Connecticut western news., 1890-03-05
ABOUT WOMEN.
News and Gossip from Far and
 Near for the Fair Sex,

News and 6Oss1p from Far and
 Near for the Fair Sex.
 In village in the canton of Lu- cerne, Switzerland, there is society of old maids. It numbers eighty members, and, queer enough, it is under the patronage of the St. Gather inc Matrimonial Agency. They per- form acts of Charity, and are highly esteemed in their neighborhood. The Municipal Council lately presented them with banner, on which there is the startling inscription: "Women al e an evil, but they are also blessing. They remind us of the onions, that make us weep, but that we love all the same."
 Forty years ago, says Susan B. An thony, woman could not sue or go into court to testify. In Illinois I knew q married woman who had 8 set of false teeth made. The dentist de- clared them a fit, but the woman said they were not a fit, but on tle contrary it gave her fits to wear them. Well, the husband went to court about it.. The lawyer tried to have the woman testify, but the judge said no. A mar ried woman, he ruled, could not testify Tn matters of joint interest to herself and husband. Of course it. is very different now.
 Four hundred haiis of average thickness would cover an inch of space on woman's head. The blonde has about 1000 filaments to comb and brush, while the red-haired beauty has to be satisfied with 88,OO0; the brown-haired damsel may have 1o9,- 900; the b.ack-haired but !O2, ,0OO. Few ladies consider that they carry some forty or fifty miles of hair on their head; the 1air-haired may eveu have to dress seventy miles of threads of gold every morning. A German experimentalist has proved that 8 sim gle hair will suspend fcur ounces without breaking, stretching under the process and contracting again. But the hair thus heavily weighted must be dark brown, for blonde hair breaks down under two and one-ha f ounces.
 In all the large cities there are thousands of women who give them selves up to the habit of using pernici- ous drugs-the most common vice being the opium habit. Some women buy the crude gum and eat it regularly every day, while others buy laLdanum and drink 1t in quartcr-ounce, half-oance, and even ounce portions. Some deli cate stomachs cannot take laudanum, and so paregoric is resorted to, and soothing syrups, that are put upon the market for the soothing of babies, become tte ruin of grown persons. And then there are the Dover powders and morphine pills, both of which act rapidly, especially the latter. The habit seems more g disease than n vice, for the whole nature of the victim undergoes com plete revolution, moral, mental, and physical.
 The greatest beautiticr in a woman's trousseau is fur-trilnmed wrap. She may have a shock of hair that bristles like shoe brush, complexion like 6 ham, features that grow at right angles with one another and five-cent cheese cloth for dress, but muffed in white or printed cloth robe, lined or quilted with pale satin, and bordered with ermine, fox or lamb, .he vii look well These warm, elegant mantles that en, velop the defects of won an aud he, wardrope are planned to touch the ground in length, to fit close about the neck and waist by means of cord and ribbon.
 There is nothing handsomer in the way of material than eiffel cloth-s soft, warm, woolen stuff, stamped with leaf or flower pattern in darker tint than the surface of the cloth. There are cinnamon, cafe au lait, cream and pearl, with the design in oak, seal, cameo and amber to choose from, and, lined with quilted surah and trimmed with Angora lamb, the robe need not cost but $60. If the buyer is any sort of needlewoman a saving of $3O may be made by home industry and a fifty cent pattern.
 A marriage celebration in Algeria is an interesting relic of ancient customs. The bridegroom goes to bring the bride, and the guests assembled out side the house will wait for his com ing. Soon the sound of pipes is heard coming from the summit of some neighboring hill. and the marriage pro- cession approaches tEe bridegroom's house. The pipers always come first in the recession, then the bride muff1ed up in veil, riding mule led by her lover. Then comes a bevy of gorgeously dressed damscls, sparkling with silver ornaments, after which the friends of tl.e bride follow. The pro- cession stops in front of the bride groom's house, and the girls friends line both sides of the pathway. The pipers march off on one side, while the bridegroom lifts the girl from tie mule and holds her in his arms. The girls friends thereupon throw earth at the bridegroom when he hurries forward and carries her over the threshold of his house. Those about the door bea, him with olive branches, amid much laughter.
 In the evening, on such occasions, the pipers and drummers are called in, and the women dance, two at time, facing each other, nor does couple desist until, panting and exhausted, they step aside to make room for another. The dance has great energy of movement, though the steps are small and changes of position slight, tho dancers only circling round oc- casionaIly. Rut they swing their