LADIES' COLUMN.

Tuapeka Times, Volume III, Issue 116, 28 April 1870, Page 7

LADIES' COLUMN.

Anecdote of Queen Victoria. — Some fifteen years ago, in the- days before the demimonde became a power in the world of fashion — in those good old times when it was not considered seemly for a modest woman to make the dress, the manners, and the personal charm of the Arionyinas and the Cora pearls of the day the subjects of her conversation — there flourished a beautiful woman of the lorette species, who was known by the name, real or assumed, of Laura Bell. This fair lady contrived to secure a box at the Royal Italian Opera, directly oppsite to that occupied by the Queen, and whatever toilet Victoria might bo wear on Opera nights, Miss Bell was sure to appear in a fac-smile of it next evening. The adroit species of annoyance was kept up during the entire season, and it i,-j said that so great was her Majesty's vexation that she consulted her lawyers, to know if legal measures could not be taken to put a stop to the lorette's exasperating and insolent conduct. Her legal advisers informed her however, that Miss Bell had a perfect J right to take whatever box she pleased at the opera, and to wear any decent costume that suited her therein. English law was powerless in that instance to portect t'.e Engli&h Sovereign against aunoyance. But while one fully appreciates and sympathises with tbe outraged feelings of the indignant Queen, oae feels that the crime must have brought its own puninshment, as Victoria was not exactly the bestdrcaaed woman in Europe before she subsi ied into an eternity of crape and bombazine. — "Lippineott's Magazine." The women of the United States are preparing a monster petition, to be launched at Congress during the com- | ing session, for a sixteen amendment to the Constitution, prohibiting the distinctions in the elective franchise founded on difference of sex. Second mamages are thus denounced by a " Loving Wife," writing to the " Rochester Union " :—": — " Custom tolerates this abominable social evil, if it I does not approve it. It cannot do less) when the lax state of public morality makes divorces even not only possible, but easy of accomplishment. Marriage by many is no longer regarded as a divine institution, but simply an alliance to be entered into, and dissolve!, at the caprices of folly, lust, or convenience. There are but few persons, comparatively, but that believe in the immortality of the soul ; and that those who have gone before us to the spirit, laud will be recognised, and hold the same relation to us, when we meet them there, that they did here : therefore, to such, a marriage once must, to all intents and purposes, be a marriage for all eternity. A plurality of wives or husbands, in the woi-ld to come, must excite the same horror which it does in all right-minded persona when such a state of things is contemplated here. In this light I view it, and I cannot divest the idea from my mind that the contraction of moro than one marriage by the same person is no less than a kind of polygamy. How agonising and terriblo it must be to a devoted and tender wife when separated from her partner, in the halcyon days of their wedded life, after waiting many long years in the spirit land for the dear one left, behind, to find perhaps two or three later wives of her husband sent to her before his arrival ; and, when he at length comes, to have her claim disputed, or at least only receive a moiety of that love which her priority should claim as a whole. Aside from this, there are other considerations considerations connected with second marriages which are less repelling. First marriages are usually contracted when youth, love, and l-omance cement the union with a tenderness and sacredness which no later periods can approach. The human heart pours out its best and purest oblations upon a first union, and all other connections of the kind are in comparison only ridiculous burlesques upon the institution of marriage. The heart can never yield but to one ths divine glow -which distils the true elixir of wedded life. When this one is removed, the fountain is dried up in this world, and no rod wielded by a second love cau again make it flow with original abundance and sparkling purity. How ridiculous, farcical, and iniquitous then are all marriages save the first ! How abhorrent the bare idea a connection of this kind to all such as are basking in the happy fruition of a first union ! To think, for instance, at some future day, that a beloved wife or husband may be removed and others stsp in their place 3 ; at the boards other hands to preside ; at their firesides new faces to smile or frown upon them ; the arms that embrace them and the kisses they receive to be bestowed by mercenary and selfish interlopers. When death takes away a beloved wife or husband, the bereaved, instead of castiug their eyes around for one to fill the place, should live on the memory of their loved one ; look upon the affliction as only temporary ; bear the lost one ever ia mind ; shape every act as though their eyes are upon them ; and as they proceed, onward, nearing the goal, their love should be constantly increasing, so as to be fully prepared for that reunion which will be final and eternal."