LADIES COLUMN.

Tuapeka Times, Volume III, Issue 123, 16 June 1870, Page 7

LADIES COLUMN.

Paper Carpets : An American paper suggests : " have all your newspapers and, when you get enough for the purpose, make a paste as for putting on the wall, and lay them down one by one, pasting them till your floor is covered ; then let it dry ; then lay another in the same way ; when again dry, get some wall paper of a suitable colour, and paste all over it. When dry, go over it again with a good coat of varnish and you have a nice covering for your floor, which will wear as long as a carpet [will it ?], and look as well as oil-cloth. This is a cheap method of covering bedrooms which are not much used."

During the past ten days there has been revolution in Constantinople. A bloodless one, it is true, yet one that in its results may have a lasting and all-powerful influence for good on the future of Turkey. The ladies have begun to make themselves heard, and they no longer intend to be compelled to hide their beauty beneath the disfiguring yashmak, or to be hid away in the recesses of the harem. They have looked upon the lovely Fransa lmperatrizassy they have seen the peerless beauty of her face, and the inexpressible elegence of her form, and they do not understand why their charms should not also dazzle and delight beholders. They have seen the Lord of the Moslems himself give his arm to a woman, and not only conduct her to the place, but accompany her in the carriage and the caique, and they naturally ask why they should be obliged to veil their bright eyes and fair complexions in a cloud of gauze, and take their solitary pleasure on the water or at the Guenkser, w'thout the escort and companionship of their own immediate lords. A " revolt of the harem f lias therefore broken out in every yali on the Bosphorus, and the inner life of Stamboul is troubled. This revolution has been going on silently for some time, but the visit of the Empress of the French appears to have brought it to a crisis. It is only a few years since the yashmak was worn of so dense a material that it was impossible to recognise the features of the wearer, and the ladies ambled along in wide trousers and loose yellow papooshes that gave a most ungainly appearance to figures otherwise stately and well proportioned. Now, however, the bright eyes flash and the pearly teeth dazzle with their brightness beneath the veil which, from the fineness of its texture no longer serves to conceal, but rather add a coquettish charm to the natural beauties beneath. The slipshod papooshes, too, are discarded, and instead a pretty foot, encased in a neat French bottine, peeps out from under the flowing drapery. But the feredjie still remains to shroud the figure, and prevent the suppleness and native elegance of the form being seen, while worse still, the total separation of the sexes, both in and out of doors, is rigorously enacted. This custom, there can be no doubt, will soon disappear, and then the Turkish women will safely bear comparison with the beauties of any other country in the world.— " Daily News." In the market-place at the Mauritius I saw scores of women, young and old, who had rings on every part of their persons where a ring could be put. They were on every toe and on every finger. They were round the ankles, on the wrists, and higher up round the arms. They were in the ears of course; and they were in the nose, — some small that came just down the mouth ; others large, going as a huge circle round it, the lower rim resting on the chin. I once ttjod in the midst of a tribe of Australians in the north of Queensland many of whom had little or no dress at all. There was rather a pretty-look-ing young girl amongst them, with a slight covering on her loins, but with the rest of her body bare. I observed that her shoulders, neck, and breast had been cut all over with a sharp instrument. The lines and slashes, as they healed, being lighter than the orginal colour of the skin, formed a sort of figure which lay like a light ornament on the surface of her person. I made her understand, through one who spoke a little English, that I thought what she must have undergone to procure these marks must have been very painful ; and I inquired whether she did not regret it. " Oh ! no," she replied, "not at all ;" and then she added, " No, it is bougerie ;" that is, "It is beautiful, or good." "My poor child," I said to myself, " you are a daughter of Eve, and I know some of your sisters in my own. land who submit to having redhot irons run through their ears for the sake of exhibiting what they and theirs regard as bougerie." There are many inflictions among us from the tyranny of fashion far worse than those superficial gashes taken so willingly by tbe Australian girl; — tight-lacing, and abominations of that kind, which common sense, ordinaryexperience, and the most moderate scientific knowledge ought to get rid of everywhere and for ever. Whatever injures health should meet with no quarter, nor should any be shown to what is grotesque and ridiculous. Adam and Eve escaped two serious annoyances of modern lovers. In the first jlace Eve had.no mamma to make judicious enquiries as to Adam's social position and prospects of patrimony ; and Adam had no " governor "to sco that he did not throw himself away on a portionlessgirL *