WOMAN'S WORLD.

Taranaki Daily News, 30 November 1918, Page 7

WOMAN'S WORLD.

THE WOMAN OP THE FOTDEE.

(By George Egerton, the Woman Novelist.)

In measure as woman develops a more highly conscious ego, regarding her work and place in the community as an end m itself, entirely apart from her relationship to others, she will compete on terms of equality with man. As I pointed out in one of my early books, she was never what men liked to think of her. He endowed her with imaginary qualities and supplied her with angel's wings, which economic considerations forced her to wear in all her intercourse with him and the social order he governed—out of expediency. War has made this subterfuge unnecessary. She can now afford to reveal herself as she really is, always has been, and always will be in essentials. ,rhe change will not be in her, but in the conditions in which she will live and work.

In politics she will now he able to play all her cards openly, where hitherto she has too often been the fifth ace in some man's game. It is sate to prophesy that she will ultimately sit in Parliament, and so end party polities. Once there she will be no well-trained poodle, to jump through the "Aye" or "No" hoop to thee rack of the party whip. She will be untrammelled by reverence for traditions. Claims of party or loyalty to men on top, who have bought allegiance by largess and jobbery, will not exist for her. "Measures, not men," will be her slogan. She will be ruthless in her punish,ment of inefficiency of failure. There will be no whitewashing knighthoods and shelving baronetcies, and the loyal department liar will vanish from the House.

In municipal life I think she will be the deciding factor. The practical work of the nation will gradually fall into ilier capable hands, for she has always been the cleaner-up of humanity. As architect she has, I consider, a great future. Domestic building, houses, schools, bints will perhaps pass entirely into her revolutionary hands; but she is unlikely to erect a cathedral as she is to* found a new i\U gion. She w'll probably veto expenditure in palatial municipal buildings, banquets, and the vanities of bumbledom in favor of improved washhouscs and a State supply of free hot water. To the more practical half of humanity, with less liking for visionary ideals ir the future than fot concrete improvements in the present, she is bound to be less tolerant than man of the rights of vested interests is opposed to public welfare. Of all vested interests the law will one day be the object of her united attack. 'She will see to it that equity b. no longer divorced from justice by that trade union of cream skimmers—toe men of law. She is less tender, less sentimental, less highly Btruns: than man. She has an uncompromising way of ffoing straight to the bull's-eye of an unpleasant fact. In a word, she lias more moral courage. Man will continue to dream visions and die for lost causes, to write the greatest poetry and compose the greatest music, paint the greatest pictures, and supply the world with beauty and passion, but woman, having come into her own share of the nation's work, will hold it for all time and find herself in doing it.

LEST WE FORGET-

THE HUNS' ENORMITIES. In a London hospital I saw a little girl who had been most terribly maimed in an air. raid. I am not going to dwell on the state of this child. When I think of her I have not the words to express tlie feelings that I have. But one.of her hands was gone at the wrist, and the other, hand \vj;s badly shattered; so she was just a wan little brutally abbreviated fragment of humanity, a living fraction, most, grievously afflicted. Her wounds had ceased to pain her, the bead nurse told me before we entered and for the rest of the time she was a good patient, one of the best in th« werd.

She was Iving. when T saw her. with Tier b»!iH propped upon a pillow that was jio "l.'ipr than her fare was, and there was the pitiable wraith of a smile on her poor little pinched, commonplace face, and to her breast, with the bandaged stump of one arm and with her mrrMnirif hand thai was southed in a plump of wrapping, she cuddled nr> a "tinted r-hina doll vrhi/h someone had lv 'U2ht her, and she was singing to it-

The sight. I take it, would have been verv gracious in tho eves of his Imperial Maicst.v of Prussia—except, of wireo. thai; the !!!He girl still lived: 'hot nnf'irallv. would be a to hi" comilet" enioymont of the spectacle. —ftv Irwin Cobb-

AMERICAN WOMEN ALARMED.

A storm in a teacup has been raised in New York (writes Miss Eara Douglas, a Sydney singer who visited America in Wls, to her friends) by one of the local papers advising young Frenchwomen to marrv members of the American forces in France. Letters for or against the suggestion have flooded the press. The old maids wished to start a league for the protection of A.nerican sweethearts. The verv thought of the wonderful chances in the American matrimonial market for French girls has touched the latter, who believe that every soldier who leave* an' American port will fly at once into the arms of a French admirer. One spinster, who evidently thought she had lost her last chance, wanted On President to pass a regulation forWdding soldiers to marry!

HINTS.

Ennmel and aluminium pans roust never he washed vitli sndn. A little salt or fine a*h is better than sand to scour these with, na the grains of the latter are *<■■ tharp that they scratch the. surface. To BU'c in Kurd Wnter.—Take the usual amc:nt of blueing, mix it with two taMesnoonfith of sweet milk, stir in the rinTinz water until the desired shade. Then rinse the clothes as usual. They will never streak. To Renovate Black Leather.—Whisk the white of an egg as stiffly a3 possible, color black with a few drops of ink, and apply to the leather with a sponge, Polish well with soft dusters until the snrfaca becomes slightly glossy. Oil Lamps.— The less water is used for cleanins lamp glasses and globes the better. Clean them with an old piece jof linen or leather. No oil reservoir akaoU *• man tiuu thm-p»*U M.

If filled to the brim the oil expands, oozes through the screw, and mokes the loom unbearable. Place a, piece of camphor the size of a walnut in the oil reservoir and you will get a brilliant light. Keep a cork in your oil can. (Dust and fluff arc not conducive to a brilliant illumination. An old tea tray should bo kept for trimming your lamps on, and don't leave the job until they are wanted.

Yon might try this mixture for "binding" such things as rissoles, lentil or meat cutlets when it isn't convenient to use an egg. Ono ounce of cornflour, one ounce of dripping, quarter of a pint of stock or water. Melt the fat and add the flour. Mix well and add the liquid. Bring to the boil. Boil five to seven minutes.

Making a polishing pad for floors (if you haven't one of the patent contrivances) in this way: Tack pieces of old cloth, serge, old stockings, etc., evenly on the head of an old broom, cover with an old piece of velvet, and you'll have a polishing pad that will save you many a backache.