WOMAN'S WORLD

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 203, 7 May 1912, Page 6

WOMAN'S WORLD

(Conducted by "Eileen"). j THE MYSTERY I have boon listening this afternoon to the story of a certain New Zealander occupying a good position who has just recently decamped with an unattractive and ignorant woman, a good deal older than himself (writes Frank the author, to a contemporary).' This man has a handsome and amiable wife, and many friends. But he. has thrown up everything—wife, friends, position—for a woman that the average man of intelligence would not have troubled bis head about. How shall one account for it? It is the eternal mystery. Through all the ages men have been fools about women; but why some women are able to make fools of some men, nobody knows, nobody has ever known. The attraction of sex, essential to the continuance of the race, is the mystery of mysteries. In the East I knew a man who was married to a woman of singular beauty and charm, of admirable character, of large private means. They had two children that the man idolised.: His professional prospects were exceedingly good, and he loved his profes- i sion. But he wrecked all. for the sake of a woman of vicious temper and no apparent charm, a hunchback. His wife divorced him, and be married the hunchback . This ought to spell crowning disaster; but the copy-book sometimes fails. The man was happy with the woman of his sinful adventure, and for aught I know is happy still. He regained his social standing against extraordinary odds. He made a remarkable name for himself. What was it drew the man from the beauty to the hunchback, from repute to disgrace? I don't know, and you can't tell me. It is useless to say that men are tempted by beauty and the obvious' lures of the flesh. Some of the most fascinating woman the world has ever known have not been beautiful in that way at all; some of them have been absolutely uncomely. Some of the most fascinating men have been positively ugly. - It is a problem to make one's head ache. It is also a tragedy. Think I of it seriously, and it will make you

I afraid. It is only comparable to the tragedy of alcohol. Lots of men get drunk occasionally, and yet escape the curse. Other men seldom get drunk until the closing catastrophe approaches and the devil of a sudden leaps on them. Pleaj sure? What rubbish! The slave of E alcohol is at all times the most wretchied creature in the world. He suffers I horrors of physical unease, agonies of mental and spiritual humiliation. He > I is the condemned pariah of the race, > J and well knows it. He hates himself, i even while he riots in the full flush of the convivial game. The true drunkard does not drink because he likes alcohol, but because he has to. Good resolutions avail him nothing; lie can't stop. You can't keep liquor from him, because he will sell his soul for it; and if you succeed in keeping it from him for a time, he'll seize' the first opportunity of re- | turning to the trough. He loathes I swine, but herds with them. Intemper- ' ance disgusts him, but he revels in it. 1 He loathes all interference, because he knows that he is beyond help. If salvation ever comes to the drunkard, it will come from science and not from morality. He is the everlasting flat nega- j tion of moral influence. You might as, well try to stop a cyclone by reciting a 1 moral precept in its track. Only the devils and the angels know the truth i about drunkenness, and so far the devils J have proved the stronger.

EVIDENCE OF WIVES I The British House of Lords, states the ! Argonaut, has registered a legal decree j that may be regarded as a fresh triumph I for the cause of women. Until 1898 ! a wife was not allowed to testify either for or against her husband, the theory being that her love or her hate would weigh more heavily upon her mind than even her well-known passion for abstract truth and justice. But the question was ultimately referred to the Court of Criminal Appeal, which decided not only that women might give evidence, but that they must do so if they had any evidence to give, just like everyone else. But those who clamor most for equal rights are usually found to mean unequal rights in their own favor, and so the matter was referred to the Judicial Committee of the House of Lords, and their decision will be one dear to the feminine heart. Wives, say the judges of the highest British Court, may do as they please, and give evidence or not just as they may elect. Civilisation through its legal tribunals has at last asserted that women may do as they like. And women will go on doing it. WOMEN FOR CANADA. The millionaire proprietor of a Canadian factory, hearing that Leeds scamstresses were reputed to be the most skilful in the world, despatched an agent from Toronto to Yorkshire to secure as many as possible within three weeks. The agent left Leeds with about 100 girls whom he has recruited. HOBBLE SKIRT CAUSES DEATH The hobble skirt appears to have been responsible for a- fatal accident to Mrs. Ethel Hawksley Lindley, a member of a well-known Nantwich family, and wife of a manufacturer of Manchester. Mrs. | Lindley left her home. Davenham Cottage, near Nantwich, for a walk. She was wearing a hobble skirt. She did not return home, and when search was made she was found lying below a stile, suffering from terrible' injuries, which resulted in blood poisoning and death. It was stated at the inquest that she was climbing the stile, and must have been impeded by the. tramelling skirt. The coroner said he paid the greatest respect for ladies and their dresses, but he wished that when they took country walks they would not we'ar hobble skirts. The jury returned a verdict of accidental death.

A CRIMEAN HEROINE. There is resident at Hastings (Eng.) now in her 91st year, Mrs. Annie Tibbie who was one of the minor heroines of the | Crimean War. She was one of 25 womer who were sent out with the Scots and Grenadier Guards, and of whom only five returned. Mrs. Tibbie, who still enjoys good health, receives a pension from the Patriotic Fund. While on the way out Mrs. Tibbie had a dream, in the course of which she heard the words: "Thou shalt return, but he shall not," She told her husband, who laughed, but the dream proved true. He went through all the fighting, and not till after peace was proclaimed did the end come. For 11 months she and the other women were before Sebastopol fortress, and she witnessed the start of the charge of the Light Brigade at Balaclava. After the battle th<» women were allowed to go over the battlefields to see if their husbands were amongst the killed or wounded. While at Scutari she assisted in the hospital under Miss Florence Nightingale. ~. ,