WOMAN'S WORLD.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 157, 9 December 1914, Page 6

WOMAN'S WORLD.

LOOKING AFTER THE WAR BABIES. One of the many avenues of women's work in London in connection with the War has been the procuring of homes for the little "war babies." An English exchange tells something of tliis matter in the following article:— Thousands of homes are awaiting the little war babies. Thousands of willing foster-mothers are stretching forth their arms to welcome and adopt the tiny infants. But their mothers cannot part with them. Because they have so bravely parted with husbands, called to the war, the more closely do they cling to the tender little scraps newly come to their arms. Would-be foster-mothers are, therefore, talcing up the role of fairy god-mother, and guaranteeing to hold a watching brief i''r mother and child until the father is home again. The War Babies and Mothers' League has the whole matter in hand, and there is no end to its ramifications for the benefit of any mother dependent upon the men at the war. "We do everything that the individual ease requires," said a keenly Interested official of the League. "And all our help is voluntary. The only thing we do not do is to give uioiicy grants. When money is sent to us, it is used to buy goods and material and to pay for labor. Instead of giving money, we gi v tiie women work that'can lie done in their homes. Baby clothes, children's clothes, sheets, toys, materials, women's night-gowns, mater-nity-bags, dry foods, and nourishments, all "these things are distributed, and just at the moment we are especially wanting sheets and night-gowns. ■ "When we hear of a case, we investigate it thoroughly, and attend to it right to the end, "no matter how long the affair, or what amount of trouble is necessary, lien: is one case: t!ie mother must undergo an operation, and must go into a hospital; her youngest, under two. is ill and must go to another hospital. Homes have been found for her" three other children until all are well and can reunite again in their own home.

"The League is working in co-opera-tic.n with all other societies, so that there is no overlapping, and there is not a spot in the whole British Isles where it is not ready to help." At the offices a., 50a, South Molton street, there are joints of meat with the choicest of vegetables and special fish for distribution, with condensed milk, rice, tea, etc., for those who apply for them, and the helpers are as keen about their work as those who sort clothes, toys, etc.

SOME CLEANSING HINTS. The cleansing of linen and calico garments can be grcr.tly assisted by flie use of parafijn oil. Tlie oil should be added in the proportion of two tablespoons of paraffin to ten gallons of boiling water. Vases that have become dirty should be well soaked in warn; soapy v.-ater in order to loose the dirt. Then throw •away the water and place ill each vase a handful of cold tea leaves and some more water. Allow this to soak for a little while, and finally give the vase a good shaking. There, is nothing better for imparting clearness to glass than tea leaves. When smoke stains have become noticeable upon marble, the best thing to do is to t:.ke a lump of whiting and moisten it with water in which a piece of washing soda has been dissolved. Place some of the whiting 011 a flannel and thoroughly rub the marble, letting the whiting stand on for some hours. Then wash off with soap and water, dry it thoroughly, and finish by polishing with a.soft duster.

GEKJIANS AS PETS. Anglo-Australian writes in the Sydney Sun:—"l am astonished to learn from correspondence in the Sun that certain so-called society women, who ought to know better, are in the. habit of entertaining our German enemies detained in Sydney with every mark of respect and hospitality. Is it any wonder that information of value is conveyed to those looking for it when we learn that Germans are on the best terms with some of our "nicest people," whose chattering tongues overrun their better judgment? lam satisfied that the community is under a deep obligation to Mrs Lufimann for exposing the conduct of those supposed leading citizens, and she deserves the best thanks of loyal Britishers. What I vrou'.d suggest is to secure ayd publish for general information the names of the people who have dared to hob-nob with our enemies. The matter is certainly one for the military authorities to take cognisance of, and if the names of some of the feminine beauties were riven publicity the information would create surprise and indignation.

A REVELATION. William Thompson, writing in the "Clarion," throws a fierce sidelight on the treatment of the wounded British soldiers at the front. He says:—"Robert Blatchford's fine praise of the -Red Cross Nurses in the Weekly Despatch is the first public acknowledgment I have read of the work done by these brave and devoted women on the battlefields and in tiie hospitals. I have seen them at work,' silent, quick, trailer and untiring, in the French Red Cross Hospital of the Hotel Majestic, Paris, and I have heard moving tales of their heroic conduct in Belgium under the German fire. In one ease, two nurses had charge of two hundred men, badly wounded. In many cases nurses have helped surgeons in the operating theatre for eighteen hours at a stretch. It taxes the courage of strong men to stand under the hail of shrapnel and shell, but they also serve, those quiet and gentle women, who \vipe the bloody sweat from faces distorted with agony, moisten lips black with congealed blood, and listen. all day and night to the groans from the clenched teeth of the dying. As I to'd you, our friend Dr. Iladen finest conveyed a large party of English nurses to Paris on the boat and train by which I travelled, and when I called at the Majestic to see him, I found he had gone .on to Limoges, four hundred kilometres from Paris, to' open a second iiospital theref. Another large contingent of British nurses sent over by the St. John Ambulance Society, and conveyed from Southampton on Sir Thomas Lipton's yacht, arrived while I was in Paris. At the American hospital, which was an unfinished college when the war started, and which has since been converted into one of the finest hospitals in France, American doctors and American ladies, amongst whom Mrs Vanderbilt is a generous and indefatigable help, are spending their energies unceasingly to bring relief to suffering Tommies.

Yet I heard on every side that despite all this English and American service, -more doctors, more nurses, and more .hospitals are urgently needed: For iii

One hears heart-breaking stories of insufficiency. I was told of one wounded soldier, conveyed by the ambulance men to the railway station nearest the battlefield, who remained there unattended from Wednesday to the following Monday. A nurse who had travelled through the ravaged portion of France reports that many soldiers have lain by tlie roadside for days unattended and unprovided even with water. A motor ambulance driver from Asturia'told me that during the long stand on the Aisne the blocking of the railway line by German prisoners prevented the ambulance men from fetching away the wounded for nearly a week.

According to all the people connected .with the work with whom I talked in France, men are dying of gangrene for lack of attention and in London thousands of nurses who have given up profitable posts at the call of humanity are, as one of them told me tlie other day, "hanging about and eating our hearts out for the grief of our uselessness." At the Red Cross Office in Pall Mai? they are told very abruptly: "There is no shortage of nurses at all. We are simply besieged by nurses. Wq have several thousands on our books now." With the volunteer nurses, as with the volunteer recruits, the machinery of organisation has proved unequal for the unexpected pressure. We shall eventually blunder through, I suppose, in our usual blundering way, but when I hear of men lying unattended, with shattered limbs and in the agonies of tetanus, the "abrupt" speech of officials in Pall Mall to eager "superfluous" ministers of relief makes me feel inclined to a little abruptness of speech myself.

THE HOT WATER CURSE FOR ROSES "Boiling water will revive flowers that are so 'withered that aimost anyone Would throw thorn array as worthless," said a clever h'dy gardener. She was scraping down tlie limp stems of some full-bloom roses that drooped dejectedly. "I am doing this lightiv, you sec," she continued, "so that the hot water will soak through <".11 the stems." After she had finished the scraping, she put the flowers in a deep jus, went to the stove, and took from it tin: steaming hot-water kettle. Then she poured the hot water into tjje jug until it just covered tin sie:r.3, and left the roses above the surface. "There! In a few minutes I slmll have fresh {lowers for the dinner table," she said. And her visitor saw just what she had prophesied—a mass of roses that looked as if they had never thought of fading. "I always try the boiling-water euro on roses before J throw them ivway," slip concluded. "Very few people know about it. You nmsn't lay tlie flowers in the hot water. Just let it cover the strms."

LOYALTY AND LOVE FOR WORK. In the qualifications of a manager, one defines the qualifications for practically the same ones are requirilii to make a successful worker 011 the lower rung of the ladder as to make a successful manager. Enthusiasm and love for work one is doing, whether it lie in the highest or- lowest position, are among the prime essentials, jjml on a par with these is loyalty to the firm for which one is working and to its intereste. Keenness of conception, good common sense, fair education, quickness, accuracy, attention to details and ex pcri'ence in everything that is in any way connected with the business are among the qualifications neccsary to the success of every worker, 011 whichever rung of the ladder she 'l'.'.ny b". Duties of a manager vary according to the size and importance of the establishment, but the qualifications which make her successful as a saleswomen, an apprentice, or whatever her rork may have been, are the same aa these which enabled lier to rise one step after the other until she became a manager. The same intelligence which made the work of the errand girl acceptable governs the work of. the manager, so there is a common bond between them which is sometimes overlooked. I There is not the. wide difference between the executives and the workers in any concern than some suppose, for these qualifications common to both draw them closely together than is generally recognised, while the .difference that exists in the energy with 'which these, are applied to the work.