BEYOND THE FOUR" K.S."

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1443, 18 May 1912, Page 11

BEYOND THE FOUR" K.S."

"But I reckon, madam, there aro two things I should not caro to be in tliie country, and thoso are o woman or a dog." As was at onco placed beyond doubt by his accent, the speaker of these words was an American citizen. Ho was 011 a tour through Germany, and, being ignorant of the language, welcomed tho presence in the railway carriage of two English ladies as a favourable opportunity of unburdening himself of some of the impressions he had gathered. No doubt his judgment was unduly severehe came from the land of the "new chivalry"—but there was at least a grain of truth in it.

Tho German woman has of'.en been praised by her menfolk as a pattern of the domestic virtues, but the eulogy contained the implication that she was lacking in the other ones. If the truth must bo (old, she was not given many chances of exercising them. To illustrious lips is credibly ascribed the saying that the cardinal points of a woman's horizon are "the four li's—liirche, Kinder, Kucbe, and Kleider—and that all her duties and pleasures should lie on or between theso. This was undoubtedly the traditional notion of a German woman's sphere. In society she was treated, says tho London "Daily Telegraph," with an exaggerated appearance of deference; every married woman was—and still is—addressed as

"gracious lady," every single one as "gracious miss." Sometimes, as a special mark of esteem, one or the other is elevated to the rank of o "most gracious one," and has her verbs put into tho third person plural. But behind these superlative formulas lurked in the mind of the average German male the solid conviction that women were inferior 'beings, unfitted for the really serious business of life, and that the only proper work Soy them was to hear and rear his children, to sew on Ms buttons, and to eooli Ms meals. Until a couple of years ago it was, in most of the German States, illegal for a woman even to participate in a political meeting. But silently and persistently the German woman has been working out "her own emancipation, and an exhibition which is daily drawing its tens of thousands at Berlin shows how far she lias already progressed towards it. This exhibition, which bears the limine "Woman, Domestic, and Professional," is an eloquent testimony to feminine capacity, activity, and power of organisation. The mere fact that it was practically complete in all its parts on the day of its opening by the Empress is in itself almost of epoch-making purport. Conld the same

ever be said of any exhibition projected and arranged .by the male intellect? To the superficial glance the exhibition has the strong family likeness which is peculiar to its genus; what differentiates it from the others is that the motive power.behind all that is to be seen in it is woman's brain. There are model dwellings planned by woman architects, fitted with furniture contrive! by woman designers; a gallery.of pictures painted exclusively by woman artists; litters of live pigs and liroods of equally animated chickens bred by woman farmers; portentous potatoes and cauliflowers, pears am! apples, grown by woman gardeners; stands of stuffed animals and birds shot by woman Nimrods; and while the visitor is examining those 'manifestations of the strength of the weaker sex, his ears are entertained bv the strains of woman composers, played by an orchestra of woman insU'uuientalistsumler a woman conductor.

All tlio stalls, stands and exhibits ar? in" the charge of ivomen. whose readiness to explain is perhaps in some 'measure due to timir anxiety to demonstrate io mere men 1 hat they have really mastered —possibly in this case it would be more prudent to say impressed—their special .subject The" male creature Ims been allotted only the menial work of waiting at the restaurant. That is his la:>t refuge in this feminine 'microcosm. It is hardly necessary to state that, the domestic side of woman's life lias been by 110 means overlooked, but. all the same one gets the impression that the real purposo of the whole nffair is a widening of the horizon beyond the limits of the home. A great deal of space has been sot apart for women in educational work and her beneficent 'labours in nursing the sick. Not less significant than the exhibition itself of the fermentation that is going on in the mind of the German woman, and elovatng her from the grub of the "Haiisfrau" to the butterfly freedom of independent individuality, are the crowds that throng the showrooms from morning to night, for there is little to be seen there that ministers to mere curiosity or lovo of oxcitoment. Those who (lock thither are obviously actuated by an idea, and consciously taking part in a great movement, of which this is only a beginning.

Weddings—Shower Bouquets for brides And bridesmaids. Only the choicest of i-lowers used. Specially packed and sent to any part of the Dominion. Miss Murray, 3.1 Willia Street (Florist tu his Ki eejleney Lord Islington).