WOMAN'S WORLD

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 225, 17 January 1911, Page 6

WOMAN'S WORLD

(Conducted by "Eileen"). THE REVOLUTION OF THE GIRL Under the above title, L. T. Meade contributes a 'delightful uilk-lc to the London 'limes' woman's supplement of November 12. The following serves to show the sharp contrast between the girl of 00 years ago and the girl of to-day":—' '•i From :hcr earliest childhood to " the full, rich years of her adolescence all is completely changed. I recall, as I write this paper, a vision of the girl of the past. She was made to feel her inferiority to her brothers. In the numerous 'households where children were many and money scarce, the girl did without. At any cost, the boys must be educated, and the girls had, in consequence, to pick up knowledge where and how they could. Knowledge was bv no means thought essential to the oldfashioned girl. There were some people who even went to the length of considering it, not quite nice for a girl to know too much. Provided she could read indifferently well, write a sloping, ladylike hand, play simple tunes on the old cottage piano, paint in water-colors in. a wishy-washy style, sing a few of the old ballads in an uncultivated voice, understand the 'higher arts of cooking, embroider in cross-stitch and Swiss muslin, make 'her own underlincn and her brother's shirts —.these duties were allsullicient. She had, according to her parents and neighbors, fully accomplished what Providence intended for her. As the girl grew up she was expected to marry, and the sooner her marriage took place the more positive were her parents and guardians that she 'had indeed fulfilled her life's mission."

Then the other side of the picture is presented. Speaking of the ''advancement" of the modem girl, she says: — "She may 'have gone too for. She "may, even now, be struggling for the unattainable. But .when one compares tile pre-sent-day girl, full of freshness and eagerness, witn her sister of the seventies, it is impossible not to feel a sense of amazed delight. She is so different from the girl of the past that it is sometimes difficult to believe that she belongs to the same order of being. 'Did Maid' is an obsolete term. The unmarried woman of to-day is the woman of affairs. She undertakes weighty duties that the married woman has no time for. The openings for her services are widening their borders every day. Her sagacity, her quick intuition, her sympathy, her profound knowledge of other women, make her invaluable in many positions quite unsuitable to men. She throws herself with a passionate zest into her work. Stte is untiring in her endeavors. Behold her as the parish nurse, as the church 'deaconess, as the 'high schoolmistress. Look at her as the trained nurse in the sick-room, (let her valuable opinion in a.i cases connected with other women.

See lior in the post-office, in the kindergarten, in the 'home. 'See her, not only in our own country, but ill other countries wherever tile English tongue is spoken, helping the. Egyptian Government, training great schools in India, Africa, Australia, New Zealand. The fact is this: All over the world Miss lieale's girls are to lie found; W'herevcT the sun rises a little of that bright and tender influence is felt. Through them, she being dead yet speaks; as also the noble hand of nurses can*-' Miss Night ingale's spirit to sick-beds and dyin" pillows. "The woman is indeed now a factor in the worm—not only as the wife and mother—the noblest ami best of all, but by her genius, helping the wives and mothers of their children, their boys and their girls, everywhere. The enormous change that has taken place in so short a time is almost past belief. But we have only to look and see for ourselves."

FEWER MARRIAGES. SOME SUSGESTED REASONS. j Professor Brentano, writing in the Eco- 1 nomic .lournal on the decrease in the marriage rate in all civilised countries, suggests the following reasons: !'• Lengthened j)re])aration for vocation, and consequent delay of time of marriages. The German increase in marriages is attributed to the new industrial conditions, which have enabled peasants, by migrating to industrial centres, to marry earlier than they would have done in the peasant state. In long-industrialis-ed Creat Britain the rise of the standard of comfort among the working classes operates as it does among the upper classes. 2.(.'rowing difficulty of supporting a family as social requirements increase. This appeared earliest amongst the nobility, where primogeniture prevailed. As the one-time perquisites of the younger children of the nobility have been thrown open to all classes there has Inon the greatest number of bachelors and spinsters in families whoso fortunes consist only of entailed estates. The altered position of woman. Prom man's slave she has become hi? 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.

-I. The, greater number of enjoyments which enter into competition with the amenities of married life. The home has lost its paramount importance for the man, and also for the woman. So the pern nl age of marriagps decreases among the people as a whole 'as the nation ascends in the scale of civilisation. I i>. The mutual satisfaction of the sexes is not so great as it used 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 lias a man lost his illusions. On a higher mental and moral level tile ideals ol marlied life become mure exacting and more difficult to fulfil.

HOBBLE SKIRT LAWYER Till 1 hobble skirt was responsible recently for ii. little scene at the entrance to the I'nitPil States Supreme Court. MUs Ailelina liuril. a lady lawyer from New \ ork, appeared before tlie justices to arjiue a ca*e, and as -lie was wearing a hobble skirt, the attendant at the

door, who has occupied his post for many years, refused Miss Burd admittance. lie declared that she was not properly dressed to appear before the Supreme Court lienc.fl, and that a hobble skirt was too undignified for anyone to wear who expected to address the court. Miss Burd asked him for his authority on the subject, anil if he could quote any law regulating the dress of a pleader before the Bar. The attendant admitted that he could quote no law, but as long as he had served the court no pleader'had appeared in such a costume. Miss Burd, however, challenged ! him to keep her out, and insisted upon entering. Her persistence won the dav. and the ball'led attendant retired, declaring he would seek instructions.

LANGUAGE OF THE PARASOL "Indifference," handle resting on the shoulder. "I ('are every danger," high above the head. ■'l would lean oil your arm," dropping it to the right. "L brave everything for you," shut. "f love you," carried in the arms. ''l could beat you," held by the point. "I despise you," lu-ld by the cane. "1 bate you," beating the toes.

THE TURNED-DOWN HAT. There is a remarkable unanimity in tile direction of hat-brims just now (writes London gossip). They are turned down, if not all round at least most of the way. Many of them allow only til!' eyes to be seen, brows, forehead anil hair being hidden. A fashionable shape of the moment is a bell of stretched satin, lined Willi pleated lawn, which ends with a little frill. This partly softens the otherwise hard ell'cct. A pretty trimming is the dandelion pull'-ball, called "candies" in France, and these are sometimes made of marabout, with charming ell'cct. Marabout is being much used, in conjunction with ostrich feathers, and is sometimes so arranged as to appear like a little cloud between two feathers.

LADY BURGLARS Four society women of Chicago, whose names are prominently published in tho press, have been arrested on a charge of burglary. Three of the ladies are married, and all reside in the exclusive south side uistriet, and are, with the execution of the unmarried woman, very wealthy. The women, who have been released oi\ bail, admit the house-breaking, but say that it was done for a lark. One night recently the four drove in a big motor car from Chicago to Crown Point, Indiana, a country town about 40 iViics away. Here they entered a farmer's house, and carried away in their motor a large quantity of goods. The .stolen articles included fresh country res*, cabbages, onions, china dishes, and quaint household utensils. Unfortunately for them, one of the women dropped- her handkerchief in the farmer's larder, and as it had, her name 011 it, it was an easy matter to trace its owner. • This was done, and, singularly enough, the four women were arrested as they were proceeding in the car a few nights later on a .similar raiding expedition.

" PLAYING-CARD BABIES." The biggest baby-farm in the world, known locally a-; "the home of the I'lav-iiiig-Card Babies," is situated at .Moscow. The wonderful foundling asylum was started originally by the Empress Catherine 11., and it is maintained, oddly enough, bv a tax on playing-cards. ]n all some fourteen thousand babies pass through the institution every year. The asylum, which is wilder the patronage of Royalty, consists of «n institution standing in a hollow square round a garden with lovely trees and lawns where the children play. A great feature of this asylum is that all the servants there wear the livery of Uic Royal Family, and its accounts are audited and kept by the Russian Treasury Department. Children of all sizes from wee babies are tended there, and ithey have the best attention and good, wholesome food. About fifty babies are received there every day. and after a sojourn of a month nurses take them to their own homes in the villages near by.