WOMAN'S WORLD.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 91, 13 May 1909, Page 4

WOMAN'S WORLD.

Miss Anne Morgan, daughter of Mr. J. Pierpont Morgan, has joined tiie ranks of the restaurant-keepers of New York. Armed with a speical license from the Federal authorities, she will open at the Brooklyn Navy i'ard a lirst-class eating-house, at which whole-soinely-cooked meals will be served at moderate prices to thousands of Government employees. The restaurant will be sixty feet wide and a hundred long, and will accommodate 7UU diners. It will not be managed as a charity, but as a sound business enterprise. Many of the best-known ladies of New York society, including Mrs Andrew Carnegie, Mrs. J. Borden llairiinan, Mrs 11. berry, and Mrs. 11. L. Satterlee (Mr. Morgan's youngest daughter), are associated with Miss Morgan in her enterprise.

The wife of Mr. Morse, a well-known New York finanCier, who was recently sentenced to a term of imprisonment, has sold all her jewellery and valuable furs to the value of about £50,000, in order to satisfy the creditors of her husband. Before he was sent to priso-i the fortune of Mr. Morse was over £4,400,000.

Mis Ada Ward told her Christchurch audience in the Sydenham Salvation Army Barraks that the statement that she was going back to the stage was quite correct. It was the will of God that she should do so, and she was going to do all she could to teach the Gospel to those connected with the theatre. What good, she asked, had been accomplished by the theatre? Where a few had perhaps been elevated by it, thousands had sunk m degradation' and despair. It was impossible to live on the stage and lead an absolutely pure life. It was impossible for the parsons to get into touch with the profession, and she intended in the future to do all within her power to induce actors and actresses to leave, the stage and live the godly life.

Although it has been quite a common tiling of recent years for well-bom English women to go into trade, and tearooms and blouse sliops opened by members of society and even of the nobility have become quite a ..•niter of course ill Uimlon—as well as in Australia—it is only now that the Frenchwoman has fnllnw'ed her English sister's example. The first ''fciuiiies do nionde" to lead the way in Paris are the two daughters of the'late Edmond About, the wellknown writer. For- some time, writes the London correspondent of a Sydney paper, the elder Mile. About lias been teaching the young girls of the leisured class how to'make lints, but last year, ■when on a visit to the Franco-British Exhibition, they were struck by the number of welbbom English women in charge of shops, and decided to follow tlieir example, in Paris, where their success is already assured.

Tn America, very remarkable success] has attended the formation of optimist clubs to combat the feeling of pessimism l so largely prevailing in nil ranks. The late President and the present one of the United States, also the various Governors of the individual States, have taken up the matter with enthusiasm. An Australian lady. Mrs. W. Curnow, of Enmore, has inaugurated a movement on similar lines, which has made a good start. The Right Hon. G. H. Reid is patron, Lady Poorc lias accepted the position of president, and the vicepresidents are Mrs Hugh Dixon, Lady Harris, Mrs Le Gay llrereton, Mrs R. Ti. Trindall, A number of well-known ladies are on the committee.

Much interesting information has been given by Madame de l'errot (writes a London correspondent to the Sydney Daily Telegraph), whose course of lectures on the love stories of eminent French men and women have attracted crowded audiences on the question as to whether we should adopt the French system of the "dot" in England. She argues that there are a large number of girls wlio would make excellent wives, anil there arc many young men who would make equally good husbands, but they are kept back from marrying owing to want of means. Tiiis refers not to the upper classes of society, but of the middle class, who after all are the backbone of the nation. Girls who are earning 30s or t'2 a week would do much better if they saved something every week towards a dowry, and stayed at home of an evening sewing and making an out (it for themselves, instead ot being out in the streets with youths. When a girl is born in France her parents put by a certain sum every week to go towards a dowry for her when grown up. There is nothing like this in England. Madame de l'errot would like to see some inllueutial man take up this idea, and lend the weight of his name to the proposal, lie would be a far greater benefactor to the public than if he built hospitals and poor-, houses. She would also like to see a Slate fund created for providing every girl with a dowry, which should be graduated according to the financial position of her father, and restricted to the lower and middle classes. It would be made payable at the age of 21.