WOMAN'S WORLD

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 196, 28 November 1910, Page 6

WOMAN'S WORLD

(Conducted by "Eileen"). WEDDING AT JNGLEWODD. A Maketawa correspondent writes:— A very interesting weddinjj took place on Wednesday, November 23. the contracting parties being Mr. Charles Kendrick, second son of Mr. W. .1. Kendrick, of John's road (near Norfolk road), ana Miss H. M. Walton, youngest daughter) of the late Henry Walton, of Hebdcn Bridge, Yorkshire. England. The bride, who was prettily dressed in a charming ivory white silk Empire gown with veri and natural orange blossoms, was given away by Mr. Alt'. Scholefield, formerly of Halifax (England), and had as bridesmaids, Miss Lavinia Kendrick. sister ol bridegroom, and Miss Florence West, (formerly of Warley, Yorkshire). The) latter were nicely dressed in soft cream dresses with hats to match, and carried shower bouquets. Tlie groom had as best man Mr. Arthur Bunt, of John's road. After the ceremony, which took place at the Presbyterian Church, Inglewood, the Rev. Mr. Alberto officiating, a sumptuous wedding breakfast was partaken of at the residence of the parents of the bridegroom, the following being present:—Mr. and Mrs. Alf. Scholefield, Mr. and Mrs. Joe Corney, old settlers in New Zealand, but formerly of Halifax, Yorkshire; Mr. and Mrs. Arthur Wesi (shipmates of the bride, also of Warley, Halifax); Mr. F. Hawkworth (Halifax); Mrs. Win. Corney and Miss F. Corney (Norfolk road); Mr. and Mrs. Mather; Mr. and Mrs. Jas. Mather; Mr. and Mrs. Wm. Kendrick; Mr. and Mrs. J. Kindberg. Mr. J. Riddle; and Messrs. D. ana T. Kendrick. The happy couple, who were the recipients of a large number of useful and costly presents, have the well wishes of a'large circle of friends. WHY FOLKS DON'T MARRY.

j By Professor Brentano. In the Economic Journal for September Professor L. Brentano shows how the doctrine of Malthus has been demolished by the experience of the last decades. Malthus taught that marriages increased with the rise of wages. The facts prove that, along with .rising wages, since 873 there has been a decline in the marriage rate in Great Britain, Ireland, Russia, Hungary, Servia, Italy, United States, Chili,. Uruguay, and the Australian States, excepting Western Australia. In the German Empire the number of marriages increased between 1881 jand 1900. Brushing aside the small fallling off in the percentage of marriage which is due simply to the decline in the rate of mortality, the Professor goes on to assign the following reasons for I the decrease in the frequency of marriage which is found among the upper classes in all civilised countries, and which spreads to all classes below them, excepting the lowest. 1. Lengthened preparation for vocation, and consequent delay of time ot marriage. The German increase in marriages is attributed to the new industrial conditions which have enabled peasants, by migrating to the industrial centres, to marry earlier than they would have done in the peasant state. In long-industrialised Great Britain the rise of the standard of comfort among the working classes operates as it does among the upper classes. 2. Growing difficulty of supporting a family as social requirements increase. This appeared earlier amongst the nobility, where primogeniture prevailed. As the one-time prequisites of the younger children of the nobility have been thrown open to all classes there has been the greatest number of bachelors and spinsters in families whose fortune consists only of entailed estates.

3. The altered position of woman. From man's slave she has become his companion, and even his competitor, Her increasing economic independence diminishes the force of one of the motives that leads her to marry. She shrinks from entering "the girl's prison and the woman's workhouse," as Bernard Shaw describes married life. 4. The greater number of enjoyments which enter into competition with the amenities of married life. The homo has lost its paramount importance for the man and also for the woman. So the percentage of marriages decreases among the people as a. whole as the nation ascends in the scale of civilisation.

5. The mutual satisfaction of the sexes is not so great as it vised to be. Woman has become more critical, though still cherishing more illusions on the score of marriage than the man. The later the age of marriage the more completely has a man lost his illusions. On a higher mental and moral level the ideals of married life become more exacting and more difficult to fulfil. PORTUGAL'S PRESIDENT AND HIS WIFE.

"The most interesting man in Portugal at the present moment is the new Premier Senhor Braga," says Reuter, ''who may be said without exaggeration to be the father not only of this revolution, but that of Brazil, having by his teaching as professor of history and philosophy prepared the ground for both movements.

A MODEST MAN OF SIXTY-SEVEN. "He is a quiet, pleasant, and extremely modest grey-haired man of sixtyseven, whose unassuming manners may be inferred from the fact that last night, after being elected the first President of the Portuguese Republic, he returned home as usual in a second-class compartment to the unpretentious little house which lie occupies in the suburbs, quiet-j ly receiving the congratulations of his richest and humblest friends, and depreeatingly acknowledging the frantic ovations of his fellow-passengers. "Discussing him with a distinguished Portuguese gentleman, who sat on the same bench with Braga in their college days, I remarked, 'He is quite a poor man, is he not?' 'Braga,' was the reply 'lives in an intellectual atmosphere. lie lias no wants, and, therefore, is the richest of men. No one is better fitted to occupy the position he now holds, for his well-known probity commands universal confidence.'"

THE PRESIDENT'S WIFE. An equally charming glimpse of the President's wife is afforded by the Mail's Lisbon correspondent: "I called," he says, "at the country house of Senhor Theophilo Braga, the new President —a long, one-storey building on a clill' overlooking the Tagus at Cruz Quebrada, seven miles west of Lisbon. Senhor Braga had left for the capital, but his wife—a frail, sweet-faced old lady, with white hair—advanced and insisted that I should enter. She led me by the hand in motherly fashion to a long, low room, more than modestly furnished, the windows of which overlooked the wide expanse of blue serene waters but lately seething and smoking under shot and shell.

"She expressed her regret at her husband's absence, and said that he was delighted to speak to English people. I congratulated her or her husband's new dignity, adding that she ought to feel ,very proud. " 'Proud,' she exclaimed, smiling doubtfully, 'perhaps; but, above all, I regret the interruption of forty-three years ol peaceful domestic happiness.' '•ln the conversation that ensued she said many things of an adorable simplicity, from which I choose but a few.— "WE MARRIED FOR LOVE"— AND A COTTAGE. "'We married for love. We have always been poor and always happy with one another, except for our great sorrow that we are now childless, for we are ever mourning the loss of our son and daughter twenty years ago. My girl would have been forty now, and 1 should have had grown-up grandchildren around me,' she added, with eyes full of tears. 'But we found comfort —my husband in his books and I in my household work near him.'

'"I have told Theophilo that I will never leave my little home and pretty garden, where I have lived for twenty years. If we are forced to have a larger house for meetings and receptions, we will keep our little house to live in always. We have had just enough to live on. Mv husband has always been persecuted because of his opinions, but, although he cannot forget, he is incapable now of seeking to avenge himself on his enemies." WHY WOMEN SCREAM. Professor Osborn, speaking last week to the Physiological School at the University, Melbourne, said that the society did not want women who screamed, and who showed that they were not fit for the position they occupied. "I don't think the modern woman is so mucn given to screaming as was, say, the early Victorian," said the Professor, "nor is the modern woman given to swooning. Screaming may be said to be feminine and instinctive, having a twofold significance, to disconcert the enemy and to summon help. Women scream when attacked, because they are not well equipped by nature for the muscular response involved in fighting or running. To keep still and screech is the feminine way. Most women are better physically now than tkey were. More attention has been paid to their physical culture. They have come put into the world and they are stronger mentally. Women who are trained physically, and mentally to look at life soberly and ait danger with equanimity, now and again betray their sex by vocalisation of a high pitch and intensity. At the water chutes, for instance, and on gravity railways they often scream from pleasureable excitement. Whether they would do it in the absence of the other sex is an interesting psychological question."