Ladies' Column.

Waikato Times, Volume XXII, Issue 1833, 5 April 1884, Page 6 (Supplement)

Ladies' Column.

The old fashion of tea-coziea is revived. Pretty ones are made of white linen, outlined with scarlet, in a design of three Japanese gathering the tea, making, and then drinking it. The cozies are oat in the form of an oblong half-circle. Two pieces, similarly cat, are joined together, and lined with fonr or five thicknesses of cotton-batting. The outside is either embroidered or outlined in some taking design. When this is drawn over the tea-pot it keeps in the heat. Fifty, or even twenty-five, years ago no one in England was without a tea-cozy. The summer garden parties of Parisian gaiety take this year the name of "Robinson Orusoes," or shorter still, of " Eobinsons." Of course they call them in France the "Bob-inn-son," pronouncing the three syllables with the utmost distinctness, although with the proper sound, and accenting the last syllable. The " Bobinson "is the least possiblo like what its name would suggest, excepting in the one particular of extreme informality. The Comtesse d'Auriol has just given snch a party. She was costumed as a tavern-keeper's wife of the time of Loais XV., and had asked her guests to come dressed in calico and batiste. The garden was transformed into a country fair, with merry-go-rounds, see-saws, lotteries, fortune-tellers, and also that peculiarly French attraction of such shows, a somnambulist, who gives exhibitions at stated hours. The company breakfasted at little tables of six or eight covers each. The servants were dressed like waiters and waitresses of a country inn, serving, with rustic eagerness, poached eggs with bacon, omelets, fried gudgeon, and suoh rare dishes. At night there was dancing in the open air, and the guests departed after great hilarity, shouting " Vive Eobinson and his man Fridajj "> In the time of Madame Epinay the ''JPcobinsons " were similarly managed. She calls them "holding a cafe," and describes them in ono of her letters : — " On the day indicated for holding a cafe, one places in the room destined for that usage several little tables, each with two, three, or four places at the most. Some are furnished with cards, chesa-boards, checkers, back-gammon-boards, etc.; others with beer, wine, orgeat, and lemonade. The hostes3, who gives oat the coffee, is dressed in the English fashion — plain, short frook, with muslin apron, pointed fichu, and a little hat. She sits behind a long table in the form of a counter, upon which are oranges, biscuit, some pamphlets, and all the daily newspapers. The mantelpiece is decorated with bottles of wine. The valets are all in short, white jackets and white caps. One calls them gaigons, just as in the public cafe. The hostess does not rise to receive any one. Each person invited seats himself where he likes at any table.