WOMEN'S FORUM.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIII, Issue 135, 9 June 1932, Page 13

WOMEN'S FORUM.

JUST LIKE AUNT'S. Philosophers over and over again have said that it is the little things in this life that matter to us. The human mind can generally manage the large and sometimes overwhelming tilings, extra forces being born to combat them, but it is the little nagging things that occur day by day that wear us down. By the same token, it is the funny little things that bring the merriest laughs, those humorous little things such as, as Katherine Mansfield would say, a fluff of cotton bobbing up and down on a tuft of hair while an irate husband complained of a cold dinner. The other day, in one of Queen Street's largest shops, an incident happened that brought smiles to the faces of those who could not help but hear. It took place in the shoe department, where a girl was soated, surrounded by mountains of shoes. She had been trying on shoes for quite a while and apologetically said to the assistant, as one pair gave place to another, that she was sorry, but nothing seemed quite right. As is generally the way, where one pair was not long enough, another was not broad enough; tlio pair with the smart bow on the front did not have the appealing heel of a pair without a bow, and so on. The young shopper began to see herself going through life in her slippers. And then tile assistant returned, bringing with her a box that she had ascended practically to the ceiling to secure, and slipped a shoo on the young extended foot. "No, I'm sorry, but it positively won't do," was the remark, "you see it makes my foot look exactly like one of my aunt's!" She smiled and added quickly, "You do understand, don't you?" The assistant, who quite possibly had an aunt of her own, looked at the girl and said with a sympathetic smile, "Yes, I quite understand." WOMEN AS TALKERS. Women have always been led to believe that they talk too much. Indeed, cups of tea, knitting needles and wagging tongues have generally been considered women's prerogative. Yet a well-known woman lawyer in Paris, who takes a prominent part in the feminist movement there, has made the amazing discovery that women do not talk sufficiently. Members of the opposite sex are frankly told that women's tongues are out to wag longer and louder. To this end a school of feminine oratory has been founded. In this women are to _be trained to make political speeches, since its founder holds that one of the reasons why women have not yet gained the place they deserve in politics is that they do not make sufficient noise. If they talked more, then more notice would be taken of their claims. Men, she pointed out, were talking all the time in their Parliaments and their clubs, while women had been doomed by convention to talk of nothing really serious. Among the arts to be cultivated ill view of political enterprise is that of interruption. Many men. believe that women do not need much training in this. But they must be mistaken, for this is to bo one of the principal subjects of study ill the women's school of oratory. Women in France have not even achieved the right to vote as yet, but when they do and can send their own deputies to Parliament, there will certainly be more of those incidents described as "little diversions."