WOMAN'S WORLD

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 305, 19 May 1911, Page 6

WOMAN'S WORLD

(Conducted by "Eileen.'') THE CUIU, WHO LIVES ALOXE. (By Frances Mary Cnrzon.) Of the manv business girls in our hi;,' cities, (lie bachelor girl who, because of special study, attainments, and talents, manages to'earn a salary large enough to enable her to live her own life, so to; speak, is to be envied. The working: bachelor girl who can all'ord to run a small three-roomed flat has many advantages in life. She is naturally proud of her position. Not least of the things on which she congratulates herself is that blessed feeling of freedom and independence. Once her work is done, there is no one to order her acts or her hours. She has won her position, has escaped from a great part (if the dull routine of things.

There are many such scattered about London and the big provincial towns! l..day. And they flatter themselves that they are entirely freed from the conventions of existence. But it is not really so. That very sense of freedom, of being unfettered by the criticisms or opinions of others, should warn her, if she is tlioughtfnl. Granted she earns her own living entirely; but when you come to think of it, that does not greatly alter the relation in which she stands to the outside world. Having achieved her position doing useful work, there is a strong tendency for the bachelor girl to drop the conventions, to feel that they do not matter to her now. In the first flush of her freedom she feels that she can afford to ignore the conventions, that she is above them. Nothing could be more foolish. Those little conventions, stupid as they often seem, mean very much. They have gradually come into being after many years, and on the whole have proved themselves good for the protection of women, for whom, mainly, they were designed. They work in all manner of (at first sight) small wars. But they work for the happiness of girls and not against that happiness, and—here is the point—they work as surely for the bachelor girl, living alone, as for the hundreds of girls who live with their people. "For instance, it is not considered right for the girl who lives with her people to be very often in the company of a youn<r man without her people being aware of it. And. though it happens that the bachelor girl's people are not on the, scene, neither is it right for her to be continually in the society of a young' man unless there is a definite engage-, ment. I Being a bachelor girl does not entitle \ her to do anything for which she may afterwards b" sorry. | That is whv the delightful cup of tea; in the little flat with some proved friend of hers (even though he be the nicest man on earth) is not wise. All the old conventions "hind for her now, as sufclyi as they used to do in the davs when] she lived wit' liev "irents, before she| was a hi" (n adopt the 'bachelor' exist-' ence. She does not differ much, so far, as observing these little rules of life go, from the other working women whoi are still daily ni'".!>"-s ->f the family! circle. | ManV 1.«r1,e'...- „mK I.MVe ,-■••'- '" : S-' : <«'-,. s '-v 1, ,„iv them, nflei--rds,: cause for deep regret. Of course if, as. she will sometimes proudly assert, she] does not really care a rap for what other people think, well and good. But a girl has to be enormously strong in character, very sure of herself, to disdain the rules, and li'irdlv one girl in a thousand, however brilliant and clever she may be, is individual enough not to care, and to care a great deal, about the opinions of other people and the judgments of look-ers-on. As a matter of fact, just because she is a bachelor girl, she has to be far more careful to keep to the set rules far more stringently than the girls who live at home. Ami a little mistake, in defiance of convention, means far more to her than it means to them. There is no brother on the spot to be a bulwark for her, no stern, inquiring father to defend her interests. The setting at naught of convention, even in a small degree over some matter, mav he of the greatest moment to her and may even lead her into positive danger. And, just the same as with all girls who are busy earning their own living, the prettier she is the more careful she must be.