WOMAN'S WORLD

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 228, 20 January 1911, Page 6

WOMAN'S WORLD

(Conductod by "Eileen"). BLIND GIRL'S HEROISM. TI!IUS TO SAVE lIKU .UOTHI-R FROM' WRNING. Melbourne, December ;i(l. The story of a blind girl's heroism was told to the coroner at an inquiry into the death of Sarah Jane Penglaise, a widow, 7.'i years of age, lately residing at Carlton.

A Wind daughter of the deceased widow, Sarah Jane Hughes, related lio\v ; she kissed her mother "good-night," and: was retiring to rest when she remember-j o. that she had left her comb in hex motuer's bedroom. She returned to the room, took down her hair, and was combing it out on deceased's bed when she suddenly smelt smoke. She could not see, but felt the llames in her face. She heard her mother's cries, and put her arms around her. She found her way to the kitchen, and seized a pail, which she filled with water. She then returned to the bedroom, where her mother was screaming, and threw the water where she hoped- her mother would be. She tin n ran, out and brought in "Sin. Hawkins, a neighbor.

The evidence showed that it was evident that deceased had set her clothes on fire with a lighted candle which she had accidentally knocked oil' a box on to the floor near her feet. She died from the result of the burns.

SCIENTIFIC MARRIAGE. DOCTOR SITJGKS'L'S FREE ADVICE AND STATE AID. | Why not start bureaus where you canl get advice on marriage? The suggestion was made in the course, of his evidence before the Divorce Com-] mission by Dr. David Walsh, editor of, the Medical Press and Circular, who saidl that it appeared to him that no li.gis-1 lation of the kind concerned, was likely! to be permanently successful unless it made some provision, not only against marriage, but also against the continu-J ance in wedlociv, of persons likely to damage to any serious extent the health of the family by producing defective olfspring. Hitherto society had allowed the matrimonial affairs to drift for the most part into the hands of priests and lawyers, with results that had been unsatisfactory. In view of that failure, social reformers would do well to call in the am of medical science. They would find that modern scientific medicine saw in matrimonial law, properly handled, a powerfud weapon for the prevention of bodily and mental disease in the family, together with the less direct evils of pauperism, alcoholism, crime and other disastrous heritages of the union of unlit persons.

So far neither priests, lawyers nor social reformers had made any serious attempt either to discourage or dissolve marriages of the unlit. From a medical point of view marriage was commendable only when it provided for the procreation of healthy children, while both marriage and divorce might be rendered powerful safeguards against the production of unhealthy offspring. Why should not a candidate for marriage be required to produce a medical certificate? In the existing state of society, however, he was afraid that measures founded on medical principles would have to deptnd rather on moral suasion than on compulsion. As regarded the poorer classes, he suggested the organisation of advisory marriage bureaus, where all persons bent on matrimony could obtain gratis u full investigation of the family and personal history and all other pertinent facts on both sides, and secure advice as to the desirability or otherwise of the proposed marriage.

These bureaus might be associated with the existing labor bureaus, and placed in charge of medical experts. He would lay down as a general proposition that medical advice and sanction should be sought and obtained as an essential preliminary to marriage in all ranks of society.

In answer to Sir Lewis Dibdin, witness said the maximum cost of obtaining ■a divorce should not exceed ,X 5. Dr. Walsh said lie considered that the cost of marriage and of divorce should be borne bv the State.

Then if your sole idea is the propagation of healthy children, and you believe 'that the State should bear the expenses of marriage and divorce, why shouldn't the State be called upon to support the parents after their marriage?—lf they can't support themselves, the State would have to do something for them.

Dr. S. (!. H. Moore, medical ollicer of Uuddersfield. emphasised the wrong and hardship indicted upon innocent offspring by undesirable* parental unions. lie knew it to be the case that not for many generations —if, indeed, at all in the evolution of mankind —might we hope to maintain morality without the aid of religion, but the altitude of ecclesiastical authorities and religious denominations in these matters, with the approval of the ministers of the Church, was detrimental to morality and religion. Undoubtedly, in the north a strong sense of shame attached to the children of irregular unions.

! DOMESTIC HELPS. It was reported from Auckland last week that considerable difliculty is being experienced in the northern city in obtaining the services of girls as domestic helps. This trouble, like the poor, is always with us, but probably the worried Xew Zealand housewife may derive some consolation from the fact that bad as is! the state of things in this country it is' even worse in America. A lady corre-| spondent of the London Daily Express recently wrote interestingly on this subject. Xo American-born girl, she said,, I would dream of entering ''service." She I will slave in factory, shop or ollice, butj | domestic, work she considers beneath her.j | Hence, the heads of households in Ame-i riea are entirely dependent for assistance in the homes upon the immigrantsooff f every nationality who pour into the coun-j try each week. But the demand far ex-J coeds the supply, and consequently wages! are very high. A girl with a little expcri-l nice and some knowledge of cooking can! easily make live or six pounds a month.' In addition to this remuneration, she en-1 joys a degree of freedom unobtainable in' any other country. She demands the. use! of a latchkey, so that she may go out or :

come in at any hour, and she fails to understand the difference it can make to anybody at what hour she returns home so long as she is up in time to do her work next day. She expects, also, three evenings "out" a week, and every Sunday, or, at least, every other Sunday, afternoon and evening as well. When she remains at home in the evenings she re--i-rves the right to ask her friends, male and female, to come and see her and stay to supper at his mistress' expense. Somelimes it happens that the latter is away from home on these, festive occasions. In that case she may quite probably be asked on her return not to enter' the dining-room, "as I have a gentleman visitor in there just now." If all the stories that are told are true, it is not difficult to account for the popularity of the ' l'-uitcd iStates as a field for emigiation j amongst domestic helps,