WOMAN'S WORLD

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 190, 9 February 1912, Page 6

WOMAN'S WORLD

(Conducted by "Eileen.") AMERICAN CHARACTERISTICS. la the December English Review, Mr. Filson Young makes some trenchant criticisms of "American characteristics." Unlike most writers, he dtoes not take the view that American women enjoy great powers of self-development. It is often supposed that an American woman can do anything she chooses. "Ameri* cans," says Mr. Filson Young, "pride themselves very much on their attitude \ towards women tout, after all, leaving out the hat-removng and door-openiny part of it, what does this attitude consist in? The American society woman is as much pampered and petted as the favorite of any Eastern harem, and money is lavished! upon her in exactly the same way and for exactly the same reason. Her life, since most American men are closely occupied with business; is lived almost entirely among women—among the favorites of other harems, who crowd together in noisy restaurant luncheon parties, chattering endless nonsense at the top of their voices—this being almost their sole distraction, poor things, since for women no more than for anyone else (except for children and for servants who have the liberty to be insolent and inefficient) is there any true liberty in America. Just at the moment when women in American society become mature they cease to live and to grow, and remain half children, half dolls. Before, marriage they can do as they please; after marriage they surrender both individuality and liberty of thought and movement.'

CONSCRIPTION AMONG WOMEN. A Pan-German organisation has set afoot a propaganda in favor of conscription among women. The proposal is that they should serve as ambulance-bearer 3, nurses, and in other capacities. One of the leading women of Germany, interviewed on the project, said that, the women of the Fatherland did all that could be expected 'by becoming the mothers of the men who defend the Em pire.

PROPOSED SERVANT TAX. One result of the storm that has been raised in England 'by the proposed servant tax is that it has brought forward the extreme healthiness of domestic work for women. From all sides ■ evidence has 'been forthcoming that maidservants ,as a class are seldom ill, and both at the Treasury and at the great meeting held at Albert Hall, London, it was patent to everyone that no healthier, finer body of women could be found in the country than the maidservants who attended in person to protest. Obviously, it is for women in search of health to consider whether it is not worth while to engage in domestic employment. It is no harder than gymnastics, less expensive than rest cures, pleasanter than drugs, and cheaper than hydros.

WHERE WOMEN RULE The Hopi Indians, who are making considerable trouble just now by their refusal- to send their children to the United States Government schools, are an interesting survival of a state of society which, anthropologists tell us, preceded the present "androcentric" stage. Among the Hopis an agitation for men's rights would be quite in order, for the women enjoy that supremacy of authority and ownership which among the civilised peoples belong to the men. In the Chaco Canyon, in north-western New Mexico (says Edward S. Curtis, the historian of the American Indian) there are to-day many villages, or, as they were originally called, puebles, in which the women rule. The Hopis are agriculturalists and home builders, and while the men do the heavier work of building, the houses are owned by the women. In like manner the corn is planted and tended by the men, but after it is garnered the husband cannot legally sell or trade it without the' consent of the wife.

In the matter of divorce the Hopi wife needs neither lawyer nor court. She has the laws of the clan or tribe behind her. If the husband does not fulfil his marriage obligations according to., the established code, he will find upon his return from the fields that the door of his house ia closed to him, and that his personal belongings are more or less carefully deposited outside. He then realises that a decree of divorce has been granted to his wife, and to argue the question then and there would he a needless waste of time and loss of dignity. He can appeal. If he loses on appeal he simply returns for a family council on the matter, with the respective clans represented, for arbitration.. In that event he may hope for assistance from his wife's clan, but not from his own. The children remain with the wife. The children trace their descent through their mother's clan, never through the father's.

Women of this tribe have many secret orders, to which men cannot belong, and there are many dances in which only women can participate.

BEAUTIFUL ENGLISH WORDS. In a contest to determine which twenty-five words are the most beautiful in the English language, James Shea, a New York lawyer, won first prize with an accepted list of twenty-one words of the twenty-five he submitted. Here is the complete list:—Melody, splendor, adoration, grace, eloquence, virtue, innocence, modesty, faith, truth, peace, nobility, joy, honor, love, divine, Heaven, hope, harmony, happiness, purity, justice, liberty, radiance, sympathy. From the twenty-five words the judges struck four —grace, divine, justice and truth—as lacking the euphony compared to the other words of the list.

AFTERNOON TEA. American girls are fast falling into a kospitable custom —that of serving afternoon tea on any and every occasion. The beverage itself may be diluted—in fact, its coloring may be palest amber—but tea it must be. For is there anything which lends such an air of hospitality to drawing-room, boudoir, or even the tiniest bachelor girl quarters as the well-equipped tea table, ready at a moment's notice for proffering the cup that cheers? Since the revival of the tea fad many quaint, old-fashioned tea-sets of grandmamma's and great-grandmamma's days have been brought from obscure hiding places and pressed into service. Even tea cups minus handles, creamers with broken noses, and sugar bowls with pronounced cracks and apertures have been restored and again made useful. A DIVORCE RING. Chicago society, which occupies a very high place in the divorce statistics of the United States, is amusing itself with a new fad in the shape of special divorce rings. At a fashionable reception it is reported that the attention of a number of guests was attracted by a "dainty gold ring on the little finger of'the right hand of Mrs. Marina Parke. Mrs. Parke was recently divorced from her husband, the secretary of the Board of Supervising Traction Engineers. In' response to enquiries, Mrs. Parke observer: "Why, that is my divorce ring. I invented it,

/ and now quite a number of Chicago j women are wearing similar rings. Before long everybody will know that a plain gold ring on tlie little finger of the right hand means that its wearer is divorced." Mrs. Parke explained that, apart from other advantages, the divorce ring is "most economical, since divorced women are now a'ble to have their wedding rings cut down to fit their little fingers. "Then, too," she added, "the divorce ring saves you such a lot of embarrassment. New acquaintances no longer enquire about your husband, and old friends who have not yet heard of your divorce, perceiving the ring, are saved from embarrassing themselves and you by asking awkward questions."