AMONG OURSELVES.

Auckland Star, Volume LVII, Issue 161, 9 July 1926, Page 15

AMONG OURSELVES.

A WEEKLY BUDGET

(By CONSTANCE CLYDE.)

BOYS AND HOME TRAINING. A novel and rather amusing venture has been tried in some parts of Missouri. This is a boys' home economics club, and as it was instituted by the lads themselves, and therefore on a sound basis for popularity, it is hoped that the idea will spread. The boys, seeing how happy the girls were in their home economics club, learning about food values and clothing, wished at first to join them, but were persuaded to start out on their own. That these lads are not "sissies," a term of great reproach in the State, is proved by the fact that most of them are in numerous athletic societies as well. One of the best cooks in this new club is said to be the school yell leader, evidently in America a post of great honour. They are very rigid in their rules, and two members have been dropped out for not keeping up to the culinary standard. The lads, all from fifteen to nineteen years of age, call themselves the bachelors. Ine due time they were able to present to their admirers a standard dinner of many courses, with the requisite number of calories, and, later, their Christmas dinner was pronounced a great success, the decorations of the table also being well attended to, and showing much artistic talent. On duty the boys do not disdain to wear the apron, while in lieu of a cap they have a special headband designed by themselves. They are now studying textiles and the home needs as regards clothing. One likes to think of these clever boys showing talent in that culinary art in which, in the higher branches at least, men are said to be naturally more talented than women. MERELY A "SENATORETTE." Americans are looking forward with interest to the November elections, when it will be decided whether their country shall have a real "senatoress." Judge Florence Allen, of Ohio, the only woman to be elected as Supreme Judge, is then to stand, and there are hopes for her success. She is a woman talented in many ways, especially in music, having been editor of a music magazine for many years. Her earliest occupation was teaching in one of the best schools. Theoretically, there has already been a woman senator. Thus a few years ago, owing to a strange idea of courtesy, the widow of a senator was made nominally one of this body. The idea seems to have been that the lady would burst into tears, and, in gratitude for the compliment, remain steadfastly in her own sphere, the home. Instead, she packed tier bag, journeyed to the Senate chamber, and was duly ehown in, only to be is duly shown out. A senator is alleged to have remarked: "If a mere senator3tte can rouse us so, what would it be if we get a real senatoress?" However, the lady duly granted interviews on 'How it feels to be a woman senator," md considered that she had made it a ittle easier for a real woman senator :o come in later.

THE BARS LET DOWN. Constance Kexel in "Current History" reviews the new freedom of \Vomen in Continental countries. The world war let down the bars. For good or ill, women not only had helped in the titanic struggle, but had taken the places of men in Held and factory. On the Continent the new European republics, Au9t>ria, Poland, Czeeho-Slovakia, Germany and Russia granted women full suffrage and civil rights in their constitution. In Oecho-Slovakia women have taken and been given such an active part in governing the country that much of the stability and progressiveness of the new republic is credited to them. In Scandinavian countries a woman sitd as full-fledged member of the Danish Ca-binet —the Minister of Education and Fine Arts. In all these European countries, where women have the vote, they are flocking to the polls in even greater numbers than the men. On the other hand, this writer thinks that American women have done very little. "They are drugged with prosperity. Women are flocking to the beauty parlour rather than the ballot box. No one is thinking of anything." HAIL! So the "Women's Leader" heads a paragraph congratulating Susan Lawrence, 51.P. for East Ham, on her "splendid victory. She has turned a Conservative majority of 1057 into a Labour majority of 1627, as a result of which she p , * ms to the House of Commons as its fifth lady M.P. That her coming was sorely needed both Lady Astor and Ellen Wilkinson have testified, and to them also we extend our congratulations. The cause of all women, the cause of all children, will benefit by the reappearance into the political arena of this eminent educationist. And outside that arena the cause of all women candidates will benefit; for Susan Lawrence hat once more shown that a woman candidate can be relied upon not only to defend, but to attack. In conclusion, however, it must be admitted that there is a grain of sorrow in the happiest of victories. We are sorry to see so excellent and generous a feminist as the Liberal candidate, Dr. Burgin, at the bottom of the poll. We hope that some future election will find him in conflict with some other enemy than a tried woman suffra- | giet."