WOMAN'S WORLD

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 287, 28 April 1911, Page 6

WOMAN'S WORLD

(Conducted by "Eileen'')

OLIVE SCHREINER AND WOMEN. Olive Sclireiner has produced a book, "Women and Labor," which will give a flue lead to the woman's movement, and be the target for much criticism. The book is direct, satirical and eloquent. It pleads that woman should be rescued from being a "parasite." "If the parasite woman," she says, "on her couch loaded with geegaws, the play-1 thing and amusement of man, be the permanent and final manifestation of female human life on the globe, then that couch is also the death-bed of human evolution." She thinks that women have lost their place in the social order, but they intend; to regain it. "From the judge's seat to the legislator's chair; from the statesman's closet to the merchant's office; from the chemist's laboratory to the astronomer's tower, there is no post or form of toil for which it is not our intention to attempt to fit ourselves; there is no closed door we do not intend to force open." Olive Schreiner gives several instances of what she means by "parasites." One is the daughter of an English officer on half-pay! who had to exist on a few hundreds a year. She can neither cook nor make her clothes. She can hardly do her own hair or dress herself. She has ho intellectual or artistic interests. "In a life of twenty-eight years this woman has probably not contributed one hour's earnest toil, mental or physical, to the increase of the sum total of productive human labor." Another case is that of the wife of a leading barrister. Her husband is absorbed in his work. Her children are at scliool, Her house is looked after by servants. If she tries to talk to her husband in the evenings about her visits, her shopping, her bazaars, he is bored. She has no duties, no real occupations, no interests.

A pitiful mischance, recalling the catastrophe of Carlyle's first "French Revolution" M.S. is related by Olive Schreiner of this book.

For many years she wa.s occupied upon a work dealing with woman's life in all its aspects. From 1888 until 1890 she worked at this continuously. Then came the war. The Dutch in the Transvaal attacked U3( hoping at last to fulfil their dream of driving us into the sea. Among the hapless people who suffered most from President Kruger's mad folly was Olive Schreiner.

She was in Cape Colony when the war began' and could not get back to her home in Johannesburg. Xor could she get a message through to any friend who might have looked after her possessions. "Some eight months after, when the British troops had taken and entered Johannesburg, a friend who, being on the wrong side, had been allowed to go up, wrote me that he had visited my house and found it looted. . . . My desk had been forced open and broken up and its contents set on lire. . . . I thus knew that niv boidi had been destroy-. cd."

At first she hoped to write it again, as Carlyle re-wrote his great epic. But now she has given up that idea. This volume contains merely a re-captured fragment of it. That she gives out she -ays—one can well understand her feelings—with considerable pain.

USEFUL HINTS When an invalid has to take medicine that has an unpleasant taste, let her try holding a piece of ice in her mouth for a moment before it is time to give the medicine. There will be little sense of taste after that. Turpentine cleans tin or zinc and makes it nine and bright. It can also be used with great success to clean white bath enamel that has become, discolored. Dip a cloth in turpentine, and with this rub the stained parts, then polish with a soft cloth. Satin furniture coverings are best cleaned witli bread crumbs, the soft parts of fresh bread being employed for the purpose. Rub the bread between the hands until it is thoroughly crumbled; then rub it over the satin quickly, changing the crumbs as soon as they are discolored. Then dust off the remaining crumbs with a soft duster.

When sweeping a room take a piece of newspaper, wet it in hot water, and squeeze it until it ceases to drop; tear it into small pieces, and drop them all over the carpet; then sweep, and most of the dust of the room will be gathered into .the paper. On matting use large pieces of paper, pushing them ahead of the broom, to take up any fluff there may be 'before commencing the regular sweeping.

Hot dripping must never be poured into a vessel containing cold dripping, or it will turn musty in a very short time. Frying pans or kettles that have become discolored through heating over an open fire can he scoured with soap and wood ashes and made to look quite bright again. This mixture, is also good for cleaning zinc tubs or pails. When taking a bedstead to pieces do not knock with a hammer the obstinate sides. Simply drop a little oil round the end and the sides will slip out quite easily. This is a most useful hint, as so many bedsteads have been quite ruined by being knocked with a hammer.

IS IT A TRUE BILL? '■'Oirls swarm for any vacancy in shtps and offices, and even in mills. The pay is inadequate, the conditions surrounding the workers are usually abominable, the dangers to health and character are terrible, but still the "kitchen is deserted, and these and other places of employment are thronged. Why is it?" asks the Saturday Evening Post. "The answer lies in that one word, 'servant.' It is a social question, and nothing else. Society does not scorn a stenographer, or a clerk, or even a mill-hand. Society looks down upon a 'kitchen girl.' Society brands a 'domestic.' A girl is 'Miss' everywhere else, but once enter a kitchen and she is 'Mary' or 'Katy.' She. has entered a low caste, and once in it the .shame of it attaches to her all the rest of her life. This is false, miserably false and absurd, but it is the fact. Women are the chief sufferers from it, and they alone have created the condi-

tion. As they have created it, they alone can change it. Workers in kitchens do not want any privilege not accorded to other workers. They do not wish to be considered 'one of the family' any more than the office stenographer wishes to intrude into her employer's family life; but they don't wish to be placed in a class by themselves, apart from the rest of the world's workers."

HINTS. No old linen should ever be thrown away; it is one of the most valuable assets of the housekeeper. Long strips should be carefully washed and mangled and kept for use in case of illness. Old huckaback towels make excellent polishing rags for plate. For wiping delicate china, old linen has no equal. Old muslin curtains should be freed from starch and kept for tying up herbs and spices in soups and stews. If the meshes are not too large, the muslin can also render service by straining sauces and gravies. To Wash White Silk Embroidery—Do, not boil the teacloth, as boiling is sure to turn the silk a bad color, and above all do not use washing soda in the water in which it is washed. Make a nice lather with good soap powder or jelly, and wash the cloth carefully in this, Rinse in almost cold water, and dip finally in cold water to which a very little blue has been added. Hang in the air till nearly dry, then roll in a cloth and place on one side for a few minutes. Iron on the wrong side while still fairly damp. Before ironing, the embroidery should be laid face downwards on an ironing cloth or a square of clean flanI nel, and a piece of muslin laid over it to prevent the iron soiling it. If this treatment is carefully carried out the silk will keep a good color for soma time. ■

To Remove Match Scratches from Walls.—First of all rub the marks with the surface of a cut lemon, then with a clean cloth dipped in whiting. The wall should then' be washed with warm water and soap, and wiped quickly with a cloth wrung out of clean water. This treatment should remove all traces of the marks. How to Make Clear Starch.—Place the starch in a tin pan, and moisten with cold water, working it carefully with a spoon until it is a perfectly smooth paste. Next add to it boiling water, in the proportion of one pint of water to a tablespoonful of starch, stirring carefully all the time to prevent it becoming lumpy. Afterwards carefully place it over the fire, and stir till it becomes quite clear. ,