WOMAN'S WORLD

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 266, 31 March 1911, Page 6

WOMAN'S WORLD

(Conducted by "Eileen"). WHEN LADIES FIDGET. Mr. Montague Crackanthorpe tells a good story to show the power of observation of the late Sir Francis Galton. Writing to the Times, he says: "In the summer of 1908 he came to my house (which is only a few doors from his own) to attend a meeting at which, by his request, I read a paper he had written. When a vote of thanks to him had been carried, lie replied in a characteristically humorous little speech, exhibiting at once his power of observation and bis .statistical method: " 'I was not able to hear my paper read, but I was able to watch the bearing of the audience. My experience is that when ladies are not interested they indulge in fidgets, and the average of their fidgets is about two per minute. Now the average of the fidgets of the ladies present did not exceed two per five minutes. This proves to me that they have not been bored, and this is as much as I could hope for." KITCHEN CONSCRIPTS. Compulsory domestic service for girls) and women as (in equivalent to the uni-l versa! military service incumbent upon I men is a novel proposal put forward by | Franlein Pauline Worner, a leading German feminist, in the current number of I Die Deutsche Frau. Fraulein fForner points out that compulsory military training has contributed enormously both to the mental and physil development of German manhood, and declare that similar benefits would be inevitable if women subjects of the Kaiser were compelled to undergo the training for which Nature best fits them. I She explains that it could be enforced without burdening the national Budget, and that it is men who would benefit most from the system because the State would thus assure them competent and experienced housewives. Fraulein Worner thinks the marriage institution would also become more popular if men knew they could select wives who had done service with the "colors" in kitchen, laundry, nursery and sewing-room. "When it became necessary through the stress of war," concludes Fraulein Worner, "to introduce compulsory military service there were many protests against such a limitation of personal liberty,' but Germans have lived to appreciate the incomparable blessings of male conscription. Would it be otherwise in the case of girls and women ? "There might be less of the craze for higher education for women, but fewer girls of our lower classes would be compelled to enter industrial occupations." USEFUL HINTS. ht-tfp a uamp cupooaru or room dry Vra the simple plan of placing in it a jar of quicklime, which must be renewed at intervals, as it absorbs the damp Tery quickly. •Skimmed milk and water, with a bit of glue' in it, made scalding hot, is excellent to restore old, rusty black crape; if well squeezed and pulled dry, like muslin, it will look as well as new. When washing oilclotn, a tablespoonful of painter's size added to a pailful of water will give it a glossy surtaee and make it wear much better than when washc in the ordinary way. To mate Venetian blinds like new, first take them in pieces, wash them well, and dry thoroughly. Then rub well with a cloth dipped in linseed oil, and polish. They will look as fresh as when new. When the white and not the yoke of an egg is required for use, make a small hole in the shell and let the white run out, and stand the egg in an egg-cup, which should be set in a cool place. The yolk will keep its color and freshness for some days. When linen has been badly scorched, try the following method:—Boil to a good consistency in half a pint of vinegar 2oz. of Fuller's earth and the juice of two onions. Spread this mixture over the damaged part, and leave it to dry. If the threads are not actually burnt through the scorched place will appear after washing as white and perfect as the rest of the linen. Dish-cloths are often sadly neglected. They should be kept scrupulously clean, and in order that they may be so they should be washed out carefully with soap and well rinsed each time they have been used. After this has been done, they may be hung in the air to dry. Some people, however, like to have a stone jar containing a solution of soda by the sink, and to keep the dish-cloths in it when not in use. To mend a buttonhole in linen, the article must be washed to free it from stiffening, then with a fine needle and cotton neatly draw the broken ends together, and on the undf rside stitch a tiny strip ot narrow rape across to make it I stronger, taking care not to let the stitches show through. Remove the broken threads, and work the buttonhole round again. Make a strong bar at the weak end by taking the needle under and over three or four time, and buttonhole closely. HER IDEAL DWELLING. If the men who designed houses were condemned to do the housework in them our servant problem would soon be solved. There is perhaps nothing so out of date as the average 'kitchen offices. They belong to an age when Englishmen went in for heavy dinners and Englishwomen spent the greater part of their life in superintending the labor of cooking, jam and pickle making, baking, brewing and washing clothes. Nearly all these are still built in the same old way. The offices of our business houses are replete with every device for the saving of labor, but our domestic offices will never be brought to the same pitch of perfection until women bring their minds to bear upon domestic architecture. The difficulties are constructional and fundamental, and no ingenious fittings will cll'ectimlly alter a house that has been designed wrongly in the first instance. Men are apt to forget that passage and lobby is something extra .to clean. Kitchens, therefore, should be | compact and well fitted with convenient j cupboards. These should be made of the shape and size to accommodate those

things which it is intended should be put into them, including a long, narrow cupboard where the brooms may be hung. All cupboards should be shallow and wide rather than deep, and have doors opening or slitting back so that the whole cupboard is exposed to view and everything in it easily seen and reached. There should be no open shelves that require dusting daily nor should a dresser be included, for though picturesque when nicely kept it is quite unnecessary and is an extra piece of furniture to keep clean. There are many other points that a woman would revolutionise in the kitchen offices, but it is not only here that her influence would be felt. A woman architect looks upon the design of a house as a possible home, not as an architectural elevation that will bring credit as an artist. The first duty of a house is that it shall be comfortable and fit the people who have to live in it. It must not strive after effect or try to look quaint or as if it belonged to ail earlier period than the present, and if it fulfils these conditions it will not only justify its existence but, in all probability, will be beautiful as well. A n-oman, whether she be an architect er nit, always dreams of an ideal house that soire day will be her own. In this dream house she spends some of her happiest hours, entertaining, in imagination, her friends or singing as she goes about her pleasant domestic duties, pleasant because everything is so handy and convenient. For want of knowledge these dream houses are often unpractical in construction. 1 But when this natural capacity of woman is trained and she has acquired this knowledge her houses will have a, living' artistic reality—they will be houses with a soul. Tliere has been no great artistic achievement unless the artist has loved and lived in and for his work, and so women, with their natural love of home, I may be expected to excel in domestic architecture. Here sitting-rooms will oe ample, comfortable but not luxurious, there will be pleasant windows in which to sit and sew, with a view of the garden so that she may watch over her children at play. There will be a cosy fireside where she can sit through the long winter evenings in the happy companionship of her husband. Every bedroom will have a pleasant individuality of its own, with perhaps a deep recess with a window for the bed and washstand, so that curtains may be drawn together by day and each of the children enjoy a little'sanctum of his or her own. We might safely predict that the woman architect will improve upon the plan that has become almost universal for small houses with navow frontages where rows of houses are built with projecting sculleries. The defect could be so easily remedied by making the sittingroom of every alternate pair of houses project in front, while in the other pairs the sculleries could project. This would widen the spaces between the projections and let in air and sunlight, both so essential to health. The frontage and the area covered by each house would be the same; the only additional trouble would be the preparation of two sets of plans. Many people, while granting the ability of women as designers, doubt the possibility of their supervising building, climbing ladders, and criticising the work of the burly bricklayer. In these days of athletic womanhood, ladders and scaffolding present no difficulties, and the workmen employed on a building soon find out whether the architect, either man or woman, knows the technicalities of his trade, and respect him accordingly. The women architect has the same opportunities as the man of acquiring this knowledge. COURT ETIQUETTE. A commonplace tragedy, not a secret to her friends, lies behind the death of Lady Wolverhampton. On the occasion of the first state visit of the German Emperor to the court of his nephew a reception was held at Windsor Castle, whither among others were bidden all the King's Ministers and their wives. Sir Henry Fowler, as he then was, accompanied by his wife, obeyed the command. After dinner the King and Queen, the Emperor and Empress, together with the general company, foregathered in the drawing-room. Had the Royal personages seated themselves, feebler folk among the company might discreetly have foflowed their example. It happened that, owing to stillness of the knee, Queen Alexandra, having seated herself, and difficulty in rising. She accordingly, during the later years of her husband's reign, stood throughout receptions, however lengthy. Thus it happened at Windsor. As the Queen. remained walking or standing, no one else might sit. It is true that, owing to the considerable and ingenious tactics of a group of his colleagues in the Cabinet, Sir Henry Fowler furtively obtained an interval of rest in a chair in a distant corner, his colleagues concealing the breach of etiquette by standing before him. Lady' Fowler and the rest of the company remained on their feet for a period approiichiug in length the two hours during which Royalty remained. She was im°mediately afterwards seized with an illness which exiled her from social functions, ending in her death on Saturday. To ordinary folk it is incredible that these things should be. That the custom is not of recent origin is proved by the ease of Fanny Burney. In her diary is found repeated record of the physical anguish she suffered, being compelled to stand by the hour whilst in attendance upon her Royal mistress, the wife of George Ilf., her Majesty herself, corpulent and complacent, being meanwhile comfortably seated.