WOMAN'S WORLD

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 299, 12 May 1911, Page 6

WOMAN'S WORLD

(Conducted Dy "Eileen''). THE HORRORS OF SLUM LIFE. The horrors of slum life in wealthy England are described by Mi-s Eva H. Jones, chief woman health inspector of Bradford. Writing in the ''Christian Common wealth," she says:—"Ouu life seems to swarm in the poorer quarters of our industrial cities, the anaemic, impoverished little faces of the children ] showing the result of their unhealthy | and unnatural life. Yet I have seen | numberless babies born, and as a rule v they are perfectly normal and wonderfully bright and healthy looking, so that thejrbegiii life usually equipped with the same advantage as their more fortunate little brothers and sisters, but gradually they become wan and lifeless, due doubtless to their unhealthy conditions of life. I The beautiful innocence of childhood is often unknown to them. Front earliest infancy they are surrounded with evils which many adults in happier circumstances are almost unaware of. Quite early in life language of the foulest description is heard on fevery side. There is lfo* regard for truth, anil their plastic minds quickly adapt themselves to the moral conditions surrounding them. From their first years cheating, lying, thieving, gambling and immorality in their grossest forms are ever around them. Physical deterioration is serious enough, but I often wonder whether the nation is sufficiently awake to the moral bliaht which is Wasting the minds of so (nany of our boys and girls, and which (threatens to seriously undermine our national welfare."

FEMALE PARASITES. Olive Schreiner has produced a bool called "Women and Labor." which wil give a fine lead to tho woman's move ment, and be the target for much criti •cisni.' It pleads that women should b< rescued from being a "parasite." "If tin parasite woman." she says "on hei couch loaded with gewgaws, the play tiling and amusement of man, be th( permanent and final manifestation of fe ■male human life on the globe, then tli.il couch is also the death-bed of humai evolution." She thinks that women hav< lost their place in the social order, bul they intend to regain it. "From tin judge's seat to the legislator's chair: from the statesman's closet to the mer chant's office: from the chemist's labora tory to the astronomer's tower there is no post or form of toil for which it is not our attention to attempt to fit our selves; there is no closed door we dt not intend to force open." Olive Schrein er gives several insances of what slu means by "parasites." One is the dausrh ter of an English officer on half-pay, whc had to exist on a few hundreds a year Shfe can neither cook nor make* hei clothes. 'She can hardly do her owr hair or dress her-elf. She has no intel lectual &r artistic interests. In a life ol twenty-eight years this woman has prob ably 'not contributed one hour's earnest toil, mental or phvVnl. to the increase of the s'irn total of productive human labor." Anotner case is that of the wif( of a leading barrister. Her husband i, absorbed in his work. Her children art at school. Her house is looked after by servants. If she tries to talk to lie't husband in the evenings about, her visit - her shopping, her bazaars, he i> bored .She has no duties, no real occupations 110 interests.—Public Opinion.

IIvKEXTS' AN*D CHILDREN'S FAULTS,

Parents ought to collaborate with ! teachers in helping to develop the best in their children, and consequently to eliminate the worst. Instead of this view of the matter we (says Ella Wheeler Wilcox) find parents taking a stand against the teacher who tries to talk of the faults of their children and discuss a remedy, and all the work which the teaclier has hoped to do in character building falls to the ground under the lifted hammer of the unwise and belligerent parent, who insists that "my child" must be without faults, and that the teaclier who sees faults is an enemy, not a friend. It is seldom, indeed, that a man or a woman occupying the position of ii teacher is prejudiced or lias personal or selfish motives for criticisine a child. I Japanese otrls' revenge. When a Japanese girl has been slighted bv her lover she revenges herself according to the following quaint custom. In the dawn of the early morning she rises, puts on a white robe and white clogs. Round her nock she hangs a small mirror which falls to her breast, and 011 her .head she puts a metal crown with three points, each point bearing a lighted candle. In her left hand she carries a *inall .figure of straw or rags—supposed j to represent her unfaithful lover—and this she nails to one of the sacred trees surrounding the familv shrine. She then prays for the death of the man, vowing that, if this comes to pass, she will pull out the nails which are hurting the sac- | red trees, and make offerings to comfort her family god. Every night she comes to the shrine, strikes in two more nails, and makes the same prayer, her idea beinsr that the god, to save his tree from further injury, will kill her lover, MARYS OF HISTORY,

The name of Mary lias played nil important part in historv. In Scotland the first Royal Mario was the daughter of Duke Arnold of Oiieldros, who married •(ames If ami afterwards became Queen Kegent. Then we have iMarie of Lorraine. who married .Tames V after refusing Henry V IIL Their daughter was the famous "Mary Queen of Scots, the most romantic and fa.->cinating figure in the whole history of the ohlen Marys. Then there was Mary Tudor. Henrietta Maria became the ill-fated wife of Charles 1. Man- of Modeiu was the second wife of •lames 11. .Mary, daughter of .lames II by his tii'-t. wife, by lii-r marriage with William of Orange invested their joint reign with a glory which is even now undiminished. .Since then we have had several princesses named Mary—one the daughter of (!eor»e IT. another of fleorge 111. while the mother of our lale Queen was Mary Louise Victoria. But the most

essentially English of all Marys in the I history of the country is our present j Queen. I •WOMAN'S LOT IX THE PHILIPPINES.' Life accustoms the Filipino woman to labor at a very early age. As a tiny girl she is rarely seen without an appendage in the shape of a baby brother or sister perched on her hip. When she grows a few inches taller and a few degrees stronger she is pressed into service as a water carrier, bearing heavy jars of water poised gracefully on her iu'iul from the river to her home. Now, too, she works in the short, kilted, scarlet skirt. When she becomes a woman—- ! and she is a'woman at fifteen or before—she may have a small shop to tend, and there Is the rice to beat and much work to do. •Marriage brings no vacation. She tends the fields, cooks, and frequently has a stall in the market for several hours a day. But when the women are really old their rest time comes. They sit quietly by, looking on as life goes past them, but taking part no more.