WOMEN IN PRINT.

Evening Post, Volume LXXVI, Issue 125, 25 November 1908, Page 9

WOMEN IN PRINT.

I would rather be able to appreciate the things I cannot have than to have things I am not able to appiecuile.

i Mr. and Mrs. Donald Robertson leave l in four weeks for England, via Canada. Part' of the time is to be spent in Leipzic, where young Mr. Robertson, tho Rhodes Scholar, is studying. The excitement of the elections is over, and the women can now direct their energies to fresh fields of action. They have done well,* and have been a potent factor in the ballot. Quaint experiences many of them have to recount. One girl, canvassing for one man, found herself at the rival candidate's door. Another sat with a baby while its mother went to exercise her politio-tl privilege. As a rule, the women met with courteous treatment, though there was more than one case of a door being slammed in their ,faces by a housewife too busy and too unsympathetic to listen. One girl who had voted in tho Central election, and had been triumphant, saw no reason why she should not give Mr. Herdman the benefit of her vote at the second ballot, and was quite mystified when she was informed that her name did not appear on the roll. No one has yet explained why it is that in this second ballot contest women and girls who up to now have had nothing at all to do with politics have plunged into the battle with a fervour fhat has been most inspiriting. Nothing was too arduous or too humble for them to do to further their cause, and there are symptoms that next session the Ladies' Gallery will be crowded to the doors. We shall miss many familiar faces there as well as in " the House, but the nQvr political women will give a fresh fillip to the waning interest that was so evident last session. The Hutt Flower Show was, despite preliminary rain, held yesterday in pleasant weather, and proved a most attractive function, a number of Wellington people going from town. Among these were Mrs. and Miss Duncan, Miss Kibbell, Miss O'Connor, Miss Skerrett. Miss Jenkyns, and Miss Quick. The Wellington Rose and Carnation Show follows hard on the heels of the Hutt exhibition. There is much interest always felt in this particular show, and the chances are there will be a largo attendance, and a wealth of lovely blossoms. Afternoon tea, and music in the evening, are to be added to the attractions of the show, which is to be opened by Lady Ward. Mrs. Hales gave one of her enjoyable little teas yesterday in her flowergirdled house at Oriental Bay. Mrs, Hall-Jones and her daughters were among those invited. Mrs. Fred. Harvey leaves this morning for Masterton, where she is to sUy with Mrs. Oliver Bunny. Mrs. Joliffe, of the Hutt, gave a pleasant little knick-knack tea. yesterday afternoon for Miss Tregear, who is to be married on the 23rd of December. Various pretty things to decorate thu new home were brought hy the guests, who played croquet and ping-pong on the lawn, and enjoyed the tea all the more for the pretty surroundings. The contest of an election appears quite as exhausting for the wife of a candidate as for the man himself. Jusc now there are three, wives who are in private hospitals undergoing treatment for nerves. As their husbands have all headed their respective polls, and the strain is removed, their convalescence may be rapid ! Tne Hon. Kathleej^Plunket has booked a passage forJEngland by the Corinthic, which leaves Wellington on 3rd December. For somo time past there has been a steady decline in the fan trade, and this in spite of the fact that at no time has that graceful weapon of coquetry and comfort been so universal. In Paris some of the leading houses have closed their doors, and their example is not unlikely t to 'be followed in one or two instances in England. The Americans, the most appreciative and the best judges of reitHy artistic work, have not been buying largely this year owing to the trade crisis in their own country, and the Englishwoman, wno was always economical in this respect, has taken to the che».p German or Japanese fan. One of the best-kiiown London fanmakers gave a. newspaper representative some interesting facts about the present condition of things. "The day is past when long prices will Be paid for fans," she said. "The German copies of the expensive styles have done a great deal to injure the trade, .and at the present moment we would be glad of anything 'that would lead to a revival of interest in good English and French work. But perhaps even more than this influx of cheap goods the habit amongst somo. of our richest customers of buying antique fans is to blame for this trade depression. Ladies will ask for the antique fans, which, though in some cases marvellously preserved, aro very often extremely dirty and not by any means beautiful. The Japanese fan is also one of our most dangerous trade rivals from its extreme cheapness. See this fan; it is apparently a French design if ono were to judge from the mixture of colours and the dress of the figures. It is exquisitely painted on a strong paper and the delicate sequinery is done by hand. Yet if yoii look in ; closely you will find that the figures, though wearing pompadour dresses, have almond eyes and distinctly Japanese forms. But it is pretty and dainty, and only costs 55." To the practice of the fashionable restaurants presenting their patrons with paper fans as advertisements, another fanmaker was inclined to attribute much of the blame for the present state of things. "I have seen a lady whose costume has cost nearly £200 fanning herself in her carriage with a paper fan! I grant you the paper fan has the merit of creating -a better breeze than that made of lace or silk, both of which are porous. But it is not beautiful, nor is it graceful." Trowmart Inn, the woman's inn of Ab-ingdon-square, New York, has housed its full quota of 250 boarders ever since it opened two yeans ago. Mr. Martin, who founded it, had no expectation of finding it in any sense a paying investment, being inspired wholly by philanthropic motives, but as a matter of fact it has paid him 2 per cent. Mrs. Shephard, the superintendent, is of the belief that a hotel of the same sort that would house 1000, would pay 4 per cent., and that is what she thinks is needed, for there are so many self-sup-porting women in the city who would be glad to fill not only one, but several such hnildings. There are several "homes" x in charge of chuiches and societies, but many independent and selfsupporting women would be glad of moro freedom than they find in them. They would liko hotels run on something the same plan, as those for men ; they object to fcho many restrictions they find in these institutions. They wish to be able to go out to an occasional, play or, concert, or receive a call from a man friend onca in a while. Besides this she needs a Dlacß like the Trowmart Inn. where she

can economise by doing her own laundry work or making her clothing in her few spaie hours. Now at Trowmart Inn, to quoto from Mrs. Shephard, as reported by the New York Tribune :— "We cater to all these needs here. Boarders can have the use of the laundry till 9 o'clock at night. We ftirnish them a sewingroom, equipped with sewing machines. There are a library, writingroom, several private reception-rooms, and a large parlour with pianos, in which dances and music are a feature at' evenings. Though wo are supposed, to close at 11 p.m., any boarder can come in at any timo of night, providing she offers a proper explanation. We give reasonably good board and an atmosphere of home interest and sympathy. The result is that we have paid 2 per cent, steadily, and if we had 1000 boarders, we could pay 4 per cent. If Mrs. Russell Sage or some other philanthropibt felt like establishing such a place she or he could benefit thousands of girls and reap steady interest at the same time." The rest euro was invented by the idle. The bus.y mai never wants a rest ; he dies in harness, or, if he retires, generally succumbs to the want of work. Our parents took no rest cures. They rarely allowed themselves a holiday, and I have not heard that their business suffered in consequence. The rest cure is merely a desire for laziness and solitude with a forced restriction to onef place, and therein lies its virtue. Some of oiu" prominent men do not sleep in the same bed two nights running ; they | are always hurrying here, there, and everywhere in search of change and amusement. The annual holiday of, a month has now extended itself automatically to twb months or more.' Consequently as the time of work has lessened and' the holidays have increased, there appears on the surface- less need x>£ rest cures, which while apparently excellent for all, could really be dispensed with except by the doctors and the keepers of homes. The excellent result of such, treatment, both physically and mentally, cannot be denied, but it is essentially a cure for the rich and the idle. Work, as a rule, is tho best panacea for low spirits and hypochondria, and the working man really worn out by labour cannot afford himself a Test cure. Indeed, he would' not care to bo deprived of. all knowledge of his dear ones. The mother in hospital often frets after her little children, and retards her convalescence by worry. The average person does not care *to be torn up by the roots and placed with strangers ; he likes to talk of his own affairs, and feel that others respond. The inexpressive nurse, with her calm, aloof manner, and her ignorance ol ' hia thoughts, ceases to v interest him — he turns on his side and thinks. A friend of the writer's, when she feels, weary and worn out, announces to her family 'that she is about to take a rest. She) shute herself up in her room, goes to bed, orders her maid to bring her cups of soup ' and glasses of milk at stated times, surrounds herself with a batch of th» newest novels, and 6ponds a fortnight of perfect rest, which costs her nothing. Many housewives .believe themselves indispensable. It is a sad yet undeniable fact that in this world no one is indispensable. The place left vacant is immediately filled up. So that when the mother of the family finds her nerves stretched beyond endurance, her patience flagging, and her j whole body aching, she should calmly and cheerfully her rest cure, and if she can combine with it peaceful meditation, a clear philosophy, and higher spiritual thought, then she will emerge a better and a happier woman, full of a sweet urbanity, the change and refreshment of her nature having cost her husband exactly nothing ! Such rest cures would nob pay the doctor, but they would' build up the stability of many a constitution and give us a moment, often denied us in the strain and stress of life, for thinking about our immortal souls, which, poor things, get little or no attention during our sojourn on earth. As Thoreau says: "I never found the companion that was so companionable as solitude." Let us try solitude for a change, and after a while., when we have overcome it* strangeness, we shall learn to iove it. — The Daily Chronicle. According to The Sporting and Dramatic News, .Mrs. J. C. Williamson is lying ill of bronchitis in a private hospital in Melbourne. Forgetting vulgarity, which rarely at I'lemmgton permits itself to be overlooked, even though the perpetual parade makes H feel horribly tired, feminine Flemington on the Saturday was an pgraeable, a gracious spectacle; a Brisbane lady who was present wrote that the women, in the flowing fashion of the hour, looked taH, cool as the elms. The sun discovered unexpected subtleties in light and colour, as it did among the young leaves of the paddock trees, or in the lawn picture-frame of red and white roses. There was one grey dress which, quite drab and sombre in shadow, exhibited lines of quivering iridescent serpent skins whenever the sun caught it. Though it suggested Cleopatra and the asp, it was yet in some way not ex- < travagant. And there were gleams of ' hard common sense among the gleaming frocks. A lady, a stranger, was being ] introduced, apparently to her first racecourse from the upper end of the everdelightful lawn. "And what is the nois'j?" she asked. "That is the bookmakers betting." And the wise novice observed, "They don't make all that nois3 for nothing." Quite right! They don't. A nineteen-year-old American girl recently proved the advantage of her ath-' letic training over the old-fashioned methods of fifty years ago. The other night she found a burglar under her bed, but, instead of screaming foJ 1 help or swooning with fright, she -belaboured him with her baseball bat, and then marched Mm off k> the police station. So drastic was her beating that, when the burglar was brought before the court, the magistrate said he thought he had already been sufficiently punished, and, if the complainant was willing, he would discharge him. The girl, whose heart was softer than her muscles, consented, and the burglar was allowed to go. An interesting movement, has been established in connection with St. Alphege Church, Lower Edmonton, London. The head teachers of tho elementary schools in the district ivro asked to belecl about 150 children whose lives seem to have tho least brightness in them, and these are invited to a warm room once a week, and are provided with all kinds of games and toys Numerous offers have begun to come in from various townships in Germany which propose to build "airship harbours,'' and the Aerial Navy League is working out a plan for the construction of such "harbours," which _ the league considers to be an essential to aerial navigation as stations are to railways. At the suggestion of Count Zeppelin, it is also planning the erection of lighthouses on points dangerous to aerial navigation by night. The lighthouses i/ill bo provided with searchlights indicating by thoii m,r:> thu direction ot th« wind. Tho lcaguo will ' also draw up chart*.