WOMAN'S WORLD

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 310, 25 May 1911, Page 6

WOMAN'S WORLD

(Conducted by "Eileen.") CLAIM FOR £ IOuO DAMAGES. FOR ALLEGED LIBEL. Melbourne, May 15. The action brought by Mrs. Johanna Foster, of Chapel Street, St. Kilda, against the proprietors of the Age newspaper, was concluded in the county court to-day. Plaintiff claimed £IOOO damages. The article alleged to be libellous appeared in the Age newspaper of Friday, January 20, 1911, and plaintiff held that it was maliciously written of her concerning her business of boardinghouse-kceper and nurse. Counsel put in a copy of the Age of the date in question, containing the article complained of, which was headed: "Woman Tortured by Neglect." "Aged Pensioner's Misery," "Shocking Discovery at St. Kilda," and in which it was stated that an old woman, Ellen Tracev, was being immured in a locked and damp wash-house in the back-yard of the premises of plaintiff, who drew the old lady's pension in return for looking after her.

The defence was justification. In answer to interrogatories, plaintiff had admitted that the wash-house was the old lady's bed-room and sitting-room for three months, and that she had been drawing Mrs. Traccv's old-age pension for many years in return for looking after her.

His Honor (Judge Box), in the course of his summing-up, which was adverse to the plaintiff, said they were living in 1911' and in what was supposed to be a civilised country, yet here was a poor miserable old woman, of whom plaintiff had taken charge for 20s a fortnight, left lying in a pitiable condition in a wash-house. How would any of them personally feel if they could come back some day from those realms to which' one was said to go and find a relative helpless in a wash-house, decrepit and paralysed, and lying on some dirty old rags on rough uneven boards, and in her own excretions? Could anything be more wretched than this woman's plight? The jury must ask themselves, "Had not the newspaper taken it upon itself to expose what, from its point of view, was a shocking state of things?" The jury, without leaving the box, unanimously returned a verdict for the' defendants. I The foreman remarked that the case should be brought under the notice of, the authorities, with a view of further 1 proceedings being taken. Judgment was entered for defendants with costs.

WHY SPAIN IS NOT A REPUBLIC. QUE EX VICTORIA'S INFLUENCE. In the American Review of Reviews, Mr. Tnvin Lcsne Gordon writes on the kingship in Spain. He says that when the Portuguese monarchy was overthrown an'l a Republic established in Lisbon, there was a general expectation that the Republican flag would soon wave over the Royal Palace in Madrid. Nevertheless, "the young King still sits on the throne of his fathers, with a tighter grip than he ever held before on| the country. Personality has saved the, moiiavchiiil Spain." After the attempt! on the life of Alfonso and his Queen the | people began to worship him. But j gradually he was sinking into popular favor. Then, says the writer:— Queen Victoria, un-Spanish, unsuited by national temperament to reign over a southern people, but with the keen intuition of an English woman, foresaw j the imminent danger unless a radically different method of procedure was adopted. With the indomitable spirit which has always characterised her ancestry, she took matters into her own hands. Many and long were the conferences with her husband, and while the world does not know what took place at La Granja and Santander, the world does know tlint Alfonso XIII soon became a different man. He travelled and became imbued with the spirit of advancing Europe; he applied himself to the departmental details, familiarising himself with faulty conditions in governmental affairs, which were, in many cases, speedily remedied. The Premier and his Cabinet officials soon realised that the previously weak and vacillating youth really had ideals, and that t.lieir measures were not as easily carried through as formerly. Alfonso studied his people. He visited all the provinces of his kingdom. Above all, he abandoned tne puerilities which were, not only scandalising Madrid, but all Europe as well. Alfonso became a real king. Victoria was victorious, and Spain to-day can thank that noble woman for the path which has been hewn for the advancement of her government and the betterment of conditions throughout the country. I ' I A REMARKABLE WOMAN RULER. The Coronation visit to England of that remarkable Indian chief, her Highness the Begum of Bhopal, is said to be I directly due to the encouragement of ! King George, who was greatly interested in hpr during his Indian tour as Prince of Wales.

When the Begum was presented to his Majesty at the Indore Durbar, lie conferred on her the insignia of the Grand Commander of the Indian Empire, and she was the first woman in India to receive that honor. On that occasion the Begum appeared before King George wit!) her face entirely hidden behind a burka of a light blue material, while her head was crowned in gold and her small costume draped in a deeper shade of blue— i a costume winch she is expected to wear at the Coronation cercinonv, \

This interesting woman is, in a number »f ways, unique anions; her sex. Bhopal is tlie only state in the world where the ruler must always be a woman. In former days the husbands of the Begums occupied a curiously unimportant position in the State, and were freely changed as the faney of the ruler or tup supposed necessities of her polities happened to require. The present Begum is the only living woman ruler who has been inaction with her own troops. During a pilgrimage to 'Mecca she and her bodyguard were attacked by Arabs, whom she repulsed after a bloody encounter.

Her State of Bliopal is famed tnroughout India for its loyalty. At the height of the Mutiny the Begum of that time had to face her rebel army, which gathered outside her palace and clamored to be led against the British. The Begum acquiesced, but at nightfall she contrived to disarm the whole of the rebels, to the number of 3000 men. And long before this, as far back as 1778, Bliopal was the only power in all India which showed itself to be friendly to Oerat Britain. The Begum's presence at the Coronation will, therefore, be appropriate in the extreme.

MRS. ASQUITH. It is not given to many of our women to be as sure of success and to attain it as surely as the wife of the Prima Minister has done. In the days of her young ladyhood Mrs. Asquith, says the World's Work, was one of the most romantic figures in England, if not in Europe. By the sheer force of personality, without the support of a great famliy name, she made herself a figure, was almost the embodiment of an ideal in that really powerful circle which still rules the British Empire. Stately Victorian dowagers', no doubt, disapproved of the wild pranksmany of them imaginary—laid at the door of Miss Margot, Tennant; but hundreds of friends worshipped her, ana no doubt, hundreds more, as strangers, followed her as a shining example of cleverness and audacious brilliancy. She was made the heroine of popular novels, more or less thinly disguised, ana was undoubtedly the foundress and guiding light of a witty, worldly, yet serious, circle known as "The Souls." Through these several yenrs of triumph Miss Tennant romped in great good spirits, always to the front wherever matters of interest were happening, and seemingly determined to play a prominent part in the social history of her country. It is probably apocryphal that as a young man Lord Rose be ry ever said that he I was going to marry the greatest heiress in England, win the Derby, and be Prime Minister. It is, perhaps, equally untrue that Miss Tennant ever made the vow attributed to her that she was going to be the wife of a Prime Minister of England. If she did it shows a great deal of perspicuity to have picked a Prime Minister 14 years before his accession to the post.

THE RESTFUL WOMAN. Everyone knows what a pleasure it is I to meet the perfectly serene woman, i who carries with her wherever she goes 1 a restful atmosphere for her friends. It may lie interesting to try to discover how this charm beyond charms is cultivated. Such a woman Ims n fine sense of the true proportion of things. Hence she does not exhaust herself on tritles. Tile temporary loss of her thimble does not deprive her, instantaneously and completely, of her serenity of mind. She is mistress of herself. Not that she is lacking in intensity of feeling, but her common sense leads her to withhold the expression of such feeling until the suitable occasion arrives. There is no need to kindle a mighty furnace to boil a cup of water; a gas jet will suffice. She never wastes her time and strength in useless regrets. However disastrous and unfortunate the occurrence may be, sinee it cannot be undone she expels it from her thoughts altogether. Some people expend a vast amount of breath in deploring past events, which no amount of talking can undo. It means a sad loss of vital force. The sensible woman reserves her vital force for present or future exigencies. Again she does not expect impossi- | bilities of herself, or anyone else. She I is content to look "one step onward and I secure that step." She knows perfecI tion is not, to say the least, as common l as blackberries in this world; in fact, as a certain witty, titled man, now deceased, used to say, the only perfect thing I he knew was a perfect fool. ? But perhaps it is as regards the use of her tongue that this woman shows her sense most conspicuously. She will not always say all she knows, but she ahvavs knows all she says.

HOUSEHOLD lIIXTS. In cookery a wooden spoon should always lie used, except for measuring. For Flatulency there is 110 better remedy than a teaspoonful of glycerine after each meal. A small quantity of sage placed in the pantry will drive away ants; and mice like oil of aniseed, which, if placed in the traps, induces them to enter, and many can be destroyed in this way. Don't think it is a waste of time to rest a little while, now and then. Lie flat oil the bod, or even on the floor; stretch out at full length, let go of everything, and shut the eyes and rest. Most of us keep keyed up too tight; it wears us out mora than the work we do. How to Use Fine Coal.—There often is a good deal of fine coal in the coalscuttle, and if thrown on the fire it will deaden it, or fall right through the grate. Take a double sheet of old newspaper. lay it oil the floor and put a coal shovelful of the line coal into the middle or on one side. Then wrap the paper pretty tight around the coal, forming an oblong shape (so none will fall out when lifted from the floor, and lay it on a bright fire. Do not try to start a fire with this coal, because then the paper will burn off and let the coal fall through the grate. A bright fire bakes the fine coal into one mass. Fishy flavor gives to butter a peculiar oily taste suggestive of mackerel or salmon. though butter is frequently described as fishv which is merely oily or otherwise off flavor. The typical flavor of fishy butter, h owever, is never mistaken for any other. If you wear wash goods, or if you have a family of growing girls, you may like this way of hemming dresses. Turn up about four inches of the goods and baste around the bottom to keep in place. Stitch a straight facing to the edge of the turned-up part, and in this facing run by hand a tuck as large as you wish. A two-inch tuck allows plenty for shrinkage; now stitch down the upper edge of the facing. It is so much easier to let down the dress by taking out the tuck than by ripping out the stitching.