Evening Star Newspaper, December 24, 1936, Page 20

B—4 WOMEN’S FEATURES. WOMEN’S FEATURES. THE EVENING STAR, WASHINGTON, D. C., THURSDAY, DECEMBER 24, 1936. The Woman’s Page Wishes Its Readers a Very Merry Christmas!- L3 Avalanche of Rush Work Due to Holiday Starts Staff ““Seein’ Things”’ Own Personal and Feminine Version of Santa Claus Appears in Moment of Stress. BY BETSY CASWELL. (With heartfelt apologies to Clement C. Moore and his “Night Before Christmas.”) The phones had been ringing with never a stop. ’TWAS the day before Christmas, and all through the shop Questions on menus, and what to prepare, Vied with last-minute wails about what to buy where! The Page for tomorrow had been put to bed And the proofs had been carefully nciled and read. The staff and the editor, though still on tap, Were thinking with longing of an afternoon nap, ‘When out in the hall there arose such a clatter That they sprang from their desks to see what was the matter, Away to the door they all flew like a flash, And into the corridor made a wild dash. The lights on the ceiling and walls cast a glare, And they thought for a moment that no one was the_.re. When what should appear to these “makers-of-homes But a miniature stcve and eight tiny gnomes; With a little old woman, whose bright cheery look Told them all right away that she must be a cook! More rapid than eagles her followers came, And she shouted and whistled and called them by name: “Now Menus! Now Home-Hints! On, Manners! On, Patterns! On, Now Cooking and Files! Beauty and Styles! To the top of the desks, to the telephones’ ca:ll, Now dash away, dash away, dash away, all!” As paper that’s burned lightly whirls to the sky And floats on the breezes that carry it high, So up on the desk top the tiny stove flew, With the little old woman and all_the gnomes, too. And then in a twinkling they all took a ‘phone, And answered the flurry of calls on each one. The staff and the editor stood helplessly by While the little old woman started making fur fly. She was dressed all in white from her head to her foot, And her clothes were quite guiltless of ashes and soot. A bundle of saucepans she’d flung on her back, And other utensils completed the pack. Her eyes how they twinkled! Her dimples, how merry! Her cheeks were as red as if stained with cranberry. The strings of her apron were tied in a bow, And the hair on her head was whiter than snow. A smoking mince pie was held in her hand, And its spicy aroma was hard to withstand. The staff and the editor watched in amaze, They thought they were dreaming, at least in a daze. The little old woman managed her elves In a way that impressed them in spite of themselves. Each one took the calls that he understood best, And the staff and the editor sat down to rest. Not a phone went unanswered, no plea went unheard, And the callers were carefully “madam-ed” and “sir-ed.” Politeness and patience pervaded the place, And of dog-tired nerves there was never a trace. ‘The little old woman kept each one at work, Until quitting time came, then she turned with a jerk, And laying her finger aside of her nose, And taking her stove, to the transom she rose. She waved to the staff, to the gnomes gave a whistle, And away they all flew like the down of a thistle. And they heard her exclaim, as she slipped out of sight, *“Now you won’t be too tired to trim trees “onight!” Parties and Definition of “High Tea” Late Afternoon Af- fairs Often Turn Out to Be Suppers. BY EMILY POST. DEAE MRS. POST: When one pays a visit late in the afternoon on a Sunday and is invited to remain for *“tea,” does this mean really tea or does 1t mean an evening meal? I was given such an invitation recently and the *“tea"” happened to be a light supper? Answer: The answer to this would depend upon the hour. At 4 or 4:30 in the afternoon “stay for tea” would probably mean afternoon tea at 5 o'clock, but at 5:30 or 6, staying for tea would probably mean a cold sup- per. As a matter of fact, the word tea used as a synomyn for supper sounds delightfully old-fashioned. At least it takes me back Bbeu'; 20 or 25 years. * % * DEAH. MRS. POST: A friend and I are giving a party at a hotel for my sister. All the information neces- sary is too much writing for a visiting card, which, however, the kind of in- vitation we would have liked to send, since writing notes is so time-taking and anything especially printed is suggestive of much too important a party. What would you suggest that we do? Answer: Write your sister’s name and the invitation on your friend’s card and merely inclose your own visiting card to show that you share in giving the party. * %k ¥ X% D!:A.R. MRS. POST: I am going friends of hers who have a house there. Is there any way we can show our appreciation of their hospitality while we are staying with them? Or do you think sending something later would be better? Answer: While you are there per- haps opportunity will suggest what you can do. If not, then merely write your bread and butter letter, which is, of course, necessary after you return home. Or perhaps send your letter with some small remembrance. * x x x DEAE MRS. POST: Should a man and woman together enter church &and go to their seats in any special order? Answer: If they are shown to their seats by an usher, the woman goes first with the usher, and the man fol- lows. (She does not take the usher's arm except at a wedding.) If they find their places without an usher and the aisle is wide, they walk together. * ok x % EAR MRS. POST: We are expect- ing a young boy from an orphan- age very soon, having been able to get him through a local politician who recommended us highly and used his influence. Is there anything we could do to show our appreciation to him? I do not know his wife. Answer—TI think it would be better to wait until the child has become thoroughly established in your family and then write the politician a letter and tell him how happy Johnny has made you. * % * ¥ DEAR MRS. POST: My young daughter’s Sunday school teacher came to call on us shortly after my child joined her class. I suppose such a visit need not be returned, but the child would like me to take her to see the teacher some afternoon, and unless it would be very irregular I would like to. Answer—Returning such visits is not & social obligation, but it would be no more than courteous to do so. Under the circumstances, I would certainly encourage the child'’s impulse of South with a friend and we have been invited to spend several days with - friendliness by taking her with me. (Copyright, 1936.) NEEDUEWORIK Sweets to the sweet, and pots to the kitchen. It is really m appropriate to fave your pot holders in the shape of pots. And these little pot holders hang rn, send for No. 228 and inclose 15 cents in stamps and postage. m:-ommmmnmpam ) | Looking For Santa Claus. e The Cheer Of Victory Hard Won Give to Triumphant Child Applause Due Him. BY ANGELO PATRL “MUIHERI Mother! Where are you?” “In here, child. What is the ex- citement about?” “You'll be excited when I tell you. It's & secret from Paul, though. Promise?” “I promise. What is it?” “Paul got the highest rating in his class this month. He doesn't know it yet, but I saw the list on Mr. Kean's desk, and there is his name at the top. Isn’t that something?” “Wonderful. He must have worked like a dog to get there. Are you sure?” “Am I sure? Miss Oarrie let me take our list to the office. I didn't even peek at it because she told me not to. But I couldn’t help seeing the sheet on the desk with Paul's name right at the top, number one. I I didn't look any further, but 1 couldn’t have helped seeing it. It means a celebration, doesn't i, mother?” “It certainly does. But we have to be sure. Will he knoéw by afternoon?” “Sure. We get, our cards and the honor list is posted by the time school is out this afternoon. Hell know. Better make the cake, mother.” That afternoon a shining face was lifted to mother’s. “I got something for you, mother. Look, I'm top.” “Not really? How did you ever do it? It's wonderful. You must have worked like a Trojan to do this. Your father will just about cheer his head off tonight. To think you have ‘worked yourself up like this. We must have a celebration.” The celebration meant that this evening Paul would sit in the seat of honor for him, at his father's right hand. Before him there would be a lighted candle proudly held in grand- ‘nother’s best silver candlestick. There would be the ice cream and a party cake for dessert and Paul would serve them. That is all, but it is enough. Children work hard to achieve their perfect mark in conduct, a place o the team—these are high points in child’s career, victories he has gained Photo by F. C. Wilkinson—Star Staff. Apron With Bias Trim Dainty Garment Is Useful as Well as Ornamental. Don’t Forget Self During Holidays Good Plan to Provide New Beauty Treats. BY ELSIE PIERCE. AID & very wise, lovely lady the - other day, “When all this holiday rush and bustle is over, I'm not for- getting myself. I'm going to get some sleep and then I'm buying some beauty for myself . . . at least half a dozen of the darlings I have bought for others, then I shall treat myself to a few fascials because the masseuse who gives them has a way of getting the kinks out from between the shoul- der blades and that tenseness back of my neck. I'll get & permanent, or part of one, anyway, to lift these droopy ends. I'll cream these sadly neglected hands back into softness and my manicures these next few weeks will be oil manicures, if you don’t mind. Aside from that I'm can- celing all social engagements for at least & week (there is the big New Year's eve party which I wouldn't miss for the world) and I'm off shop- ping for at least a month.” ‘Thought I, “Here’s hoping you carry all those wise resolutions through.” It's & grand idea. It's good for the body, soul and spirit . . . suddenly to wake up to a full awareness of your- self, of the fact that you have been neglecting yourself, of a desire to make the most of yourself. 1t is fun to keep a list of the lovely things you've purchased for others ‘| that you should have liked to keep 1974-B Pattern Book. Make yourself tractive, practical clothes, selecting designs from the Barbara Bell well-planned, easy-to- make patferns. BARBARA BELL, Washington Star. Inclose 35 cents in coins for BY BARBARA BELL. T'S always & good ides to have a " Pattern No. 1974-B. Sise_..._. and becoming | ing- for yourself. It's fun to check them off as others' give them to you, and then go out and buy the remaining items for yourself. It's fun, partic- ularly, if you have saved a little of the Christmas fund for yourself or if some one near and dear to you presents you with an unexpected little Christ- mas check. The nicest thing about giving your- self gifts is that you can get just what you want. You needn't be afraid to present yourself intimate little gifts such as a generous jar of emollient cream for a very dry skin, or a little manicure kit for nails that refuse to “keep” for even one week between manicures. You can treat yourself to something frivolous, if the whim prompts you. Iknow one woman who is 50 regal and proper and poised that no one ever dared to present her with what she calls “a silly something”— so0 she buys the little frivolities for herself. If the family happens to be particularly practical, then treat your- self to the glass jar and bottle sets and the atomizers you've been want- If youre 18 and the family simply won’t take the hint, treat your- self to & beauty set and some make- up and blame it on the generosity of Dorothy Dix Says Mothers Have No Right te Select Mates for Their EAR MISS DIX—Although my father loves my motner dearly and is very good to her, she feels that marriage is a terrible thing and is determined that I shall never marry. Her plan is for me to fit myseli to work in an of- fice and earn my own living all my life. But I have other ideas. hushand and children and a home. I have a sister who is 40 years old and an old maid as a result of mother managing her life. She drove away all ot my sister’s suitors and now she | I want | to work a few years. Then I want a | Children. All of this quarreling is making a nervous wreck of me and I'd leave home if only I knew any way to make a living. I could marry, but I am not in love and I have beeri 80 much dis- illusioned about marriage that I don't want to rush into it. What can I do? I am an only child. Answer—I think the best thing you can do is to have a frank talk with your parents and tell them that you want them to get a divorce if they cannot live together in at least decent peace. Tell them that they are not is lonely and unhappy and feels very | only Killing your respect for them by bitter toward mother. this to happen to me, know how to avoid it, as mother has begun the same tactics with me. Al- though I am 17 and a senior in high school, she will not let me have any I don’t want making a row about it. I have to but I don't| boy friends or go anywhere without | the way they are acting and ruining your happiness, but that they also are | wrecking your health and that in a | little while they will turn you into & nervous iavalid for life. * * ¥ % ERHAPS that will bring them up short and make them realize the come homg at 9 o'clock and am not | enormity of the crime they are com- even permitted to choose the dress I|mitting against you and cause them wish to wear. I wish I could make her see that I have a mind of my own and a life to live and that I have some right to decide things for myself. CLARIBEL. Answer—I wish I could tell you how fo go about making your mother see what a terrible thing she has done to your sister and is planning to do to you, but it is easier to make the leop- ard change its spots than it is to change the nature of & tyrannical ‘woman. You see, one reason why mothers are 30 impervious to any argument about their right to dominate their | children’s lives is because they are so self-righteous about it. They are so certain that they are wiser and know better than their children do, and that what they are doing is for the children’s good. They utterly ignore the fact that their children may be of an entirely different temperament, have different tastes, needs and de- sires; that the things that would make them happy would make their children miserable, and that Nature fitted them for a different career from theirs. * ok X % ‘OUR mother, from your account, evidently is a celibate by nature. Although she has & good husband, she looks upon marriage as a sort of purgatory from which she wants to save her daughters. You and your sister, on the contrary, were cut out for wives and mothers, and you will never be happy outside of your own homes. Motners commit a great crime when they try to manage their children’s lives. Half the failures in the world are men whose mothers forced them to be doctors, lawyers or preachers when they should have been carpen- ters, piumbers and bricklayers, or artists, musicians or actors. Innumer- able unhappy marriages are the result of mothers picking out their daugh- ters’ husbands instead of letting them marry the men they wanted, and there are thousands of other women who are lonely old maids because mothers wanted to keep their daughters for themselves and scared all of their beaux away. And that mother sins against her children with a perfectly clear con- science doesn’t palliate the harm she does, but nobody can make her believe that her child has a right to live its own life in its own way, and that it is happier doing the thing it wants to do, even if it is hard and brings no very glittering results, than it would be living the life mother chose for it. * x ¥ w DlAR)flBSD!X: Iam s girl in my late teens and outwardly one of the luckiest. I have a beautiful home, all the clothes I want, lots of spending money. But, in reality, no girl is more miserable. My home is & bedlam in which my parents quarrel continually over my father’s attentions to another woman. They use the vilest language to each other and even come to blows. All the neighbors hear them and I am afraid to bring any one to the house for fear my parents will start & fight right before them. Manners of the Moment I love my mother, but | to use -ome self-control. For, curi- ously enough, when husbands and wives quarrel they never seem to think that the charges .nd counter charges they hurl hurt the children worse than they do each other. Perhaps your father and mother have had a vague idea that they were doing you some great good by staying together even when they hated each other and made a home that was a purgatory for you to live in. If that |is the case, you will solve the whole difficulty by letting them know that it is useless for them to sacrifice themselves longer for you and that you would be happier with either one |or neither one than with both when they were fighting like cat and dog. |and that an orphan asylum would be | & better home for you than the one they have been making for you. Di- vorce is a terrible thing, but it is not so terrible as for a man and woman to | msult and revile each other before | their children and make a home that |is a place of discord and strife. * x % X DEA.R MISS DIX—Will you kindly settle an argument between my friend and me? We can't agree on what love really is. Will you give us your definition of love? R. M. G. Answer—Love is caring for some- body more than you do for yourself. It is putting somebody else's pleasure and happiness and well-being above your own. It is sacrificing yourself for another and enjoying doing it. It some one 15 with you and all wrong when he or she is absent. It is just knowing some one’s every fault or blemish and not caring because it is John's or Mary’s. No one can define love. It just is and nobody knows the reason why. DOROTHY DIX. New Gloves. In fabric gloves for Spring the use of leather detailing and leather trim- ming is more general than it has been hitherto. This applies particu- larly to the suede-like fabrics of which a number of designers are boasting that they “are the nearest thing to the appearance of suede.” Styling of these gloves naturally aims to emphasize the “leather” idea, hence the use of smooth surface leathers in hand-whipping, thong- stitching (often on the backs in dece orative pointing or other arrange- ment) and in applications such as cuff linings, or sectional applique at the center back of the top. Usually the leather matches—it is feli somewhat garish to introduce con- trast both of color and of surface— but occasionally it is in a blending tone such as brown on beige. Cape- skins, kid and occasionally a very small area of patent leather are used in such fashion, reflecting the use of similar leathers for trimmings on Spring fabric shoes. A tie-up in promotion of fabric snoes and fabric gloves, both trimmed in leather, is & Spring accessory suggestion for February showings. My Neighbor Says: To make artificial flowers look fresh and new, hold them over the steam of the kettle for a few minutes, then shake them until dry and press into shape. Dry mops should be cleaned once a week if possible. Soak in warm water to which a generous amount of salt has been added, then wash in a warm, soapy Even your best friends can be superstitious. EVH( your best friends are some- times superstitious—so super- stitious, in fact, that they will drag you out from under ladders and won't lather, rinse well and hang in the sun to dry. Vinegar used in place of water when mixing plaster of paris will keep the plaster softer for & longer time than water will. Before washing a woolen sweat- er lay it on a large piece of brown paper and, with & heavy lead pen- cil, draw outline of sweater on paper. Wash sweater in soap so- lution made with diamond-shaped soap flakes, wring in & turkish towel until as dry as possible, then pin sweater to outline on paper with rustless pins. Treated in this way, sweater will retain its original shape, (Copyright, 1936.) Grapefruit Is Healthfruit Doctors say that ATWOOD GRAPEFRUIT aids digestion and helps eliminate acids from the system Tree-Ripened and Delicious LOOK FOR THE NAME —— Wholesale Distribusor: W. Chas. Heitmuller Co. 1310 Fifth St. NE. Washington, D. C. is just the world being all right when ' >