WOMAN’S WORLD.

Taranaki Daily News, 12 August 1922, Page 10

WOMAN’S WORLD.

NtW ZEALAND WIDOW. queen Welcomes her. AT HOME IN BUCKINGHAM PALACE. London, June 12. Gne New Zealand lady, Mrs. Hicks, of Dunedin, back to the Old Country, after many years, has had a very memorable visit. For when she reached London she had a great desire to see the Queen, .whom, she had seen in New Zealand many years ago. Her wish was gratified. An imposing invitation arrived for her to visit her Majesty. Mrs. Hicks tells her story: “A friend took, me there,” she said, and we were received with wonderful courtesy.

“A special chair was brought for me to sit on, and Sir Derek Keppel, Lord Stamfordham, and the Duke of Atholl came up and chatted with me.

“Then I saw the Queen. She was exceedingly gracious, .and her charm al most struck me dumb,

“The Queen said : ‘lt is very wonderful of you coming so far at your age;’ “I said : ‘Your Majesty, I saw your boy at Dunedin —he is a lovely boy! He won all hearts in New Zealand!’

“The Queen replied: ‘How lovely! I hope yon will have a good time. Go out and see all you can and be very happy.”

Mrs. Hicks glanced down at her hands. “She shook hands with me twice,” she said.

“I can sparsely credit that I have really seen the Queen and talked to her—l shall have something to tell them when I get back to Dunedin.”

At the age of 76 she has come back to London after an absence in New Zealand of 61 years.

She made the long voyage in order to see her two brothers—the ages of the three, it may be mentioned, total 223 years.

Mrs Hicks thinks the changes that have been wrought in Londbn during her 61 years’, absence are marvellous.

“•London is perfectly wonderfv 1 ” she said. “Have I been in the underground? Why. of course, I have- I have been running about all over London, morning noon and night, ever since I've been here “I must make the most of my time, for I’m going back to New Zealand soon. “I think the biggest change in London is in shops and dresses you see there;”

BEAUTY FOR “KEEPS.’ J know a girl (say.- a writer in a Tasmanian weekly) who is only 25, and who is already worrying for fear she is losing her looks. Well, there is an inside and an outside way of keeping beauty, and if she wants to find the secret she must do her work from within as'well as from without. She must give up all ugly habits, such as biting her lips and drawing her brows together, or, worse still, raising them and making her forehead look like the five straight lines on ,a small piece of music. It is said that “beauty is skin deep.” I do not agree, but that is part of the skin side of it anyway! If we wish to preserve our good looks we must not sit too close to the coal fire or the gas fire if we value our delicate coloring, for scorching heat will burn and coarsen a rose-leaf complexion.

CARE GF MOTHERHOOD. The Medical Correspondent of The Times writes: Very considerable anxiety is being caused at present by the continued high incidence of puerperal fever. Although it is now well understood that antiseptic methods can reduce danger from this infection to vanishing point, yet the number of cases has been increasing since 1918. That, it is to be feared, means that carelessness has been increasing also, though another explanation may be that the education given to midwives has fallen short in some iniportant direction. Puerperal fever is caused by a germ, the streptococcus, which is übiquitous and which, unless strict antiseptic measures are taken, constitutes a danger at all times. It was this germ among others, which used to kill so many of the patients subjected to operation before IJster’s day.* Now a case which “goes septic” after a clean operation is regarded with the gravest disapproval, by surgeons. The same spirit is required among those who attend women. Week by week the record of cases of this disease is published, and will continue to be published, until the great lesson which Lister taught has been learned by every woman —for all women ought to be instructed in so vital a matter.

The total elimination of this disease, which accounts for half of all the casualties attendiiM* child birth, is a matter of organisation only. Few ills are so certainly preventible.

POINTS FOR HEALTH. Lecturing to the People's League of Health on “Personal Hygiene an<|_ the Importance of Food and Sufficient Sleep, Standards of Living and Family Welfare,” Sir Thomas Oliver referred to the essentials of clothing as ventilation, moderate warmth, cleanliness, and freedom of movements. The gr.” eful skirts worn by women to-day, compared most favorably from a hygienic point of view with the number and weight of petticoats worn some years ago. The short skirt at present worn was healthy: to lengthen it would only impede the movements of the limbs, a circumstance not altogether free from danger. On the subject of food, it was not altogether a question of the amount consumed. but how it was enjoyed, digested. a.nd absorbed. Many women ate too little. A poor luncheon—a bun or two and a cup of tea—was often the cause of indisposition and physical unfitness for work on the part of girls. Many young women in business had not got. money to spend upon a wholesome midday meal, but married women, when alone at home, would hardly sit down i to a sustaining luncheon. Sound boots were also essential. No person could work properly when, owing to leaking shoes or boots, the feet were cold and wet. “I have often advised lady typists and shop assistants,” he proceeded, “to keep a change of stockings and a pair of shoes in the office.” Apart from the hygienic aspect of the subject, women should be particular about their feet. Neat feel were an attraction, but neat- | ness must not be sought to be secured I by wearing boots or shoes which caused jpain. and led to deformity. Boots should i make walking a pleasure. Tn advocating 'personal cleanliness, he said that per- ■ *onal ablutions could be carried too far.

! Some people took two or three baths daily. That was a luxury or a fetish, I and not a necessity. One of the impelling needs of the human body was fresh air and plenty of it. RECOMMENDED RECIPES. The pumpkin is quite the most fashionable vegetable at present, and is to be seen in gold, crimson, green, and white-striped, and cream-colored varieties in all directions. It is capable of use in many ways, as soup, tart, curry, .etc., ana' an exchange gives an interesting number of recipes for the nourishing vegetable as follow: Pumpkin Soup: Cut up, peel, and seed a fcmall pumpkin or half a .large punjpkin. Boil the pulp in slightly salted water until tender. Drain and put through a puree sieve. Cream together 2 tablespoons each of butter and flour; melt, and lightly brown in a frying-pan. Turn in the pumpkin pulp, adding 1 quart of stock; seasoq to taste, beat well, and cook slowly for 1 hour. Beat 2 eggs thoroughly and add them a cup°of cream. Stop the soup boiling, turn in the egg and cream, stir well, and the soup is ready to serve. About 2 cups of pumpkin should be the result, ‘ after putting the pulp through the puree Scalloped Pumpkin: Peel and dice enough pumpkin pulp to make 2’/ 2 cups. Boil in slightly salted water until it is just beginning to be tender, then I drain dry. Melt a little butter in a frying-pan and lightly brown the dice, •a few at a time; place them in a buttered pudding dish with a cup of dry crumbs, dust with pepper and salt, add a tablespoon of sugar and J cup of grated cheese. Pour over all 2 cups of thin tomato sauce, dot the top with tiny lumps of butter and bake. Pumpkin: Peel and slice a quarter of a medium-sized pumpkin and boil the slices in salted water until they are tender. Drain the slices and saute them in butter, seasoning them with salt, pepper, and a little sugar. Lay the slices on a flat butter baking dish and dust with grated cheese, then stand in the oven long enough to melt and lightly brown the_cheese. Pumpkin Sticks: Peel and cut the pumpkin in sticks, as for French fried potatoes, using a quarter of a mediumsized pumpkin. Boil the sticks ten minutes in salted water, drain dry, and - roll in mixed cinnamon and sugar, then lay them on a baking sheet and dry in a cooling oven. A salt spoon of powdered. ginger is often added, with a grating of orange peel, to the sugar and spice. Pumpkin Shortcake: Take 2 cups of hot boiled and mashed pumpkin pulp and add to it a generous lump of butter, A cup of honey, a teaspoon each of cinnamon and ginger, 2 beaten eggs, 1 cup of sugar, and 1 cup of cream. Put the mixture in a double boiler and cook gently until creamy and thick. Have ready the shortcake made of biscuit dough, split and butter it and lay up with pumpkin spread thickly between and on top. Over all put a layer of whipped cream. The shortcake is best , hot. but is also eaten cold. Colonial Pumpkin Tart: Boil in salted water pumpkin to equal 3 cups, when mashed thoroughly through a sieve. Add to it 1 cup of molasses, a cup of brown sugar, a teaspoon of cinnamon, % teaspoon of cloves. 2 teaspoons of ginger, a generous lump of butter, yolks of 3 eggs, a cup of cream, and, last of all, pour in the stiffly-beaten whites of the eggs. Line deep plates with a good rich crust and fill three-quarters full of the pumpkin mixture. Bake slowly until brown blistered on top. This tart (pie the Americans call it) was occasionally frosted, when baked, with a soft boiled frosting, and the old fashion is worthy of repetition. Sweet Pickled Pumpkin: Peel and cut a small pumpkin into medium slices, then cut each slice in two or three pieces. Boil in salted water for ten minutes, drain and put into the syrup. The syrup is made of a quart of vinegar, 21b of sugar, 2 cups of brown sugar, a thinly-sliced lemon wtih seeds removed, a good-sized piece of green ginger cut small, 6 sticks of cinnamon, a. tablespoon of cloves, a teaspoon of ginger, a ' salt spoon of curry powder, and a blade of -mace. Boil the syrup five minutes, 1 then add the pumpkin. Cook evenly until the pumpkin looks glassy at the 1 edges, then pour into a crock and let ’ stand one week. At the end of that time, drain off the cyrup, if it seems thin, and boil down a little: then add the pumpkin and cook until all is cooked ' through, turn back into the crock, and, when cold, cover the crock with a linen cloth. Store in a cool, dry place. Curried Pumpkin and Oysters. —Peel, dice, and boil enough pumpkin to equal ' 3 cups. Drain and put a layer of oysters in the bottom of a deep buttered pudding dish, cover with pumpkin and 1 o tablespoons of crumbs, dot with lumps of butter, dust with pepper and 1 salt and repeat until the dish is full. 1 Have ready the Sauce, made in this 1 wav: Take'one tin of tomatoes, a sliced onion, a bay leaf, a half bud of garlic. • a teaspoon ’of flour, salt, pepper, two ‘ stalks of celerv, a tablespoon of sugar, ' find a few sprays of parsley. Boil ’ crentlv until the unions are cooked, then strain into a small saucepan and thicken slightly; let cool until it stops smoking, and add to the prepared dish. Bake for forty minutes.

A V.C’s MARRIAGE. The marriage of Lt.-Col. Bernard Cvril Frevberg, V.C., C.M.G., D. 5.0., (grenadier’Guards, late of the Queens Royal West Sussex Regiment, and ot the Hon. Mrs. Francis McLaren, M.P.. took place on June 14 at St. Martin on the Hill, London. The old church, one of the few Norman ones remaining, stands, as its names indicates, on a steep hill which lies on the old Pilgrim Way to Canterbury. There is no access to it save by a footpath up the quarter of a inile steep through magnificent pines which cover the slopes of the hill. Even the choir, which had been brought under the leadership of Mr. Hayden Hunt, F.R.C.O-, did not know at whose wedding they were to officiate. And it was well the secret was kept, for in spite of its inaccessibility the church would have been crammed with such a bride and bridegroom, and best man, Sir James Barrie himself. It will be recalled that only a few weeks ago the bridegroom and best man were, together, “capped’’ bv St. Andrew’s University, which made them Doctors of Law, the occasion on which Sir James made his world famous speech on courage, one part of his text, being that very gallant act of Col. Freyberg’s own at Gallipoli when in the dark he swam ashore. The bride’s father, Sir Herbert Jekyll, has long been associated with Imperial affairs, f-om the seventies when he was on a commission on colonial defence, down through the busy years of our development, till now. He * was, too, secretary-general to the Order of St. John of Jerusalem. Among the guests were Lord. Onslow, a neigh-

bor of Sir Herbert’s in Surrey, BrigadierGeneral Arthur Asquith and Mrs. Arthur Asquith, Lady Bonham Carter, and Lord and Lady Abcrconway.

USEFUL HINTS. A cabbage leaf is an excellent medium for cleaning greasy tinware. Tough meat can be made tender by steeping it in vingear for a few minutes. Never black a stove while it is hot; it takes more blacking and gives less polish. A paste mixture of salt and vinegar will remove stains from discolored teacups. The juice of half a lemon in a glassful of water will frequently cure a sick headache. Use water in itfhich vegetables have been boiled, but especially rice water, as a basis for soups. To clean rusty hooks or other articles similarly discolored, soak them in ammonia and water. Grease spots on wallpaper should be rubbed with camphorated chalk. Never cook stews too fast or the meat will become hard and t.ough. Ammonia in warm water will revive faded colors, and it will ramove grease spots on rugs and carpets like magic. To mend hot water bottles, waterproofs. and any sort of indiarubber goods, adhesive plaster is very useful. A good remedy for a cut is raw starch. It should be wetted and applied thickly as soon as possible. Add vinegar to the water in which table-glasses are rinsed; it will give an extra brilliance to the polish. Drooping flowers may be revived by standing them in hot water to which a small quantity of ammonia has been added. When there is no shoe polish in the house, lemon juice makes an excellent substitute. A few drops rubbed briskly on black or brown shoes gives a brilliant polish. Worn emery paper should never he thrown away. Instead, place the used paper in a warm oven for a few minutes, and much of its former rough surface will be restored. Black specks on mirrors are quite easy to remove. Dip a flannel in either spirits of wine or turpentine, and rub the specks. Afterwards polish the glass with powdered whitening. If. when washing curtains, a little milk is added to the blue water, they will look like new when they are ironed. Suet keeps best when covered with flour. It is quite safe to bury it in the flour-bin; it will not leave odour or flavor behind. When stewing rhiibarb add a pinch of salt or bicarbonate of soda. This pneutralises the acidity of the fruit, and less sugar is required. It is a good plan also to stew dates or figs with rhubarb, as they help to sweeten it. The best way to clean lamp burners is to boil them for twenty minutes in strong vinegar to which a few yellow onion peelings have been added. To cleanse and brighten cut-glass, wash it in lukewarm water, to which has been added a little blue. Instead of a cloth use soft tissue paper, and when one piece has been carefully dried, with another crumpled piece of tissue paper you will obtain a brilliant polish. To remove mud stains from woollens dip a rag in petrol and begin by rubbing round the outside edge of the stain. Work round and round to the centre. As soon as one portion of the rag becomes dirty, change to.a clean part. To remove mud stains from woollen or black silk dresses, first let the material become perfectly dry, and then brush. Any stain that remains should be washed with flannel dipped in hot coffee, to which a little ammopia has been added. This solution is quite Ji armless. For lighter materials, use warm water, a teaspoonful of borax, and a few drops of ammonia.' THE CUP THAT CHEERS. It very rarely occurs to us to blame the teapot if we disapprove of the flavor of our tea. But the quality of the tea may be irreproachable and yet the palate rejects it. It is advisable, then, to inquire into the conditions of its preparation. The water may have been just freshly boiled, and the tea brewed strictly, in' the most approved fashion. Look, then, to the teapot. It has the discolored appearance and the faintly musty odour that means that tea and tea leaves have been habitually left standing in it. When this happens, the teapot must be thoroughly clea-nsed before the tea again has its delicate flavor. To do this, fill the teapot to the brim with boiling water, and add a piece of washing soda. Close down the lid, and let it stand overnight. Next day pour out the soda water, wash the teapot well with soa-p and water, .using a small brush, then rinse thoroughly. A teapot should really be dried inside as well as out, and left with the lid open until quite free from moisture.

TAKING OUT STAINS. Most stains, such as grease, fruit, or wine, may be removed from the .finest materials by rubbing with a flannel dipped in ether. This may be obtained in small quantities from most chemists, and it will not injure the color of the material. But one important rifle must be observed. When rubbing with a cleansing preparation, always rub in a circular direction, beginning in a circle just outside the stain, and gradually working in towards the centre. This prevents the stain from spreading.