Woman's world

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 144, 12 November 1914, Page 6

Woman's world

THE MEN WOMJON MEET ll\ BUSINESS. The army of young girls who "go into business" nowadays in office, shop or factory, is so large that it constitutes a very considerable percentage of developing womanhood, and is attracting more and more attention all over uhe world.

Yon' will see them streaming in by every train, and the roadways are fuli of their 'bicycles every nrornng. Some of these girls make a sad failure of life. Others succeed, and win the respect of all those they come in contact with, and either elect to remain successful and independent business spinsters, or marry in the ordinary way of most women.

The business girl has largely to be her own protection, but if she will only remember that she is in business to do business, and not to flirt, a good deal of the trouble that sometimes comes to lightheaded girls in business, and Wife' failure of mem in business willj be avoided, for men, as a rule, respect girls who respect themselves, and don't pay advances to those girls who quietly indicate that they are not welcome. , . And the respectable business man likes the'woman who attends strictly to business as though she had no other thought. In the American papers great attention is paid to business girls, and 1 was much interested in this article ftliat 1 found in one of the big American papers:—

When a girl goes' into the business world she ought to leave behind ilier ah all thoughts of conquest and fascina j tion and charm.. The business world is, rrimarily a man's world, and is conducted on. a sound basis ot efficiency and work.' It is not a place of flirtatious mid lon-, affairs. .

It is a place where every one should try to do t'lie greatost'ipossible amount of work in the best possible way and the least possible time. Jt does not allow of a divided allegiance, and the gin who goes into the realms of commerce with her heart set on conquest and her mind divided between work and winning masculine favor accomplishes neither of her designs to any advantage. Every day I receive letters from girls who complain of unwelcome attentions they are forced to suffer from their employers or from men who work in the same place where they toil. Of course, there are many masculine brutes who take advantage of any excuse to force their attentions upon 'helpless and protesting girls. But there are also numberless m-u who do not dream that the attentions they offer and even the familiarities they attempt will be unwelcome.

Girls, who bring party clothes and flirtatious ways into the realm of business are destroying the very atmosphere that would protect them'. No girl who leplies to the merest civility w.ith downtast eyes and a provoking air of feminine sweetness has a right to be surprised when the men who work at her side treat her as a woman to be won instead of a fellow to be helped and respected. The business woman has no greater or surer protection against insult and misunderstanding than business iteif. If her main desire i.» to do Her work efficiently and to devote ft.-.- attention'lo-t-lit- interests of her task, she is reasonably certain to win respect as a worker. Then if admiration conies to !wr it will take the form of an honest regard that wants to express itself in friendly kindness rather than'in impudent attempts at familiarities.

Don't regard the men you meet in business, as possible ihusbands, girls. Many of them are married, even though you do not sinpect it, and they are not likely to tell you of it. The reason for their silence is not that they aredeceitful creatures who arc trying to Win your liking on false pretences. It is simply that to be the average man business and home life are so totally t'jv-irci'l that he considers his printt-j affairs no concern to a little girl be meets in a business way. Most men know two worlds—business and social. The woman in business would do well to divide her worlds as sharply. Go to your work dressed simly' and practically. Meet tl» men in your office or store or factor)' in a pleasant, comradely way as fellow workers. Treat them with the same courtesy \cm show t,> Ibe women who work where you do. Do not give them ''any attention and interest .because 'thev happen to be men. The girl who regards herself net as a girl but as a-worker, is lik-ly to fovg* ahead a j rn eil'icivt toiler 1 . ''- -a - , i* more, she will escape almost ail emotional unpleasantness and danger to her reputation. The men who work with you will like you twict as well if you do not force them to like you with an excited consciousness of you feminine charm, ir you can win regard as a business-like worker who attends to the matter at J.and—her "job"—working with roen will become pleasant instead of dangerous. It means winning alviiuc-iinent. And it may bring you honest friendship that is worth far more to you than an "affair" of emotion and short duration.

Just forget you are a girl to-morrow wlu-n you go to your work. 'Kcnembcr only that you arq an honest worke.il who is trying to do her honest best. Keep this up for a series of to-morr.v.-«?. Presently you will feel in the attitude of the men who work with you an interest and a helpfulness that will bring a wholesome atmosphere of good fellow" ship to your work side by side as brother toilers. (I Just treat the men you meet in business honestly and simply and thev will do the same by you.

BELGIAN' ■REFWiMKH AND AITER- I iNOOiN TEA. Every day at five o'clock a bell rings in the great exhibition hall of Alexandra "Palace, London, whereupon .fifteen hundred women, children and old <ncn, with a scattering of youths. set up a clatter of wooden shoes. This amusement park is now the largest camp- for Belgian refugees in the 'London district, and makes ideal quarters for the homeless, who are being cared for there. ■Not many weeks ago the same people were straggling' away from their, burning villages, some for the DutcH frontier, to be herded together in Flushing, and others for Brussels, whence tliev were sent to Ostein! and then to London. Attendants at the Alexandra Palace say the refugees for the first day or two seemed stupefied. The break 'in thenpeaceful lives by war and travel overwhelmed them-. Then they began to fall into the new way of living. They have nothing to do but wander in the great halls with the statuary, the remains of a Japanese fair and a bird-house in the wooded park outside, the heights of which, commaid an extensive view of London. These peasants, trained in extremely frugal living, had hitherto managed to do with, three meals a day. But in the refugee camps they found a fourth meal at five o'clock. Now they clamor for