A WOMAN'S NOTEBOOK

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LI, Issue 330, 23 January 1909, Page 3

A WOMAN'S NOTEBOOK

I (By Mrs. Ncisli.) . | HASTY JUDGMENT. ! Jeremy Taylor tells us of a young 1 man who threw a stone at his dog and . hit his cruel stepmother; "and so, the ! chronicler quaintly adds, "it was not altogether lost." There is a great deal more in this little incident than merely its humor. It shows us how in trying to hurt a person—or even to punisii j them justly perhaps—we may sometimes .unwittingly hurt someone else; and I ■feel constrained to add one other thought evolved from thinking over another side of the incident. Since, m attempting to hit anyone, and in case we. miss them, would it not be wiser to cease even from inflicting that which we consider a. necessary blow—above all, perhaps, a "letter" blow 1 I myself have never written an impulsive, letter of condemnation, however deserved by the person to whom it was sent, without the afterthought, "1 wish 1 had not sent that letter." After all, it is so much better sometimes not to put ourselves in the right. What does it matter? (Petty misimderstandings are so very small and so often put themselves right in time, and, if we only leave those who have wronged us alone, circumstances will often teach them 'how deeply they have, misunderstood us. Moreover, however much in the right we may be, we shall seldom, convince anyone that they have done us an injustice, so why try to do so? THE ANGRY LETTER. Many and many a heartburning would be saved us if we were only as patient with others as we are with ourselves and if we said a little less in even just reproach, and, in fact, put up with slight injustices and only complained when absolutely forced into doing so. It is always wise to keep an angry letter until the next day. I once heard a wellknown clergyman say that much misery •would be siwed if we only wrote our unpleasant letters and put them under the pillow and read them again the next day. How few would be posted without at least being rewritten and a softening sentence added here and there or a harsh one taken out again! MODERN AILMENTS. Whence have arisen the modern ailments of nervous prostration and nervous dyspepsia. Partly, I really believe, through constant and reprehensible ailment conversations. Our greatgrandfathers might have been coarser and rougher in their modes of expression; but at least they did not talk of their digestions, and were apparently not sufferers from nervous dyspepsia or nervous anything, for that matter. Some of our ancestors must, indeed, have had digestive organs that vied in strength •with those of the ostrich, for in "Pepys" •Diary" I see he one day says: "This day Mrs. Shipley and I did eat our ■breakfast at Mrs. Harper's pon a cold Turkey pie—and a goose." 'Happy Pepys and Mrs. Shipley—what a meal with ■which to start a day, even if partaken of at a late hour in the morning! I think we women should array ourselves against the dyspepsia conversationalist, and snub him for the constant complaint that falls from his lips, even if we do not go so far as a VMy whom I Heard say to a man with whom she was dining, and who had complained that this and that did not agree with him: "Doesn't it? Well, for goodness' sake, don't say so, because. I can't bear people ■with whom things disagree!" There is ■no doubt- that nervous dyspepsia Is largely added to by fear, and I am not sure that the everlasting reiteration, "I dare not eat this" and "1 never dare take so-and-so" might easily become eontagious in time, and even give, us dyspepsia, too. ■THE VALUE OF CLOTHES.

'•lf a woman is young and pretty, I [ think you can ace lier good looks all the better fur her being plainly dressed. H ■seems to me as a woman's face doesn't •want flowers; it's almost like a llower •itself." So says one of our great writer's characters; but I must disagree •with this somewhat severe restriction on the. manifold delights of feminine dress and ornamentation. A pretty woman is doubly pretty in lovely clothes, and too plain dressing, unless the attractive simplicity of Quakerism, detracts from even the greatest beauty. A lovely woman is lovely perhaps in ill>inade clothes, but a thousand times lovelier in gossamed draperies. Moreover, every pretty woman should study colors, for one will enhance and another take away from her charm; and as to •wearing flowers, what can be more beau-1 •tiful than a very young girl in white 'with a bunchi df lily-of-tlie-valley at ■her breast, or a stately, dark-haired girl 'with a touch of crimson or vivid tlameci'or or purple? And the red-haired beauty's loveliness is surely greatly added! to byi a bunch of Neapolitan violets or heliotrope, To carry the analogy a little further, this writer's character adds: "It's like when a man's singing a good tune, you don't want t'hear Mis tinkling and interfering wi' the sound." Quite true! I should greatly dislike •bells and singing mixed, but when a •man sings his voice is brought out and emphasised by the accompanying piano. ■ln any case, it is pleasing for the •woman, whether plain or pretty, to feel she is elegantly rather than "plainly" dressed, and, to my mind, pleaaanter for those who look on Her. DELICACY OF FEELING. Good taste often goes hand in hand ■with its sister virtue, delicacy of feeling. Delicacy of feeling is seen more, I think, among the poorer classes than anywhere, or perhaps it is merely that | it stands out sharply defined amid what is popularly but erroneously supposed to be sordid surroundings. The poor 1 are often delicately sensitive, and, far i from being grasping and greedy, are I singularly diffident at accepting favors. ■I remember a poor man to whom 1 had I recommended a doctor saying to me, ! when 1 saw him and enquired after his health and about the medical treatment ■he was undergoing, that "he had been ill again, but he. had not gone back to Dr. Blank, who had helped him before." ("Why not!" I asked. The man looked (tapreoatingly at me and said, with an air of semi-apology: ''Well, ma'am, you see, 'c didn't charge me nothink for all 'e did last time, so I wouldn't go back io him no more."

T add a story about a little girl,_ tol me bv a friend. This friend was a dinner-party, and -she sent her sistei who was slaying in the house, down stairs, shortly before the guests wer hie to arrive, to (live a last glance a he table. The sister was standing It; ,li« window for a. .moment, when sli leard a sudden sound of pattering feel .ml, turning, saw the little daughter o he house, coming across the hall in lie tlghtgown (inly. She drew back, vcr; ouch astonished, into the shadow o he curtain, and the child pattered int .he dining-room, and, going up to i mall ami "high table whore the dosser lad been placed, clambered up into lialr nnil took a peach, which sh ■laspedi In both hands as she wont ol nto the hall again. The girl who wa vittching fell puzzled as to whether t' ell hot- sister or not. or whether t ollow the child upstairs. She decidein the latter, but waited to rearrang he flowers on the table for a moment She was just about to leave the rooir vhen she hear the little, pattering <i cot again, and drew back once nior nio llie shadow of the curtain. Tin taiiy tatne in, looking very solemn, tin teach still iu her hand, and, goim itraight up to the little, table, laborious y clambered up again on a chair. Was die going to take another peach? Tl in. it was really time to interfere; but is the girl waited a moment to see. tltf inbv, iean'rag forward, laid the peach iiic'hatl first taken on the top of the. itliers on. the.dish, and saying in a loud, riumpliain. voice, again, ole ievil!'' she clambered down and patercd happily out of the room uj> lo ted.