“POWDER PUFFLETS.”

Wairarapa Times-Age, 8 April 1939, Page 6

“POWDER PUFFLETS.”

(The Editor.) Sir,—Your “While Shaving” items please dear old “Pop” immensely, but not so “Youjrs’Truly” (see my full name at foot of this letter) for anything men write, do, or say. leaves me “stone-gin-ger” cold, as it were! Fact is, I’ve seen too much of men (including “Pop”) to be thrilled by anything short of their extinction, “as a species,” after reading of the poor American lady who cooked her "hubby” an .eight-course dinner, only to have each course thrown in her pretty face, including the soup and the shrimps! I’m a very poor cook myself, but I’d never stand for a thing like that, even if I had to “cook his goose” with the aid of a pair of tongs! Have you, Mr Editor, seen the letter of “Bachelor,” in the last issue of “Truth.” advocating a crusade to these shores of a thousand of those English girls so badly sex-outnumbered “by the species” I have already condemned? Parts of “Bachelor’s letter (had it been addressed to your columns) I feel sure your wouldn’t print, especially that part of it which says: “In any case, English girls are prettier, more capable and more sensible than some of their empty-headed sisters in New Zealand,” and the other part of it saying that he, for one, is prepared to marry one of these new emigrants, as marriageable girls here in New Zealand are hard to move from the “office stool” and other “cushy” jobs! Fancy marching down the aisle (as an Easter bride) on the arm of such a defamer as him! If not sadly mistaken, Mr Editor, this “Johnnie” that writes to the Press of Wellington is another of the same kidney as the one who tried to “pash” me at a “spinters’ ball” by saying that ”my eyes were like starshine,” and my “Trilbys” so dainty small that even a man wearing number ten pumps (if so cruel as to try) couldn’t crush the “tiniest toe” with its “tiniest corn!” Dear old “Pop” naturally gave him the “Order of the Boot!” If it wasn’t for naming names, MiEditor, I could tell you of another case of the man who tried the same old “You’re the only girl for mee” stunt that Adam “tried to put over” Eve, by saying that “my face was my fortune,” and then sending in the bill (next day) to poor old Pop “for the hansom cab he had ordered to bring me to, and carry me home from my first grand Masterton Military Ball! Perhaps, “Reg” Pinhey, or “Jack” Wallace could give you his name, but I simply refuse to afront his fame! ; When a mere “Schoolgirl Flapper, I fell in love with the “Man in the Moon,” but when someone told me, in astronomy class, that there doubtless was a woman in -the case “on the other side,” I started looking round for something of the sort nearer at hand, only to meet among the odds and ends of male companionship, the above historic two! I may appear, Mr Editor, the usual sort of “tame tabby” most men like to find at “necking parties,” but these two Johnnies have felt my claws! Apart from "Pop,” I’ve studied married men a lot. as well, and wished some of them were as well-known to their wives! Even the bravest of them are “a bit slow,” for instance the “Centennial Chappies” who have only just discovered, as a positive fact, that the “English Emigrant Lassies,” who landed on Petone Beach in 1840 mostly wore crinolines! I could have told them that at the start, and might yet (if they reverse the opinion) send them proof of the fact, as well! You mightn’t believe it, Mr Editor, but my greatgranma’s old “Glory Box” is filled to overflowing with old brocades, lavender and lace, and the identical crinoline, long lace-bottomed drawers, etc. etc, she wdre on the poop deck of the emigrant ship “Adelaide” when its women passengers vied (with those on the yardarms of the “Aurora,” and the mizzen-tops of the two other, first-arriving vessels) in God-speeding the "Bachelor" emigrants from ship’s side to Petone shores. Some say. but I won’t vouch for its perfect authenticity, that my greatgranma (the dear old soul) was leader of the beauty chorus which sang “Pull for the Shore. Sailor. Pull for the Shore,” as further greeting to the surfwading bachelors as the whaleboats (crinoline laden) followed them ashore! In any case, when their washing hung on the line, after a wet-spray landing, some of these old dears (then young dears) looked splendid (according to male tastes in those far-off days) even walking about their own tents, mostly dressed in their calico plus fours! If it wasn't for cracking greatgranma’s hand-mirror, by too much looking in it. I’d say greatgranma’s admirers were “a bit flattering” in her day. as compared with the beauty “Ive seen there” which is peculiarly mine! However, Mr Editor, just please pass the word along, to those “Centennial Chappies." that they can now get on with their job of making “new" discoveries of “old” events, without losing any more sleep about crinolines and such like adorable things women wore in the early 'forties until “bustles" came in! I am. elc (what a short postscript for a lady to use). "BETTWYS-CO-ED ” Masterton, April 6.