FOR WOMEN FOLK.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 232, 10 March 1915, Page 6

FOR WOMEN FOLK.

f« BY EILEEN-"

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

TRAlNir.*i YOUNG 'HOUSEWIVES. MOVEMENT EXTENDING IX IiXG. LAND. Rapid progress is being made ail over over England in the teaching of Housewifery. The Shropshire Education Com. mittee, recognising tile desirability, especially at tne present time, oi making Ule best use of tne food available 111 the country, lias inaugurated a scheme lot the instruction of cottagers in food values, which it is hoped will soon be carried out in every parish in the county. A number ol' ladies are to be selector to undergo a course of tlicoietical and •practical instruction from tile county cookery teachers. Then tliey are to be given practical instruction in the villages with a sample explanation of the theory underlying the practice. Local committees have been formed throughout Shropshire to find suitable educated women to be trained as instructors, and tc. arrange for the use of suitable cotages, ill each parish for the giving of second set of lessons. The aim of this movement is to give every woman in the smallest village in Shropshire a, chance of learning housewifery, i Much lias been done in Leeds <lunug j the past year. The experiment of allow ing sets "o'f girls in the poor districts of the city to devote the greater portion of their time, during their last few months at school, to instruction in home, management; has been extended, a enthusiasm of the girls and the interest in the scheme displayed by the parents made it evident that the experiment was having the desired effect. It is felt in Leeds that much good is being done by the schools in teaching the girls, among other things, the simple, facts of personal hygiene, the value of fresh air and the economy of early mending of clothing. It is believed that the rnotli. era will be influenced through the daughters, and that a gradual improvement t- in the homes will thus be brought about, i The Thorpach Industrial School for "Girls I in Leeds is doing excellent work for older j girls. After 1-1, while the general cducaj tion is continued, they arc taught do- | me.-tii' science in all its branches, infk .!'!!£ Tu Birmingham and in West Ham girls can receive a training that will (it tliein for ilomestic service. In Sheffield, at the desire of various headmistresses, a one.year course is now given for girls who are attending secondary schools, in order to train them to act as housematrons. (This course is a comprehensive one, and includes those vital but mucli-neglected subjects—marketing and household accounts. Now that the problem of what to do with our daugli. ters is becoming a more pressing one, we owe it to them to put within their reach a training for the responsible domestic occupations which would suit many girls better than the office work into which they find themselves driven merely because it is the occupation for which" there is the greatest opportunity of getting adequate training.

THE MODERN ENGAGEMENT. SIGNS OF THE TIMES. THEN AND NOW. An engagement nowadays, is apt to be a vefy liideflllite affair, and it is not unlikely that a young niiii who suddenly found himself face to face with the necessity of saying whether he was engaged or not, might have considerable difficulty in mating himself understood. So many preliminaries to marriage have been dispensed with, and the whole affair is so much less formal than it used to be, that a man may look upon him. self as engaged, and so, for that matter, may a girl, without being able to produce a scrap of evidence which would i be accepted by an impartial third party. Iln the old days—even fifty years ago —there was rarely any room for doubt. Indefinite arrangements—what may today, perhaps, be called an understanding—were not recognised then. You were "either engaged or you were not, and it was pretty generally understood that you would not be allowed to keep your immediate circle for long on tenter.hooEs. You must out with it, and not take pleasure in prolonging a mystery of your own. , Now, it is all very different—so different that even the War Office are driven to make something of a protest, and to announce that "though the wife of a soldier is not to be debarred from separation allowance merely because she is married after he enlisted, she must be prepared to show that there were finite arrangements to marry beforehand." That, of course, in these days of haphazard romance, is asking a good deal. For now that an engagement, in many cases, is so intangible a thing, there must be a" good many people, apart from soldier's wives, who would be considerably .puzzled if asked to produce evidence of their definite intention to marry. At one time the engagement ring was general, and the wearer announced plain, ly to the world that someone had found her sufficiently charming to make it clear that he couldn't live without her. Such a ring could always he acepted as a definite intention to marry. But the modern girl lias no great liking for the engagement ring. She may resent wearing a badge which the man escapes wearing, "or she may call the ring a relic of barbarism, or she may refuse to flaunt herself as one of the chosen, or thing the ring a futile extravagance, and decide that the money would he better spent on something useful. There are still a good many women who consent to wear engagement rings, but it is clear enough that the custom is going out, and" that thousands of engaged couples cannot boast a ring be. tween them.

INDEFINITE mOrOSALS. Tlio proposal, too, is T>y 110 means the definite thing that it used to be. ITlie letter which a man used to write, after a grievous waste of paper is a tiling of tlie past. X 0 one proposes by post now: and_even tlio telegraph, "which would seem to be a suitable medium, find to have at any rate the advantage of providing the proposer and the proposes with documentary evidence in case the proposer enlisted after marriage,, does mil appear to be used to any great extent. 'Xo r is there any actual evi. donee of any definite proposal having lieen made on the telephone, though in many ways it would seem to be well fitted for the casual modern method, a

THE UNIMPORTANT PARENT. The father, too, no longer plays a decisive part, and in thousands of cases lie would be quite unable to say whether his daughter was engaged or not. It is no longer necessary for the lover to interview the father before he says tile word or two on the l*2th green, or leaves the word or two unsaid, that raiiks as a proposal. The parent must now be content to stand by mid to come in only in the final stages. So indefinite, in fact, have pre-mar-riage affairs become that even the prin. jipals themselves are not always able to give a clear account of their position. There are some, when challenged, who will say that they are "semi-engaged." It might be interesting to speculate on the stage marked by so elastic a phrase.

GERMAN WOMAN NOVELIST. GLORIES IN HATRED OF ENGLAND. ,The venerable Gabriele lieuter, one of Germany's best-known novelists, sup. plied the Berlin Morgenpost, with a ferocious article in justification of the hatred felt for England. Why should Germans not hate the people, she asks, who for so long have secretly waited for the day and hour to compass Gei" many's destruction? Tlieir hatred is far deeper. It is cold, Satanic hatred. German hatred is young and immature compared with the completed British article. She explains why Germans do not hate Russia with the same intensity. They also have been preparing for the war. They have scandalously ill-treat-ed Germans in their midst, they have laid waste East Prussia. But Germans do not hate them because they are a sttange, wild race, with whom the Cer. mans have nothing in common, But the English were near, and jGcrmans hate them so bitterly, because they so cynically betrayed their love. I'rau Reuter "declares that it has become natural to hate the Britons. They make no secret of their longing for Germany's" downfall, and no mean' are ioo disgraceful to emplay to bring this abc'lllfc, All their "f"': nil _their "gentlemanliness," qualities which once imposed so much on Gentians, were only for their own consumption at their island firesides. Look at their newspapers. To fan German hate to seething point you have only to cireulato those journals throughout the Father, land. Why denounce German hate? Tt has become tiie sacred duty of every German, and will endure to the second and third generation. Germans will be, compared to that Ivriemliild who allow-" cd her kith and kin of the Nibelungs to be slaughtered in order to slake her revenge.

The hatred, towards England, says this furious lad.v, begins to fill our entire being, even though Christ demanded of us that we love our enemies. Today this precept is more impossible than ever for normal humanity. It sonnets like a stray note of a flute on the battlefield. Frau Renter concludes by beseeching her fellow-countrymen to girdle themselves with hatred as with brazen armor; to carry it in their hands like a thunderbolt. But they are not to let it poison their blood, and they are to protect tlicir scmla from this hercdi. tarv enemy of imufFirul,

_ Shampooing, Hairdressing, and Twisting. Electrolysis for the permanent removal of superfluous hair. Switches, toupees, etc. Ladies' combings made un L° .fny design. Mrs. BEADLE. Egmont toilet Parlors, Griffiths' Buildings near Carnegie Library. '