WOMAN'S WORLD

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LV, Issue 137, 28 October 1912, Page 6

WOMAN'S WORLD

(Conducted by "Eileen.") f WIDOW'S 1500 SUITORS c 1 WHOLESALE KEJECTIOXii. c The Eastern States of America were amused and startled recently by a wide-ly-published advertisement announcing that Airs. Clara Drown, of Kansas City, Missouri, widow, was in quest of a husband, not "Western" or '"corn-fed." The exclusion of ostern and country-bred I men as applicants for the wealthy and beautiful widow's hand delighted the male inhabitants of the Eastern States, and letters by hundreds were sent to Chicago, where the lady is living, from New \ ork. Boston, Philadelphia anil other large Eastern cities. The egotism of the writers, however, received a set- back, when tl ic mysterious j Mrs. Brown, interviewed for the first time, dpclared that she had renounced every one of her 1500 suitors. "I am rejecting tl icm," she said, smiling, "more j ' in sorrow than in anger. I have no feeling against any of these men; they merely won't do." The 1500 love letters are about as varied a lot as ever were gath- I ] ed together. Among the widow's rejected suitors are:—Harvard graduates ' <)G, Yale men 30, Oxford graduates 13, scions of the "nobility" 150, men with fortunes between £2OOO and £IO,OOO 200, clergymen or students for the ministry 18, men separated, but not divorced, 29, widowers 208. Perhaps the real reason for Mrs. ' Brown's rejection of all her suitors was the receipt of the -following letter from Mr. W. J. Gaynor, Mayor of New York City, which Mrs. Brown said was the ' only letter she had' received that was] worth while, and she was going to act on its advice. The Mayor's letter was as follows: , , - "Dear Madam, —You are looking for happiness in the wrong direction. Ido not think there is any man living wfio' would suit you. If you want to be really happy for the rest of your life work for the happiness of others and forget yourself.—Sincerely yours, M. J. G aynor, Mavor." t

Mrs. Brown also fe'eViv'eda letter from Mayor Fitzgerald, of 'Boston, Massachusetts, in which lie gave the names of Boston's most wealthy.e.Jigiblp.bachelors,! with marginal notes on their accomplishments and fortunes; hut, as Mrs. Brown pathetically remarked: "I can't propose, you know, "even ill Leap Year,' and as the result of the letters addressed to me I have learned so,.mu6h that I don't want any husband now." Many of the gems of literature sent to Mrs. Brown are published in the newspapers, and they afford-ajnusing-reading, .ill show a remarkable-,bump of.egotism to be possessed by the writers, and wife,re • the man did not have money to' offer, tie dilated -upon his grand—physique and general- manly Perhaps : the most'amusing and flattering Jetter_ came from a-'New declared to ""dear Maditti* : th's he "was willing to marry any woman—bladr,-white, red, green, blue or he . ••w'as . out of .worjc.; Ipufc ;l f t« jJiad. ;a/ good )osition he wouldn't, marry the best woman on earth. LOVE StA'l CHE'S BEST" " . i CUPID,-AN q; SCIENCE.

, Eugenists wlip would the selection of; wives and husbands a municipal undertaking were' laughed" at by Sir James Oiehton -Browne'in his presidential address to the Sanitary."lnspectors',; -• Association at.SliefHekl. . "I,am a believer in the love match," he declared, "not only from the ronlaritic," but froni (he eugenic'"point Of vifctf. Mftch more precise information, regarding the trans--: mission of, character-is necessary -before ffe cari venture, to. exercise'any. extensive control over 'human 'mating, but oven now something might be done by' medical men -to found moral sentiment i in the community and to ensure that in ; connection with marriage the welfare of the next . and future generations should Ibe bbr'ne in mind." Perhaps the same object; might be- achieved by the removal of the powerful conventional restraints which limit the range of choice. ''ln a very large proportion of marriages love plays no part, or only a very subordinate one. Rank, social influence, ambitiqn, ani >vliat;.Qarlyle. called the 'cash nexus,' are dominant factors in marriage to-day. u f The marriag.es made under ithem are* no'tj it : 's-eem ; s 'tb' me,' those Which are most likely to produce : favorable results in, the. next generation. I feel that I aju-on.flrm ewgcnic ground in recommending. a return to nature in relation to marriage, and a due allowance for those natural forces that are, perhaps, more' faftsighted'an the future of race' improvement than we are with our best scientific',spectaelcs. "I am not defending'"foolish "hasty marriages, of ' which' vc a greatdeal too many:;. -The abolition of Grotnn Green was it loss .to the;, novelist,, but, a gain to the country. "Love at first sight of the right kind is a physiological epoch corresponding with the installation of new circuits, of the brain. It is.'like the quality of mercy, ; twice blessed., i -.lt blessQs him who experiences it, and it is charged with deferred blessings for those who are to come after'lrim.V''-;j>

Amoijig other striking.sentences in. the address were the following:— "I cannot accept ,the cher.ubie theory of an American "eugeiiist that all 'babies are born good.' Unhappily, hosts of 'babies are born, radically bad, but there are few bad babies who are incapable of being made bettor than, they were born." .

The thorough-going eugenist, taking a survey of the'large- towns, would feel to consign to the, lethal chamber- at pnce several rinillions of men, women aiid children. Sanatorium may be regarded as the ambulance that carries the wounded off the field and plsices them in a position favorable to the dressing and healing of

their wounds, if Uiey be heal able, but it ,is sanitation that furnishes the guns I iinil ammunition with which our enemy tuberculosis may be held in check and finally disposed of. Fresh air and daylight, to say nothing of sunlight, trickle in driblets through urban areas where they should (low in c pious streams. Picturesque cottages are disguised tombs.

AN UNFORTUNATE PRACTICE. The prohibition of the exportation of emu skins and plumes and lyre bird feathers has not stopped their sale in London, where 1000 emu skins and 200 lyre birds tails were sold a few weeks ago (says a Melbourne paper.) The Minister of Customs states that he will ask the High Commissioner to traee.the source of these shipments. The export of emu-, from (he inner zone of Western Australia is allowed, because the birds have been tearing down wire fences, but this does not explain the London sales. There is practically no check upon the exports, and the Customs officers have to rely on what the manifests tell them. Their suspicions are that the prohibition of the importation of egret plumes and other rare birds' feather* work better. A shipment of hats to a Svdney firm and another to Melbourne \rere recently stopped, and the hats were sold without the feathers, vrlri'sh it ere returned to London.