FEMININE REFLECTIONS

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 403, 11 July 1928, Page 5

FEMININE REFLECTIONS

WORKROOM OR OFFICE ORIGINALITY IS PROFITABLE! The success which has attended women who have taken up novel handicrafts as a means of livelihood would seem to suggest that, in point of ultimate remuneration, office work holds little prospect of similar return on energy. For many years we have been accustomed to regard an office career as ideal for the majority of girls, who must earn their own living, but now we have to acknowledge that along different paths lie their chances of earning something more ambitious than the weekly wage of the secretary or clerk. Small beginnings have often large endings. I know of one woman who began her present career by making a single “cottage ” cosy of felt, raffia and embroidery silks. She sent it to a local shop, it was sold immediately, jnd more were commissioned. So freely did the orders eventually flow ■u that at the present time this woman employs a band of assistants in her workrooms and also givs out piecework to be done in the homes of other employees. Another craftswoman, who invented flowers made from sheet metal, found the whole of her initial °utput bought up for window dressing Purposes by a board directing a number of teashops. Her difficulty now ! s to keep on hand sufficient samples t 0 show prospective buyers. . Shll another woman invented a parjcularly practical as well as decoraVT* form of gardening apron, and now directs and keeps in employment a eumll army of girl helpers. ,S°. too, with the wcman who reared the herbalist’s recipes that have ta Psed for a number of years and now directs a small factory to supply the shop that she has opened in a fashcnable thoroughfare. Such women reap the rewards of uleir originality of mind in generous incomes. hints on vegetable cookery If water is boiled long enough be°re tke vegetables are added, it be,.°™es soft and therefore requires ha ° r no car bonate of soda; only a m water needs this in order to keep dftetables a good colour, if the water in which vegetables

A lull along a gale-swept shore Soothes like a fragrant balm, A ceasing of the tempest’s roar As wind and waves grow calm. A lull of ease In time of pain Can such pure joy assure— That ease for colds which all obtain In Woods’ Great Peppermint Cure. 44

have been cooked it used for making soup aud sauce (using half milk and half vegetable water for the latter), the valuable salts contained in the vegetables are not wasted. This is a very important point, for the “salts” are quite the best part of vegetables. If those who suffer badly from indigestion through eating vegetables can be persuaded to take a little of the liquid in which they were cooked, much of this trouble will be saved. Root vegetables should be boiled with the lid on the saucepan, while green vegetables are cooked with the lid removed. All vegetables should be put into boiling water; when the water has again come to the boil, young vegetables will take about twenty minutes to cook. Let them boil quickly at first, reducing the heat later to keep them unbroken. Use as little water as possible for cooking. In fact, steamed vegetables are best of all, for all the salts are retained instead of being thrown away. Cooked in this way, however, they are not a good colour, and if the foregoing hints are followed in boiling them, excellent results will be obtained. “BORN TIRED” There are some women who make tiredness a hobby, as it were. They emphasise every moment of fatigue by a mental if not actually a vocal insistence on it. They take a sort of dreary pride and joy in reiterating that their work is really far too much for them. And they keep up this attitude till the go to bed at night. They prepare for rest to the same eternal accompaniment, and then lament that the sleep they profess to need so desperately is eluding them. Prom morning to night their nervous system is keyed up to the fatigue pitch. And all their willpower is directed toward increasing rather than decreasing weariness. Their last waking thought is not of the repose the night will bring, but of the fatigue that awaits them next day! And still they go on wondering why they wake up with that born-tired feeling!