WOMAN'S WORLD

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 188, 15 January 1912, Page 6

WOMAN'S WORLD

(Conducted by "Eileen.") i MARRIAGE BY PROXY j CURIOUS HUSBANDS AND SINGULAR I WIVES.

In certain provinces of India it is considered unlucky for a woman to be a third wife. When, therefore, a merchant of Badson, in the United Provinces, who 'had previously buried two wives, proposed for the hand of a young girl, lie was persuaded by the latber's parents to first espouse a doll as his third wife, so that misfortune should not fa>ll upon their daughter's head. This he accordingly did, and, having interred his inanimate spouse with much pomp, became for the fourth time a husbanid by marrying the woman of hi* choice.

In parts of Southern Asia a younger daughter is not permitted to wed until her elder sister has procured for herself a husband. This difficulty, however, can be overcome by the senior uniting herself in marriage to some tree or plant. Generally, a/nd especially where European influence prevails, these bizarre unions do not entail much inconvenience upon the bride, who can, if she will, soon become a widow, and as such eligible for another and more normal union, by consigning her first husband to the fire. On the other hand, such miamriages are, iu regions more remote, where civilisation, as we know it, has not penetrated, considered serious affairs, and as such not to be lightly dissolved. Inlidelity has before now been punished with death, and in the mountainous districts around Delhi, wives who have been untrue to their selected husbands, such as oaks, fig or other trees, have been burned alive. At Nepaul, too, drastic punishment lias in more than one instance been meted out to the faithless bride, whose fate has been solitary and subterranean confinement in chains for several weeks.

The husband usually selected appears to be the honeysuckle, and such women as are tirue to the plant are held in the highest honor. Every spilng, when the fragrant honeysuckle first puts forth its petals, a great feast, accompanied by solemn religious ceremonial, is held. At this the wives of the flower take, high place, andi are treated with the most profound irespect, while their constantcy is held up as an example to be followed . by all the young women of the district. Flower-pot marriages not infrequently feake place in China. When a young woman loses her fiancee by death, she sometimes vows to be true to his memory, and 1 to ratify her oath goes through a form of marriage with a flower-pot. The ceremony over, she takes up her residence with her dead lover's parents, who aire by custom obliged to provide for her needs. Some while since a marriage j of this kind took place at Satshau, when j a Chinese lady of the upper class, on the death, on the eve of their marriage, of f her husband, the son of the Vice-Chan-cellor of the Imperial Academy, at Pekin, espoused a red vase.

An equally singular, and very gruesome matrimonial custom also prevails in China, in the marriage of the dead. A year or so back a missionary was summoned to read the burial service over a dead man. He might, had he cared, have also assisted at a wedding, for no sooner had he retired than a bride for the deceased', in the corpse of a young girl, was brought upon the scene, and solemnly united to the dead body, with which it was afterwards interred. Such marriages, arranged that the departed spirit may not wander about companionlesa in the world of shades, are, it is said, not uncommon in Shansi, where the above strange rites took place.

An equally uncanny nuptial ceremony ' is celebrated seven years back at i-.ochi, Japan. A young couple were Ciigaged, and the day appointed for the wedding was at hand, when the girl, for what reason is not stated, committed suicide by drowning. The intended husband was inconsolable at his loss, and, on the fiancee's body being recovered, was readily persuaded by the deceased's parents to fulfil the vows that he had sworn. Friends and relations were summoned, and, in their presence, living bridegroom was united to dead wife. Strange was the marital substitute accepted not long back at the marriage of a European Government official and a native woman at Samarang. The bridegroom was himself unable to be present at the ceremony, which was performed according to local rites, so he sent his hat, to which, as is permitted by native law, the bride was duly united. THE CUT-GLASS PASSION The passion for things of cut-glass finds repetition in the button department (writes a London correspondent). Whether for use or only for ornament, the rather massive glass button sparkles and glistens; there is 110 ban on a color blend either, for a button of black and one of white alternate on the same dress and tailor-made. Brandebourgs of satin are clever pretenders in forming supposed buttonholes to correspond with the buttons. New scope is here offered for the worker who is on the look-out for novel effects in black and white. In addition to glass, we can buy heaps of pretty buttons made of metal or enamel or painted wood or covered with embroidery. Long rows of them are used by tailors on coat and skirt alike, while the sleeves are not regarded as complete without a procession of similar buttons at the back of the cuff's; revers, too, provide a useful background for the line of buttons. Presently, if our dresses are made to fasten in front, the presence of the attractive button will be doubly appreciated; coming styles offer the opportunity for a return to the more convenient front fastener. ROMEO CAUGHT IN THE CHIMNEY!

We are not reading the "Canterbury Talcs." says the Paris correspondent of the London Telegraph in narrating the following incident:—The story comes straight from Morlaix, a very modern, place in Brittany. Our Borneo, like Chaucer's hero, was caught in the chimney. He was going to his sweetheart, instead of running away from her. The pretty Juliette was a distance of some seven miles from his home. The enamorder Romeo tramped it on foot all that distance. At night he reached the house and called, 'hut got 110 answer. As the door was shut he decided to try the roof. On the roof he found the chimney, and it seemecl to him that it was quite wide enough to let him down. He descended for some distance, but then, as he came near the fireplace, the chimney narrowed. lie slipped and got in a narrow neck. Here he was caught, unable to move up or down. Before long lie felt a suffocating sensation. If the thing lasted much longer it would be the end of him. He could stand it 710 more. After groaning he yelled, and he bellowed so well that not only was his sweetheart disturbed from her slumbers, but the whole village was excited. The nearest chimney sweep was called, but he could not help him out. The gendarmes woke up the Mayor, and he, with all the notables of the place, went to look. They consulted among them, and the only way to liberate the captive lover was to pull down part of the chimney. This was done by some masons, and he was presently released, but be

fore being allowed his freedom a police report was drawn up, with a view to inflicting a series of fines for breaking into a private enclosure, damaging other people's property, waking up the authorities unnecessarily, and causing a public scandal. Poor Romeo was very sad when it was all over.

AMERICAN EXTRAVAGANCE It has been asserted by some studious investigators that the average expenditure upon dress of women living in the principal cities of the United States is much larger than that of any other women in the world. The statement applies not merely to leaders of fashion, but to wonjen in all walks of life. The latest evidence in support of this theory has been offered by a lady who has spent some time in New York as the representative of a very large Parisian firm. She declares that the average stenographer in New York dresses in clothes that are quite as costly as are those of any well-to-do lady of the "middle classes" in England. Domestic servants, she says, are "gowned" just as well as the average mistress is, and the wives of laboring men are indistinguishable by their dress from the wives of men who are earning large salaries. This state of things is not necessarily discreditable to the wives of the lower-paid workers, since it may be simply an evidence of their thrift, but the investigators do not take this view. They say that America has "reached an era of unexampled extravagance," which is influencing people in various positions. They are prepared to admit that personal expenditure has been curtailed in some respects since the disastrous financial panic of 1907, and that the practice of mortgaging the home for the means to purchase a motor car has become less common, but they assert that Americans still are extravagant. The Parisian expert lias stated that every fashionable woman who attends the New York Horse Show, which is the principal social event of the year in the city, spends £3*2o on clothing fo/ that occasion. Her hat costs £3O, gown £l<M), cloak £IOO, lace stockings £3, underclothing £'2s and gloves £2. In addition she probably follows the fashion, and has a "beauty spot" painted on her face at a cost of 10s. If there are many American women who dress on such expensive lines the charge of extravagance certainly is justified.