FOR WOMEN FOLK.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 227, 4 March 1915, Page 6

FOR WOMEN FOLK.

" BY EILEEN."

" Eileen " will be glad to receive items of interest and e; value to women for publication or reference in this column.

WOMEN IX THE WAR. A NOBLE PART, j When it is announced that so many nurses have been sent to 'the front," ■;t does not mem that they aie actually to go into tlie firing line. Nurses are not sent into the tiring line, althougli a few free lances have made an entry into the zone of lire; one ol them paid for her foily with her life. But not even at the dressing stations are female nurses supposed to be sceu> they appear at tiie clearing hospital, a tent well in the rear where severe eases are sorted from the slighter ones and sent hack to the base Hospital.

THE DEVONSHIRE 'MOTHER. 1 The King has called the. lads, I and they he answering line— But shadows seem to bide this way, for all the sun do shine, For there's Squire's sons have gone for one, and Parson's smn-and mine. I mind the day mine went from me—the skies were all a-glow— The cows deep in our little lane was coiuin' home so slow — "And don't ee never grieve yourself," he said, "Because I go."

His arms weer strong around me, then. He turned and went away— • I heard the little childer dear a sing'n' at their play, The meanin' of an aching heart is hid from such as they.

This is not to say that the nurses do not come under the enemy's lire. They do, for the (iermans seeni to delight in shelling Red Cross waggons and hospitals. The Duchess of .Sutherland's hospital caught fire with bursting shell; so did Mrs Stobart's; and those frail little women of hers had a good 'leal more than ".Samaritans" in that awful moment, when heavy, helpless men had to be siiatched up bodily and borne down to the cellars.

And scarce a day goes by but now ] set rav door ajar, And watch the road that dan went up, the time, he went to war. That when hc'U come again to me I'll see him from afar.-

Women have indeed played an important part in the war—we need say no more than that—French and Belgian as well as English women. Roofjess anil wretched, tney have run out when the Allied troops passed by,, and shared their fruit with them, or handed up to them their last bottle of wine. But no less kind in return are the allied soldiers.

And in my chimney seat o' nights when quiet grows the. farm, I pray the Lord he he not cold whiles I have fire to warm— And give the mothers humble Hearts whose boys are kept from harm.

And then I take the Book and read before I seek my rest, Of how that other Son went forth (them parts I like the best), And left His mother lone for Jlim she'd cuddled to her breast.

It is a fine sight to sec the French dragoon rein in his horso at the wayside where a family are resting. Their home is burned; they have nothing now in this world but the clothes upon their backs. Mow far is it to the next village? The dragoon tells them, n? heartens them, too; he draws a smile to the mother's eyes with merry words for the curly-haired children. Often our dragoon will hand a five-franc piece to the woman. "Nay, it's nothing, madamc. How or where shall I spend money at a time like this?"

I like to think when nights arc dark and Him at prayer maybe, Upon the gurt dark mountain-side or in His boat at sea, He worried just a bit for her who'd learnt him at her knee.

And maybe when He minds her wr.ys He will not let Jan fall — I'm thinkin' He will know my boy,

with his dear wa-'s an' all— With his tanned face, his eyes of blue, and he so strappin' tall. —Marjorie Wilson, in the Westminster Gazette.

BEAUTY SLEEP. When you go to bed—if you a~e looking for beauty sleep—vou should fall asleep right away. The beauty sleeper, the one who waVes up looking refreshed, will fall asleep the minute her head' touches the pillow. .She will fall into a slumber heavy and dreamless, and she will awake in the morning of her own accord. The old-fashioned idea of the beauty sleep was the sleep that comes before 12 o'clock. Every hour passed in sleep before midnight made a younger woman, according to the old-fashioned idea of the beauty sleep. 'After 12 the sleep is heavy and not so good for the nerves, and less invigorating. According to a noted specialist, "sleep after 12 is the sleep of exhaustion."

WOMAN PATROLS. Considerable progress has already been made with the AVomen's Patrol Committee, organised by the National Union of W r omen Workers. This committee was created in England on ac- | eount of the presence of a large number of girls in the neighborhood of the military stations, and it is anticipated that Scotland and Ireland will soon join in the movement. The Chief Constable for London has agreed to sign a card for each patrol in the metropolis, stating that she is a worker authorised

by the N.U.W.W., and requesting the police to render her any necessary assistance, and the Home Secretary has requested the chief constables throughout England to do the same. Each patrol wears a distinctive armlet, and is provided with a small book of regulations. The object of the patrols is to enter into friendly relations with the girls whom they may see loitering about, and to put them into touch with clubs and other institutions which have been opened in the neighborhood of military training centres. The Women's Patrol Committee is working in harmony with the G.F.S., and the Y.W.C.A., the Mothers' Union and other such organisations. So far, the patrols have heard of no sign of resentment at their kindly interference; the movement has been welcomed by the police, who have previously found much difficulty in dealing with girls between the ages of fourteen and seventeen, whose heedless conduct sometimes rendered them liable to unpleasant and untrue suspicions and assertions.

JAPANESE WOMEN. A Japanese woman's lot is summed up in what are called "this three obediences" —obedience, while yet unmarried, to a father: obedience, when married, to a husband, and that husband's parents; obedienre, when widowed, to a son. The only qualities that befit a woman are gentle obedience, chastity, mercy and quietness. A woman going abroad at night must In all cases carry a lighted lamp, and she must observe a certain distance in her relations with her husband and with her brethren. If ever her husband should Inquire of her, she should answer to the point—to answer in a careless fashion would bo a mark of rudeness. When the husband issues his Instructions, the wife must never disobey them. IA woman should look upon her husband as if he were Heaven itself, and never weary of thinking how she may yield to her husband, and thus escape celestial castigation.