LADIES' COLUMN.

Tuapeka Times, Volume III, Issue III, 26 May 1870, Page 7

LADIES' COLUMN.

How to Grain Unanimity in Juries : Let the jury consist exclusively of ladies. As it is proverbial that women never do disagree, there would not be the slightest difficulty in securing always an unanimous verdict, The whole twelve would vote as one women, more especially if one of their own sex was being tried. Besides, the mere prospective horror of a dozen women being all locked up together, without a cup of tea, or a stocking to mend, or a baby to play with, or a novel to thumb, would force them to agree, long before they had looked at the prisoner even, to see whether he was good-looking or not. A London correspondent writes: — "The city has a romantic as well as a business side. Every morning one of the suburban trains brings to the station at London Bridge a gentleman now feeble from age, but who formerly was well known for his personal activity, and who has ' always held a dreadful sort of reputation among that large class of persons who are struggling withimpecuniousity. This gentleman has acquired a large fortune as a discounter, and in this profession he has always made it a practice to require his exact rights, Not long ago, a respectable but unfortunate trader, for whom he had discounted a considerable bill, as he had often done before, was unable to meet his acceptance when it fell due. He applied for a renewal, for time, for liberty to pay in part, but he found neither mercy nor consideration from the harshness of his creditor — nofc scarcely civil language. Ruin stared him in the face ; his business and family seemed likely to be broken up. In this extremity, his eldest girl, a child of 19, volunteered to make a last appeal for time, but also taking with her a portion of the debt, and she started on- her message with the feelings that may be supposed to prevail in the breasts of a "forlorn hope." She had to wait for an interview, and was gruffly recived, but she pleaded gently, yet boldly, and so far prevailed as to be told to call again in the afternoon. She did so, and then without paying a farthing, she recived back the bill, and along with it an offer of marriage there and then, as so good a daughter would make an excellent wife, and so on. It was now the young lady's turn ; of course she could not think of such a thing, but she would ask her father and mother. To make the story short, the old discounter proved the most impatient of lovers ; the girl accepted him, and in less than a month the two were husband and wife. The father was aided with effect, and the daughter, if she sacrificed her youth, has at least the greateful reflection that she saved her parents. She is now doing good in a Surrey village, and her husband, while as exact a man of business as ever, is showing more of the milk of human kindness in the city than he was ever reputed to do before. This reads like a well-worn romance, but it is only a plain and truthful record."

How astonished some of our fashionable ladies would be, if a certain law, passed in 1770, just a century ago, were re-enacted! " Any person who shall, by means of rouge or of blano, of perfumes, of essences, of artificial teeth, of false hair, of coton Espagnol" whatever that may be — " of steel stays, of hoops"— the crinoline of 1770— "0f highheeled shoes,, or of false hips" — can such things be? — "entice any of his Majesty's male subjects into marriage, shall be prosecuted for sorcery, and the marriage shall be declared null and void." What gloi'ious help this law would give to the Divorce Court ? What lady is there, that is a lady, whose armoury of charms, however simple, does not comprise some of the above-named formidable weapons ?

The training of young servants is a task which every young lady who could afford it would do well to undertake. The hope of future comfort lies in a supplyof better-taught and better-feel-ing servants than now throng the registry offices. Youth is of itself a great advantage for a servant, because it makes the relation to the mistress, | and acceptance of directions from, i her, natural and easy. To expect women older than ourselves to yield readily to our instructions is vain. No covenant can make it other than irksome. Thus, an older servant ought always to have advanced to the position where interference is almost superfluous, and each lady's ambition should be to train one or more girls in her house who may come in time to bo her confidental ministers. Were this done, were characters more regarded, and appearance and cleverness less valued, were contracts closely made and strictly adhered to (eschewing all intrusion on the servant's proper liberty), we cannot but believe that the groanings audible at present in half the houses might subside at last, and end in the pleasant purr of peace and satisfaction at the domestic hearth. Written after reading an article on Dress, in the " Quarterly Eeview," March, 1874 : Women must know three things— their " station," " age," And their "best points,"-- if they, by drew, would seem Something between a substance and a dream, Attract deserved attention, and engage The eye and heart at once— stir and assuage Love's tender, tremulous fears. The braided hair, Or flowing ringlet, suits a different brow And fashion of the face— majestic now. Now round or oval, — ruddy, dark, or fair. The ample shoulder, the contracting waist, The swan-like neck, the foot, the rounded arm, Each part in which there lives or lurks a charm, May he. by dress appropriate, shown or graced, , 4s by v poet told, or painter traced,