ladies' costumiers, and Europe may limp behind. Investigations have shown, they declare, that "the wondrous Parisian creations" of the last three years have been copied from American ideas, and that the <renuine Paris styles imported into America nave been failures. UNDESIRABLE DANCES. The national campaign in New York against suggestive dances, meaning the '■turkey trot," "grizzly bear," "chicken crawl, and so forth, all originating in low-class houses, but which* have insidiously made their way recently into fashionable circles, is greatly aided by the manifestoes issued by society leaders in Xew York. Boston and Philadelphia, declaring that the dances are tabooed.' On January 1(5 (says the London Daily Telegraph's correspondent) the president of the International Art Society, before the commencement of a big 'subscription dance, ascended the rostrum, and declared that it would be better for any young couple with an inclination to dance the "turkey trot" or the •'•Boston dip," which many people here think relatively harmless, to leave the hall immediately, because any dereliction would be followed J instant expulsion. Those present appended the speech, and promised to qbey. Many of the hotels have staled that as long as a private party paid their ballroom bill and contracted for supper it was considered a private affair. The police were not admitted or required, <l ", ,'5 '. s '° " lc P co l'le themselves to 1 set their own standards. But the Wal- ' dorf Hotel people took a different view. "M'lager said that if lie personally saw people dancing in a way he thought/ piejfidicuil to good taste, he was going'*, o stop ilie dance on his own responsibility. i o t these people run theii; dances to suit themselves, so long as we are satisfied," lie i-aid. "When we are aot, the Waldorf management wtfl take » baact."