WHAT WE WOMEN THINK

Radio Record, Volume V, Issue 9, 11 September 1931, Page 32

WHAT WE WOMEN THINK

The Restaurant Habit. | [= is a solemn assembly, The air is : rather warm, and there is a murmur of voices-a vibrant, persistent murmur that rises and falls and rises again with strangely soporific effect, unbroken by. the clatter of stout china on stout marble-topped tables. There is an odour as of many foods, and a curious suggestion of preoccupation with other than purely material rites. Man, by nature a gregarious animal, offers proof to the contrary in any teashop. Observe him, wrapped in mysterious reverie over contemplation of an infinite variety of steaming. dishes So close he is to his neighbour, yet how unconscious in that false intimacy, of his neighbour’s presence! Lost in the {ntricacies of the menu, or in pernsal of book or newspaper, he is for the moment denizen of a world apart. Vast spaces may, indeed, be spanned between the brief offer and acceptance of the salt and pepper, the sugar and the mustard. No great philosopher has as yet sought to develop the tea-shop theme; that so rich a mine of inspiration has gone untapped is a melancholy thought. Bor the Journalisé [THE study-bedroom combined is much in evidence in the great blocks of modern flats now being built in Paris, and is an easier room to furnish than one would imagine, particularly when there is adequate eupboard accommodation for hats, gowns and shoes.. A typical example has eupboards, painted exactly the same peach tint as the walls, so that they disappear into the background, lining one side of the room. Against another is placed a divan, with a square of silk velvet thrown over it and innumerable eushions. At the head and foot are two modernist bookcases in dark walnut, closing in the divan so that it looks less like a bed and more like a piece of furniture. On the bookcases stand a few charming trifles -a jar of flowets, a lamp, the telephone, cigarettes, and ash-tray. On the opposite side of the room 49 a desk with modernist bookshelves hung on the wall above it and maps over the chairs beside it. A chest of drawers, low and modern and severe, with a triple mirror on it, and a Httle make-up table (a thing typically Parisian) completes the furniture, except for a soft, low lounge chair upholstered in a modernist slik damask. The room is small, it does not suggest overcrowding, and yet it serves three purposes in a satisfactory fashion -study, lounge and bedroom, The Grace of the Grecians. L®ADING hostesses are determined not to be outdone in social aceomplishments by their daughters. Winding that the Greek dancing which is the craze of the moment is giving their girls exceptional poise and grace for their years, they are now taking it up themselves. Well-known women are using the lawns at their country homes for classes for themselves and their friends, who motor as far as twenty miles to attend them. Some of them’ dance barefooted in white Grecian tunics similar to those donned by their daughters, while others are stockingless. but wear shoes and sleeveless tennis frocks. Taking bows similar to those carled by the Greeks, these titled womep

a practise all the archery movements. They also. do the javelin movements and the dances which the Grecian potters recorded on their wonderful vases and which have been "translated" by modern exponents of Grecian daneing. Cross Your Palm, Pretty Gentleman! qT Scientic Palmistry Mr. Dale Phillips arouses the reader’s interest by analysing the hands. of. a number of famous men. i ; Ly The hand of Mr. Tom Webster, the "Daily Mail" cartoonist, indicates "a whimsical mind; a mind that sees things from unusual angles .. . We have a hand which, had serious art been attempted, should have raised Mr. Webster to eminence in that field." Mr. Augustus John: "The fourth finger is an essay in itself, denoting intense individuality. In the wide

spread at the base we mark tremendous freedom of thought. There is also the curve of Genius." Mr. Douglas Fairbanks: "This is. the type of hand which takes everything in its stride, but which would love to have all the details of work artistically correct." Mr. Bernard Shaw: "Mr. Shaw’s hand is above the average in size, and the palm is larger. than the fingers. These two features denote intense physical energy..... The smallness of the little finger denotes a mind that moves rapidly from point to point, while the splendid index ' finger shows a mind quick to grasp its problem and master its intricacies." Mr. Edgar Wallace’s hand indicates "intense emotion, romance, and imagination," and if he is eareful at 64 he ought to live to be 82.

That Coiffure, "wf FASHIONS in hairdressing ’ fax more slowly and subtly than fashions in clothes. So says a famous London hairdresser. "Short hair came into fashion in 1915," he said, "but it was 1923 before the mode was at its height. The reason is, quite briefly, one’s clients. I cannot force a new fashion upon them. Bach woman says, ‘Very nice-but then, I’m different. My own way suits me best’." . One of those subtle changes is, however, taking place now. Rows of "sausage" curls haye been tried and found to be a nuisance; the film star behind-the-earg coiffure, long and untidy at the back, has been tried and found to be-trying, if you are not so young. Now we are settling down to a becoming and easy-to-wear compromise. 4 A sweep of the hair from frqut to back is the characteristic of the ‘latest coiffures. This is particularly becoming when one wears a hat that exposes one side of the head. The moot question of showing the ear is thus left open. Owners of pretty ears-and how rare théy are!-can brush the hair back to show this charming feature. Other women can have the hair-swept over their ears in a slightly backward direction. The Old Blue Plates. OR a century and a half "Willow Pattern" has been a household word. Longfellow wrote of "the willow pattern that we knew in childhood, with its bridge of blue leading to unImown thoroughfares," and "the fay tastic trees and wild perspective the view." Dickens, spending an evening at an inn in one of the pottery towns, with nothing to study but a blue and white china plate upon the table, let the plate recount to him the story of its manufacture which he had watched that afternoon, while he gazed once again upon "that astounding blue willow with... foliage of blue ostrich feathers . .. that blue bridge which spans nothing . . . together with the rest of that amazing blue landscape." But for all its Chinese details and associations the willow pattern had its origin in the midlands, for it made its first appearance at Caughley in Shropshire in 1780. The first porcelain used in England was brought from China in the vessels of the Hast India Company, and it was much sought after by those who could afford to buy it ag a substitute for the coarser .earthenware hitherto in use. Hnglish potters strove to imitate it, and hy/the middle of the eighteenth century some of them succeeded. Utilitarian Tips. WHATEVER is done to discourage files sooner or later their marks appear on windows, mirrors, and picture glasses. An easy way to remove these is to rub them with an ordinary cork used quite dry. This will leave no smears, and the trouble of having to wash the whole of the glass is avoided. Taps in the bathroom or kitchen! sometimes develop an irritating hahiy of leaking where the turning part ‘of the tap fits into the stationary part. This is due. in most instances to the washer wearing or shrinking. A little oil poured between the two parts will cause the washer to swell, and the

PHILOSOPHY Death ie a port whereby we pass to joy Life is a lake that drowneth all in pain, Death is so dear it ceaseth all annoy, Life is so lewd that all it yields is pain. And as by life to bondage man is brought, Ewen so likewise by death was freedom wrought.

Spenser