WOMAN'S WORLD

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 187, 6 February 1912, Page 6

WOMAN'S WORLD

(Conducted hy "Eileen.") ENTERTAINMENT BY JAPANESE. The Australasian gives the following nteresting account of the entertainment ;iven by Rear-Admiral S. Kato on board he Japanese warship Soya. Naval aunches conveyed the invited guests j rom ; Man-o'-War Steps to the cruiser, md even the embarkation had some;hing unußUal about it. To ears accustomed to laconic English methods, the sonstant chattering of the white-uni-formed officers in charge of the boats sounded curious. Orders weße shouted in staccato tones, and were answered irol.uininously, until there seemed to be a. Running explosion of the pebbly Japanese speech, and a din which would have dazed an ordinary Jack Tar, but which seemed to be quite in order, for there was no confusion, and no cloud upon the smiling faces. On board the Soya, the decks, which had made humiliating acquaintance with the bottom of Chemulpo Bay, : was transformed into quaint floral bowers, inhabited by creatures from some grotesque fairyland. Beds of white sand, cleverly bordered with coils of rope, were laid out on the deck, and here, on tall slender stems, blossomed parterres of purple and white iris, crimson or yellow chrysanthemums, cherry blossoms, and big white daisies. These, at the close of the entertainment, were uprooted and presented to the visitors. Japanse lanterns, in delicate tint's,'with exquisitely etched floral designs, htfng like a necklace of bubbles round the ship, stands oi ancient Samurai qrmoiir, including some very curious saddles, were on view. A large device, "Welcome," with letters formed of the brass caps of pressure guages, occupied a conspicuous place. Dwarf pine trees, in pots of white and blue china, stood in honorable positions, and branches of paper cherry blossom formed little groves. A hiige lion, made from tawny mats, with glaring gilt paper eyes, a mane of cotton waste, arid rakes for claw's, crouched in a corner; an elephant, whose internal economy consisted of a great gun; boa constrictors made of hose, reposing among canva; boulders; lobsters, monkeys aHd cranes mei one at every turn. Up a waterfall made of strips of white paper, climbed t fat I and symbolic carp,; and a' monstei cicada,, made of a lantern, a pair o brown paper wings, and some metal caps clung to a pole, and sang shrilly whej you touched an electric button. Japan esel fairy tales were illustrated by al sorts of weird figures, and were explainei .by placards written in very shaky Eng ' lish. All these quaint designs had be« jmade by the sailors out of the most uri ' promising material, and the artists stoo „ pv, and watched, with manifest anxietj ' rfhe effect produced upon the'visitor. Th ( j • Japanese officers and cadets themselve •' never seemed to tire of these humorous : efforts, but laughed with boyish enjoyH ment at each one. Refreshments wer'e !< served in several parts of the ship, and I .special Japanese dainties- produced ' at little parties in the officers' and midshipmen's quarters—"kuri manju," chestnut cakes j yo kan, a mulberry-colored, senji - transparent sweet, made from bea,ns; and refreshing, straw-colored tea, | served in, charming little Japanese cups.

FLOWERS AT FEDERAL GOVERNMENT HOUSE. The present federal Governor-General and his wife are making a decided name fori themselves in-the matter of floral decorations held at Federal GoVernment Hotise, Melbourne. During the Cup festivities and at all the subsequent parties, floral display has been a special feature of the gatherings. Melbourne florists, of oourse, welcome these unlimited orders for rosea, or whatever flower can be procured in sufficient quantity, as Lady Den.nan likes, if possible, to have the rooms done with the one flower. It is not unusual for four or five persons to be employed for the entire day, before an entertainment, banking up window-sills and festooning walls and doorways and staircases with roses.

A LITTLE HEROINE Little Bessie Tutt, a young girl of thirteen, was recently presented with the certificate of the N.S.P.C.C., given for brave services to little children sorely in need of. them (says a London paper). The presentation was • made at Minor road School, Walworth, and Inspector Vine told how he was called to visit a case in which he found three children in a starved and terribly neglected condition. Bessie volunteered to help him. She went for milk, warmed it, heated water to wash the children, and then took care of them while the inspector went to obtain an order for admission to the workhouse. Then Bessie called on one neighbor after another to get covering for the children, after walking a mile to fetch a cab for their removal. When the inspector brought the baby downstairs, Bessie took the mite in her arms, and saying "How cold it is," took off her own frock to wrap round the child.

TWO WIVES IN ONE HOUSE STRANGE STORY OF MARRIAGE OF THREE. Extraordinary, indeed, was a case heard at Chester Assizes dealing with a charge of bigamy arising in circumstances of a very singular character. Not alone .was it suggested that the two "wives" were sheltered under the same roof. It was further stated that the first wife had actually been introduced as a spinster, and had remained''just long enough to see her husband and the woman who was supplanting her carefully settled. The prisoner, John Ineson, 43, pointer, pleaded guilty to an indictment charging him with bigamously marrying Emma Thompson at Brikenliead on January 3 last, his wife, Phyllis Ann Atkinson being then alive. ■ Mr. Morris (prosecuting) said the circumstances of the case were very remarkable. Prisoner was a widower when he married Atkinson, and, according to his own storv, he had been living with her for about seven months, wlion she told him ho was not properly married to her, as her husband was living. She recommended him to look out for another woman, and this advice, said counsel, he appeared to have taken. In July, 1910, i he met the second wife, Emma ThompI son, in Manchester, and courted her while still living with Atkinson. lie told Thompson that his first wife died several years previously, leaving two children. Thompson subsequently commissioned prisoner to go to Birkenhead and look out for a nice confectionary business. This he did, and when it was stocked he took Atkinson there as liis housekeeper, and introduced her to Thompson as "Miss Atkinson." After the second marriage, in January, the first wife lived with the couple for a month, and during that period the second wife nursed her during an illness. Subsequently the first wife went to a convalescent home, and later on paid several visits to the Birkenhead shop. The disclosure of Atkinson's real relationship to prisoner came as the result of a quarrel between the woman about one of prisoner's photographs. After this Atkinson disappeared, and this disappearance, said counsel, was a suspicions element in the case, for it might be that Atkinson really was married and might be afraid of disclosures. If that were so, the marriage with Thompson

vould be legal, and there would be no >igamy. Mr. Justice Channell: It may be, on ;he other hand, that this man thought he lad got hold of an heiress, and suggested narriage. I don't know why the other woman was not charged with aiding and (.betting. Counsel: She can't be found. Counsel idded that prisoner's wife died in Leeds in 1909, and he six children. Prisoner ind his second wife had lived happily iespite the disclosures. Prisoner's story was that his first wife wanted "a man with more money thato me," and she had told him that she had no claim on him. She would not stop with him. The Judge: She stayed a month after you married? Prisoner: Yes; to see we were comfortable. Sentence of three months' imprisonment in the second division was passed. CRAVEN CREATURES The Rev. S. D. Yarrington, secretary of the Anglican Mission Zone Fund, preaching at St. Peter's Anglican Church, Woollomooloo recently, said: "We live in an age possessing the highest ethics and form of civic government. Yet in this lair city of Sydney, in spite of educaticmal progress, extending possibilities, and opportunities multiform, there precails with all its brazen perfidy and conspicuity the abominable sin of wife desertion. Has it come to pass that our community is losing its magnanimity when we realise, as Christian people, that 1 this sin, execrable in the extreme, like some grim spectre, hideous and awful, is assuming vaster proportions every year? Our population increases; but, sad it is to have to admit, and this is no mere hyperbole, that this dark blot on our civilisation is ever assuming larger dimensions. Is the fact-realised that in New South Wales last year 700 wives were deserted by their husbands, and had to seek police assistance to bring their husbands to a sense of their responsibilities, or that, as any Mission Zone worker knows only too well, there were hundreds of other wives deserted who preferred to suffer in silence, rather th*-.n let their great sorrow be known? .What an outrageous tragedy in the sight of God and good-thinking men! What more heart-rending picture could be depicted than a deserted wife in a wretched , hovel, with helpless children, endeavoring to keep, the wolf from the door, fighting 1 a most unequal battle, while the pariah 1 1 husband slinks away, a craven, despic- | able creature, shirking .his "sacred duty . to God, to home, and country. It is i often said that these things must exisf in every city; but we in New South' 1 Wales strongly oppose such a prepos- ; terous statement, and make the predict tion that these , things must not be. It a ' ] is 'high time for the ChUrch'to more fully t '. I endeavor to eliminate this wretched state | of affairs. 1