WOMAN’S WORLD.

Taranaki Daily News, 22 July 1922, Page 10

WOMAN’S WORLD.

BOY OR GIRL AT WILL, DOCTOR’S THEORY OF SEX DETERMINATION. A new theory of the cause of the differentiation of sex and the possibility of having boy or girl children at will were explained by Dr. Leonard Williams, physician to the French Hospital, in an address to the Westminster Division of the British Medical Association. The two elements, male and female, from which the child grows are. he said, striving for mastery one over the other, and according to whether the male or female element wins will be the sex of the child. “When the victory in favor of ‘maleness’ is complete the result is a Caesar, a Napoleon, a Bismarck—-active, resolute and ruthless. When less complete you have the ordinary man, respectabl?, hard-working, but with engaging weaknesses.” He added that by means <?f administering the male or female interstitial gland to the mother we ought to he able to determine whether the child shall be male or female.

The conclusion to he drawn from lb-. William's address is that not only can we determine the sex of the child but also that, by injection of these gland substances at the age of 14 or 15, we could make men more manly and women more worn :rly. HER “STOLEN” LOVE LETTERS. HOW PRETTY WIDOW GOT THEM BACK. A pretty young widow who alleged that certain love letters had been stolen from her. figured in a little human drama in the Belfast County Court. She was Mrs. McCann and she claimed £4OOO of her late husband’s estate. He left her £8 a week, which would be reduced to £2 when she re-married. Tn opposing the claim, a barrister handed a bundle of letters to the young widow, asking her to identify them. Mrs. McCann showed much emotion when she saw them, and inquired •whence they came. She told the Judge that they had been stolen by her maid and handed to the other side. Asked for the return of the leters, Mrs. McCann declined, and clasped them to her bosom. The barrister appealed to the Judge ■to ensure the return of the letters, but the Judge said that as the letters were now in the possession ( the lawful owner he could not compel her to return them. Mrs. McCann admitted that one letter was from a voting man whose Christian name was Hugh. He wrote that he was “looking forward to spending the day with her again, and perhaps the night.” A barrister: Does he talk about his loving arms being round you and kissing you? and “is it your great love for me that makes you write such loving and long letters?” Mrs. McCann denied that she wrote long letters, and said that she was not 'engaged to the man. Her counsel said that the production of the letters was beneath contempt. The Judge disallowed Mrs. McCann’s claim, but said that it was not a crime for any young widow to Write to a young man or to receive letters from him.

GIRL PICKPOCKETS. New York, June 12. Tn the presence of a group of detectives in the West Thirtieth Street Station last night, two school girls, one 11 and the other 12, told how for the past year they had gone from their classrooms to the big department stores and there spent their playtime in picking pockets. Both .girls wore flapper shoes with sport stockings rolled below the knee. Their adventures culminated last night in their arrest in an elevator in the R. H. Marcy and Cn. store at Thirty-fourth Street and Sixth Avenue, .charged with stealing a pocket book. The girls were watched by store detectives yesterday, when they- entered the elevator behind Miss Gray. They began to romp, apparently careless of the discomfort thev caused the other persons in the crowded elevator, and the .store detectives say they saw the Sylvester girl take the pocket hook from Miss Gray’s pocket. After their arrest the girls were turned over to Detective James Drennick, of the Fifth Avenue squad, who took them to the West Thirtieth Street Station. Tn the police station, both girls began to cry. and after a few minutes they said, according to the detectives, that about a year ago they were “broken in” as pickpockets by a group of small hoys living in the neighborhood of their homos. Another girl aided in the ‘breaking in” process, they said. After throe weeks’ training they started their careers. “Tt was easy.” said the Swozd girl, according to th' detectives.'/ “The women get so interested in shopping that they lay their bags down on the counter. If she carries the bag on her arm we just open it and leave it open. The jewellery they gave to the boys, who kept the stones, giving them the gobi rings and pins. The girls were sent to the Children’s Society charged with delinquency. GOLF DIVORCE. Mrs. Helen T.ee. wife of a Detroit manufacturer, who recently sued her husband for divorce on the ground that he had become a “golf maniac,” has won her ease, and was granted a decree. Mrs. Lee contended that her husband’s neglect of herself and family, which, she said, was caused by his devotion to golf, amounted to legal cruelty. He was playing at the moment her child was born. “The only time my husband came to see me.” Mrs. Leo told the court, “was two days before the baby arrived. Then he said it was too hot to play golf.” HOUSEKEEPER AT 105. /tithough 105, Mrs. Elizabeth Pennick, of Tiptree, near , Colchester. • is still acting as housekeeper to a widower -who himself is over 90. “Betsy,” as she is affectionately known to her ■friends, was born and has lived all her ; days in the village. She can recall the time when her wages were Sd a day. 4

WIDOWED ON HER HONEYMOON.

PRINCE FALLS DEAD IN BRIDE’S ARMS. The romance of a young British bride has been brought to a swift and tragic ending by a drama enacted in the wilds of Albania. Held up by a brigand in the mountains, her husband, an Albanian prince, was shot through the head, and fell dead in her arms. The girl to whom this terrible l experience came whilst on her honeymoon was the daughter of Lieutenant-Colonel and Mrs. Can ch-Kavanagh, of Grimblethorpe Hall, Lincolnshire. Miss Sheilagh de Vesci Canch-Kavan-agh, as she was before her marriage, was on the Continent with her parents ,a little over a year ago, when she met I Prince Radomirko Krytzchka. a ruling • ( prince of Albania. A love match followed, and on February 8 they were married in Vienna. After visiting various Continental resorts during the honeymoon tour the couple arrived in Venice, where they were joined by Mrs. Canch-Kavanagh. As the prince had to visit Albania on business it was suggested that owing to the travelling risks in that country the princess should remain in Venice, but she insisted on accompanying her husband. and so the honeymoon tour was extended to Albania. The story of that tragic journey through wild, mountainous country is told by the princess in a letter to her father. The prince and his bride were proceeding in a vehicle to Radomar Castle, which belongs to the prince’s family, and were within thirty miles of the end of the journey when a number of armed brigands stepped into view and held up the party. The prince sprang up, and was in the act of drawing his revolver when one of the brigands, taking deliberate aim, shot him through the head.

The brigands then collected all the money and luggage belonging to the prince and princess and vanished. The princess caught the prince in her arms a« he fell back dead, and, with her arms clasped about his body, firmly refused to be parted from him. Thus she remained for six hours until the journey’s end was reached. Messages were sent from the next village to the prince’s brother, but although the countryside was searched no trace of the brigands could be found. The motive for the crime is believed to be a political one rather than robbery.

An expert yachtsman, the prince hr.il intended coming to England to sail a yacht this summer, and had arranged to arrive in time for the Ascot races.

A WOMAN AGRICULTURAL EXPERT. Views on the woman question are largely a matter of comparison. To some of ns England seems to he doing well, but Miss Cora Hind, now visiting London, does not think much of her sex’s position there as compared with their status in her own Canada. “You begin by assuming women’s work must, necessarily be inferior.” she told some Englishmen: “in Canada we would not stand for that.” Miss Hind has herself made good in an occupation that perhaps she could not so easily have followed in England or one of the other dependencies. She began her career as typiste for a Winnipeg lawyer. Later, feeling her way, she opened a reporting bureau, reporting the conventions of farmers and live stock men. This led to her being made secretary of the Dairy Associations in Manitoba, her work being largely the preparation of statistics as well as the usual reports. To-day she is commercial and agricultural editor of the Manitoba Free Press, the paper which she is at present representing in London. For twenty years she has made the most complete survey of the standing crops, hei' reports being cabled over Canada and the United States, and sometimes even further away. Travelling by rail and motor car, she covers an area of 900 miles by 000, taking samples of grain every mile or so and noting the quality of the crops. At an earlier stage of the crops’ growth she receives reports from about 275 correspondents. From the data thus received estimates are made up of the year’s yield, and these estimates are. said to be “amazingly accurate.” Miss Hind has no quarrel with the other sex. “Men have always treated me fairly,” ! she says.

LADY ASTOR, AS DIPLOMATIST. Lady Astor is another woman who has no reason to complain of her treatment, in Canada. In that country, and also America, states a writer, she has ihad a whirlwind success. Streets have : been named after her. and overflow : meetings hpld in her honor. A writer I in a woman's magazine states that English papers have not told the full Truth 1 about her great popularity in America. • "When there she could do no wrong, and the people allowed her to speak to i them as thev would have permitted no 'one else. She took full advantage of ! this. For instance, she brjke the half's shamed silence concerning the League [of Nations. She insisted on speaking of it. It is difficult to over-estimate what she has done. She has improved Anglo-American relations. and has brought the League of Nations back into the range of discussable polities. ’’ GERMAN WOMEN'S PROGRESS. Dr. Alice Salomon, who occupies an important secretarial position in Berlin, speaks of German women as being at a most critical stage as regards their, rights. As a matter of fact, say? Dr. Salomon, matters were not so v »ry bad before. An improved code inaugurated twenty years aeo had given women more power. The family headship, however i« 'HU vested entirely in the man. and in the case of divorce the wife comes off badly. As regards divorce itself, it is interesting to note that while some of the reformers advocate an easier cutting of the marriage tie, thev consider that divorce should be difficult while the children are under age, and made easier only afterwards. As regards the ideal of equal guardianship of children there have been many heated discussions. That the father should [have the final say about the boys and 'the mother of the girls was ruled out. |as impracticable, and they advocate! i now rather a. neutral Court, which shall 1 decide in cases of dispute. Up till war I I time German women wore keen for a law giving some lo«-nl claim to their ■ husbands’ wages. Now. however, so I many married women are wage earners themselves that making a pool of the wages i- advocated, the wife then taking out a proper proportion for herself and