WOMAN'S WORLD

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 262, 27 March 1911, Page 6

WOMAN'S WORLD

\ (Conducted by "Bileen"). MATRIMONIAL CHANCES. THE BUSINESS GIRL AND SOCIETY GIRL CONTRASTED. Which has the better chance to marry —the society girl or the business girl? That is one of the most interesting problems that the present depressed state of the matrimonial market has brought to | the fore. Never was there such a bumper girl crop. Never were women so handsome, so attractive, so clever, and desirable, and yet there is a universal feminine wail over the scarcity of eligible men for husbands. From all parts of the country, even from that erstwhile matrimonial paradise, the "West," there goes up a Macedonian cry of "Come over and marry us!" from young women that under the proper conditions of life men would be just breaking their necks to get as wives. Whether the women out-number the men in the world or not the census will tell us, but, at any rate, few or many, the men don't want to marry. They are selfish creatures who want to spend their money on themselves, and so you see great, big, splendid, intelligent charming girls beaming and cooing and gurgling with delight whenever they can corral any sort of a little snippet in trousers. In this struggle, however, for the lone, lorn man, it is interesting to observe that the business girl -has got the advantage 'over her society sister. Barring the class of ultra rich that is able to go out and purchase dukelets and lordlings and no-accounters for its daughters, there is no place on earth that is such an Adamless Eden as the l parlor of the well-to-do's, and no girls who have such a slim show at matrimony as the maidens who just "sit at home, and sew up a seam, and feed on pastries, sugar and cream." Such a girl has no way to take men in, and inasmuch as she cannot go out and hunt them down in their lairs in offices as the working girl does, she is predestined to hang upon the parent stem. Nothing is more pathetic than the sight of those pqor girls who are solemnly carted around by their mothers to parties where they adorn the benches along the walls, and who are taken to the theatre, always by mamma, to the dances, always by mamma, and who are generally trotted over the whole matrimonial course without ever even raising the flicker of an eyelid or interest in any masculine breast.

From the point of view of the altar a little money is a dangerous thing. It doesn't gild a girl enough to make her a matrimonial prize, and it takes her out of the running. Far better to have either a million or two, or nothing at all. On the other hand, the business girl is continually thrown right with men all the time, and propinquity, you know, is the greatest of all match-makers. Before he knows u a man has become accustomed to the dear little girl who has been working at his side; then he gets to like to have her working at his side; then he gets so that it gives him cold shivers when he thinks of her not always being there, and when that hap- i pens it's all over except sending out the | wedding cards. That this is true, and that any sort of a girl who hasn't got a hump on her back and cross-eyes, may marry any man she pleases with whom she works, is proven by the fact that the real reason that women do not amount to more in the business world is that about the l time a girl gets enough experience in Tier line of occupation to make her of some real use, she ups and marries.

Look how the ranks of the telephone girls are decimated by Cupid. Read the perennial romance of the daily papers where the millionaire has led his blushing stenographer to the altar. Observe the fatal facility with which the manicursts and waitresses in the larger cities carry off sons of the wealthy. Note that the army of saleladies behind the counter of the big drapery shops never seems to get any older. What becomes of those working girls of yesterday? Married—all married. Indeed, such a monopoly has the business girl got on the wedding bells that many men have gotten wise. They refuse to hire women employees for the double reason that they will either be

married themselves before they know it, to some enterprising lady cleric, or they know that somebody else will earry off their invaluable secretary, just as she has mastered all of the intricate details of the business.

Nor do we have to seek far to find

out why the business girl has the advantage over her society sister in the matrimonial market. In order to marry you have got to catch your man first, and the business girl is out where the fishing is good, whereas the society girl is angling in waters where never a sucker rises to the bait. Several years ago on a steamer I chanced to fall into a group in which there were six married women, every one of whom had been a trained nurse.

"'Trained nursing," declared one of these women enthusiastically, "is (the greatest profession on earth if you want to get married. You can always marry either the young doctor or the patient. While, as for elderly bachelors and rich widowers, who are slightly ailing, they are to be had for the taking. "There comes a time in the course of every man's convalescence when he is so happy at getting well, and so grateful to you for having helped to save his precious life, and so dependent on you for his comfort, and so afraid you are going to leave him, that he's .just a 'mush' poultice, and is as sure to propose as water is to flow down hill. Any nurse has dozens of such proposals, and if you ever see a trained nurse who is single, you can know that it is only because, wrestling with the grumpiness and cantankerousness of a sick man, a latcfikey looked better to her than a weddingring."

And there you are. Undoubtedly, the business girl has a far better chance of getting married than the society girl has.

Thorn is a dearth of marrying men, and the niilv hope for the ladies who pine for masculine attention is to hie f hem away to the marts of trade where men do congregate.—English paper.

BRITISH GIRLS IN THE DOMINION. I British girls who come to New Zealand to enter domestic service seem in many cases to be disappointed with conditions here. A lady having much to do SitU such girls in Wellington informei ■ Post reporter that the girls sometimes . cry on their disillusionment. They say they had been told before coming out that they were to get £1 or £1 10s a week and all found. They are never able to say by whom they are told this, except that they have seen it advertised somewhere. As a matter of fact, they might be able to receive no more than £•2O to £26 a year at Home, but they seem to leave with exaggerated notions as to the length of the New Zealand housewife's purse. Many of them follow particular branches of service, and they are appalled at the multifarious duties which the New Zealand "general" is expected to perform. Their experiences as detailed to the lady in question are not such as to encourage them to induce other girls to come out; but they are not given more work or subjected to harder conditions than the average New Zealand domestic. "It is all so different from what we thought it would be," summarises their uosition. ANGLO-COLONIAL WEDDINGS t Several New Zealand weddings have just taken place in London, writes a correspondent. At the Brompton Oratory Miss Brinda Traill Skae, youngest daughter of the late E. W. A. Skae, Inspector-General of Hospitals and Asylums for New Zealand, was married to Mr. Clias. Geo. Ogilvie, of Delvinc, Perthshire, and Earlsmount, Keith. Miss Skae was born at Karori, but has been away from New Zealand for some years.' The bride was given away by her brother, Mr. Ernest Traill Skae, and her bridesmaid was her 1 sister, Miss Hilda Skae. The best man was Mr. W. B. Clark, of Beckenham. After the ceremony a reception was held at the Alexandra Hotel by Dr. and Mrs. Skae, of Caldenwood, Lasswade, uncle and aunt of tho bride, and the honeymoon is being spent on the Continent. Another New Zealand wedding took place on January 30, at Christchurch, Marylebone, when Miss Frances Wilson, daughter of Mr. James Wilson, of Balclutha, was married to Mr. John B. Stewart, also of Balclutha. A pretty wedding of New Zealand interest was that of Miss Ann Rhodes Moorhouse and Mr. Edward H. Ryle, at St. Paul's Knightbridge, on January 24. The bride is the elder daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Edward .Moorhouse. of Spratton Grange, Northampton, and formerly resident in New Zealand, where they'have many relative? and friowK The bridegroom is the only -on of the Bishop of Winchester (D .-in Designate of Westminster/, who officiated at the wedding ceremony, assisted by his tv.'" Suffragan Bishops and two other clergy men. There were five bridesmaids—Miss Mary Moorhouse (sister of the bride), Miss Avice Rhodes (daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Geo, Rhodes, of Claremont, Timaru), Miss Linda Morritt, Miss Hilda Morritt, and Miss Mabel Ramsay L'Amy. Two small children carried the bride's train—Master Reggie Hunter Blair (whose mother is a New Zealand cousin of the bride) i and Miss Mary Morritt. The bride wore a gown of soft white chiffon, with a , tunic of rare Brussels lace and a court I train and scarf of chiffon, and her only ! ornament was a large diamond pendant, the gift of Mrs. W. B. Rhodes, of Wel- ' lington. ' FEMININE FRILLS. 1 Muffs, scarves and turbans for school » girls are of velvet, bordered with fur. s Sailor collars of muslin and silk are r embroidered by hand. > Many of the fashionable jackets are very trying to those who have not a 2 youthful figure. s Grey fur is the skirt trimming on a 5 gown of biscuit color. One-piece frocks of serge or cloth, with ' long, close sleeves, invariably display the • high waist line. 3 Serge frocks are trimmed with satin, t embroidery, buttons and beadwork. Some of the cleverest touches of new 3 toilets are .found in the back of new ' costumes. Unpretentious blouses mav be brightened and enriched by a few beads care- - fully selected as to color. t Patent leather belts finsh with big • square buckles that are of metal at the 3 edge, and the middle is filled in with the 2 leather. > Bands and tails of dark fur decorate 7 some full hats of velvet and satin. F Colored wood buttons are used on 2 tailor-made costumes and coats. 3 Milwaukee (U.S.A.) has just appointed ' its first female "policeman" in the per- - son of Miss Edna Fitch, a certificated 2 nurse, wiio, in addition to police duties, r will be specially charged with the city's , by laws in reference to the sanitation of s factories and nil places wherein female labor is employed. Miss Fitch came out f top of the list in a competitive examina-, > tion of trained nurses. { > The Minister of the Interior in the , Spanish Ministry has forbidden women ! to take any active part in bull-fightinw. The Minister, in forbidding a recent fight, explained that the practice of tauronachy > is not expressly forbidden by law, but it ' affords a spectacle so opposed to culture ' and the delicate feelings of a woman ■ that the authorities will not ia future i sanction any ring where women are al- ' lowed to ifight with bulls. A Fellowship of £3OO a year at Girton t College, Cambridge, has been conferred i on Mrs. S. Arthur Strong (nee Eugenie I Sellers), a former student of Girton"and s an honorary L.L.D. of St. Aidrew's. who i was recently assistant director of the ! British School at Rome.