WOMAN'S WORLD.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 131, 12 September 1910, Page 6

WOMAN'S WORLD.

NOTES FROM LOKDON. LADY AVIATOR'S FALL. London, July 15. Baronne de la Roche, the daring aviatrice, knd the first woman to fly alone, who became a convert to the sport last autumn, had. a serious accident on July 8 at Rheims, when she fell 'lsoft with her Voisin biplane, and was severely crushed under the machine. As she was the only woman taking part in the Rheims meeting, she .was the • predestined winner of the ladies' prize of £l2O. Before her accident Madame de ia Roche liad made one successful circuit in rather more than five minutes; she had passed the halfway mark on the second round, when she suddenly came near two other aeroplanes. Suddenly her machine was seen to drop at a very sharp angle. A;*>w feet from the ground the pilo: h- tempted! to jump from the machine, but her' feet were caught in the wires, and she fell forward and then underneath the central part of her aeroplane. It was at first feared that the plucky Baronne was fatally injured, but fortunately this proved to lie incorrect. Her injuries are: Left arm broken, left thigh broken, right hip dislocated, compound fracture of the right leg, left forefinger broken, and I many bruises and scalp wounds. Baronne j de la Roche's performances in public! comprise meetings at Heliopolis;' St. Petersburg, Budapest and Rouen, at all of which she won prizes, j HARD TO RESIST! ' A lamb ibelonging to the Marquess of Downshire, which was trained to visit houses and to bleat until someone opened the door, collected no less than £6 12s 6d in bags hung on its body in aid of the Royal Berkshire Hospital. WOMEN MAGISTRATES AND POLICE. Mr. Bramwell Booth is taking part in the discussion of the Public Morals Conference, which opened: yesterday at Caxton Hall, and is reading a paper in which he advocates the employment of women as magistrates, gaolers, and policemen i for cases in which women are chiefly . concerned. j AN AMERICAN ON CHIVALRY. I Mrs. Oliver P. Belmont, mother of the ' Duchess of Marlborough, is at present in London and following the doings of the suffrage people with the greatest fervor. "I have been," Mrs. Belmont said recently to an interviewer, "a believer in ' women's suffrage all my life. The argument that 'votes for women' would destroy sex chivalry is absurd, becausie the so-called chivalry of men is all humbug, i and is usually put forward to misrepre- : sent the true issue—justice. In America J you have only got to watch the way in I wikioh men push women aside in the ; tramcars to see how much chivalry is ■ worth." POSSIBLE WOMAN GOVERNOR. ' There is to be a woman candidate foi the governorship of New Hampshire nexl November—Mrs. Mary Ricker —who pro poses to stand on the Republicar ticket. There seems to be no constitu tional or State law against Mrs. Ricker': candidature, and if she is aible to rui for the office, although she may not win it will be considered an immense victor; for the women's advance movement. WOMAN RACER. For the -first time in the history o English cycle racing a woman rider ha: entered the lists against male competi tors in an important event. La Belli Linda, who is doims; trick bicycle ridinj at the Oxford Music Hall this week, hai sent in an entry for the twenty-foui hours' race for the Weekly Despatch Cup which begins at the Stadium at eieh o'clock to-night. She has ridden the bi cycle she wi'l use for 8000 miles alreadv so is usnl to it. A PECULIAR OPERATION. An extraordinary operation, that o grafting on a new nose, was recentl; performed on a woman at the Londoi Hiospita!. The operation, which wa very snwewfnl. was rendered necessar; on account of a rodent ulcer of man] years' growth, which had gradually eatei away all the tissues of the nose. HONOR TO WOMEN TEACHERS. A special tribute to the good worl done by women as educational adminis trators has been made by the Isle o ■ Wight County Education Committee i] appointing Miss Florence J. Monk, B.A as head trrehor of the County Seconder; School, Newport. The chairman, reply ing to criticism, said the successful ad ministration under former" women teach ers had influenced the Board of Educa tion to alter their policy of opposition t< such appointments. ADVENTURES OF A HAT AND WIG ! The' scene, (says a contributor ti M.A.P) was the Rue Lafayette, Paris at the busiest hour of the day; the hero ine was a lady who attempted to cros from one side of the street to the othev The daring of her attempt may be judg ed from this description of her appear ance, which gives, I may remark, th most up-to-date silhouette of the smar Parisienne. Her enormous hat, weight ed with a perfect harvest of peonies, en tirely hid her forehead. She carried i parasol, with long handle, decorated witl a golden apple; her hand-bag, of fine gol< mesh, was hung from her wrist with fini tasselled chains; her gown, of pure satin was short enough to show dark fawi suede shoes, with very high, narrov heels, and fastenings of large ribboi bows; it was so narrow that mincin< steps were a necessity. As the ladv': I hat was worn in the newest style, vevj much drooped oved one car, to see mor< than one side of the road Was an impos sib'ility for her. This latter, at least, i> the reason given that she did not see f tram coming along until it was close up on her. Her tight skirts made a rur out of the question, so she threw herseli down on the road—not, however, before the machinery had caught her hat. The

tram was pulled up with agitated jerks, and distressed passengers descended t» give what aid they could to the unfortunate victim of the accident. Lo, and behold! There was no lady to "be seen. What could have happened—all .saw her hat being cauight by the tram. My read-1 ers probably know' the denouement—the hat was fastened on to., a fashionable coiffure of false hair. Luckily for her, her wig parted company from .her head at the same moment as her hat, and she was left lying uninjured on the road, instead of being dragged with the rapidlymoving vehicle. She was evidently a lady of considerable presence of mind: before the tram was stopped, or a crowd had time to gather, she had opened her parasol, hidden her shorn head, and promptly hailed a passing fiacre. Before the terrified conductor and passengers had time to ascertain what had happened, she was on her way home. She has not claimed her hat and wig, which made a trophy in front of the tram all day, and set everybody laughing and talking. THE CRINOLINE. iSome interesting reflections have been suggested to a contemporary by the announcement that the inventor of the crinoline, a man nan:c 1 Joseph Thomas, who died recently in the United States. Thomas was a Frenchman, indeed a Parisianj but he emigrated to America as far back as 1846, and the journal in' question argues that, as fashions rarely come over from the other side of the Atlantic, the claim that he was the real inventor of the "hoop" can scarcely be established. As a matter of fact, it attributes the invention to a certain august person who lately died at Togny-aux-Boeufs, in the neighborhood of Chal-ons-sur-Marne, and wko, it states, took out a patent in France for a petticoat with steel springs. "This was the crinoline of our mothers," it says, "which has left such a deplorable memory behind it." The person in question was an assistant in ia drapery shop when he conceived the idea of creating the petticoat with steel hoops. He took out his patent, but he did: not work it himself, as he disposed of it for £l6O. The paper adds that he had a rival, whose activity in this direction was never suspected. This was none other than the executioner Heindenrech, who flourished during the Second Empire, and who was a' predecessor of M. Deibler. Heindenrech was a skilled artisan, and as his grim profession allowed ihim plenty of leisure, he turned it to account by manufacturing crinolines. "His 'creations' had a very fair success," it appears, "and the number of orders I which came to the executioner towards the end of the Empire, when the crinoline was at the height of fashion, is simply incredible." That those persons who are .scared from time to time bj the report that the crinoline may b( revived one of these days have reallj some ground for their nervousness seems to be shown by the remark that it die not come in with a rush, but cleverly insinuated itself. It is an old acquaint a nee. During the Regency and the un fortunate reign of Louis XVI., it had as sumed the form of a wicker basket. Th< Revolution freed women from this pri son. and, as it harked so much back t< ancient times, it dressed them a Is grecque. The Restoration revived tin fashion of round skirts with stiff petti coats, and then recourse was made to i somewhat rigid material like "crin,' which was called, from this word, "crino line," to fill out the skirts. Gradually the skirts grew larger and larger, an( then the hoop was pressed into service first of all with whalebone, and the) with steel. Such is the history of th( crinoline, as related by an up-to-dat( Parisian journal. As will.have beei perceived, it came into fashion 'by de grees, after the abandonment of a modi which is at the present moment beinj so universally imitated. Is there likeh to be a similar reaction? No one can a: yet venture on such a prediction; bu there is a pretty general tendency fo people who have gone to one extreme ti take to the other in process of time ai a welcome change. Hosts of womei are now wearing a sort of hoop with sof material which matches their skirts, witl a view to circumscribing those in alread l scant garments, and when they grov weary of having their movements thu cramped, they may sigh for skirts whicl will alow them to step out freely onci more, and so rush to the opposite ex treme. In the domain of fashion, a least, everything is possible. ADVANTAGES OF EDUCATION. It is strange, says Agnes Repplier that the advantages of a college coursi for girls—advantages solid and reckon able—should be still so sharply ques tioned (by men and women in the world It is stranger still, she declares, thai its earnest advocates should claim foi it in a special manner the few merits it does not possess. These thing mighi be said of the attitude of may towarc woman's higher education generally—for certainly any consideration of th< subject that restricts itself to collegi education is not complete, and becaus* of its incompleteness loses something of its validity. President Taft, in his address on this subject ait Bryn Mawi recently ,said some things which should tend to reduce the questioning of whicl Miss Repplier speaks. He did not mak< mistaken claims for the higher educatior of women, but presented some of its true merits. Its value for the self-supportins woman or the woman seeking a professional career he passed over with little comment—as self-evident. Its value foi girls generally, he believed, lay in the independence it gives them in choosing the kind of life they are to lead. And after these avenues of life are chosen it gives something more: The higher education of woman should be sought wholly without regard either to a professional or matrimonial future. The mental discipline that it affords, the mental pleasures that it makes possible, the enjoyment of reading and study that it invites, are enough in and of themselves to be compensation for the effort in securing it. As life wears on and the active joy that wears away with youth

and young womanhood and voung manhood disappear, and the time of quiet leisure extends itself in one's life the purely intellectual enjoyments become greater; and, if one has a mind trained for us . . . her life is richer, her means of self-entertainment, largely increased, and the possibility of a serene old age made much greater.