Woman's World

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVI, Issue 89, 10 September 1914, Page 6

Woman's World

mm2. caillaux freed Vkexzied scexe ox acquittal. court ix a tumult. Mine. Caillaux is free to-day! (wrote ' the special correspondent of an American ' journal on July 23). ' After deliberating less than an hour on ' the evidence of the most sensational ; trial in the criminal annals of France, ' the jury brought in a verdict of not ' guilty. Mine. Cail'aux killed Gaston ' Calmette, editor of the Kigaro, not in ' cold b'ood, according to the jurors, but . while temporarily insane through fear ' that he would publish letters which had < passed between herself and the luan who ' afterwards became lior husband, when their love was illicit. It is probable that the unwritten law ■ also played its part in bringing about • the acquittal of the beautiful wife of the former French Premier. I The delicate "'point of honor" was 'dwelt upon at length by Maitre l-ahori I in his plea for the prisoner, who sat weeping softly as he talked. Before lie had finished, several of the jurors were in tears. ELOQ'.T.XT PLEA. Labori, wlio delivered a masterpiece of passionate eloquence, closed amidst a tempest of applause, saying: "My wish is that Mine. Caillaux shall leave lure acquitted, and tTiat the Press shall ho purified. Let us keep our anger for our enemies abroad. 1/ct us - leave this court resolute and milted to face the perils which threaten us." The speech of the Procurator-General, Jules llcrbaux, was unusually inild in tone. He said: "Your duty, as the defendants of the interests of society, requires you to find a verdict of guilt-.", but no one expects you to he pitiless." VERDICT XO SURPRISE. Long before the jurors retired, it was admitted that the woman who shot hiin down in his private office, either would be acquitted or given the minimum of two years. For all that the verdict "not guilty" was expected, its announcement was greeted with an unroar which seemed t~> shake the very walls of the Palais du Justice. •'Caillaux! Caillaux! Vive Caillaux!" screamed the adherents of the one-time "strong man <ii' France." "Murderess—let ' us spit on her!'' t'al.-ncttc's supporters cried hack. .1 W CHEEKS AXI) HISSES. Out in the corridors and in the streets, where throngs v.vre jambed awaiting the verdict, there was still another uproar. Caillaux and his wife were alternately cheered and hissed, lauded and reviled. Throughout the entire day Mine. ' Caillaux had listened alternately to demands that her head pay the forfeit for her crime and please for her life. She I had heard herself excoriated as a woman without a shame, a murderess to whom illicit passion v>as dearer than human life. Then she had heard herself defended—heard mercy begged on her behalf. But through it all her life—the tilings which she held most sacredly secret—were laid bare. AI.ME. CAILLAUX FAINTS. During a particularly violent attack '• on her character by Attorney Chenu she fell in a faint, and a recess had to he taken while physicians revived her. When the jury tiled out to its delibcraiions her body was twitching, her cheeks stained with tears, and her eyes sunken. ! Miae. Caillaux looked up quickly as the jurors re-entered with their verdict, and clenched her hands so tightly that her ling"'.--nails cut into the llesh. Then, as the words "Xot guilty" were pronounced, with a wild, almost insane, that seemed half a sob, she rose with arms extended towards her husband. Her hair, already dishevelled, became unfastened, and fell about her shoulders. Impatiently she brushed it back, and began sobbing out her husband's name. "Josephs Joseph!'' she cried, and then fell fainting into the arms of Maitre Labori, who had rushed to her side. Caillaux tried to reach his wife's side, but that was impossible. The crowd in 'the court room had. become temporary maniac.-, and deuced about, cheering, 'hissing and screaming curses. "Labori!" shouted one faction: -Cbenn!'' shouted the other, But the attorneys tlicni-cives showed that, however bitterly ihey may have fought in court, tli-y bear -aeli other no enmity. 'Whilst the demonstration "as at its 'height, the two rushed into each other'I arms, embraced and then kissed each other on the cheek, while the cruwd cheered v.ildlv. Caillaux dually managed to reach ,Ins wife's .-ide. and. taking her by I he hand, led the way into the corridor. There the crowds surged about tiicm. shouting fonsrntulatious. S(ores begged for (he privilege of ki-siug Mine. Caiibmx's hand. Tears >tr. amed down the face of the former Pivinicr a- he accepted the <oii•■ratiilaiiou-. Madame Caillaux, however. .-lir.mk e'e-e to bis side, and 'seemed da/.-d. It we.-, bnvossiiile for cither ( aillair. or his wife to force their way through' the (rowde.l corridors. Insl.ad. they into the court-room and left by a secret passage-way, which took them to the street. There they leaped into nil automobile, and were whizzed 'home before tiie clamoring crowd outside 'knew they had gone. On the boulevards, following the trial. the verdict was the, one topic of diseusI sionl Even the prospect of a world I war was subordinated. Scores of street lights between Caillaux and cuti-Caillaux

crowds were reported. Cheers and curses were shouted out all through Vlie night. MUDDLING ALONG. DOMESTIC COXSCIUI-TIO.Y. Amongst other things Americans have been seriously considering is domestic conscription for women, as soon as they are twenty-one. Six months' household training, three months' work in the nursery, three months' sick-nursing, and thr.ea months' plain cookery. From tin's it is clear tlfat the Americans rightly consider that unskilled labor of the kind is doomed. The unskilled mistress is just as had as the unskilled servant. Both, require teaching, and until that is done the, standard of the home cannot he raised. A thoroughly-trained domestic will work far better for a skilled mistress than for one who has to rely on the; servant's competency for the carrying en of the household affairs. When the domestic reaches the limit ol . j her knowledge to whom is she to turn I lur help, if the mistress cannot enlighten her? Uock3 are all very well up to a certain point; but, as a rule, they generally omit the very questions on which knowledge is required. Man has come to believe that every woman knows how to cook and manage a household, just because sho is a woman. Ko never for one moment thinks as a man in whatever walk ot iife he selects: There is no such thing as intuition ,for men, and it is not rea* sonable to expect it in women. Children's nurses and generals receive most or their training in small households, wherein their mistress is also learning by experience. The husband is the "vile body" oa which the cooking is tried; while the survival of the baby will indicate whether the nursing is following the right method or not. Should these experiments turn out failures, then mistress and domestic fall back into the ranks of unskilled labor, with in) hope of emerging from them again. Probably, when the domestic secures another situation, and as they often do, pretend to knowledge they do not possess, worse disaster bcfal's, as the mistress, relying on the "help," finds sue has nothing but a broken reed to lean upon. And so the tiling goes on, the domestic moving from place to place, and disappointing at each. Xow, the suggested American method of domestic conscription would cure a

good deal of this trouble, if not all. The present system of drift would, to a great extent, be minimised. Any girl who goes through the course set down would make either a good mistress or servant. She would be grounded thoroughly, and any future knowledge she might acquire would be grafted on to a .vovtliy stock. And a domestic armed with lier certificate of competent"/ would certainly be able to demand higher wages than one without, and should she succeed in securing the recommendation "passed with credit" on the face of her certificate,Nilie would be able almost to make her own terms. While all other work is reaching a higher standard, domestic training is -till "muddling along." The everchanging conditions in the social world demand more skill throughout the home. It i.-. acknowledged that the. higher wages of the trained nurse and domesti-.' are made up over and over again in the saving of doctor's iocs and in household expenditure. The unskilled laborer wastes fully half the material he or she is entrusted with. Experiments with fooil and children arc always costly, and often dangerous. Economy of material and means is one of the direct results of capable training. .Method is another 'and a valuable one, as without it there, e; ■ be nothing but mess and muddle in the kitchen and nursery. We shall, however, do little good until household training is compulsory. The fact of it is the majority of young women do not like the idea of training schools. Those who care look to their mothers for learning, or e'se "pick up" their knwledge in all sorts oi odds-and ends ways, with the usual result that comes from a "little learning." Alost of our immigrants arc troubled with this little learning of the domestic arts, and it is generally, found that, while posing as <apnhlt> domestics, and demanding the hieh"st wages, all they know has been [licked il]i in the home after their day's work at factory, store or Im.-iness has concluded. Had a system of compulsory training been in vogue in the countries they came from, what a help it would be, not only to them, but to the mistresses, who have so ofien found them quite incapable of even cooking a potato, or sweeping a lloor. SEALED LIPS. One of the most important resolutions that the young woman starting out as a bookkeeper or stenographer should make, says an expert in such matters, is that sealed lips shall be V.U; watchword as far as the affairs of her employer are concerned. And if she would live, long and v..,;r well in the bu-iness world she will be equally reticent about discussing the affairs of one of her fellow-workers with another. It is easy enough to sossip. but it is an;, thing but easy to recall one's idle words. I Icing sorry doesn't help, either, after incalculable hiiim has been done by indiscreet talkiutr. and one's lightest word imiv prove .- B .J a boomerang that will redound and strike with unpleasant force.