Crisp Shopping.

Have your tennis frock this year very tailored. Pleats provide fullness at front and back, at the side seams, or both. Sleeves are present and look tailored too; either very plain, severely pleated, or neatly made in one with the yoke. Buttons, in white, or in vivid contrast, provide a front closing, cluster in a pair at the throat, or hold pockets closed.

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Pockets, by the way, are usefully decorative. They are of all shapes and are attached at divers angles. They show themselves in pairs or in quartettes. Some sports frocks are smartly finished with rows of machine stitching on collar or revers, sleeves, pockets and belt.

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Materials are interesting. Some weaves featuring artificial silks are fascinating, but one must beware of those which are liable to be a problem in laundering. It is safer to buy a pure silk or a linen. Belts are of leather, macrame or self material. The latter, I think, look best. If you choose a white linen tennis frock, make a short loose coat to go with it. This linen coat will form a smart accompaniment to other summer frocks in any material or shade.

As the season develops, linens show their predominance even more. Furnishing linens make one long to redecorate. Among the dress linens are delightful flowered or spotted designs for frocks and the smartest of fabrics for suits—in natural or beige, or in these backgrounds lightly flecked or smartly checked. Two enchanting plain linens are in dull pink and a soft blue. The success of linens, of course, is due to the fact that most of them are now anti-crease. If a hat en suite is required buy enough material for it when you are ordering your costume. Buttons, square or oblong, will accent most of the new tweed suits.

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Cottons are crisp and delightful, whether for house, street, or evening wear. For a frilly summer dance frock what could be more charming than hailstone muslin with contrasting ribbons. More sophisticated is a frock of black net, splashed at throat and waist with vivid velvet. The skirts of summer frocks are fuller, fullness in some cases coming from the waist and not from the knees as heretofore.

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For daytime, too, skirts are fuller and freer. Fullness is supplied by gores, or by mid-front pleats and flares. Some frocks are shirred, or even smocked, at the waist-line. Bodices, too, are full. They may be softly gathered in a frill at the neck, decorated with shirring, gathered at waist and on to a plain yoke, or softly draped and kept in position by intriguing clips. I noticed one model with bodice gathered on to a latticed yoke. Latticed pockets were also featured.

Sleeves for afternoon frocks are very full—puffed, flared or shirred— and gathered in to fit below the elbow. Armholes may be plain or deepset.

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This is a flower season. Flower designs predominate in materials over the also-popular spots, checks and monotone designs. If the material of your frock is not flowered, you may wear a cluster of flowers at the throat, or two or three single blossoms applied flatly down one side of the bodice. Your hat may have flowers flattened on its crown, on its brim, or gently tilting the brim up at side, back or front.

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Shoes to wear with dressy frocks are still high-heeled, but low heels have the right of way with linens and cottons. Light cruising shoes are showing with an open mesh and bar and buckle fastening. Sandal bar shoes are popular. Noteworthy also are toeless shoes with an open sandal vamp.

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One Job At A Time?

“I really can't do more than one job at a time, so I stick to that.” She was a girl student at one of our University Colleges, and, while visiting a friend of mine one Sunday afternoon, some-one had asked her why she had let her music drop. It seems that in her early teens she had been a promising pianist, but now she refused herself time to practise. She left soon after tea, saying that she had a book to finish before lectures in the morning. We were used to that, knowing undergrads. But this serious young damsel also turned down a bathing and tennis party for the following Saturday as she usually swotted for so many hours on a Saturday.

“It's no use asking Eileen,” someone else remarked. “She's always snowed under with swot.”

This happened early last April. I could have understood it this month or last, with examinations looming, but not in April, that delightful early month when most undergrads shun the studious precincts of the Library, save when a merciless Professor ordains that at least a minimum of research be undertaken and the results ably set forth in a “paper.”

I have met Eileen several times since then—a very nice girl, and doing well at her studies, I believe. Nothing outstanding, but a real plodder, who will collect her letters in due course.But the girl vaguely annoys me. I would like to jolt her out of her rut and make her take a little interest in the world around her. I know why, before she took up 'Varsity work, she showed promise at the piano. It was because she felt, even then, that she page 58 could do only one job at a time—and music was it. Probably when, and if, she marries, she will devote herself entirely to the one job of housekeeping and become (though I do not mean to be unkind) even more boring.

The young things I like to have about me are those who are willing to divide their interests. They work with zest and manage to sandwich in all the play they can. In the interplay of interests and social relationships they develop their sense of fun, lose their feeling of self-importance, broaden their outlook, widen their sympathies, become “all-round” people. And they are the girls who are going to develop into the type of older woman I so much admire—capable in many directions, friendly, sympathetic but bracing, au fait with the world.

I am sorry for Eileen, who will go on deepening her rut, with satisfaction to herself, not realizing what she is missing, unless some cataclysm jolts her into the sunlight again.

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Your Odd Shillings.

Every woman has to make up her mind from day to day what to do with the odd shillings, and what she decides is usually either according to her nature or the strength of the temptations for spending placed in her path.

To the woman who will lay by and accumulate the odd shillings for some larger objective in the more or less distant future, there are thousands who place nothing but an immediate value on them, namely, what to buy with them right now.

Of recent years a marked feature has been the determined—and successful—efforts to capture these odd shillings by such methods as the price catalogue for small sundries and the chain stores. The real difficulty now is to find all the odd shillings to buy all the odds and ends you would like.

A good rule to follow is to choose, whenever possible, something with a more lasting quality rather than the more ephemeral things. For instance, one afternoon tea is the price of six mousetraps—that sort of thing. What will you have—a box of chocolates or a potato peeler? A picture show or a pair of stockings? A “binge” or a book you've craved for?

I have known people who do weigh up several expenditures this way. They are the kind of folk who have all the handy knick-knacks about the house and who seem to be up-to-the-minute in getting those little personal accessories that go with being well-turned-out.

The odd shillings have a habit of burning a hole in the pocket. I don't blame them a bit—it's their business to get into circulation somehow or other. But it really is worthwhile to say to yourself—“Well, I want this and I want that and I want the other thing. I can't have them all, but as I want them all equally, I will at least choose the one which will give me the longer-lasting pleasure or satisfaction.”

We all have to work out some kind of philosophy of life about almost everything we hear or see or come in contact with, so I think it may be no waste of time for each of you to ponder, for a little while, the philosophy of the odd shilling.

The great advantage of reaching an outlook of a definite nature on a small scale like that of your odd shillings, is that it helps you in dealing with greater things. There is the story of the rich lady who bought a painting of a cow for £11,000. She could have bought the original cow for £11. The cow, as a matter of course and in the due process of nature, kicked the bucket for the last time many years ago. The pictured cow is still a work of art, is worth much more than when it was bought, and will increase in value as the decades roll by.

He Once Weighed 161/2 Stone.
21 Ibs. Off with Two Bottles of Kruschen.
Now Ties Shoes Without Puffing and Blowing.

If you are overweight and want to reduce, there is no need to-day to put yourself on a drastic diet. Here is a letter from a man who is steadily losing his unwanted fat, yet satisfying his appetite to the full on four meals a day. He is taking Kruschen Salts, and he tells us that after taking only two bottles he is 21 Ibs. lighter. He writes:—

“After taking two bottles of Kruschen Salts, I have reduced my weight from 161/2 stone to 15 stone. I have made very little change in my diet. I have only cut out white bread and potatoes and gone on to whole-meal bread. I have four meals a day. The reduction in weight has been so beneficial that I can now tie my shoes without having to puff and blow after the effort. You may use this letter as testimony to the benefits I have received and I hope shortly to be able to write to say I am down to normal weight for a person of 55 years of age.—P.W.L.

Kruschen is a scientific blend of six mineral salts found in the waters of those European Spas which have been used by generations of overstout people to reduce weight. Before the first bottle of Kruschen is finished, the fat starts to go. Then, month after month, the scales tell the same story—a few pounds less of superfluous flesh to burden the body and endanger the health.

Kruschen has a world-wide sale. It is taken by the people of 119 different countries. In none of those countries is there anything else quite like it—nothing else that gives the same results.

Kruschen Salts is obtainable at all Chemists and Stores at 2/6 per bottle.^*

Having given you these extreme examples, you can, of course, work out the intermediate problems for yourselves—but remember that the odd shilling is the basis of all such calculation.

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Health Notes.

During the spring and early summer months various rashes and other skin irritations are inclined to be troublesome. Now that the cold weather is over it is necessary to change the diet, and eliminate most of the more heating foods such as starches, fats and red meats. Substitute with fresh fruit and vegetables (raw and cooked) and white meats—fish and chicken.

Take alkaline aperients and medicine such as bicarbonate of soda, magnesia, etc. Apply cooling lotions, cold cream or ointment to the affected parts. Calamine lotion (which may be obtained from any chemist) is a useful remedy to have on hand, also bicarbonate of soda solution (one tea-spoonful soda to one pint boiling water).

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Sunburn is a frequent source of irritation during the early summer, especially during the early stages of sun bathing. Precautions should be taken to avoid a badly sunburnt or blistered skin. Injudicious exposure to strong sunlight causes unnecessary pain and discomfort and can be very harmful.

Gradual exposure to the morning and afternoon sun should be the rule, avoiding the strong mid-day sun. Commence the first day with ten minutes, five minutes for the front of the body and five minutes for the back. The second day allow another five minutes, gradually increasing the time each day until the skin is well tanned. Wear a light wide-brimmed hat to protect the eyes and the back of the head and neck. Children's sunbaths should be supervised, and they should be provided with a ground sheet so that chills may be avoided.

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Simple Remedies for Sunburn.

1. Apply olive oil, cream, or calamine lotion.

2. If the skin shows signs of blistering, soak small pieces of soft, old rag in carron oil and apply to the affected area; bandage to keep in position.

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Home Notes.