THE MODERN GIRL.

Taranaki Daily News, 27 May 1922, Page 5

THE MODERN GIRL.

CAKES, SWEETS AND THE PICTURES. NEW WAYS ADVISED. In order to illustrate the need of selfdiscipline and of laying out a plan of daily life, Dr. Trilby King, in a lecture at Wellington this week, drew a picture of the girl who had thrown off the trammels and discipline of home life, with the life of one guided by selfdiscipline and common sense. His auditors could say whether the former was an exaggerated one: Having gone to bed late at night, she rose late and tired next morning. Hurriedly dressing, she ate a scrap of bread and butter or bread and jam, caught a tram, and started her work. Then came morning tea and biscuits or cake. About noon she took an apology for a meal, in the form of what she had Jiastlily scrambled together for hineh. Work again, broken by afternoon tea. By this time she was more or less ravenous, and the mainstay was -tea again, with biscuits and cake, followed by chocolates and sweets —unlimited sweets. After dinner came the part of life regarded as really worth living —the pictures, the theatre, dancing, and the rest, with the invariable accompaniment of more sweets and chocolates. This kind of life meant spoiling the digestion, ruining the teeth, and bringing about general failure. This picture represented an extreme, but not an uncommon case. Contrast this picture with what they might consider a counsel of perfection—a sensible disciplined life that would make for health, success, and efficiency. START AND LIVE THE DAY LIKE THIS. Buy an alarm clock, and set it for 6.30 a.m. When the alarm sounds jump straight out of bed, and have a cold bath or cold sponging, followed by an active rub down with a rough towel. Dress rapidly, and take at least a quarter of an hour of really active exercise in the open air—quick walking, running, skipping, etc. Come back warm, with a keen appetite, and take due time over a good wholesome breakfast. Put up a good lunch, and walk to work if not far away. Restrict eating to meal times. Give up morning and afternoon tea, and limit the taking of chocolates and sweets to strict moderation, and, as far as possible to meal times. Take some further outing and exercise between leaving work and going to bed. Returning to the paramount need of daily outdoor exercise, irrespective of the weather. Dr. King referred scathingly to the present absurd fashion in women’s boots—boots of a type which no man would dream of wearing, either as regards the shape of the toes, the height of the heels, or the miserable quality of the materials. Wet feet were a serious matter, and radically bad boots were one of the greatest handicaps of the modern woman, from every point of view. WHAT TO EAT. As regards food, the following was given as an outline of what would suffice on the average—more or less being needed according to the nature of the daily work and the amount of exercise taken. Variety from day to day and attractiveness were essential:—Bread (mainly whole meal), Goz. to Soz.; oatmeal, loz. to 20z.; milk, half-pint; fish, meat, eggs, etc., 31b. to Jib.; potatoes, 31b. to lib.; other vegetables (greens, etc.), 31b. to 41b.; fruit, 31b. to 41b.; sugar, 20z.; butter or other fat. 2oz. Special stress w'as laid on the high value of raw green food (lettuces, mustardand cress, etc.), and on the need for raw. ripe fruit.

Dr. King appealed to his audience to adopt a higher standard of living, if not for the sake of themselves for the sake of the future. Indigestion, constipation, anaemia, and irregularity of functions essential to the health 'of women were natural sequences—matters of cause and effect. He took it for granted that each of them recognised wifehood and motherhood as the natural goal and privilege of a woman’s life, and the source of the greatest and most lasting happiness. He did not believe that apthis kind were ever quite in