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Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 95, 30 July 1910, Page 10

WOMAN'S WORLD.

THE TRAGIC SIDE OF MARRIAGE.

"Weddings be funerals, 'a b'lieve, nowadays," says a robust old housekeeper in one.of Thomas Hardy's novels, marvelling at the marriage tragedies happening around her. The philosophy gathers point from a perusal of the evidence given before the Eoyal Commission 011 Divorce. Cruelty, unfaithfulness, desertion, habitual drunkenness and lunacy are the sad fruits of the marriages with which the Royal Commission is concerned. If a stranger to the modern world were to read the reports of the Commission he might well be excused for thinking that of all states of human misery modern marriage is about the worst. The real problem before the Commission is to decide what is moral and what is immoral. When it comes to an interpretation of these very abstract phrases in terms of human relationship great differences of opinion are revealed. Some of the witnesses still oppose divorce on the ground that marriage is a j holy sacrament which man-made laws I can never annul. Such people regard j the marriage of divorced persons as imj moral, holding that the original marriage remains a sacred bond in spite of | the Divorce Court. Other witnesses, rej presenting, no doubt, a considerable body of educated opinion, assume that when love is dead husband and wife are better parted, on moral as well as on social grounds. Can a loveless union be a moral one, even though it lias the sanction of the Church? And ought anyone to be immoral for moral reasons.? These are the questions wihich their evidence seems to answer in the negative. These views are declared to be very rare among the class for wihom greater facilities for divorce are now being sought. The wife of an .East End vicar, who has worked among the poor for eighteen years, told the Commission thlat she had never heard of one case where a man or woman among them had desired divorce, however unhappy their marriages had proved. They accepted aa binding upon them the words of the sacrament, "for better, for worse." Against this, however, must be placed the testimony of magistrates and others brought into close touch with the poor, to the effect that many couples who are separated without being divorced form lawless unions almost as a matter of course.

SINGING FOR HEALTH. . 'lt is an undoubted fact that the exercise of the vocal cords is extremely beneficial to the general health," says' Sir Charles Santley, the veteran baritone. "I have never believed in the taking of stimulants 'before going on the platform. I shall go on singing as long as my voice gives me the impression that it is still good enough for the platform."

DOMESTIC SERVICE. Life for the girls of England lias grown very difficult, but it need not be ignoble—there is a strong feeling in tlie land of sympathy and interest in them; and although,-during the present phase, domestic work seems to have fallen out of favor, it has its advantages. It is surely better, says a writer in the Daily Telegraph, for a girl to hold the position of a well-paid cook, housemaid, or laundrymaid at home amongst friends, and with surroundings with which she is familiar, than to struggle on in loneliness amongst the indifference of strangers on what is the barest living wage, in a new country. WHY SHE OBJECTED. Speaking at the annual dinner of the Catholic Association at the Holborn Restaurant', Father Bernard Vaughan said that in the north the other day he acked an old lady if she would go to a lecture on the comet. Her reply was :"I think the clergy would do better with some other subject. I doesn't hold: with music halls." She believed Halley's comet was a new star at the Hippodrome!

A BAND OP BRAVE WOMEN. Within the last month Mother St. George, of the Convent of the Faithful" Virgin, Norwood, one of Miss Nightingale's original hand of Crimean nurses, has celebrated the diamond jubilee of her religious profession. " When in 1854 Bishop Grant, of Southwark, was appealed to by the War Office to provide ten Sisters of Mercy to go to the Crimea, only five could be spared from Bermondsey. He asked the prayers of the convent, which was not primarily a nursing community, that he might find the rest. The Superior at once volunteered, and amongst the sisters there was an eager desire to be selected. On a Saturday the recision was made, and on the following Monday, October 23, 1854, these .brave women started on their ever-memorable journey. Mother St. George worked with -Miss Nightingale at Scutari, and says she will retain pleasant memories of her affability and kindness. Two other of Miss Nightingale's Sisters of Mercy are still alive, one of them being now eightyeight years of age.

DISCOVERING THE POLE. Lady Shackleton finds her husband's honors not altogether an unmixed blessing. They have two children*-a little boy named Raymond, five years old, and Cecily, three years of age. The favorite game of the children is one of their own invention, which they have called "Exploring." In this game Lady Shackleton is the "pole"; the children the intrepid explorers. Lady Shackles ton has to stand at one end of the room while the ex-plorers—-Raymond calls himself "Lieutenant Shackleton," and Cecily has named •herself "Wild," after one of her father's companions—crawl slowly towards her over rugs, chairs, and any other obstacles which their mother will permit the use of, dragging little sledges behind them. When they nearly reach her she must cry out, according to the rules of the game:—"What are these I see—penguins ?" And again, a gew seconds later: "Why, they must be men." Then Raymond runs up to her, throws his arms around her, and cries: "Shackleton has discovered the pole!" Then the game begins all over again, unless the "pole" rebels.

PLENTY OF WOMEN. Six hundred women and girls met recently in the Temperance Hall, Melbourne, to hold a protest, under the presidency of a member of the Trade Hall Council, against the proposal that a thousand girls should be brought out from the United Kingdom to work in Victorian factories. A letter had been published in the United Kingdom stating that the girls should go out to Australia, "where husbands and homes were aWaiting them." It was stated that there were many thousands more women than men already in Australia, and the meeting was of opinion that this immigration of girls to the country was a danger and a menace, since conditions were actually such as to make it impossible for men to support themselves, far less marry. BAMBOO FURNITURE. The pretty and inexpensive bamboo furniture which ia so extensively used nowadays needs slightly different treatment from the ordinary hard-wood articles, the fibres requiring "feeding" from time to time in order to prevent it cracking from excessive dryness. It should be regularly rubbed with a mixture of linseed oil and turpentine, applied witfo a flannel, followed by a brisk polish wdtff soft rags. Bamboo furniture should also Ibe exposed as much as possible in the air, and kept as far away frnm the fire as convenient. j Finger-glasses are never placed on the I dinner-table when members of the Royal Family are present.