WOMAN'S WORLD

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LV, Issue 153, 15 November 1912, Page 6

WOMAN'S WORLD

(Conducted by "Eileen.") ( EQUALITY OP THE SEXES The sad case of Mr. and Mrs. Wilks that is now engaging the prayerful attention of English justice is worthy of attention wherever the voice of a militant womanhood is borne to us upon the wandering winds (says a San Francisco writer). English women, be it'remembered, have already won the right to own their own property free from all interference by tyrannical husbands. Now Mrs. Wilks owns certain property upon which the tax-collector has cast his übiquitous and covetous eye. But Mrs. Wilks is a suffragette, and has therefore adopted the noble principle of not" vote, no pay; and when Mrs. Wilks, being a' suffragette, says that she won't do a thing, she won't, and that's all there is to it. So the • tax collector, foiled for the moment, retires in disorder and then decides to renew the attack along the lines of least resistance —that is to say, ] by way of the relatively inocuous and defenceless Wilks. Wilks, on his part, replies that the property is not his, that he has neither part nor lot in it, and that he cannot reconcile it with his conscience to pay taxes on the property of another. Who could? Most people find it a strain on their consciences to pay taxes at all. But no\V note the results. Wilks is hauled off k to prison, since the law makes him responsible for his wife's debts while daring him to touch his wife's property. So man once more comes off second best, and the luckless Wilks may reflect upon what women really mean when they talk about the equality of the sexes. 1

lADY DOROTHY NEVILL'S REMINISCENCES. Lady Dorothy' iSTftvill, in iier lately published volume of reminiscences, relates how Queen Victoria onbe rebuked a certain mistress of the robes for unpunctuality. A day and liour had been appointed for a public ceremony, in which the Queen was to, take part. The hour had arrived, and of all the court the duchess alone was absent. The Queen gave vent more tlian once to her i impatience, and at last, just, as she was ' about to enter her carriage without her first lady of honor, .the duchess, in breathless haste, made her appearance, stammering out faint words of excuse. >"My dear duchess," said the Queen, smiling, "I think you must have a bad watch," and she unloosed' from lier neck the chain of a magnificent watch which she herself Wore, aijd passed it round the neck of the offender. Lady Nevill also talks of the'decadence of the day : as reflected in the lives of women. "The fact is," she .says,, '''that .in a great many cases modern women-r-in. England, I mean—are spoilt. Jlapy have no interest's and 'too much time; on their: ■ hands, with the-'result-, that they will tike up some fad. ' As for the well-to-do, a great number of them now seem to, completely - dominate, .r thpir husbands. '| This struck the old Shah.of Persia very much. 'lt- seems to me,- said he, 'that j an English- _or American - husband is . nothing better than a sort of butler." j NEURASTHENIA I

The journal Critic find Guide gives the following sage advice on how to become (a neurasthenia: —"Eat no breakfast. Indulge' in but one meal daily, at any rate not more than ; two. Eat no meat. East freak cereals, vegetables, nuts and fruit. .Ma&tficate every morsel 208 times —267 times won't do., Take a cold . bath every mprning. Jie massaged daily. Read the health magazines daily. Read J all the 1 books on how -to gain- self-con-trol and on psychotherapy. Concentrate the mind upon the digestion and upon | all articles of diet., Upon every possible occasion discuss your imaginary troubles with your friends and coerce your wife into catering to . every dietetic whim that you can formulate. Buy a lot of apparatus for indoor exercise and roll * cannon ball around, oyer selected portions of one's anatomy.' Unnumbered experimenters who may be met in every street ear,' and, indeed, wherever tnere is a chance for loathsome confidences, can guarantee the value of these rules. THE LOT OF FINNISH WOMEN. "A great deal has been written about Finland during the past year, because of the struggles she,'has had with Russia. British people have had an oppor- ■ tunity of looking from all points of view at the wrong done to. this exemplary little country . by. .a barbaric tyrant," writes V. Palen-Kqrdes in the Contemporary Review. .- ''But there is one extremely important fact in' Finnish history which has never been sufficiently illuminated, and that is the emancipation of Finland's women. These women have secured for themselves a, place ip the world's history as pioneers, and our 1 descendants will liud them in their school-books; but in the meantime a great-many know only a very little about them, and I meet people daily who are quite ignorant on this subject. Finland was the first country in Europe to give women the same rights- as men. Only Norway has as yet followed her example, and with the same success. In 1900 Finnish women were admitted to the Seim (Parliament), and they regarded their new rights so seriously that at the first election, in 1007, sixty of them went to the poll. Up to the beginning of last year the women brought in 29 different legislative Bills, of which the Seim passed the following:— 1. The establishment of laws for child protection against ill-treatment. 2. The complete freeing of the wife from the legal guardianship of her husband. 3. The raising of the marriage age from 15 to 18 years. 4. The organisation of colonies for youthful criminals. 5. The right of women to assist in the Department of Public Medicine. <5. The abolition of police observation over prostitutes. "In addition to this, all the women deputies brought in a petition for the protection of women in the streets from ■ assault, thus indicating the necessity for adding a new clause to the criminal laws dealing with this matter."

The Grand Duchess of Hesse has hit upon a novel scheme for propagating the knowledge of how to fight consumption. On her recent visit to a hygiene exhibition at Darmstadt she saw some matchboxes with printed instructions on the reverse side what to do in order to avoid the spread of tubercular contagion. The boxes were sainplrs. Several million had been made to the order of some South American Government. The Grand Duchess has now succeeded in inducing all the match manufacturers oi the Grand Duchy to place these instructions on the back of every box they sell the price to remain the same.