WOMAN'S WORLD

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 245, 16 April 1912, Page 6

WOMAN'S WORLD

(Conducted by "Eileen"). A NOTABLE CHINESE LADY. ''Mrs Sun Yat Sen," said my Chinese companion. "But, madame, I stammered, "I have just been told that your daughter is 17 years old." A pair of dark eyes twinkled, and a smile played like a sunbeam about the sensitive mouth. This was the wife of , the first President of the new Chinese Republic, whom Mr Willian Maxwell met in Perang, and this is how he describes her;—

Here she was—just a dainty little lady, with sweet, smiling face and grace and charm that make willing slaves. The fiimple robe of pure white threw into strong relief the clear, olive tone of the complexion, and the glossy black half, unadorned and smoothed back from the! shapely forehead. Mrs Sun Yat Sen might be a beautiful nun if her face did not shine with the forgiveness that is in the world also. For years (said the lady herself) the cause has separated me from my husband, on whose head there lias been a .price. My married life has been filled with vague terrors and active alarms, but never for a moment have I lost faith in the success of our sacrifice.

And this (added Mr Maxwell) was the secret of her radiant youth and enthusiasm—faith in a Man and a Cause.

Domestic help is undergoing a complete revolution, states a writer in a London paper. So many employers are finding satisfactory assistance provided by charwomen that a new race has sprung up. There are wise women who have proved themselves ready and willing to step into an emergency, with the result that they are earning good wages, the respect of employers, and a certain amount of leisure time for their own ocupation and interests. A lady who has undergone a period 'of sore domestic trial declares emphatically that the solution of the difficultj- lies in the charwoman. "It is only natural," she says, "that girls who are finding openings on the stage should not, care for the more humdrum and ordinary occupations entailed in the daily round of the average home. My parlormaid is engaged for a part, and leaves me next week to start on her course of study, dancing, and other accomplishments, to render her acceptable to the discriminating public. For a full week at Christmas she was not to be counted upon for domestic duties, so I got a charwoman." The report of the Association of Trained Charwomen offers evidence of the large demand for these useful workers. Many of them are domestic seervants who are no longer young or who are married but not disinclined to do a certain amount of work that would supplement in. supporting the .family. In 1910 426' charwomen were asked for, and 979 were registered as seeking employment, and this in one association alone. On the other hand, 748 ladies were out in search of servants, while only 523 were available. Specialisation is* the decided taste of the day, and on the books of registries it is easier to find large numbers of specialised helpers than to secure one or two domestic helps. The lady help, in some cases, fills the vacancy caused by the indifferent girl who prefers outside labor that is frequently poorly paid te the home industry.

The Girl Pioneer movement in America has given a new impetus to girls' camps already in operation (says a wrfter 5n 'the Pittsburg Dispatch). While the Boy Scout movement aims to make boys more manly, the Girl Pioneer ideal is to make girls more womanly. This does not mean that the girl is to forego athletics and all out-of-door sports such as tramping, swimming, and rowing, i a knowledge of woodcraft, and the like; but it does mean that as endurance and strength are aimed at with the boys, so love of beauty and ideals of service and helpfulness are to be encouraged in girls. The girls will make a study of bird's and animals, and learn how'to use a camera. Their pastimes will include all branches' of athletics. They will learn how to swim, to manage a" canoe, and to row a boat. There will be cross-country runs, basket ball, folk-dancing, and exercises to develop the body. Above all, the girls 1 will become adepts in pioneering. The art of camp cookery is to be acquired,, and a knowledge of first aid to the injured. Of course, certain qualifications of memberstip are essentia], A girl must be more than twelve vears of a«*e before she can join. The costume is°a| middy blouse with full-pleated bloomers.

Poetically speaking. Paris had a "vernal carnival to-day" (wrote the Paris correspondent of a London paper on the 19th February). A temperature of I OOdeg. sunshine all day, and a pleasant atmosphere, contributed to make everybody happy; but while Nice ha s its gorgeous parade, and the P.L.M. Railway has put on extra trains to accomodate the crowd of travellers hastening to the Rivera, Paris seems little bv little fro lose much of its old interest in carnival. Hundreds of thousands of people were out'to-day, but I scarcely saw a single mask. The confetti no longer had their vogue of former years. Serpentines have long ago disappeared. The wild revels of former days, when we used to walk I<nee-deep in confetti and paper tape in the boulevards, are dead and gone VI o see only an immense Sunday crowd, quietly strolling about and enjoying an outing for formality's sake I saw a few girls and boys boys amusing themselves, here and there in the boulevards by throwing confetti about the ordinary passer-by. The confetti-vendors look on m despair. Trade is bad. People will not buy even at a discount. The 1 refect s order not to throw anv papers is observed. It is momentarily suspended, but people do not seem to care for the liberty. It seem, „„,.„ a pitv to strew the eleanly-kept boulevards 'with colored bits of paper. The Parisians of the present day are becoming sober and subdued citizens. No thins moves them any more. T did llot SP(! a ' sin „i c oanii . val costume. Formerly there used to be plenty i„ silks and satins. N T ow. "even co ton and paper ones have disappeared.; \Vhat a change from the days' when nine young persons out of ten insisted on wearing something grotesque! Parisians have thrown away the mask Only one custom remains, and that is for, some fond parent to dress up the tiny tots ,n a carnival suit. We now and hen .-.(■<. little soldiers of three or five little pierrotles of the same age and some of these fancy costumes even bear the cachet of the Rue de la Pak Fashionable dress-makers made specials bids this year to dress the tiny ones in ear-' nivalesquc disguise. A few weeks a<*o I •saw an advertisement from the costumiers near the Place Yendome offering artistic creations for the. carnival o~f young folks. Little lads of four and six appeared with their sisters, dressed up as Romeos and Juliets, or Lohcngrins and Brunehildes Some of the youngsters were seen on the boulevards, Pr -?1! ~. , tlleir eostl ™<» and strutting with delight before a wondering crowd" Parisian* are decidedly too old for carnival. It suits only the very, very youna