AMONG OURSELVES.

Auckland Star, Volume LV, Issue 235, 3 October 1924, Page 13

AMONG OURSELVES.

A WEEKLY BUDGET.

(By CONSTANCE CLYDE.)

THE "LUCY STONE" LEAGUE. During tho Inst few year 3 there have been strong objections among some feminists to the convention which makes it necessary for a woman to take her husband's name and also adopt a prefix which shows her change of condition. Formerly it was tho Miss that was objected to as far as the prefix was concerned, reformers desiring that all spinsters out of the schoolroom should be called Mrs., as indeed was the custom in the eighteenth century. Now, however, there is rather a desire among married women to retain the Mills as well as their maiden surname. This desire has expressed itself in the United States in "the shape of a Lucy Stone League which has by now many" adherents. These belong not to the eccentric or publicity loving, but to tho3e already well before the public. A daughter of a senator is one of the pioneers, while a brother-in-law of ono of the governors has a -wife whose butler even will say if anyone rings up, "I must see if Miss Pickering is in," meani*)., of course, his master's wife. Miss Elizabeth Brown and Mr. John Jones will often be announced together, and people will remember that before the change Miss Brown was Mrs. Jones. Becauso it complicates life too much this idea will not likely last, though people like the well-known Fanny Hurst arc convinced reformers, and know how to make their earnestness palatable to outsiders by admitting the humorous aspect of the case. One rather likes to see a married woman, however, using in private correspondence the name to which she was born. As a matter of fact, women of the medieval ages, as historioans will tell us, frequently kept to their former namo in conversation, while lawyers tell us that there never was any law passed hy which a woman was compelled to use her husbp/id's name, her doing so being merely a matter of custom and convenience, not of legality. WOMEN IN HOLLAND. Queen Wilhelmina's individuality and character, as shown by the mention of her in a recent cable, has had considerable effect, it is alleged, on the status of women in her country. The modern women of Holland are well advanced in arts and also in medicine, while their Parliament has more women in it proportionately than England itself. In

the Hague there are several well managed women's clubs, while all women once a year at least try to visit that important locality. Dutch ladies, however, though very accomplished, have not lost their love of housecraft, and in many aristocratic homes, it i 3 said tho china is still washed after breakfast, by the daughters of the home, as indeed was once our own British custom. The chief reforming passion of these women concerns itself with children, and it is said that the young people of the poorest are given much individual attention in their own homes. Poor as such homes sometimes are, they aro always clean, and also have old family treasures, even like those of the rich. THE ENGLISH DAY SERVANT. The domestic problem, it is often alleged, depends on substituting time work for piece work, the girl to be employed for certain hours of the day and then to return home. This idea is being carried out successfully in certain London establishments, tlie workers being mostly young "mothers, who leave their babies in the care of skilled attendants, returning to them at night. Their wages are paid to the establishment, which subtracts a certain amount for the care of the infant, giving the rest to the worker. As the girls remain thero quite voluntarily, there is no inducement to malpractice, and the Bchemc has so far worked well. "None of the evils that were predicted have come to pass," Bays the superintendent, "the girls leaving usually to marry or to take up some good business." To those who lament over the servant difficulty to-day it is consoling to remember that these were bewailed even more strenuously in days of old. A writer in the "Queen" telling of tho servant question in tho seventeenth and eighteenth centuries speaks of the real terror that existed when it seemed as if these servitors were getting "out of hand." "Do not bring them up with any delicacies," -.ays an authority, "or you will always regret it." To spy upon them was considered quite 'fn order. Mrs. Cromwell, it Beems, when arriving at Whitehall asked the workmen to build some labyrinths and secret passages in the domestic quarters "so that she might come upon her servants unawares." Pepys, in his diary, was not ashamed to tell how he and Mrs. Pepys beat and locked in a cellar the little servant girl who ran, away to her mother because frightened by the great Fire of London. He regrets "striking and kicking" his woman servant as he came in at the door, but that was merely because a neighbour saw him and might talk of this outbreak of temper. This outrage was by no means evidently an unforgivable offence, but merely an ill-bred indiscretion such as nowadays would bo the scolding of a servaut in public INDIVIDUAL WOMEN HONOURED. Mrs. Philip Snow-en has been appointed by .he Lord Chancellor as a member of the Poor Persons Rules Committee, which is to inquire into the question of legal aid for poor persons who seek the benefit of the High Court. Later, based on the report given, there will bo an investigation into the need of poor persons as regards the lower courts. The matter is ono which is considered to need earnest attention. Weight is also being given to the words of Mrs. Allan, of Australia, now in England, who spoke strongly against the proposal to admit Armenians to Australia. There are said to be many thousands of persons of this nationality waiting to bo sent to South America, Australia and New Zetland, but Mrs. Allan's opinion is that the new countries should consider their own nationality first. An interesting though slight honour was paid a woman lately when for tho American delegation to tho Tailtean games there was noticed a woman standard bearer. Of course due allusion was made to the fact that the statue of Liberty and Freedom is always pictured in female guise, and tiiat therefore this departure was quite in keeping.