WOMAN'S WORLD

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2777, 22 May 1916, Page 3

WOMAN'S WORLD

(Continued from Page 2.) CHANGES DUE TO WAR The . very kernel of Conservatism—tho middle-class British family—is undergoing a process of change, says the "Daily Ex. ,press." "The long-established habits of over a generation are being reluctantly relinquished because of tho pressuro of war conditions. Father no longer eats kidneys and bacon for breakfast, mother no longer dresses for dinner, no longer are there fresh flowers on the table, and instead of going to a theatre or a liridge party in the evening, the whole h'ouse'liold goes to bed at 10 o'clock. The girls are very tired after a day in the office or hospital, mother has had a hard day in tho kitchen .because a cook cannot bo found, and father must be up at 2 a.m. for special constable duty. Many are the changes that have crept into the domestic interior, but perhaps the most remarkable is the changed attitude towards one another of the members of the family. Doris, who is nursing the wounded and attending at death-beds in this her second year in hospital, is no loDger her father's pretty pet, who must be sheltered from the cold winds of reality. Mary, who is earning <£8 a week as confidential secretary in a big com< mercial house, has opinions worth hearing oil the subject of the country's industrial problems secondhand, perhaps, but thoroughly, digested opinions. Mother .knows more about economy and waste in the household—now that she is running the culinary department without tho help of an experienced servant—than she learned in 30 years of previous housekeeping. Sympathy and a deeper understanding colour the discussions of practical matters which generally take place over tho evening meal, which- to-night' consists of brown bread and nut butter, home-made potted tongue (made from the remains of a tongue that presided at two previous meals), steamed apples, and weak tea without sugar. 'I wonder if we shall ever return to a three-course dinner after the war/ says Doris, who has a day off fronii the depressing effects of modern warfare. 'I hope not,' replies father. 'I never had a winter so free from rheumatism, and mother never- has. slept so well in her life as she sleeps now,' That is. perhaps, bgcausa I get so much exericsn in the course of my housework. I shall never be contented to let a hired cook throw away good food in my kitchen, 1 exolaims mother with charaHfeustic inconsequence. 'We certainly have allkept very fit,' says father, fortunately, for I should not have known where to find the money to pay the usual doctor's bills.'" /