WOMEN'S WORLD.

Clutha Leader, Volume XXXVII, Issue 50, 20 December 1910, Page 2

WOMEN'S WORLD.

OPPORTUNITY, They do me wrong who say I come no

. . more When once I knock and fail to find you 'in; For every day I stand outside your door And bid you wake and rise to fight . and win. Wail not for precious chances passed away, * Weep not for golden ages on the

wane; Each night I'burn the records of the At sunrise every soul is born again. Laugh like a boy at splendors that have sped, To vanished joys be blind and, deaf and dumb;' My judgments seal the dead past with its dead, But never blind a moment yet to come. Tho' deep in mire, wring not your hands and weep,; I lend an arm to all who say ' 'I can!" No shame-faced outcast ever sank so deep But yet might rise and be again a man. Dost thou behold thy lost youth all aghast? Dost reel from righteous retribution's blow? Then turn from blotted archives of the past And find the future's pages white as snow. Ait thou a mourner? Rouse thee from thy spell; Art thou a sinner ? Sins may be for- „ , &iven; Each morning gives thee wings to flee from hell, Each night a star to guide thy feet to heaven. —Walter Malone in 'Sunset Magazine,' San Francisco.

SPOILING A HUSBAND. To do the husband justice, he is usually spoilt in spite of himself. Certain characteristics or traits lying dormant in his nature are brought to the front by the' injudicious treatment of the wife, and when once they are in evidence it is only a matter of time and practice for them to become extensively developed and displayed on ■every occasion.

It is very easy to spoil a husband but extremely difficult to "unspoil him." The process is gradual—begun during the courtship, continued during the honeymoon and consummated during the first year of matrimony. He was jealous, and so you did not dance with other men. Ho hated tennis, and so you resigned from the club. Now he plays golf while you mope at home. So it goes on. The most comfortable armchair is reserved for papa. "Do not make a children," says the little mother; "you'll wake your father." He is just setting off to business when he remembers his pince-nez are upstairs. "I'll fetch them, dear," says his devoted little wife, and forthwith rushes to search for tho missing article. A sequence of this sort of service would spoil any husband and make him selfish, thoughtless and grasping, despite himself.

Even worse than tho foregoing is the husband who is asked to give way too much, when even the children feel that their father is, so to speak, one of them and "in the same boat" and are happiest when their fellow-sufferer contrives to elude the tyrant and join them in some stolen pleasure.

Of course the man has been to blame in thus capitulating. Little did he think that a woman's tears ifi the first instance could ever result in such complete surrender of his personality.

IGNORANCE NOT INNOCENCE. There is a thoughtful and instructive article in 'Baby: The Mother's Magazine' under the title of "Teach Children a Little Worldly Wisdom," in which Annie Isabella Opinnheim, F.8.P.5., says: "There is reeling more desirable than to keep children fresh and innocent, but a little wbrldly wisdom is both advisable and necessary for their self-preservation oven in the earliest stages of their existence. The precocious child is as objectionable and almost as trying as the extra simple one; that being so, we should endeavor to attain the happy medium between precocity and simple-mindedness. To keep our children ignorant of the ordinary ways of the world and its inevitable pitfalls is a cruelty and a mistake. Self-preservation is one of Nature's first laws arifl every animal is physically equipped to battle with the world and its aggressors. "Human beings, whose daily life is regulated- by their intelligence, common sense and reasoning power, ought to* be morally equipped for self-protec-tion. Children should be taught early in life that estimable fable of Aesop, 'The Fox and the Crow'—how the latter by its ignorance of the ways of the world listened to the pernicious flattery of the fox, who persuaded her to sing and show off her beautiful voice so that when she opened her mouth she would let go the cheese held in her beak and which this vile flatterer seized as it fell to the ground. The evils of flattery should be guarded against and its pernicious, effects early instilled in the minds of the young. We know that practical wisdom is only to be learnt in the school" of experience, but there is also the warning note which parents ought to give their children to guard them against the many misfortunes that arise through ignorance of the world and its ways. "One of the errors parents invariably commit is telling their children that they must not ask questions. We know there are many things that in consideration, of tender years and undeveloped mind it would not be wise to acquaint children with; but if when asking impossible questions they were told that they must wait' until they are older, wjien everything would.be explained which at present they could not possibly understand, they would*, I am sure, be quite content to wait. "One of the ways of the world that ohildxflu should be warned againstis,the of peoplo with yfamjtoa. $& <s&im Much depeade. tion, for fa society

-_; aMT,Jjii r i ,'„'. ,;■ .■it.'i i'■ '.— i. —— ■ difficnli it becomes to keep ignorant of the world and its objectionable ways. It abounds in sycophants* time-servers and flatterers, and many a child has experienced fearful shocks and disappointment* when taking for gospel everything he sees and hea/s. People will often appear to admire when in reality they are despising and probably making fun of others' clothes and belongings. Children cannot possibly know this, but it would be better for them if they were early. trained not to believe what everyone says and to exercise their own judgment in seeking some cause for undue flattery and praise. To know things too late is almost as bad as not knowing them at all, and for knowledge to be of practical use we must have it as a safeguard to warn us of approaching events which, if not dealt with cautiously, might lead to trouble and misery. Forewarned is forearmed, and if we know where danger is we can take measures of avoidnig it.

"A child may be a fool, by nature, but ignorance means a lack of education. One cannot keep a cliild too innocent. Innocence does not come back, and repentance is a poor thing beside it. "Young people do not always recogniso the existence of the laws of life, and it is not until they have stumbled against them in the dark and fallen back crushed and hurt that they recognise these laws. It is for parents to guard their children against falling and this can only be done by instructing them in the ways of the world and the inevitable results of ignoring its natural laws. Many parents are under the impression that knowledge destroys innocence; they are not aware that the awakening of the intelligence and the sleep of tho senses can long be co-existent. One may be innocent of vice and yet well prepared to go out into the world and fight one's way in it—just as one may be ignorant of the ways of the world and steeped in vice and viqious habits. There is a wide 1 difference between innocence and ignorance. Ignorant women may have minds the most debased and perverted, while tho most cultivated understanding may be united with the most perfect innocence and simplicity. "In former days children were kept much more ignorant than they are now. Social subjects were never discussed in their presence, and they were not allowed to read the newspapers or events of the day. This had its advantages and its disadvantages; for while it now keeps them well informed and au courant with the world and its ways, there is much objectionable matter that it would be better they should not know. "Young girls should he made acquainted with the responsibilities that accrue with marriage and its contingencies. Their innocence would not be corrupted if they learnt that it is a twosided compact and a give-and-take arrangement—that the wife must not consider that all she has to do is to look out for~herself and make the best bargain she can from a worldly point of view. It does not destroy a girl's innocence to instruct her in tho duties of motherhood, and it is mostly due to ignorance on these important matters that so many helpless infants are brought into tho world encumbered with unnecessary disease and bodily suffering. Girls directly they arc old enough to understand anything should bo taught the elements of their physical anatomy and learn the various arts that concern the health, welfare and education of children. All women cannot be mothers, but all worthy of the name of woman have mothers' hearts, and there are plenty among the poor who require mothering. The cultivation of the maternal instinct is unknown here, but in France and abroad a little girl is taught to be a little mother to some child of poverty younger than herself. A baby represents a wonderful-mystery to her. Girls should also learn the value of some few simple remedies of household medicine and first-aid surgery so as to be able to render prompt assistance in any emergency. Children, both boys and girls, should be encouraged to read good, healthy, up-to-date books of standard writers; these will enlighten their minds so that when they mix freely in the world they are safeguarded by a certain amount of knowledge.

"Ignorance is not innocence, and there is no more cruel idea than to lot young people walk in a world where angels might well fear to tread,' without a word of warning as to the snares and pitfalls that lurk in youth's path of roses."