THE WORD 'WIFE.'

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume 5, Issue 1439, 25 July 1883, Page 2

THE WORD 'WIFE.'

_ 9 Mr Ruskin' says:—" What do you think the beautiful word' wife 1 comes from 1 It is the great word in which the English and Latin languages conquered the French and Greek. I hope the French will some day get a word for it instead of that of' femrne.' But what do you think it comes from 1 The great value of the Saxon words is that they- mean something. Wife means' weaver.' You must either be house-wives or house-moths, remember that; Jn the! deep, sense you must either weave ben's fortunes and embroider them, or feed upon and bring them to decay. Wherever a true wife comes, home is always around her. The stars may be over her head, the glow-worm in the night's cold grass may be the fire at her feet, but home is where she is, and for a noble woman it stretches far around her, better than houses ceiled with .cedar or painted with vermillion—sheading its quiet light for those who else 'are homeless. This, I believe, is the woman's true place and power,.'

The free libraries recently established in every wrondesseinent of Paris had a total issue last year of 363,000 volumes, but of this total no less than 200,000 were fiction,: 40,000 poetry, and. about.BoJooo history and science.

The National Bifie Association have entered into a contract with the electric railway at .Wimbledon on their improved system, 1 and to work it during the meeting of the association in July next. The strain mil consist of'six carriages, carrying 24 passengers each.