TOPICS OF THE DAY.

Press, Volume LXVII, Issue 14194, 7 November 1911, Page 6

TOPICS OF THE DAY.

An interesting glimpse into Women's tlio lifo of native womon in Wiles. India was afforded by a

lecture given in London recently by a Parses woman who had graduated at Oxford and qualified as a lawyer. Tho common impression in the West of women in tho East is tliat they are littlo better than slaves. Miss iSorabji admitted that there, was a certain amount of truth in this so far aa India was concerned. Europeans hardly realised tho strictness of women's seclusion. But the power possessed by women was extraordinary. Women who appeared to bo mero slaves, "doormats for their lords to walk over," often ruled the household, without tho husband knowing it. The methods tho Indian wifo employs to get her way aro many, and sometimes very ingenious. .She may sulk for days, shut up in a room, until tho man comes to terms. All c!d Indian houses had a special room for this purpose. Sho may say, "If you do not do tiiis I will disfigure myself," and sho is quito capable of carrying cut her threat. One woman announced that sho would keep her loft foot bent under her until her husband gavo way, but he held out so long that sho was a cripple for tho rest of her life. Miss Sorabji told an extraordinary story of tbe lengths somo men will go to in order to avoid trouble at home. A peasant went to a doctor, and asked to bo cut open, giving as tho reason that when going homo to his wifo with his month's pay ho had been attacked by robbers, and to savo his money ho had swallowed it. A friend with him confirmed tho story. Tho doctor gave tho man medicine, but ho camo back tho .next day, saying ho was in terrible agony. The doctor than operated, but found no trace of any coins. When tho man had recovered from tho ancesthctic, ho told tho truth with a grin. Tlio money had not boon taken by robbers, but had been iost iv gambling to the friend who had backed up his story about tho theft. He had not dared to toll his wife about tho gambling, so ho told her ho had swallowed tho money. She, being frugal, insisted on his going to a doctor and having'it removed from his body. Still the doctor was puzzled—what had ho gained, seeing that after all tho pain and danger ho had gono through, the money was not thero? "Oh, that's all right," said tho patient, coolly; "now, yon see, I can tell my wifo you hay© Btolen it!"

Ar© wo threatened with a Winter revival of ping-pong, which Games, one had thought to h© aa

dead as last year's snows? It is said to be possible. A manager at ono of tho big stores in London told a "Standard" reporter the other day, apropos of indcor winter games, that ping-pong had never quite died out in the suburbs, and he looked forward to a revival of the game. Its decline is attributed largely to th© fatigue involved in picking balls up from the flcor, but this firm has invented a claw arrangement on th© end of a walking stick, by which tho halls can easily be retrieved without stooping. There is also the potent fact that sets of pingpong were recently ordered for two of the Royal residences. In tho meantime thero are a surprisingly largo number of peoplo trying to invent games that will bo as popular as ping-pong was. This one establishment has about a hundred new winter games offered to it iv tho course of a year, and accepts perhaps a dozen. Among many inventors the firm has dealt with a bishop's wife, a naval officer, clergymen, a fashionable woman of title, a pawnbroker's assistant, and a lathchairman.. Profits on theso ideas vary. Generally payment is a small amount to cover cost of model-making, and a 10 per cent, royalty on sales. There is a popular lace game, something like roulette, which is still bringing its inventors, two city clerks, over £600 a year in royalties, and they must havo realised quito a fortune by tho sale of foreign rights. This winter's novelties at Homo include tho gamo of "Boy Scouts," invented by an officer of tho army, and "Aorito," an aerial race game. Tho life of most games is very short. Tbo drawing-room takes them for a while, and then they ar© relegated to the schoolroom. For six weeks everybody was playing "Pigs in Clover," but tho craze suddenly "flashed out." New card games seldom last moro than ono winter. People stick to tho old games, and always will do so; the new games are only temporary diversions. According to this authority tho finest bridge players in tho world ar© Scotsmen. It may surprise eomo people, but why should th© Scot b© denied supremacy in one thing? He leads in everything else, so to make his superiority symmetrical, he should lead in bridge.