THE CENTURY'S SCAPEGOAT.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1587, 2 November 1912, Page 11

THE CENTURY'S SCAPEGOAT.

Muoh discussion "and unflattering critic-' ism has been aroused by the publication of ■an vinterview with Dr. Henry Head, specialist'.'in .nervous diseases, who has been' visiting New York, and who received tho. .'degree"'of fcL.B." of Fordhnm University/ New York! 1 His answer ( to.tho question /"Is"the' evolution of modern woman going' to be - for the betterment of the race?" has attracted'-the undivided attention of women'of'every class in England, and it certainly gives them matter ;'fpr' 'serious thouglit. ' He states:— '. ': . "I am tempted to say that if the young woman of to-day continues ns she is goiiig, there will bo no human family to worry about. . I am dealing particularly with middle-class English girls and women, who are brought up in an environment which makes for intelligence, education, and more or less culture, and who go to college from homes that have always stood for the best •blood of , the country. They "are women who cannot and do not live idle.lives, but who have migrated from the, home into outside pursuits because, they prefer independence and economic freedom to everything else. These'women are splendidly endowed physically and mentally. They .have physical beauty_ unsurpassed, and /every equipment of brain and body to give them poise and charm, but they prefer ■to, earn, say, .£2OO a year and live independently to marrying a man whose earning capacity is scarcely more than their own.' "The life oftbis modern young Englishwoman, independent of marriage, is ideal from her new standpoint,- which takes not the slightest notice of the race and its nature. Owing to the absolute disappearance of. the old-time chaperon system .in/vogue during/my boyhood, these young women aTe hampered in no way in living their own'.lives'as they see fit. They.have become their .own moral mentors.'. They make their, own personal living codes. They have their own rooms, and come, ond go ns they please. They earn and spend unquestioned their own money, and liVe .unquestioned their own lives. 4 They have their undisturbed romances. They have far; more pleasant and trammelled relationship with'men than their mothers had, but they do not care to take up the obligations, of wifehood and motherhood. Assri-

oiatiom'with this brilliant, beautiful, selfreliant, modern, economically, and morally unfledged woman makes a nian who is her companion more polished, and gives aim a pcise, a leyel-headedness, unknown to men ;of a former-generation. ■■'■ "The.moderri Englishman is a far differ-ent-creature from the wild, full-blooded creature his father-was. He enters into companionship with' a' young woman with-out-the slightest regard to what it may lead 1 to, for-there is no chaperon to ask hinrwhat his intentions are, and the'girl neither 'cares nor asks what are his-in-tentions. She drifts along in his congenial society. Occasionally;'there is!a ripple .when word comes to them that Frank, Ethel's young man, is going to • marry. "Top bad.^vhen' they've;been friends for many years,' the comment .goes, and Ethel looks for another congenial companion." Dr.-Head declares that: in tliis respect the relationship of the sexes in England is going through a revolution as.important to the world's history as the French Bevohition. "The Englishwoman," ho concludes, "is in the melting-pot. What her ■future will,be we cannot tell." Compared with this'blo'odless revolution in social conditions and' readjustment in the standard of morals,' he thinks the woman-suffrage question is antique.

: The Minister, for Bailwaye has informed Mr. Harris, M.P., that-a wagon will \be attached to the 11.55 a.m. express from Auckland for, the conveyance of' soft fruit from (Auckland to Wellington. The Minister.states that as considerable expense :will be incurred,-in;hauling this!.wagon, the arrangement will .be given, three months' trial, and its continuance after that'period. will depend on the amount of support the expeflmeiat' Teceives. ' Mr. Harris has asked that the new arrangement ehould begin on November 11.•A supposed spy,- who. was detected sketchings on August 81 on '.'the , high ground overlooking the jHosytb. naval base, was pursued, but escaped. Britain's national debt was commenced in William Ill's reign, in 1693. •' "It', is Nature's Soap."—This is Prof, Kirk's; description of M'Clinton's Soap in Ub celebrated "Papers on Health.''