WOMAN'S WORLD.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 221, 23 October 1909, Page 4

WOMAN'S WORLD.

THE FRENCH MOTHER. "The French mother is one of the best in the world," said Mr. Faster Eraser in a lecture on ''Women of Many Lands" recently. From a maternal point of view the French mother is without doubt perfeet. Herself, often unaided, she brings ' up and attends to her "little family"— the collective term sometimes applying to only one child —and there is iio denying the love and care which she bestows on it. The maternal eye is always on the "family," lhat has no age of awk ; wardness, that, with its adaptible Gallic . temperament, passes straight from the child to the man or woman, moulding it in graceful lines, which, thou.;'i beautiful, are not always strong. Vet, is this all? Do not some English and co. ' louial mothers show a larger love, be-j cause a more heroic one?—the love that sends a child away, that teaches it to j rely on its own resources, to feel the I strength of its growing wings. A Frenchman once complained bitterly to me of the egoism of French mothers. "Hut," I replied, surprised, -[ thought | lliey are considered the best in the world. A French family never breaks up, like ours do, when the sons go abroad, and the daughters marry." I "Because," lie said, "the family is ] everything. What you quote as being praiseworthy is exactly what 1 condemn as reprehensible-, as stullifying. It has a, fine side, uo doubt, but it stop 6 all larger enterprise, all true colonisation, all struggle for development. You call | it love, but is it not more than egoism?' The cramping affection that grasps its object for the comfort of holding it in | its arms, that narrows its horizon to the I needs of family rather than of country, or, that larges't view of all—humanity? It is chiefly the fault of French mothers that we do not colonise. From our earliest childhood the words 'C est sur'are dimmed into our ears. 'Grasp what is sure —what is certain'—is the eternal maxim. Stay at home and earn a meagre pittance on a narrow field, rather than take the larger risks which might mean universal recognition and boundless scope. Stay here with us, where our affection is sure and steadfast, rather than run the risk of loneliness and perhaps despair. We cannot live without you. You are everything to us. And so the children stay—reared wisely, perhaps critically, yet lapped in appreciation and love, and also in restrictions that cramp and hamper. And they in their turn pass the views on the little family growing up to them. I am not disparaging the beauty and nobility of the French family affection, but one of its seeds is egoism, and some of its results you can see in the decline of our navy, our commerce, and the halfhearted development of our colonies."

And as I thought over what he had said, 1 realised its truth, and saw, with all our mistakes and prejudices, where some of the greatness of our Empire lies. We are not content to stay at home and criticise. Wc want to join in the work, even if it means failure and disaster. The French man or woman's horizon in always well deliued, while ours is always just a little misty. And so our mothers dream dreams, and though it sometimes means the children are not so carefully tended, so personally supervised, something of the dream passes to flicm, too, and they are ready to face hardships for Empire, and become the stuff from which arc made a country's pioneers. One cannot hut admire the French woman, and all the exquisite and graceful qua lilies which make of her certainly the most "artistic" mother in tile world, hut, at the same time, we may take to ourselves the unction that where Sparton qualities ure required, our race i f mothers have never failed; that they have never llinclicd from separation, or made of their love a harrier to impee'e the Empire's progress, or their child ren's larger aims. And, after all, isn't it the French themselves who evolved the maxim, whose words we have slightly altered in our tongue, "Qui lie risque rien n' a rien?"

AVOID LSKIJiSS DKUDtiKRY

As a recipe for a happy houie there is none better than brains and guod housekeeping. 'l'he more a woman knows the more easily she achieves. Housework undirected by brains spells drudgery. The housewife with brains knows the value of system, of disregarding traditions if tliey mean a waste of higli'rpowers, of making life more simple if following the fashion means cramped nerves and strained purses. The brain shows the futility of scrubbing, stitching, and dusting as homemaking qualities; while the other half will never let culture run rampant while storckins arc undarned and meals are helter skelter.

A woman was once asked to define j Jut ideal housekeeping. "It is tlml,' | she said, "where the woman keeps the | house and not the house the woman." | Houses have.a way of not only "keeping" the woman, hut binding her with chains impossible to break unless brains l'orin more than half the mixture ami in that house's running. \ HOME HINTS. A Cheap Fire Extinguisher. Taki ten pounds of common salt, live pounds of sal ammoniac (to be bad of any druggist), three ami a-half gallons of water. Mix, bottle for use, keep handy. In ease of lire one or two bottles promptly | thrown so as to break in the burning place will certainly extinguish it. To Cook Dried Fish—Put it into hot water and boil three or four minutes, according to thickness; take it out, rub it over with some cold butter, and place in front uf the lire, or under the grill of a gas stove, for live minutes. Just | before serving break over it the yolk j. of a soft-boiled egg, or send bacon rashers to table with it. Pickled Cabbage. Choose some nii-3 , firm cabbages (red), cut out hard tlaui, and slice remainder thinly. Lay in a basin, sprinkle well with salt, leave. aM night. In the morning wash under running water for a minute or two, squeeze well, and lill wide-mouthed bottles with '' the cabbage. Bring to a boil suflicieat , vinegar to fill the bottles, add a small quantity of peppercorns, and pour over the cabbage. Cork tightly when cold., > Take care you do not put too much ca'.v ini"o in each bottle, otherwise the vmtgar will not spread through it properly. \ young firm white heart cabbage will answer the same purpose if some slices of cold boiled beet are mixed with it—about half and half of each. A Dose of Sulphur Smoke.—lnhalation of sulphur fumes i« of the greatest ben •■ lit to consumptives. Almost incredible cures have been effected; in fact, individuals mi the very point of death'have been drawn back from the grave by this simple method. Place naif a teaspoonful of sulphur in a saucer, and burn m the bedroom before retiring, the doors and windows being closed.

VIU.UT RECIPES. Apiile Seallop.—Pare, core, and slice half a dozen good cooking apples: spread a laver in the bottom of a deep pie-dish, then over these a layer of bread crumb's, mixed with a little sugar.'and thus alternating till the dish > lifle'l. having a layer of apples on top. Add a cup of cold water, and bake in rather u ipiiek oven till done. Serve with rich milk or cream. Bilked Sweet Apples.— Select some Mveet apples, wash, but ilo not pure or core them, put into a baking pan with a little water, and bake in a hot oven.

Baste OCCllsionallv with till' juiti* ill tl»' bottom of the plm. When dull.', if d'sired.'each apple niiiv be dipped in the bonlen white (if an'egg. then in powdered sugar, and returned t<i the oven until the icing is- «et. linked apples, pears, and i|iiiiK'i's prepared in this wav arc delicious, besides being very ornamental. Boiled Apples.—Remove tile core*, and cook whole, or in halves, in enough boiling water to eover tlieni; eook -lowly.

■ When tender, remove the apple* to a dish . with a spoon, sweeten the juice witrj i) sugar, add a little lemon llavoring ~* I tract, and thieken slightlv with a veiv . little eonilloiir blended with a little eo'd , water. Pour over the apples and serve ■ cold. I linked Pears.—Cut some good »uniiil i pears in halves, pure, and 1111 an enam- • elled pie-dish, sprinkling sugar through . them; pour in a cupful of hot \vnt"r. ) cover lightly, and hake till tender; serve . cold. linked TtaiiiiMK—Strip u narrow pi\i of skin from the Hal. side of the bananas. ! Place them in a baking dish. Uli« side , up, sprinkle thickly with granulated \ sugar, and hake in a moderate oven until :{soft unil tender—about half an hour.. J Orange and Banana Salad.—Cut four I large sweet oranges in halves, and sraop 'out the pulp, add this to four k.miuas. 'peeled, and cut into dice, and pour over I it a fruit syrup. I Orcnaclinc and Banana Salad. Slice j four ripe banana.; verv thin, put into a glass dish, then take the pulp from si\ {'ripe passion fruit, and pour over the bananas. Mix together, adding some fine sugar.