WOMAN'S WORLD

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 249, 27 February 1911, Page 6

WOMAN'S WORLD

(Conducted by "Eileen"). i i NO WOMEN "IMMORTALS." < My 90 votes to 52 the Institute of \ France, comprising the five learned bodies, of which the Academic Franchise ' is the most famous, rejected the principle ■ of the admission of women to their ranks. ' If this is obeyed by the individual aca- ; demies, Mme. Curie" tbe co-discoverer of radium, will be debarred from the Academy of Sciences. Mme. Curie's application for the seat of her late husband in that academy, which is once more vacant through the death of Professor Gernez, who succeeded him, raised the whole question of the eligibility of women for academy honors. The discussion has shaken academic France to its foundations. Old-world professors are horror-struck at the prospect of a precedent following which women would become eligible to admission among the forty "immortals" of the Acadcmie Franeaise. In that body the strongest opposition to the principle involved in Mme. Curie's candidature obtains. Mme. Curie's chances were in the ascendant when the Institute assembled in its handsome palace the first afternoon, for the Academy of Sciences had just nominated her first of a list of five distinguished professors of physics for elections. The meeting of the Institute, held in private, was very largely attended, | over 150 academicians being present.! Professor Levasseur, the political economist, voted against the proposed change, while Professor Emile Picard, analyst' and mathematician, and Professo'r Appell, both of the Academy of Sciences, urged that each academy should have individual freedom of action.

After a long discussion a resolution was passed stating that the Institute, without assuming any right to impose its decision on the individual academies, records that on the general question there is an immutable tradition which it seems fit to respect.

OLDEN-TIME KITCHENS. In olden days (says the London Times) the size of the kitchen seems to have been of more importance than its fitments in detail. At Hurstnonccux, for instance, there was a kitchen 28ft high, with three huge fireplaces, and a bakehouse with an oven 14ft in diameter; then there is an old Welsh kitchen at Penrhyn Hall, near Llandudno, dating from the "fifteenth century, which has many primitive culinary contrivances, now obsolete or superseded by more modern devices: a meat-jack with a flywheel, a steel toasting stand, and a fan bellows. A wonderful old kitchen is at Battle Abbey, and that at St. Mary's Hall, Coventry, is remarkable for the famous "Knave's Post," to which possibly recalcitrant scullions were temporarily attached. There is a mediaeval kitchen in Westminster Abbey, although nowadays little remains whereby to identify it save the rubble flooring, the buttery hatch, and an adjoining cellarnow or lately the dining-room of the resident Canon. Hampton Court Palace, too, lia« its "Great Kitchen," with a vast vaulted roof and sets of antlers on the walls.

■ Our ancestors fully recognised the advantages of having a large kitchen. An order, dated April 1!), 1206, commands Hugh de Nevill to have the King's kitchen at Clarendon roofed with shingles, and to cause two new kitchens to be erected, one at Marlborough and the other at Ludgershall, to dress the Royal dinners in; "and it is particularly directed that each kitchen shall be provided with a furnace sufficiently large to roast two or three oxen." There is a picturesque side, too, to the kitchen, which, in its way, is a reflex of the daily life of those whom it supplies and those whose workshop it is. William Beckford, of "Vathek" fame, once visited the monastery of Alcobaca,] and gives a glowing account of its kitchen:—"Through the centre of the im-l mense and groined hall, not less than 00ft in diameter, ran a brisk rivulet of the, clearest water, (lowing through pierced wooden reservoirs, containing every sort and size of the finest river fish. On one side loads of game and venison were heaped up; on the other, vegetables and fruit in endless variety. Beyond a lon« line of stoves extended a row of ovens, and close to them hillocks of wheaten flour whiter than snow, rocks of sugar, jars of the purest oil, and pastry in vast abundance, which a numerous tribe of lay-brothers and their attendants were rolling out and puffing up into a hundred different shapes, singing all the while as blithely as larks in a cornfield."

HAVE WOMEN A SENSE OF HUMOR? "Have women a souse of humor?" is the question which the Lokal Anzeige'r addressed to a number of prominent persons apropos of a statement by Mme. Yvette Guilbert that her sex is deficient in humor. Mr. Jerome K. Jerome, whose works enjoy a wide vogue in Germany, replies, according to the Mai): "My observations have shown me that women have just fts sharp a sense of humor as men, but they have less understanding of the grotesque." Ilerr Franz Le'har, composer of "The Merry Widow," thinks ''women have humor when they are among themselves and are making merry over us men." Fran Clara viehig, a celebrated German novelist, says: "Women have at least enough humor not to take this question seriously." Herr Max Bernstein, of Munich, barrister and playwriter, says: "Whether women have humor or not depends on their husbands." Fran Rosa Bcrtcns, leading ladv of the Royal Theatre, Berlin, says: "If we women had not a sense of humor how could we tolerate the superiority of man?" TTcrr Julius Freund, a popular musicalcomedy librettist, says: "The grotesqueness with which the modem woman bedecks herself from head to foot establishes beyond all doubt, that she overflows with a sense of humor." Herr Loo Leipsizer, author, says: "Heaven gave man humor and woman patience."

FLANNELETTE DANGERS AUonl.ion is ftjrnin called nt tliis seaami to the (liiiijror attending the wwiring ■>f lliinneletle. "Duriiiff November" (says the British Medical .Tcmriinl) "the mini-

ber of cases of burning by mishaps—in nearly every case ending fatally —alone was 125, involving 131 persons, and in l no less than 39 of these, death was ascribed to the rapid burning of flannelette clothing (nightdresses and underclothing) worn by the victims of the accidents. In CO cases it was related that the clothing took fire, without informa-1 tion being given as to what it was made of. The attractive qualities of flannelette are its soft cosy feel, and its cheap,'the clothing took fire without infomiaand there is nothing surprising in finding that these considerations prevail and that any cautions that may have been ■.previously received are forgotten. The remedy most likely to be ellicient would appear to be the compulsory marking of all such material in a manner that could not be overlooked, with a caution as to its dangerous nature, thus reminding the intending purchaser at the moment, when the warning is most needed. Protection is required for those who are totally unfit to protect themselves, and on whose behalf the public authority alone can effectively intervene.

"Of the 39 cases referred to above, in which flannelette was specifically named as concerned in the results, in 28 the average age of the victim was under four wars, and in five the average age was SO. More, no doubt, might also be dbne in the issuing of public warning, either by the central or local authorities, and if adequate means were taken to prevent flannelette being used through real ignorance of the danger involved, parents and others in charge might well be held guilty of punishable negligence in any case in which the use of flannelette was proved to have contributed to the death of a child. The fact that there is on the market a flannelette which is free from danger, while retaining the other characteristics of flannelette, appears to complete the case for such legislative restriction on the sale of the dangerous material as that recommended I above."

A RADIUM WEDDING. The latest novelty in Paris is the radium wedding. It is a Tarity, as its name implies, for it commemorates the seventieth anniversary of marriage. This wedding celebration took place in Paris in November, the couple being M. and Mine. Ferdinand Dugue, whose joint ages arc 187 years. M. Dugue is the oldest dramatic author in the world. He is over ninety-five, his wife is ninety-two, and l ' they were married on November 22,1841). M. Dugue is in excellent health and spirits (says the Express), but he is not quite certain whether he has written forty-two or forty-three plays. The bestknown of them are "The Pirates of Savannah" and ''Cartouche." "The Pirates" has been played more than 10,000 times. Hi 3 lasi play—a drama at the bottom of the sea —w.-u produced in 1877, and was revived with success in Paris only a few weeks ago. Mme. Dugue has been confined to her bed for the last two years owing to a broken leg. "My bones are too old to mend," she said to her guests, "but that is all that is the matter with mo, and it was my own fault that I broke my leg. I fell on the stairs of the railway'station when I was running to catch a train."

A FRENCH "PROPHETESS." Prophecy is as fascinating a pursuit in France as in England, and Madame de Thebes holds sway in Paris as astrologer-in-chief to the public. The prophetess was in gloomy mood whe interviewed on the subject by a Paris journalist. The lust of power and wealth, the frenzied striving after merely material objects, will, she affirms, be increasingly evident throughout the year, and, indeed, until the fateful day of March 21, 1912, when the world will be freed from the triple domination of Mars, Mercury and Vqnus; 1911 will, therefore, in her opinion, represent the! darkest hour which comes before dawn. 1 She promises few fine days, a spring] that prolongs the winter, a poor harvest, and a cyclone of tropical intensity.' Paris is to be the scene of two dramas, one duo to a popular outbreak of passion and the other to the forces of Nature, and for three days the City of 1 Light is to be a City of Mourning. In politics, too, there may be expected an upheaval of the Parliamentary system. So much for France. Turning her gaze abroad, this prophetess of disaster sees more trouble ahead. England, however, is comparatively fortunate. The year 1911 will be for us a year of "recueillement" preceding the taking of grave decisions. Ireland and India will both attract attention, but Madame de Thebes has no overwhelming tragedies in store for us such as she foresees for France. Germany, according to this frank critic of nations, has developed too rapidly, and "grave -events" next year will cast their shadow of coming ill. Austria has little to fear, and Italy, too, has a brilliant destiny—at the expense of Francewhile the Vatican will be unusually active. Spain will not sec her internal troubles increase.