WOMAN'S WORLD

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 283, 27 May 1912, Page 6

WOMAN'S WORLD

(Conducted by "Eileen.") RICH GIRLS' "GRAND TOUR." The daughters of American millionaires from Mrs. Finch's academy who are doing the "grand tour," -have said goodbye to London, and the next time this bevy of young ladies come to England they will have blossomed out into accepted members of society (says the London Standard). Fully £IO,OOO is said to be spent annually on each of these girls, known popularly in their native' land as "buds." There are sixteen daughters of millionaires in Mrs. Finch's academy, so that simple arithmetic puts the cost of perfecting their collective education at £160,000 per year.. The "grand tour" is beginning to have its recognised place in the education of rich Americans. It includes visits to Rome, Florence, Paris, London and Berlin, all of which cities must be visited and their peculiarities absorbed before the parents of the "bud" feel justified in launching her into society. She is ahle to get through the £IO,OOO a year, according to an American women, with as much ease as the average woman can get through a hundred. If .the lady of the millions has a yoice, the best teachers are engaged for her as soon as lessons are possible. The salary of her chaperone is enormous. The girl must have a score of hats at the very least, and every one is value for a ten-pound note. She has a horse, sometimes more than.one, and the average price of her evening gowns is between £3O and £4O. One every week is her just and lawful claim. Her tailor-made costumes cost little less than her evening gowns, and her travelling, expenses take up an important part oT the bill.

! GENERAL At the last meeting of the Hendon' (England) Rural Council a lady residing at Canons Lane, Pinner, applied for the removal of a street lamp on the ground that it interfered with her astronomical observations. The Council declined her ' request. Mr. John Dorcas, of Philadelphia, ran' away from his wife, and in due course was arrested hy the police for what in the States is known as the offence of "non-support." He pleaded' in Court that he had not run away from his lawful spouse, but had left her because she Bad a habit of "going through his pockets every night and relieving him of all the money she found there." The Judge declared that, whether the husband objected or not was a matter of no importance, because the defendant had no right to object. What belonged to the husband was equally the wife's, and it did, not matter, in the eye of the law, how [ she became possessed of it! What will ' happen if this dictum is carried to its logical conclusion? Mrs. Elizabeth Harden Spitzer has .been appointed by the Board of Supervisors at San Jose (California), assessor for Santa Clara County. She is the first woman dn California to hold an elective office since the recent enfranchisement of the women of that State. Her term of office is for three years. Miss Susan B. Anthony and Mine. Curie (the famous French scientist) received the largest number of votes in the , "Twenty-five Greatest Women in History" contest, conducted recently by the women suffrage societies of New York. Three hundred and forty-seven lisfe were submitted, and that of Mrs. Margaret W. Hampson, of Brooklyn, was considered by l the judges to be the best. Miss AnI thony!s name headed all but two of the i lists. Mrs. Elizabeth Cady Stanton was im more than two-thirds of these, and so were Florence Nightingale. Mrs. Julia Ward Howe, Mrs. Harriet Beecher Stowe, Frances Willard, Mrs. Mary Baker Eddy and Miss Jane Adams. . The Central Scholastic Commission at Berne are of opinion that a woman is too old to teach after her 30th year, and during the last two years (states the Geneva, correspondent of the London Daily Express) in all the Government < schools in the Swiss capital women teachers have .been dismissed on attaining this age. The Commission paid no heed to the storm of protests against this absurd rule, but the other day a young teacher who was about to be dismissed under the "old age" regulation appealed against the judgment under legal advise, and the case came up before the General Council, which promptly decided in her favor. The verdict will completely change the existing regulations made by the Central Scholastic Commission. This "too old at 30" rule does not exist for teachers in any other part of Switzerland. _ After; nearly 40 years of mutual devotion, Mr. Thomas Matthews and Miss Ann Parkin were recently married at the Congregational Church at Biddings, near Alfreton, Derbyshire, to which they walked a mile every Sunday to worship for over 30 years. The cause of the prolonged courtship is stated to have been 1 a pledge given by the bride to her dying mother to look after an afflicted brother. The brother died a short time ago, and about the same time Mr. Parkin, the bride's father, a farmer well known in the district, also died. Mr. and Mrs. Matthews, who are aged 54 and 53 respectively, are described as having been lovers since childhood. A somewhat similar case is known in a southern town in New Zealand, but the happy ending of their courtship has yet to take place. The pair have been engaged for nearly 30 years, and the man is content to let things remain as they are, so long as his fiance has to attend to her aged and infirm parent. Replying to a letter from the Women's Enfranchisement League'of South Africa, Premier Botha said that while is personally in favor of woman's suffrage, he does not consider that there is any likelihood of legislation in this direction being passed in the immediate future. There is one place on this earth where the women rule absolutely—and well. That is in the French village of Froissy, where they have every post in their keeping, from barber and postman to town crier and stationmaster.