MRS AND MISS.

Dunstan Times, Issue 3379, 20 June 1927, Page 8

MRS AND MISS.

Thu womanhood of Germany is divided against itself. Some of them “are agitating for the abolition of the title ‘Miss, ” some of them are objecting bitterly to the evehuiou of every woman to the rank of

“•Mrs.” Quarrels on this subject are not unknown elsewhere, and in other ages (says I be London “Daily Telegraph”). Perhaps, no other matter lias made so much trouble in the sex as the assignment of rank, precedence, and status to flic married and the unmarried. In one of our own novels (do people read Miss Furrier now 1 ') a lady exclaims. “Did you bear bow he Miss’d me to-day—me, a married woman?” Earlier centuries were happier in cheerful ignorance of ibis differemtiaf ion between Miss and Mrs. To •Falsi aIT it is Mistress Page lor the mother and Mistress Anne Page for the daughter. When Queen Elizabeth, who loved not a married c lergy, was entertained by Archbishop Pal leer she said, in her gentle way, to Ins wife, “Madam 1 may not call yon, and Mitress 1 am ashamed to cal! you. However, 1 thank you for your good cheer.” But in those days a woman of rank nr importance was Madam, though not married. Rosalind is madam in the play. This points to the later etiquette of the county (hat the squire’s wife must always be madam, and “the parson s wife, if be bo a doctor or a man of genteel figure, must be madam, loo.” In our dav the worst trouble that

arises about Miss and Mrs is the difficulty of guessing which to prefix to an unknown tonralo name, with the certainty dial if the wrong one is given it will be resented. In Germany the matter is much more complicated. The one word “Fran” has to serve lor woman, wife, and the prefix equivalent to our Mrs. This is 1 disliked by the professional women, who demand Hint every female except small girls, should he addressed ns Frau, and that (ho invidious “Fraulein” should bo abolished. It is not for any alien, unless he he a Mark Twain, to discuss the niceties of the, German language, but the problem is entangled with the German habit of giving u wife all her husband’s appointments and distinctions. Mrs Doctor or Mrs Commercial Counsellor go well enough, but what is to be done when the lady who is a doctor in her own right also becomes Mrs? For the Government has decided that Fran means simply adult woman, and, therefore, the unmarried have a perfect right to it. Yet even to a Government oilicial there does seem to he a difference between the married and the unmarried; so officially the wife is addressed as "Ehefrau,”' literally “marriage-woman” “lawful-wife.” The effect to (he alien would seem to be that of denominating'a, maiden lady “MrsX” and a wife as “Married Mrs X.” Mo doubt that is logical, but it seems to lack grace. \