DECISIONS!

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 5, Issue 205, 1 September 1916, Page 4 (Supplement)

DECISIONS!

"WAR HAS TAUGHT WOMEN 10 MAKE UP THEIR MINDS.'' By A WOMAN WORKER. "I'm going to open a tea-shop. Df> any of you feel inclined to help me?" With this announcement and invitation Evelyn greeted the office on Monday morning, arriving an hour or so late. " What has happened over the weekend-"' she was asked. "Well Cecil sent a telegram to me on Saturday saving that he leaves lor the front this "week, so 1 went up to G straight away to spend the last davs with him. G— —, as you know, is a little market town, with twenty to thirty thousand soldiers stationed outside. " On Saturday afternoon the crowd wanting cups of tea was simply torriJ>le. It Avas the same for lunch and dinner. The hotels were packed, th« men were almost sitting on each other's knees, and the service was had: the one or two indifferent tea-shops there were doing a simply wonderful trade. "1 couldn't help thinking that night what an opening there was for another catering establishment, so while Cecil was on church parade next morning I walked about the plaojs looking ior suitable premises to start- such a business. I came across an old-fashioned empty house in the High-street—just an ideal place to hang up a "County Tea House" sign, and to arrange on the chintz-curtain plan. "Th's morning 1 went to sec the landlord—that has made me late," she went on, removing her gloves, "and next Saturday I go up to sign the agreement to take over the premses for six months, with the option of renewing it afterwards. Do any of you girls feel inclined to speculate some money in it?" That was six months ago. Five of us put £2O each into the business. To-day we have our money back with something added, and Evelyn's venture : s the most prosperous little business in G The whole of her success lay in the fact that she made up her mind quickly, and having come to a decision acted upon it. • • • Gladys startled us by volunteering the information that she was going co be marred in a week's time. "Rather quick, isn't it?" we sr.id. "In times like theso," she retorted, "if you decide you are going to marry you may as wcl Jdo so before the chance is taken out of your hands. War does not wait for women any more than ; t does for men." • • • "I'm getting rid of my two maids," announced Aunt Eleanor. "Both of them?" we cried. She. nodded. "When do they go?'" we asked skept:cally. "They are both under notice now," she said quietly. "You have actually decided, then?" ••Quite." she answered. "I've looked at it from all pomts of view, and I've come to the conclusion that they aro really unnecessary till the war is over, and J have made arrangements as to how I shall manage when they have gone." "She means it," we said to each other as w ( . went home, th'nking lyIn the ordinary course of events Aunt Eleanor would have talked the matter over with relatives and friends trying to get them to make up her mind on such a drastic departure, and we should have said to each other, "She will never do it. Why docs she keep talking about it?" • • « "Madge, I've a puncture! Isn't it annoying—and it's four nvles to the next village." "Get off, then," answered Madge, "and push your bicycle over to me." Out came her tools and repairing outfit. With a practised hand she whipped off the tyre, showed profess:onal skill in locating and mending the puncture, and took the opportunity to overhaul the bicycle thoroughly, suggesting necessary renovations. "I wonder you never 'took up' th's lini" of business." said her friend as they mounted Again. "You are always tinkering about at home with some part of a bicycle, and you can manage Henry's motor-cycle better than he can himself." "•There's an idea in that." sad Madge thoughtfully. Before they had reached home Midge had made her decision. She 'is no longer ail. indifferent hotel bookkeeper, but an expert chnuffeuse in good position. * * * It is lather strange that although it is men who enter the arena of war it is women who learn the greatest lessons from the fray. There is probably no phase of womens' existence wh:cli has not had > new l'ght thrown upon it by the fierce glare of war, but probably the lesson with the most far-reaching consequences which it has yet taught us is the ability to make up our minds. Our word was not our bond before the war —and we knew it, so did the men with whom w,e came : n contact. They were never surprised it, at the last moment, we altered our minds on any and every matter, and we cased our own consciences with the belief that it was a woman's privilege to wave aside her decision if necessary. We disliked coming to decsions--we much preferred to let other people help us to decide. We asked their advice, casting it aside if it did not fit in witli our desres, or else we acted upon it and blamed the advisers if things went wrong. Then, suddenly, "It" came along. W.c had to begin making decisions which would affect a lifetme, and we had to make them unaided. Women who had never bad to arrive at any serious decisions in their lives were laced with the new order of th'ngs, and with trepidation many of them cast the dice which i-ite had compelled them to play. We wore up against rcal : ty, and over since those first few months of the war we have had to make decisions upon matters both small and great, both business and per--onal. The "nobbling" attitude has vanishi d. To-day we are gettmg bolder than ever in our decisions. We are introducing dec's on into our business liv-.'s as well as into our home lives, and this is making us more valuable workers. A woman who can definitely make up her rn ml is a wo mm to be reckoned w.th wherever she is met. There aiv a number of them about just now : there are a mnnlx r reaching that stage. Will they d civa«e when the men cony l home again? I \\ under 1 •HILDA ?,f. LOVE in tho "Da !v *•':: i."