Woman's World

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 99, 22 September 1914, Page 6

Woman's World

DEXTS IX FURNITURE. lIOW TO REMOVE TIIE BLEMISH. However careful one may be, there is always a possibility of tables, or other pieces of furniture, becoming dented. Few people realise, writes a correspondent, how easy it is in most eases to get rid of such dents. The implements one requires for the purpose include a hot iron and some blotting paper folded six or eight thicknesses.

Before starting the operation the blot-ting-paper is soaked in water. First of all p! acc the blotting-paper over the dent, and then press the iron on to the whole, keeping it there for a few momenta.

As soon as the paper shows signs of drying the dent may be examined. If the mark was only a slight ona it is likely that it will havo disappeared. •Serious trouble will not be got rid of so quickly, and it is possible that the process described above may have to be repeated several times.

On every occasion the blotting-paper must be thoroughly moistened before use. .Sooner or later, however, the dent will be drawn up by the action of the heat and moisture, and a good polish will restore the furniture to its original condition.

TilE SEED I'EAUL NECKLACE

HOW TO MAKE A FASHIONABLE ORNAMENT.

To make a very pretty necklet of seed pearls, follow these directions:

Thread thirteen beads, passing the needle through the first, and so form it loop. Then thread six more, and again thirteen, forming t:ic thirteen into a loop. At every six loops, thread a larger pearl bead, and let the length be sullicicnt to fall loosely about the neck. When long enough, make two other rows of these loops, passing each at every sixth look through the same (larger) beads, so that when the necklace is complete there are three ro.vs of seed pearls, caught at intervals through larger beads. Earrings in the form of tassels may be made in the

A ban.'l of black velvet round the nock, with diagonal rows of seed pearls, is alio pretty.

For an ordinary necklet have merely some twelve rows of seed pearls slightly twisted, secured by a clasp, and wear than tight round t he neck.

CLOT 1 IKS RUINED IN LAUNDRIES,

A German hospital superintendent has been making an interesting study of laundries which throws new light on the ways our clothes are often ruined by careless or inadequate methods.

One of the most common causes of damage to clothing in laundries is the use of hard or insullicientlv soft water. Another frequent cause is false economy in tho Use of soap, liy sparing the soap the material washed almost invariably runs tho risk of being spoiled in a greater or less degree. Wo are too prone to look upon soap merely as a chemical means of removing dirt, whereas in these days, when comparatively heavy working rinsing and mangling machinery are used, a good soap is invaluable as a mechanical lubricant in preventing damage to tile linen by ameliorating the action of the roller?. This lubricating aeuuii can, however, only be fully secured when soft water is employed; with bard waters a large amount of soap is wasted. The public in general have no conception of what this waste really means, nor is it easy to express it in figures. Rut the experiments have shown that one part of linie in 100,000 parts of water means sixteen tinuy the amount of soap necessary in soft water containing no lime. Electric bleaching is another method whiih does serious harm to collars and linens. Experiments show that it deteriorates the fabrics fully lift/ per cent.

Soaps containing a relatircly low percentage of fat and alkaline soap powders are also responsible for a great deal of damage. When chemical disinfectants arc used the damage from this cans; is much greater, although not so apparent at first.

FOR WHOM IX) WOMEN DRESS'! THREE SCHOOLS OF TMOrcIIT. For whom do women dnvs'.' The proIdem pierce,i deep down into human nature, yet even Carlyle never tackled the psychology of a woman's clothes. Sie.-e the Fall, however, it ha* exercised a great and permanent inllueuee «n the world's destiny. Xo doubt Helen of Troy, Cleopatra, and other dangerous historical heroines dressed well. Did they dress for the men who fought for them, or for the. fellow-women who were jealous 01 tiiem, or simply to please their pretty selves? Each ot these llirrc schools of thought has adherents. To which do most women belong, arc most women (as is likely), ami are tiic divergent views of this knotty point in a'.v Tvav reconcilable!

MAN'S I'KETKXSION'.S. Man naturally Hatters himself th;ii, h's idea -tire slioiiM he the main motive lor women. Ami whether tliis were or w-re nut the case ho would certainly pe'.'-v----rere in liolieunj; so. Xor would lie lilt;: an illusion. At root his pretensions arc true, lint so hidden has the root become that it is not realised. So Ion;: and triumphantly have women led llic fashions (as an end in itself) that they have forgotten the beginning. Tliev have forgotten that at first it was for

men that they dressed. They have forgotten how entirely this holds good of the primitive life and of the dark ayes when the fair sex had no other or uetter recourse. As civilisation progressed, however, two other dominant factors emerged and intervened. In the iirsL place—sad to relate—tho competition for man grew so keen that the rivalry of women inspired their apparel. And in the second nun's own horizon'became ->o enlarged that he had little time or inclination for the details of feminine attire. At best the brute only considered the general eliect. This is so still, except with very observant or very linical men of limitless leisure.

The average man seldom marks those little nuances in ' ostumo which are ail in all to a woman, the small curves and variations that express tho sensibilities of her soul—or of the soul of htr dressmaker, which, aiasl is sometimes the same. .Men rarely notice BUch things, but most women except professional philanthropists do. When men do, bowever, it is chielly for such men of inaction that women dress. This profound truth limb riays the whole, sentimental movement in later eighteenth century England. Sterns is always noticing a woman's clothes. We may infer that to please 1-M-. elderly coquette of a clergyman h.s grisettcs and widows, his Kitty da Fournuntelle and his Kiiza Draper (well so-called) will liave dressed. But Sterne is an exception. I do not fancy that in France—the mother el dress, dinner, and drama—any woman ever adorned her-elf to please the equally sentimental ilosseau. In France thero are men milliners and at home we can still divine the authorship of a pseudonymous novel bj its description of dress.

X\ vjMAX'.S MAXDAKD OF TA-i i.. \\ e arrive, then, at this metaphysical position. Original dress (like original sin) was mainly for man, but in the process of relinemi ni. this remains only subconsciously true. In the main, however, much man may still be an object, it is t> a woman's standard of taste that her frocks appeal, it is for women that women dress, and, so far, the tivo first schools of thought on this important matter admit of reconciliation.

t But then comes in the third school, /whose champion I was hearing (and with admiration) the other day. "Vou are quitu wrong," she said; ''a woman dresses solely to please herself. Of course women don't dress for men—who know nothing about it. You might as well urge that chefs cook for people without palates; it is absurd. Why, do you suppose that we should see all these wonderful frocks upon the stage, if the taste and trouble were taken only for men* .Men don't want them." "ft is to advertise the milliners," I ventured tointerpose, ''if it is, is is surely an advertisement addressed to a woman."

"To women in the mass, then," I persisted "Each woman as she looks at a supremo 'creation' isolates herself; she does not look at it as 'woman,' but as a woman. I maintain thai the love ul dress is an innate feminine instinct. Every woman has it and would have it, so to speak, if no other woman has it at all. Either a woman dresses for herself or slio would show no taste, Thr many have no standard. It is always the one. And personally if 1 were quite .alone —" "On a desert island," I suggested. "Yes, on a desert island, J should still continue to make the best of myself with the materials available. I should dress as 1 should cat. to satisfy a natural, an inexorau'e appetite." "Rut if you had no looking-glass—how then?" "That would be impossible. At the worst there would be the sen on a calm day, and of course the shells and corals and things would bring me a great deal to the seashore; and then as i watched the sunshine gilding the colours T fhould imagine myself at' Ascot or Kanelagh or (loodwood watching the par crowd and the horses; and then, as I perfected a clasp of coral. I might wish ' Rut that seemed to lead us back again to the beginning.