WOMAN’S WORLD.

Taranaki Daily News, 19 August 1922, Page 10

WOMAN’S WORLD.

IMMODEST SYDNEY. EVANGELIST SHAMED. Ambassador Booth, an evangelist on a visit to Australia, is much perturbed as a result of his investigations into the mode of living of the people in the big Australian cities. Speaking during the week on the subject of “Satanic, Australia,” he said: “Sydney would take a first prize with any similar exposition on earth for the display of women’s nakedness. “Go to parks and beaches in summer,” he said, “and watch in the dance halls the get-up and the get-down of the jazzers. How many thousands of our women have stumbled into the manmade snare of the ‘try and see,’ ‘lo and behold,’ and ‘peek-a-boo’ style of dressing. “If you would know the effect of all this, study the Government statistics, and count the number of children born out of wedlock. Note the cases in your Divorce Courts, and the sisterhood of your streets. “When a Nonconformist or an Anglican, or even, a bishop, stands up in church and repeats: ‘From all the pomps and vanities of a wicked world, and from all the snares of the flesh and the devil, good Lord deliver us,’ and then goes down to some beautified, God-forsaken dance hall to fox trot with a lot of low-breasted, bare-backed, naked-legged women, whose shameful immodesty, did it ever thus appear before the altar., would drive the angels a thousand miles from a cathedral, I call that maladjustment. “I call that maladjustment when church school matrons teach dainty young girls that notning is as sacred as the marriage bond, and then sit with them before suggestive plays and dirty pictures, which show in a bewitching manner the most appropriate way to commit adultery.” continued the ambassedor. “I call that maladjustment when these same gentle dames rebuke with all possible austerity the first sign of immodesty in the Christian girls, and then take them down to a college bunny-hugging spree, and put them in the arms of the young bucks of a grammar school.

Writing from London, a Wellington lady says that, with her little daughters, she stood, for an hour in a queue at St. James’s Palace to see Princess Mary’s wedding presents. These were varied from diamond tiaras to a waste*paper basket, and pathetically showed the great love of the people for the Princess. The jewels were wonderful, and her wedding dress, displayed in a huge glass case, was beautiful in its richness of material and simplicity of design. . . . The presents were shown in three large rooms, and one passed the barriers in single file; no time to dawdle, as there were hundreds waiting for admission. The rooms were the typical State apartments, brocade covered walls, and many family portraits by Kneller and others in two of the rooms, while the other was panelled in black and gold lacqueur. The first day the presents were shown over £7OO was taken at Is per head, in aid of hospitals. An extraordinary feature of the first Court held in London this year was the presence of a large number of distinguished- American visitors, introduced by the American Ambassador, a sufficiently impressive figure in his semiCourt dress and American glasses; and, in the case of the ladies, presented by Mrs. Harvey, a typical American matron of much self-possessed charm and personal flair, writes a London correspondent. Directly the date of the first Court was announced, quite a number ot American society leaders booked their passages to London solely with the object of having their daughters presented. Comparisons were inevitable between the characteristics of the American . belles and the English debutantes, prominent among whom was the stately eighteen-year-old daughter of Ulster King-at-Arms Miss Gwendolen Wilkinson, who stands fift 2in in her silk stockings. The American beauties presented several splendid types of womenhood; but the most divinely tall of them was dwarfed beside the Ulster Lady, and the Court critics, who may, of course, have been slightly prejudiced, awarded the palm for simplicity and girlish charm to the English rosebuds. A big crowd drew round the palace gates and assembled down the Mall to watch the arrivals, and some of the fashionable elite had to submit, with as complete a Vere de Vere demeanour as they could, to astonishingly outspoken* persontl comments Women even glued their faces to the carriage windows to study the Court modes worn by those withih, and made remarks as callously as though society folk were wax images at Madame Tus- 1 sand’s.

The romance of two young souls who were happily thrown together through community singing in our own Town Hall is a Charming little story, alike pleasing to young and old (says the Auckland Star). The hall was packed and the top gallery was filled mostly with young people who had pushed in just at the last minute, after the older people had taken their seats comfortably in the main gallery of the bottom part of the hall. A few songs had been sung and theij “Annie Laurie” was given out, and one verse, the second one, was given to the top gallery to sing alone. The whole hall full of people listened with hushed attention as the words of the old love song were sung in a way that touched them deeply, and brought forth the praise of the conductor. A young fellow from the country whose vocal powers were well known in his own district had taken a seat beside a young lady whom he did not hardly glance at as he took his seat beside her. When the singing commenced however he found that she possessed a beautiful voice, and moderated his own tones a little so that he might listen. Then when the command from the conductor came for the top gallery to sing alone, the young fellow took his courage in both hands and whispered in the young lady’s ear “Now that means you and me!” and her answer to that was the way she sang the verse with her newly found companion when the challenge was thus given. The hour in the hall soon came to an end and the two separated, only to meet in the same carriage in a South bound train in the evening. The recognition was mutual, *and it was soon found out that they lived fairly close to each other. Things are done quickly nowadays and the romance of the story is that an important engagement has now been announced in a Southern