WOMAN'S WORLD

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 105, 11 January 1912, Page 6

WOMAN'S WORLD

(Conducted by "Eileen.") f

THE CHINESE WOMAN ) The legal position of the Chinese woman is deplorable, and is one of the ( reasons why the movement for her ; greater' freedom is making such rapid j growth. She is subject to the "three ,j obediences"—to her father in her child- , hood, to her husband after marriage, and , to her son in her widowhood, and this , position naturally cripples her powers, > and has a disastrous effect upon her character. "When a Chinaman has only , daughters he says he has no children; . in fact, a girl ought to consider herself lucky to be alive at all, for in many parts of the country it is the custom to drown female babies. Her parents digpose of her in marriage as they please— , it is the only career open to her—and she then 'becomes the property of her husband. A woman of the upper and middle classes never earns her own living, so she is not brought face to face with the economic conditions which are the main cause of the present struggle of Western women for freedom and the vote. Though the women of the better j olasses rarely meet'men outside their ' own immediate circle, they still exercise a great influence, and in one of the Chinese encyclopedias 376 books out of 1628 are devoted to famous women, and 11 chapters deal with their knowledge and literary works. -When we consider how restricted are their lives, and how few opportunities thay have for enlarging their minds, we can but admire the use they have made of their opportunities. The women, of the lower classes work hard.' They spin, make clothes, shoes, and most articles for home needs. They serve on almost every department of industry, and are to.be met with on their way "to the factories, thg markets, or the fields, with their babies strapped on to their backs. In Canton the women work on the boats, on the streets, and in other ways which they seldom do in North China. One of the most noticeable sights in the ports is the crowd of strong and active women coolies, only distinguished from their menfolk by ■ their headdress. They swarm about the streets, and do every kind of work. In the interior they are. to be met with in every department of agriculture and industry. No work is too rough or too heavy for them t® undertake, and it is difficult to realise that they are supposed to represent "the j weaker sex." THE "MODERN" WOMAN IN NOVELS A WOMANLY PROTEST. Writing in the Woman Teacher, Miss E. G. Owens protests against the ignorance of most novelists as to the characteristics of the "modern" woman. This, she says, is what one usually finds: As a rule, mere -animalism wearing a, petticoat and carrying the borrowed flag, of freedom; animalism unashamed and strident, shrieking defiance at everything in the land of God or man which says, "Thou shalt not." Are we to believe,' then, asks the writer, that the much-needed, and much boasted, emancipation of woman is to find its widest and most complete expression in the very sphere in which women hold the sex to have been most wronged, despised and degraded! Is the first fruit of our age-long struggle towards liberty to be the claim that we have a right to be, if we like, animals first and women afterwards? That is what some modern novelists, both men and women, would have us accept as the truth if we would accept it, disappointing, disillusioning as such truth would be. But does the average ntelligent woman go about thinking the Id, unholy thoughts so frequently attributed in print to her? Does she, as a type, feel passionately aggrieved because she may not have children of whom another woman's husband would be the father? Does she feel a fervid desire to put herself wrong in the world's unprying eyes in order to satisfy some semineurotic ideal, woven of moonlights and madness? And supposing she is not afflicted with these "modern tendencies," is she on that account to be labelled cold-blooded, or that other adjective ( which a certain novelist is so fond of using when he wishes to describe some-, thing between an amoeba and a codfisji? Now, while we women are completely grateful to those novelists who are endeavoring to educate the public to perceive certain very obvious wrongs . done to our sex by public dpinion in the past—wrongs by no means yet elimin--3 ated—we feel something very much like . contempt for either the man or woman writer who, in order to create a sensation and a "sales-pulling" book, deliberately sits down to paint the modern woman as she is not, aild women never will , be—jf education has half the power and value claimed for it. The modern woman, as a type—there are, as every naturalist knows, always astonishing exceptions to a type—has yet to see her faithful portrait in print. SWEDISH ROYALTY. The members of/the Swedish Royal Family are staunch teetotallers, and, like both his father and grandfather before him, the Crown Prince holds strong views on the subject. The example of the Court is, naturally enough, followed by the lung's subjects, and Sweden consequently is a very temperate country. As a good wife, the Crown Princess follows her husband's lead, and is always ready to show practical sympathy with the temperance movement. Since her marriage she has not forgotten Ireland, and is a warm supporter of Irish industries. The Crown Princess, who is four years older than her sister, Princess Patricia, is just a year her husband's senior. As a girl "Princess Daisy," as she is called in Sweden, was full of life and spirits, and even nowadays she is said to be the "tomboy" of the Royal Family. A good story is told about her When she was a bride, and had just arrived at the somewhat old-fashioned and formal Swedish Court, people misunderstood her girlish naturalness. One day she ran across the lawn to speak to her husband, for doing | which she was gently reproved by one of the elderly ladies-in-waiting. "Princesses in Sweden don't run, your Royal Highness," said the lady, primly. "Don't they?" laughed the young Princess. "In , England they stand on their heads if they think they will." The Crown ; Princess is an expert needlewoman, and j fashions and makes most of her own clothing. A WOMAN LIGHTHOUSE KEEPER Mrs. Daniel Williams for 41 years has kept the lighthouse at Little Traverse Bay on Lake Michigan, U.S. She is a quiet, mild-faced woman, with her own pride for the lighthouse. Her family have al! been seafaring—at least, lakefaring—folk, and she says herself that she never feels lonely when she can see ships and water and hear the plaintive cry of the gulls. In the long ago a ship was wrecked on Beaver Island, and her husband was drowned in trying to rescue the crew. For three days the storm raged, but the newly-made widow, though weak by reason of her sorrow, remembered the light. When the United States Government heard of her predicament they appointed her permanent lighthouse-keeper. That was in 1870, and from that day to this she has kept the lights, first on Beaver Island, and now at Harbor Poiat.