WOMAN'S WORLD

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 149, 20 December 1911, Page 6

WOMAN'S WORLD

(Conducted by "Eileen.") NOTES FROM LONDON. WOMAN'S UXIQCE POSITION. London, October 27. Miss Cornelia Sage, of Buffalo, U.S.A., is said to be only woman in tho world having entire charge of an academy of fine arts. She was elected a director of the Buffalo Fine Arts Academy last spring in guccuss'ion to the late Dr. Charles Kiintz, whose assistant she had been for several years. Miss Sage has just returned to America after a European tour that she undertook in search of objects of art for her academy. LITTLE WHITE SLAVES. "Little White Slaves" is the title of a book the publication of which has caused so grave a scandal in Berlin that tho police authorities are being compelled by an indignant public to thoroughly investigate the truth of the statement made in the volume that hundreds of sales of German children take place every year. The author is Sister Henrietto Trendt, a former female police assistant, and she founds her horrifying assertion on her professional experiences and on the exposure of traps she has set for adoption homes, private maternity hospitals, and employment agents, who, she alleges, for stipulated fees, undertake to get rid of large numbers of unwanted babies. A reply sent in answer to a ''catch" letter to one adoption home stated that it was able'to send from Germany to France, Belgium, Holland or Switzerland three thousand "discreet" children monthly. This statement, according to tho writer of the book, is certainly exaggerated for the sake of advertisement, but in any case it is an admission that the concern in question is prepared to negotiate for the procuring of children. Instance after instance of this trading is cited in the book, and is now being investigated by the Berlin police. One female "employment agent" in Berlin told the authoress (in the presence of witnesses) that she sent children abroad at prices ranging from £ls to £SOO, a particularly large number going to Russia. Neither the police, nor the municipal guardians, nor the children rescue societies ever created any trouble. A CURIE MEMORIAL.

A radium institute is now being erected in the Latin Quarter in Paris as a memorial to the discoverers of radium, Madame and the late M. Curie. It is estimated that the cost will be a little short of £30,000. The Pasteur Institute, which has now reached a condition of opulence, thanks to numerous legacies, is to .subscribe the greater part, Whilst the rest is to be provided by the University of Paris. Mme. Curio has requested that a special lecture hall should be added to the institution, in order that she may give lectures within the same building as the magnificent radium laboratory that is being built. " IF ." Mr. Pethiclc Lawrence, the distinguished upholder of women's right to vote, says this week:—"lf women only had votes, well-paid employments now closed to women in the Civil Service and elsewhere would be thrown open to them; more women would be appointed as factory inspectors; equal pay for equal work would be the rule in Government offices (a reform which women secured in Australia immediately they won the vote); regulations would bo passed stopping the sweating of women by Government contractors; all these would affect the demand for women's labor and would raise wages." A GIRL LIOX-TAMEK.

Mr. Bostock, of Bostock's Menagerie, advertised for a British lad}' lion-tamer some weeks ago, and there were no less than 82 candidates for t/he post. All were put through two preliminary tests, the first being to push pieces of raw beef through the bars of the cages with their hands, and the second to go behind the cages into the narrow passages, technically known as the "runaway," and so come to closer quarters with the beasts. But of all the applicants only one—and that a girl of 11), .Miss Gwendolyn Murray—stood both tests. She entered the lion's den, and was perfectly cool and unafraid for the ten minutes she spent there. She joins the company at the opening of the winter season in Birmingham next week, and will receive for her services £7 a week during her proba-1 tionary period, and afterwards, if proficient, as much as £3O a week. I CRIMEAN* WOMAN' VETERAN'. I The death occurred last week of Mo-1 ther Anastasia, one of the little band of English ladies who volunteered for service with Miss Florence Nightingale, and with her helped nurse the wounded soldiers at Scutari. She returned to England two years after the Battle of Inkermann, and was one of the Sisters who, with the assistance of Cardinal Wiseman, founded the Hospital of St. John and St. Elizabeth. Tn 1887, at the time of her jubilee, Queen Victoria recognised Mother Anastasia's work by bestowing upon her the Order of the Royal Red Cross. A ROYAL STORY. An amusing story is told by Princess Victoria of SchlesvVig-Holstein, who devotes nearly all her time and money to slumming. Once, when visiting a poor home, she found a pale-faced young mother vainly endeavoring to soothe her ( crying baby to sleep. The Princess suggested milk. "No," said the mother, " "'e's had enough. There's only one thing that will do it—and I can't do it, 'cause I've got a sore throat. If you make a noise like a milk bottle he'll be oil in a jiffy." A TAX ON' BACHELORS. From- the Times' correspondent in Berlin comes the news that one of the smallest of the (icrman Principalities is undelrakiug a verv big experiment in financial legislation. The Diet of the elder of Hie two Principalities of Rcuss carried a resolution in favor of increasing the State income tax by 5 per cent, "f the tax on incomes be! ween .£l5O and OH!, and by 111 per cent, of Untax on incomes exceeding i:;im a year. >" tlie ca-e of unmarried persons of ' illicr sex who have readied their ;ifl|r vear.

A srFKIiAGisT'S INCOME TAX. Ye-terday several pieces of household silver were -obj ] M - ,i,ic(ioi). I !,e owner. ■Mr>. -L A. Hall, of Liverpool, refusing to pay income lax on Hi,, ground Mint she was a, married woman. and Unit Hie clnh.'i we-- illegal. An unsuccessful t ,jr m .|, vk's made io distrain, ami as the hnsI'and refused to pay i 1,,. amount for l,cr di-lraint was made upon him. Hie bailiff Inking away Hie silver. As a mark of sympathy with (lie suffrage movement the auctioneer refused to lake eommis-

"Why is it," she continued, "that one sees so few fair-haired old maida? They are almost always dark, possessing, more often than not, strong vigorous minds with little sentiment about them.

"Personally, I think the fair girl is shallower than the brunette, more inclined to be fickle and irresponsible. Her affection is often on the surface; she is incapable of thinking deeply."

With a view to discovering the exact facts on this question, tho opinion of a London registrar who marries dozens of people every day, was sought. He confessed that he knew of no actual figures on the point, but said he was quite sure that the fair girl has a better matrimonial chance than the dark girl.

"The number of fair-haired brides is remarkable," lie said. The Rev. W. J. Gomersall, who founded the Social Circle for Lonely Londoners, but is no longer connected! with that society, gave an interesting reason why the fair girl is so favored.

"•Fair girls are generally very impressionable ami very sweet and trusting, and these qualities make an immediate and strong appeal to most men, while the dark girl, who often possesses more lasting affections and is stronger willed, is not 30 attractive on the surface and takes longer to know."