FOR WOMEN FOLK.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 251, 1 April 1915, Page 6

FOR WOMEN FOLK.

" BY EILEEN."

" Eileen " will be glad to receive items of interest and

value to women for publication or reference in this column,

THE LAW AND THE WOMAN.

A JUDGE OX SOME LEGAL PHENOM-

ENA.

In these daya few women look upon themselves as* favored by the law, but Judge Parry, in the Law and the Poor, claims that the woman is often in a better legal position than the man. "Like the infant," he writes, "she is indeed the darling of the law, and a married woman can, and does, have a real good time at the expense of her own particular tyrant—man. How many of the ikbt-eofieeting eases in the County Court arc concerned with the good lady who runs into debt unknov.-n to the husband. Tru, in many of these the husband has a possible defence, but tTie good man is generally a sporting, careless fellow, aiid pays his 5s a month in the" belief tlnTjt debt is a natural consequence of matrimony."

OF THE MARRIED.

"When it comes to committing wrongs," adds the judge,'" the married woman is the only legal personality tnat is privileged to forget' Tier duty to her neighbor at someone else's expense. Her unhappy husband""is always liable for the damages and costs, although he may have done his best to hinder the wrong that has been done. If in his absence? on the daily round the good lady \slanders her neighbor's wife or trespasses on her neighbor's garden, to commit the further wrong of slapping her neighbor's infant, the husband, for the purpose, of paying damages, is regarded by the law as being a joint offender. The law supposes "that a wife acts under her husband's directions." THE HUSBAND OF THE GOSSIP.

Judge Parry elaborates the absurdity still further. "You may not suspect that your good lady is given to slander, assault, and such like indiscretions, but, if it so happens, you have to pay. Nor do I see what steps you can take to hinder the lady from trespasses which she has the mind to commit. For if you were to place her under lock and key I believe a sentimental High Court judge would grant her a habeas corpus that she might go out again into the wide, wide world, and exercise her undoubted right of committing wrong at her husband's expense."

■ THE BACKDOOR TALLYMAN. The judge makes a strong protest against backdoor trading—that touring system which lias got so many servant girls and other into difficulties. "As soon," he writes, "as a girl or boy begins to earn wages, the Evil One, in the shape of some kind of tallyman, Is at his elbow with a watch or a ring or a family Bible or a musical instrument or a shoddy sewing machine, the possession of which car* be gloriously j enjoyed on payment of the first instalment.

THE MISTRESS AS DEFENDED "I do not say that boys and girlg must not buy their experience of the world and pay for it, but the law ne;d not assist the knave in making it more cxpenstre than is necessary. I have known several eases of young servants leaving good places and running off in terror because they have been served with a blue-paper "frightener" with a lot of jaw jargon about imprisonment on it, threatening them with dire penalties because an instalment was due on a.gold ring. More might certainly be done to prevent backdoor trading, and there is no more reason why area touts should be allowed to infest the streets that the lower class of book-makers."

Mistresses can do a good deal to protect their maids from the wile 3 of the backdoor canvassers. In some cases a suitable letter on the girl's behalf to a firm threatening penalties will work wonders.

THE "GOOD-BYE" YVEDDIXG. That there are fewer weddings nowadays seems to be clear (states a writer in an English exchange).' Weddings!" said the clerk of a fashionable West End church. "There aren't any weddings now. In the ordinary way we'd think nothing of two or three *> week, but we think we're doing well if -.ve get one now. And you can't call th :m weddings. People don't come here to get married. It seems to me that they come to say good-bye. As a rule a wedding cheers me up, but what's the good of it when you know the man is going out to the war in a day or r vo perhaps the same day—and the girl i* wondering all the time wi-.-ther sho will see him again. I don't call thes.; wdflings. They're more like funerals. Bi.t

don't think the young ladies aren't plucky. They're fine. To see them smiling away, you'd think they wen t;o----ing off on a honeymoon. There isnt half so much handkerchief worK as m pea.ee time. They keep on smiling ~ but I can sec through tlmt.'

FASHIONS IN PLAYERS. SLIM AND STALWART LEADING LADIES.

Every year brings forward interesting changes in the theatrical world, both inthe kind of play favored by the public and in the, popular type of leading lady —especially in the type of leading lady; but it is strange to reflect that the kind of girl who is popular in the street is nearly always the direct antithesis of the stage favorite for the time heirs. ■ Np't many years ago, when, by the' way, every she in tin: city resorted to ,all kinds' of methods to obtain the' svelte proportions admired by the sana of Adam, the stage favorite was a o : g and buxom demoiselle, stately as to movement, and deep as to voice; the sort of woman who looked the tragedy queen, as well as acted it. Maud •Jeffries, Edith Bland, Maxiuc Elliott. Nance O'Neill, and a host of others give point to the suggestion. The contrast to-day is striking. In the streets every girl is as broad as immense blouses, gathered tunics swathed liip sashes, and obi bows cm make her. But on the stage the fancy for the moment is towards the slim, ingenue type as leading lady—like pretty En ; d Bennett, Dorothy Brunton, Lizcttc Parkes, and other successful young artists.

From a truly artistic point of view, however, it is a question whether tit;! ingenue does not lose ?. good deal by comparison with the bigger stage beauty of a few seasons back. Whatever claims slip m.iy have as a l exponent of girlish roles, when it comes to strength and real dramatic expression her frailty is ail against her. As a rule it takes the bigger woman, with her suggestion of force and character, to carry her audience with her.—Sydney Telegraph.