WOMAN'S WORLD

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 314, 14 February 1910, Page 6

WOMAN'S WORLD

PROTEST ACAIXST CLOTHES. The linl, heavy, black wearing apparel worn by Melbourne shop girls is ■being protested against (writes a Melbourne correspondent of a Svdnov paper). The majority of the large establishments consider the wearing of black at ail times and seasons a part of the dignity of the firm, and object to any change. Other large centres permit white blouses to be worn by shop attendants, ami it is unlikely thai the business results show any depreciation as a result. Xo doubt purchasers would prefer being intended to during the summer months by "white "robed maidens." giving an air of coolness and freshness to the generally stuffy draper's estabii-hmeu/t, tilat would oncourage rather than retard business. A scheme was promulgated last summer, nut with the exception of just on? or two shops (where girls were permitted to dress in white) the idea did not appear to appeal to employers .:.s a necessary or beneficial change. . A SCHOOL OF CONVERSATION.

A Chicago woman, having recently applied for a divorce, on the ground that her husband never spoke a word at home, beyond such phrases as "Pass the bread." or '-Have breakfast for me tomorrow at 7.30 o'clock." John D. Barry, writing in Harper's Bazaar, recommends "a school of conversation" as a remedy for a considerable amount 01 —artiaf unhappines-i. The judge in the case alluded to refused to grant a divorce, but advised the man to ''learn to converse.'- Millions of wives, Mr. Barnthinks, will sympathise with the Chicago woman. They, too. have husbands who need to "learn to converse," but how are they to learn? Wives, too. need instruction along the same line, ' and where are they to obtain it, when no schools teach conversation? This ought not to be. in Mi". Barry's opinion. "Conversation should be taught in all schools," he says. "It is worthy of having a school of its own. It is* not related to ail branches of learning ami to all phases of life?'' Two of the suggestions as to the conduct of this scliooi go to the root of the matter, one is the cultivation of common intere'sts between the sexes. "If women," says Mr. Barry, "wish to remain on a conversational footing with their husbands, they must become familiar with matters supposed to be foreign to the feminine mind, such a 6 business, politics, machinery, and invention, including the latest devices for the improvement of automobiles. The last subject alone opens up a great world of conversation. There are some men who are willing to spend whole evenings discussing automobiles, just as, a few years ago, the same men, or men who looked just like them, used to discuss the different makes of bicycles." The other suggestion is a course in general information. If rieople could only be brought to take an interest in the wonderful things of ,wnTcTi the world is so full, Mr. Barry argues, they would cease boring people with their little specialities—bridge or athletics or business or themselves. They would stop gossiping and refrain from administering those conversational ''stabs" in which so many people delight. Acrimonious arguments would be less frequent, and life would be overflowing with compensations.