WOMAN'S WORLD

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 109, 16 January 1912, Page 6

WOMAN'S WORLD

(Conducted by "Eileen.") [ LEVITY ABOUT MARRIAGE. „ . The Rev. A. R. Edgar, a prominent member of the Wesleyan Church in Australia, said recently:—"There is, no doubt in my mind that there is too much levity in connection with the very serious question of marriage. I could relate dozens, perhaps hundreds, of instances where men have been too intoxicated to come to the church to be married, and in every case when asked I absolutely refused to perform the marriage ceremony. Not very long ago there assembled in the Wesley Church, Melbourne, a couple to be married. They were surrounded by a number of friends. When I arrived in the church to officiate I found them quarrelling, and the bride- j groom was pronouncing the words, 'lf you force me to marry you I will leave you at the gate.' Naturally, I was very much perturbed' over the affair, and after making enquiries I told the parties that as they had not apparently considered the seriousness of the marriage tie I would not, in the face of those circumstances, unite them. This is one of many similar cases which come i under my notice and jurisdiction, and I j am determined to take the stand I have always taken, namely, not to officiate at any marriage ceremony unless the parties have fully realised the sanctity of the occasion. It seems to me that a great number of young people are inclined, without serious consideration, to be married. They do not realise the responsibilities of wedded life. There is ! in the first place the industrial side of the matter. A man should be able to keep a wife comfortably, and instead of in his single days spending his money in gambling, drinking and other vices, he should save so that he may start well in life with his partner. Instead of that we find the racecourses crowded with young men anxious to beat the bookmakers, which they never will, the hotels, full-of drinkers, and when the time arrives for them to take unto themselves a wife they are very often in want of money. The seriousness of the thing does not seem to enter the minds of many of our young people. Of course, I am not ; condemning Australians generally in this respect, because the majority of our people give religion its proper thought, consideration and practice. But there is among a class rather too much levity concerning the marriage tie." , HOMES FOR WOMEN WORKERS.

. In most of the big capitals of the world the woman wage-earner who gains her living outside of the home has come to be an outstanding subject of interest (states a writer in the Melbourne Argus). In great centres sucli as New ]York, London and Berlin there are crowds of whom even the tiniest home is out of the question, and day by day Australia is being brought nearer to the I problem of housing. In Germany there : are in certain districts homes that have been built for what is described as the working class, although it is pretty obvious to-day that the man who earns £SOOO a year belongs to the "working" class in the same way as he who is paid 30s per week. ' However, in Germany wonien of culture have gone to reside in these homes because of the increased cost of living in flats or apartments. The ideal of the organisers of the residence plan is that every woman who supports herself by her industry ought to have an opportunity of living in a comfortable and suitable dwelling. A large number of property-owners in (Berlin are interested in the scheme, and have put this interest into practical shape. . Already blocks of flats consisting of one or two "ooms have been built for the accommodation of women who live on modest in<omes. In most cases there is a common kitchen, with dozens of gas stoves and gas rings, a plentiful supply of hot water, and a general laundry. The idea is being worked out also in New York, Chicago and other American industrial cities, where wage-earning girls find it impossible to live in boarding-houses on their weekly receipts. The great point advocated in favor of the residence plan is that it encourages a love fer home, and gives a girl a chance of getting air, light and quiet, three essentials frequently found wanting in the cheaper class of boarding-house. A WOMAN IN MODERN CHINA. EASTERN BRIDES WITH WESTERN NOTIONS. The discipline and organisation with which the Chinese rebels have taken the field against the Manchus have brought.home very clearly to the Western nations that China is waking up, and that, in spite of the national indolence, a change nearly as startling as that which has transformed Japan within a quarter of a century is taking place.

The conflict between Oriental and Western culture in China is the subject of a book by Dr. E. A. Ross, "The Changing Chinese," which is particularly interesting at the present time. A country may be judged by the conditions of its women, it has been written. The following glimpses show the Chinese women in an uncomfortable stage of evolution.

"The little daughter of a farmer was betrothed to a son of a chair coolie. She showed talent, studied, rose in the schools, was helped through college, took a medical course, and became a successful physician. Nevertheless, when the time came she was obliged by inexorable custom to bow to the arrangement made for her in infancy, and ruin her life by marrying a dolt,'too worthless to hold even a chair-bearerSs job. "Some years ago nine Cantonese maidens drowned themselves together one night in the Pearl river rather than accept the lot of the wife. In three districts in central Kuangtung, where a girls can always get work at silk winding, thousands of girls have formed themselves into anti-matrimonial associations, the members of which refuse to live with the husband more than the customary three davs.

'•Then they take advantage of their legal right to visit mother and never return save on certain davs or after a term of years. If the parents attempt to restore the runaway bride to her husband she drowns herself or takes opium; so parents and magistrates have had to let the girls have their way! By presenting herself in her husband's home on certain 'festival days the bride keeps her wifely status." The following, however, appears to have been a wife of the old'school:— "A Hakka. tells me that among his people the etiquette in the country districts forbids husband and wife to be seen talking together. Thus a youn« man and his wife meet in an empty lane, and, supposing themselves unobserved, he asks her for the key of the garden gate.

She throws it on the ground without looking at him and, once indoors, rates him roundly for speaking to her in pubhce. 'Suppose,' she says, -someone had seen us.'"

On the other hand, there is something to be said for the Oriental idea of the family, which might well he fused with \\ estern practices. '•Xothing is more creditable to the domestic organisation of the Chinese than the attractive old people it produces. '

"The old women, it is true, are not so frequently a success as the old men. | The years of pain from their bound feet j and the crosses they had to bear as women, too often sour the temper, and kindly-faced grannies seem by no means so common with us.

The natural result of steadily giving one sex the worst of it is a distressing crop of village shrews. On the other hand, I have never seen old faces more dignified, serene and benevolent than I have met with among elderly Chinese farmer*. Often it seems as if the soul behind the countenance, purged of every selfish thought, had come to dwell wholly in the welfare of others. The rights of the parent are such that every man with grandsons is practically endowed with an old-age pension. Hence you notice more smooth brows, calm eyes and care-free faces among old Chinese farmers than among old Western farmers." Again, Dr. Ross avers that "practically all foreigners in China who are capable of sympathy with another race become warm friends of the Chinese. They are not attracted, as in the case of the Japanese, by charm of manner or delicacy of sentiment or beauty of art, but by the solid human qualities of the folk.

"The fact is, the Chinese are extremely likeable, and those who have known them longest like them best. Almost invariably those who harshly disparage them are people who are coarse or narrow or bigoted. "They are not a sour or sullen folk. Smile at them and back comes a look that puts you on a footing of mutual understanding. Their lively sense of hmmor is a bond that unites them to the foreigner."