WOMAN'S WORLD

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 299, 14 June 1912, Page 6

WOMAN'S WORLD

(Conducted by "Eileen"). ORANGE BLOSSOMS NICHOLLS-BICITENO. At St. John's Church, Waitara, last week, a very pretty wedding was solemnized by the Rev. C. F. R. Harrison, the contracting parties being Mr Richard John Nicholls, eldest son of Mr R. A. Nicholls, of Mastertou, and Miss Eva Bicheno, third daughter of Mr C. Bichino, of Waitara. The bride was given' away by her brother (Mr. Clarence Bicheno), and looked charming in a gown of ivory satin, trimmed with rich overall lace insertion. She carried a shower bouquet, and wore the orthodox veil and orange blossoms. The bride was attended by her sister (Miss Bicheno), who was attiied in a creme striped voile dress relieved with blue, and wore a black hat, also by her little niece, Miss Gweneth George, who wore a pretty dress of blue, with hat to match, and carried a basket of white flowers. Mr J. R. Nicholls, brother of the bridegroom, acted the part of best man, while Mr W. Bicheno assisted as groomsman. The presents were numerous and handsome, among them being a lovely silver cake dish | from the bride's late scholars. The happy couple left by rail for Wanganui amidst the good wishes of those assembled. The bride's travelling dress was a navy tailor-made costume, with hat to ma tch.—Mail.

OUGHT WOMEN TO LIVE? In the course of a delightfully satirical article in the Standard of April 3, Mr. Sidney Low says:— "I no longer ask myself whether woman is (it to vote; I begin to consider whether she is fit to live. Obviously, on her merits (if she can be said to nave any merits) she is not. . . . Man, not having physiological reverberations,' is, as everyone knows, always efficient, reasonable, well balanced. He never loses his sense of proportion, not even when lie comes down to the office with a 'head' due to reverberations not wholly physiological; he may suffer (in fact, he does suffer much more than the female of the species) from gout, rheumatism and liver complaints, but these maladies never interfere with his competence or his perfect mental equipoise, whether in politics or in business. Woman is not really wanted except for one purpose. Nature, by some strange oversight, made the services of this deplorable sex requisite for the perpetuation of the race. Science will, no doubt, in due course remedy this defect and enable the necessary functions to be performed by other agencies. Why on earth should we be pestered with a million persons, perennial invalids, potential lunatics, possible suffragists? They ought, of course, to be shipped off to 'mate with a complement of men beyond the sea,' always provided the men beyond the sea are open to the arrangement, which they perhaps will not be if they read Sir Almroth Wright, j .... There is only one objection that I I can see to the adoption of this truly i scientific femedy for the evils which have ) been so lucidly exposed. A certain num- | ber of women seem to be still required to discharge various humble and mostly t unpleasant duties at a low rate of payment. , Somebody must wasft clothes, sew on shirt buttons, scrub and sweep dust. Unmarried female persons, subject to physiological reverberations, 1 may, I am credibly informed', be found! on their knees on winter morningsi hearth-stoning the doors of eminent phy-' sicians. You cannot abase the dignity of the male by setting him to these tasks, and if you did you would have to pay him too much. I suppose, too, some women must be allowed to look after the sponges and dressings when) great surgeons perform operations for enviable fees. For these reasons we cannot hope for deliverance from an 'epicene' world all at once. We must move discreetly towards our goal. But we can work steadily, if slowly, towards the ideal of the zenana and female infanticide (there is a good deal to be said for suttee also), and be thankful to the learned man who has shed the dry light of science upon our feminist embarrassments and indicated the way to escape."

ELECTRIC CHILDREN NEW METHODS OF MAKING BRAINS. The Swedish doctor Svante Arrhemus has concluded some interesting experiments in Stockholm, to test the effect of electricity in the growth of human orgatiiams. According to the Matin, two groups of fifty children, roughly corresponding in age, health, weight, height and intelligence, were chosen from among .the pupils of the Swedish communal schools. One of these groups of fifty was set to work in a room which was filled with an : electric installation which passed high currents into the atmosphere from wires in the walls, floor and ceiling. The other group was set to work in an ordinary classroom. Neither group of children or th« teachers were aware that the experin nt was being made. At the end of six months the children who had lived in the electrified atmosphere were found to have grown on an average three-quarters of an inch more than the other group in height. Their intelligence had also increased in the most marked manner, and they completely outclassed the non-electrified children in a competitive examination. The electrified teachers 'declared that their own powers of resistance to fatigue had bten increased by the treatment.

; GENERAL. Once at a dinner Henry Ward told his ' sister, Mrs. Harriet Beecher-Stowe, that ; her "Uncle Tom's Cabin" had been translated into Italian by a monk; and that a letter full of adulation had been received from him in which he stated that if he could kiss the woman who wrote the book he would die happy. Mr Beeeher then added: "Well, I sent him a portrait of you, Harriet, and nothing has been heard of him since." ° A girl has invented a profession of her own in France. She dyes natural flowers by placing the stalks in various chemical preparations, the coloring matter being gradually absorbed into the flowers. A common pink can be turned blue, yellow, green or violet with very little difficulty. People in search of weird effects buy the dyed flowers for table decoration, greatly to the indignation of many flower-lovers. A protest was recently sent to the French Minister of Agriculture, imploring him to stop "the dyed-flower craze." Why does the American woman go to \ London? Why is she so well regarded in London, especially during what is called the "Season"? A famous American who was once asked that double question said the American woman went to London because she finds more in the Old World from a woman's point of view than there is in the New World. It has more of that which is beautiful and sweet and tender—in fine, what iB womanly. He also said, this shrewd American- (according to the Graphic), that his countrywoman has conquered socially in London fust because 3he is fresh with the freshness of the New World, and, therefore, unconventional; also because she has

qualities of her own whieh would curry her to a high place in any society. She it bright, she is witty; she is, as a rule, ' well-educated, and, added to that, she has what Barrie, in one of his plays calls > '"bloom," an indescribable but very real I thing. J The woman buyer is quite an estab- | lislied fact in America. In nearly all the . smaller towns there are many firms which employ women to go to New York to buy for them. The wholesale merchants say that, on the whole, there is very little difference between the man and the woman buyer; the former is more daring, more willing to take big risks, but the woman works harder and pays more attention to detail. Very often she has better taste than the man, and in purely feminine goods has generally a deeper knowledge. The New York women suffragists held a big demonstration the other day (states a cable message to the Sydney Sun). In the parade that took place, Dulcie Deamer, a New Zealand authoress, carried a banner inscribed: "Australian women have votes, and that is why they have such progressive legislation." This banner attracted great attention, and was received with terrific cheering all along the route. Underley Hall, one of the most famous places in Westmoreland (England) is owned by Lady Henry Bentinck. Turner painted bits of its scenery, and Ruskin has extolled its beauty. Over the way, by Casterton Woods, is the school wherein "Jane Eyre" put in a part of her turbulent career. Her sex prevented Lady Olivia Taylour from beccming Marquis of Headfort. Underle" was left her by her father shortly 1 'ire her marriage to Lord Henry Bintinck, a halfbrother of the Duke of Portland. She is one of the beautiful women who have i grey hairs, her golden locks having assumed that tone while she was still little more than a girl.