WOMAN'S WORLD

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 257, 30 April 1912, Page 6

WOMAN'S WORLD

[(Conducted by "Eileen"). g NOTES FROM LONDON. I OFFICIAL WOMAN DETECTIVE. London, March 8. There was appointed this week by the Mayor of New York the first ollicial ■ woman detective in America. This is a Mrs. Goodwin, a police matron, who was recommended for her present position as a result of an exceedingly clever ] capture she made of three thieves recently. Mrs. Goodwin's salary as municipal detective is £550 a year. .WOMEN PARK-KEEPERS. The Women's Industrial Council are at present soliciting opinions with regard to their suggestion that now that so many London parks are being used as playgrounds, and even in many cases school grounds, for poor London children, women park-keepers should be employed to supplement the present staff of men. who already have their hands full in maintaining order, supervising, etc. A number of accidents, some minor mishaps, others only saved from seriousness by the intervention of lady visitors, could be prevented, and the children, hundreds of whom are unaccompanied, he always under, the supervision of women specially employed to direct their play, render first aid when necessary, and generally keep a motherly eye on J them. ; ANOTHER WOMAN COUNCILLOR.

Waterford Corporation, which has al- I ready one fair councillor, 'has just elect-1 e-d another, who headed the poll against j two men candidates. COLORED JURYWOMAN. Dorothy 'Coates, who is believed to be , the first colored woman in America to serve on a jury, was summoned recently to that duty in Oklahoma, in which district she holds considerable property. WOMEN AS MINERS. The pit-row lasses who so strongly objected recently to members of the House of Commons pleading for the grievances that the women themselves disown, should at last get fair play, as now women mine workers .have been admitted as members to the very union—the Lancashire and Cheshire Miners' Federation—which before threatened female I work at the pit brow. I WOMAN FRUIT FARMER.

Miss ,EUise P. Buckingham, of California, owns and.manages what is said to be one of the largest orchards in the world. She began her career as a fruitgrower by purchasing 250 acres of land and planting more than half the tract in fruit trees of various sorts, which paid her so well that she was able to increase ] her holdings by 1000 acres. Mrs. Buck- ] ingham, in conjunction with a man j known as the '•fruit king," was respon-' sible for taking the first refrigerator cars to California. ENTHUSIASM INDEED! Two American women of over 80 years of age have recently enrolled themselves as university students—one in the University of Wisconsin, the second in the University of California. The first, Mrs Winship, is 82, and was a personal friend of Abraham Lincoln. She explains that until two years ago she found little time for literary studies. Mrs. Truesdell is SO, and graduated many, many years ago, but has returned to her university to take up a course of English poetry. SISTER FOES.

Miss Ethel Arnold, a sister of Mrs Humphrey Ward, the leader of the English anti-suffragettes, is at present lecturing in Chicago, and is ardently advocating votes for women. HARD TRUTHS FOR WOMEN. Said Ella Wheeler Wilcox, in an article under the above title:-One thing is sure —mere goodness, mere loyalty, mere worth of character in a wife do not serve to keep husbands from straying into forbidden paths. Marriage is a fine art-one that requires constant study and care to make perfect. Mothers must be the guides and teachers of their sons, and young men must grow into manhood understanding and respecting women. And woman must be broadened and her point of view enlarged so that she may understand what real companionship means to a man. INFECTED PENHOLDERS.

A case of diphtheria appeared not lon« ago in an infants' school in Essex, and was traced by the doctor to a penholder the end of which had been sucked by an affected child. FOR DISTINGUISHED SERVICES. An American woman has been awarded the Prussian Silver Cross of Merit in recognition of her distinguished services in the field of social betterment. BRILLIANT WOMAN DRAMATIST. A Polish woman—Mme. Sapolaska—now deservedly enjoys the position of being the most successful playwright in her country. Her first play/* Malicsewska, has had a longer run than any other performance, while all her works it is reported, have proved .to be veritable gold mines to the theatre directors. A CONGRESS OF MOTHERS. There was held in Massachusetts three weeks ago a congress of mothers, and the American papers which have just arrived give interesting accounts of the great work being done for mothers by mothers. Perhaps their greatest piece of work was the presentation of a petition, on the hearing of the Widowed Mothers' Pension Bill at the State House, asking for the appointment of a Commission to study the advisability of contributions by the commonwealth for the support of widows with dependent children. It is proposed that the Commission consist of one woman and two other members, who will investigate the subject, and report to the General Court on or before January 8 next year. Out of many cases the following was cited—viz., that of a mother with five little children left destitute on the death of her husband. She had to ask aid from the State, but all they did was to take her children from her,' putting her little five-months baby to board with an old woman in a tenement district, so that it died from ill-ventilation. The maintenance of the children, the mother pleaded, was costing the State 40s a month more than she herself could manage it for if she might be their guardian herself. The secretary of the State Board was, however, unable to grant her request, and the congress of mothers are now trying to help all destitute mothers in a like predicament.

EXPENSIVE OPERA COATS

Luxury runs riot in London just now in women's cloaks for evening wear, and some of those seen at theatres and at after-theatre suppers in fashionable restaurants are of regal splendor. The big loose coat of snowy ermine—or its substitute, white coney—or of costly chinchilla lined with softest satin, and wrapped round the figure is prime favorite. With such a coat a muff to match is often carried oven to a theatre, where the bag attachment makes a handy receptacle for the owner's handkerchiefopera glass and other necessaries. Even more opulent than the all-fur coats are those of some purple brocade, with the design in velvet or in gold or silver on a ground of shot colors. These coats «•» widely bordered with some costly fur

preferably dark sable, mink or skunk, and red and gold, purple, vivid blue and Empire green are favorite colors for .' them. I WOMEN JURORS ' In a case tried in Los Angeles before a jury composed entirely of women, the judge instructed the jury to find the defendant not guilty on a technicality. The jury left the box, and shortly returned bringing in a verdict of guilty as charged. The judge asked why the jurors (or jurorcsses, as they prefer to be called) had disobeyed his instructions. The "forewoman" explained that she and her associates had decided according to their judgment. The judge refused to accept the verdict, and again instructed the jury to retire and bring in a verdict of not guilty, which they finally did, alj though they protested vehemently against the "interference" of the Court, and wanted to know what was the use of having a jury if they had to do what the judge wanted and not what they considered ought to he done. In a case in San Francisco, where the Court adjourned for lunch, every juroress voted in favor of a different restaurant, and the argument at last became so heated that the marshal in charge of the jury had to exercise his own discretion and march them off to a restaurantof his own selection.

These things make the lighter side of women in the jury box, but the experiment is being watched with a good deal of interest. It is, of course, entirely too early to say whether the innovation is in the interest of justic and society, and Whether women will 1 governed by the law and the facts in .caching a verdict, or swayed by their impulses and emotions. It is difficult to see how any woman jury could be worse than the average male jury that passes upon guilt or innocence in a criminal court, or decides civil cases (in America) in which great property interests are at stake.