Woman's World

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVI, Issue 198, 19 February 1914, Page 6

Woman's World

STARTLES PARIS XEW JJ'AXXUXZIO PLAY. Euthanasia i- Llit* subject of a startling play by linliridle d'Annunzio, which was produced at llio Porte .Siiinte Martin Theatre. Paris.

The famous European wizard of Hie stage got his idea from tin: discussion in America years ago as to whether it wan right to kill a man or woman when tin* vietiin was suffering from an incurable dineu.se.

The pay pictures the struggles of an unsophisticated, romantic young girl with the supposedly perfectly normal modern man.

The. girl. Anile, is seeking to avenge the death of her father, who she knows was killed l\y his dearest friend Dagon. Dagon has married the widow of (he man he killed—the mother of Aude.

The girl in the final act attempts (lie life of Dagon with a poniard. He admitted he killed her father; declares it was a noble deed and done at his friend's request to relieve him from lifelong suffering. The horrified girl, utterly unable to understand such a theory, is about to strike when the mother, fearful that aev daughter might suspect her of complicity in the killing of the father, rushes in and stain Dagon through the heart. The curtain falls, leaving the audience stunned by the. gruesome scenes ot Elektra.

WIVES -NOT WANTED * THE MODERN' BACHELOR. It is sad to reflect that marriages are on the decrease, that the average man regards marriage in the same light as he regards filling in his income tax papers, that is, with annoyance and \\<- taste. Xot that he regards women with an indifferent eye. This by no manner of means. He dearly likes (the dear is appropriate) to take them out to dinner and give them a good time all round. But he prefers to multiply hrs happiness, not to subtract from it bymarrying. The bachelor of to-day. is inclined to look upon a woman as an extra to life, like licpieur with his coffee, or (lowers on the table—something it is nice to have but which one can do mute well without at a pinch. There is no good mentioning home comforts to him. He has his club, where he may grumble and growl at will. Therefore, why on earth should he marry?

NEW ZEALAND WOMEN TOO MODEST A UFA'EXT VISITOR'S APPRECIATION. London, January !). It is nearly always worth while treating people well, but virtue is not invariably rewarded as generously as in the ease' of the two lady lecturers, Mfes Newcomb and Miss Hodge, who went out to Xew Zealand on a lecturing tour "in connection with suffrage matters recently, and have just returned. Both are full of the warmest appreciation for the treatment they received at the hands of women's organisations in ithe Dominion, and Miss Xewcomh, who, as honorary secretary of the Australian and Xew Zealand Women Voters' Committee, it will be remembered, went out so that she might make herself as competent as possible to discuss Dominion suffrage maiters, here in England, this week kindly gave me ;v few of the hosts of impressions she formed on her tour. One is that modesty is by no means always a shining virtue. Rather is it sometimes an actual threatener of progress. And that the public-spirited among the women of Xew Zealand are too modest, Miss Xcwcomb has no doubt. Advertisement is not always to be despised in a day when a deal of good, alongside a mass of evil, is done through tin l avenue of advertisement. Only last week an imposing and inspiring column appeared in the London press, for instance, which catalogued the good work put through by Calilorniiin women since they've enjoyed the privilege of the vote.

"If only such a list were available from Xew Zealand for the same length of time it could outshine that!'' Miss Xewcomh declared. "Hut it is dillicv.lt even for the one who specially goes out to Xew Zealand for such information to get it tabulated as, for instance, some Canadian (lovcrnmcnl departments list their women's organisations." "Xew Zealand women, I consider, who are doing as splendid work as is being produced anywhere in the world, suffer from excessive modesty, and do not realise that to-day the whole world of women is only too eager to learn about them."

MIXED BATHING. A I'nited States doctor has pranced into the mixed bathing question with the acrimony one doesn't expect from that usually easy-going profession. He considers mixed bathing [lie, death-blow to" miltriinony, for the following reasons: '■[ don't believe," he snorts, "that one young man out of fifty wants to marry the girl he has bathed with. Do bare arms, bare necks, bare legs and ugly skull caps furnish a bewitching spectacle? What effect has the ungraceful Hopping of the female porpoise on the male intellect'!"„ Well, how does it come to pass that marriage survives in brown Polynesian communities where people swim much and dress Utile; that it existed among our own ancestors before they took to clothes so that the race didn't die out; and that the largely unclothed stage siren often marries into the peerage'; It may lie a birdfaced section of the peerage, with a retreating brow and a retreating chin, but still the footlight lady of'scanty garniture often marries it.'

AEROPLANE SKIRT. The aeroplane skirt, which is said to be liiuiing favor in the I'nitcd Stales, makes the lady who wears it look exactly like a kite—the kind of kite auv active boy could lly on a windy ilav if it didn't kick too much. TOO MUCH OF A GOOD THING. Wives who complain of lack of affection upon the part of their husbands should note the case of a Denver (t'.S.) woman who was granted a divorce he. cause her liushand kissed her 2.100 times a day. "I didn't love mv husband from the start." she said, "I told him so. .mil that f merely respected him. I believed that we could get along, bul his kisses i and caresses were so numerous I ciuihi do no work. 11,. approached me everv minute and hour of the dav. and would kiss me 30 times a day and .10 kisses a time."