Woman's World

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVI, Issue 253, 24 March 1914, Page 6

Woman's World

HIGH SEAS ROMANCE A story of romantic .interest is attached to the visit to Sydney of Lieutenant l.lu> lion. David William Melville, loth Hussars, heir presumptive to the earldom of J.even and Melville, Nairn. Scotland, and his wife, the Hon. Mrs. Melville, who were quietly married in Menlbouvne recently. Lieutenant Melville left England o» November li), 1!)12, for South Africa. He joined his regiment at Potchefstrom, and was stationed there for about 15 months. In one of his visits to Johannesburg he made thg acquaintance of Miss "e. Wilson, a charming lady of nearly his own age. Later the lieutenant obtained his furlough, and, meditating a six months' world tour, he joined the Ascanius at Cape town, en route to Australia. Ry a coincidence, Miss Wilson happened to be on the same ship, and the acquaintanceship begun in Johannesburg ripened into, a more affectionate intimacy on the voyage to I Australia. So much so, that when the young people arrived in Melbourne they decided to get married, with the result that the ceremony was celebrated on the following Friday. The bridegroom had his passage booked through to Sydney, but, as the Ascanius was to leave Melbourne on Thursday, March 5, and he had contracted his most important engagement to date on the following day, he arranged to come through to Sydney by rail. The bridegroom will be 22 years old •on May 23, having been born in 1892, while the bride might be two years j younger. The party are returning to England via Japan and America.

WORDS OF WISDOM. A rich man may turn out a poor husband. Man is logical, but unreasonable; Woman is illogical but convincing. Man admires woman, but loves himself; woman loves man, but admires herself. A man-who takes a woman at her word is either a born fool or a self-mad» one. If people who know you despise you, be consoled, for you must be important, for phe people who despise you would' not know you. Woman are jealous creatures: they are even jealous of their own noses, as any powder puff will testify, for no woman likes her nose to shine in sopiety. One has heard of —if one has not seen —a Xature's gentleman, but never a Nature's lady. Xo, Nature was not up to the job; she had to leave it to woman. Scandal is merely the compassionate allowance which the gay make to the | humdrum. Think how many blameless lives are brightened by the blazing in- ! discretions of other people.— I Education without 'instinct is like windows without a house. I The ladder of civilisation is a rum (thing; the top and the bottom arc near- | er to each other than the middle is to cither. It is always better to be Very than to be Rather. Who could be more generous than the man who'd split his last shilling with you? Well, the man who wouldn't split it.

THE AGE TO MARRY. If there is one subject of. unvarying interest to mankind, and to the feminine portion of it especially, it is marriage. The matchmaking mamma is less evident in these days of self-supporting daughters, it may be. Girls with careers may airily assure us that they never mean to marry at all, and pessimistic youths vote marriage the sort of thing that should be postponed as long as possible. But the marriage rate does not appreciably decline? Love-making is ai popular a pastime as ever it was, however much its phraseology may have altered. But that Jack and Jill marry later than formerly, js statistically indisputable. The average age has risen considerably in the last generation. For a girl to marry before twenty is unusual nowadays, and brides of fifteen and sixteen arc, in the middle and upper classes at least, practically unknown. The average age of marriage is rather over twenty-live. Indeed, brides between thirty-five and forty are by no means uncommon, and the strange thing is that they are well-preserved and as youthful in appearance as a bride of h've-nnd-twcmv in our mother's day.

Opinions differ very markedly as to the best age to marry. The" people who call themselves eugenists boliece in early marriages, as a rule; that i«, marriage in I lie early twenties. It is not good for man to live alone, or woman either. The man who marries fairly young, at twenty-eight or so, is more likely to push his way in the world, because of the incentive of his responsibilities, which, if it takes the form of a good wife, is the best thing in his life. But what is the best age to marry? That is one of the considerations that must be weighed. The answer must be. "it all depends." It depends partly upon such sordid but practical matters as ways and means, wages and prospects. It is never wise for two young people to rush into marriage, even if they have reached the ideal age for it, if they can't start clear of debt and with a certain regular sum coming in, even if it is "just enough" when carefully spent. It depends also upon health. One argument against young marriages—marriages under twenty-one, I "mc'nn—is that the constitution is less reliable than a few years later.

Then, friendship is a very important factor in marriage. If two people marryvery young the likelihood is that they grow apart in interests, because one develops more than the other, and they awake to the. realisation that if they had met for the first time five year's later they would never have wished to marry each other. The lack of companionship—that is the tragedy in nine out of ten unhappy marriages. But, after all, how little choice we have! The best age to marry is when |we fall in love. That is the real solution. The best age to marry is when me meet our mate.

TO REPLACE THE TANGO. American papers announce that tiic society leaders of Xew York have introduced a dance which mar replace the much talked of tango and turkey trot. The new dance is called the "Innovation Gavotte," and society's pet dance teachers -rave a demonstration before a section of Xew York's '-'upper ten," when the gavotte found great favor. ■•lnnovation" is danced to tango music with minuet-steps anil poses, and for most of the dance the couple who illustrated it stood 2ft from each other. As the American reporter so picturesquely puts it. -They could have danced it just as well if the lady had worn a hoop skirt of the circumference of a

taxi-cab. The new dance requires "much poise and grace," and its "dignity" appealed to all who saw it for the ■first time. After ,the professional couple had done their turn, the society leaders tried their hand at the gavotte and enjoyed it. Asked for a definition of the new dance the author said: —"I guess it's one. part tango and threeparts tact; only the name is too long." Some of the guests volunteered shorter names, including ''peacock strut." "touchless tango," and '"butterfly <rlide" (these names strike one as "'unconscious humor" on the part of tne American pressman). The New York newspaper notices of the dance are headed "Burial of the tango," and wind up with the following;:—-The gavotte arrives in America at a time when the tango, banned by the Church and many hostesses, is virtually dying, and the necessity of inventing a decorous substitute became, inevitable. That substitute must be something waltzing, gliding, graceful, dignified, and the new dance, it :s claimed precisely . answers the description."