WOMAN'S WORLD

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LV, Issue 105, 19 September 1912, Page 6

WOMAN'S WORLD

(Conducted, by "Eileen") WEDDING. JOIIXSTOX—BIRCH. A very pretty Imt extremely quiet wedding was solemnised at the residence of Mr. and Mrs. (!. G. Xcil, Vogeltown, yesterday afternoon, when Mr. J. Johnston, head (iovernnient grader, of Motmroa Freezing Works, New Plymouth, was married to Miss Ada Winifred Birch, late of the Scarlet Troubadour Company. The wedding was solemnised in the drawing-room, the Rev. Mr. Burton officiating. The iloral decorations were charming, masses of clematis and peach blossom being pre-eminent. The bride, who was given away by her uncle, Mr. M. J. Williams, of Wellington, looked! charming in a white crepe de chine dress, with yoke of meclilin lace and tiny flower-knots embroidered on the folded skirt, and she wore the orthodox dainty shower bouquet. She was attended by her little niece, as bridesmaid, iMiss Rona Bcnbow. who was daintily frocked in white silk, caught with a silken girdle, white crinoline straw hat, wreathed with tiiy white flowers, and she carried a pink iloral basket. Mr. Alec Johnston, of Maketawa, acted as best man. After the ceremony a dainty afternoon tea was served in the dining-room, the chief feature being the wedding-cake. The usual toasts were proposed and drunk. The table was prettily decorated with ropes of ribbon falling from the ceiling, and specimen vases of white clematis. During the afternoon Mr. and Mrs. BirchJohnston left by motor, en route for the south, where their honeymoon is to be spent. The bride looked very sweet in a charming costume of Copenhagen blue cloth, faced with oriental embroideries and a white tagel hat, lined blue silk and trimmed with ribbon and pale pink roses. The bride's presents to the bridegroom was a silver : dressing set, and the groom to the bride a motor-car.

Amongst those present were Mrs. | Birch (the bride's mother), black chiffon j taffeta, trimmed with lace, bonnet re--1 lioved with white; Miss Keys, white | silk, white hat trimmed with saxe blue net wings; Mrs. Benbow (sister of the bride), black; Mrs. G. Neil (hostess), dark bottle green velvet, cream and pink embroidered lace yoke, white hat, trimmed with pink; Mrs. D. K. Morrij son, smart, national blue shantu*f, I cream lace yoke, black feather boa, black ; hat, relieved with white; Miss Johnstom | (sister of the bridegroom), dove grey I costume, cream lace yoke, outlined with black silk, grey sunshine hat, wreathed with tiny pale blue roses; Mr.s. Freetliy, { national blue .costume, piped with saxe blue, saxe blue hat; Miss Freethy, cream , silk, piped with pale blue, hat en suite; Mrs. Hookham,navy costume, black hat; Miss Bedford, grey costume, black hat. HER ALL TO BE A NUN SOCIETY LADY FORFEITS FORTUNE. £200,000 to become a nun! This is the sacrifice of Mrs. Gertrude Haile Lanman, which caused not a little sensation among, the high society in which she moved. "I have never been so completely happy as since giving up all my earthly possessions in order to be free to work and pray for others," this remarkable ladv said upon entering the Sisters of ) Mercy Convent of Marie Repatriee at Iloocsplt, New Hampshire (U.S.A.) It \fas not generally, believed that Mrs. Lanman would carry out her plan, even although-she had been decidedly ferrent in hef utterances.'

On | one occasion "she confided to a friend: "I have'tried all the pleasures that the world lias td offer. All are unsatisfactory. My happiness, therefore, will lie in following the footsteps of Him Who said, 'lt is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of Heaven,' and in humbly trying to do His work in laboring for others." Mi's. Lanman is the widow of William Camp Lanman, a noted philanthropist. She is strikingly beautiful, and is widely known both in her own country and in London. Her father was Dr. A. B. Haile, who died fifteen years ago. leaving her a Eorttine of upwards of £200,000. Het home at Ghlanbower was noted for its lavish entertainment?. It was to pursue the study of languages and religion that she spent nearly seven years on the Continent. Within a few hours of the receipt of the news of the San Francisco earthquake, she raised for the sufferers £<JOQO among : her pers&nal friends. Last Christmas she disappeared from the knowledge of her friends. The secret of her disappearance is solved by her arrival at the convent of the Sisters of Mercy as "Sifter Mary Gertrude." For months she has been laboring among the poor of Manhattan teaching classes of girls and children until, the labors being beyond her strength, her health suffered a complete break-down. When a physician was called in by the Mother Superior he announced that she hjid heart .trouble, and that the only chance to. save the new nun's life was an immediate trip into the country, with pure ajr and rest in the open. Hence her hurried trip to New Hampshire. The religious community with which the former Mrs. Lanman had been connected, the Order of Repatiice Nuns, is one of the most distinguished and famous recognised by the Roman Catholic Church. It is of French origin.