WOMEN IN PRINT.

Evening Post, Volume XCV, Issue 50, 27 February 1918, Page 9

WOMEN IN PRINT.

Baffles o£ all sorts and kinds have been originated since war began, and it has seemed as if, there was really no more scope for ingenuity in these. The credit of ;i quite new idea is due to the Thorndon girls, who have done such good work in connection with the soldiers' shop. They will again take the Red Cross Shop for a. market day (probably in August), and in aid of this they intend to have a "manly trousseau." to be raffled. Already some most desirable garments, in the shape of silk- pyjamas o{ first-class quality and design have been promised, while- v ties, sock 3, hats, and all other manly, habiliments are to be added to the list. The winner will be asked to give his measurements, so as to ensure perfectly-fitting garments. This novel idea should prove a great success. Dr. Bennett referred, last ..night, to the education of some of the Bulgarians whom she met in Servia, and said that some were excellent linguists. One especially interested her, as his English was so good. He told her that he had lived for a long time in Ontario, and that his family were still there. Unfortunately, he had come over to Bulgaria to take his mother back to Canada with him, just as war was' declared, and he found himself, most unwillingly, forced into the position of fighting against the English, lor whom he had a great admiration. Captain and Sirs. Grey, o£ Kelbura, are staying in Christchurch at present. Mrs. Nicholas Reid has returned from a visit to Airs. Strang at Palmerston North. Miss Thelma Bloomfield is staying with Mrs. Mills in Hobson-street. ■ Mrs. v Stephen Boyd, of Waipawa, is in Wellington at present. The Mayoress (Mrs. J. P. Luke) has received the sum of £85 from 'Mrs. Vivian Riddiford to be divided among the following funds :—£so to the Blinded Soldiers and Sailors Fund, £25 for the Red Triple 'Fund (V.M.C.A.), and £10 far th>. Nurses' Memorial Fund. Mrs. Luka has also received an amount of £25 for her Soldiers' Giijt Parcels Fund, ihe result of the butchers' art union. There is a still further amount to be received as the result of a day's sports. The peasant life in Servia appears to be extraordinarily primitive. Dr. Agnes Bennett described their manner' of living very graphically last evening, and said that they had extremely little' idea of the value' of money, and barter was etill extant^ They would far rather be paid for their goods with a, pair of boote orsomething of the sort instead of gold or silver coinage. The villages contain people of either Bulgarian, Greek, Servian, or Turkish extraction. They retain their different national characteristics, and the religion of ihe village is usually indicated by the church towers-each having special outlines and character. The houses in each village are huddled closely together for the better protection of the inhabitants from brigands, who abound in the mountains. ■ There ie no j trade between the villages, and they are usually built alongside rivers or streams, which _ work the corn-grinding mills. Each village grows its own corn, and if the supply fails the people simply starve in the winter. There is no organisation or exchange of commodities whatever. The flocks of sheep and goats are mixed, and,' as in the Biblical days, shepherds take them out to feed in the summer and watch over them all night, while in winter they are housed with the people. After the shearing the women spin the wool with distaffs for winter clothing, and they also knit. Practically the grain and fowls form the principal food, while the sheep and goats supply the clothing. There is no medical aid for these vil- I lages. Malaria,_ dysentery, and anaemia, also tuberculosis, are the principal ailments, yet, till the war, the use of quinine was unknown. In speaking of the sadness of the lives of these people, their continual fear of robbers, their distrost of each other, and the fact that each house has a high wall around it, with a small gate, while the people live upstairs so as to keep watch for enemies, Dr. Bennett said that we should be most thankful for our state of protection. She paid a special tribute to our isoldiers, who are fighting that this happy state may be secured to us,..and asked that people should not give "grudgingly or of necessity" for them, but see that they have our best, both now and after the war is over. ' ' The following from the Australasian is of. interest to New Zealanders :—The New Zealand Government representative (Mr. H. J. Mansoa) recently convened a meeting of New Zealand residents in Melbourne, with,a view to aiding the appeal by the State War Council. It was unanimously decided that the Dominion should be represented at the carnival on 15th March. To carry out preliminary arrangements; those taking a practical interest in the movement attended a meeting in the New Zealand Government offices on Monday afternoon, 18th February. Arrangements were made to have a kiosk in the form of a Maori whare, the stock-in-trade to be typical cf New Zealand. Steps are being taken to obtain suitable articles from, the Dominion. Already several have been contributed, including a Kaiapoi- rug and a picture, which presents a New Zealand scene, and these a>e being raffled. A feature of the New Zealanders' efforts for .;sth March will be the official opening of the spacious basement cafe which Messrs. Simpson and Davenport have had fitted up at their premises in Collins-street. A musical programme is being arranged, and the firm will give half of the day's returns. In addition to the ladies' executive there'is a strong working committee to assist in carrying out. arrangements. It has Mr. H. J. Manson as chairman, and Mr. H. L. Solomon as hon. secretary, others members being Messrs. R. Linto?i, E. V. Jones, Price, J. Cunningham, A. J. Laurie, and Gurr. The flower stall at the Concert Chamber last evening -was aTranged -by, and in charge of, Mrs. Hanan, assisted fiy some friends. A welcome addition to the stall was a number of dainty lavender sachets, which sold out very quickly. There were some beautiful flowers also, and the satisfactory sum of £'4 Is 6d was made, and -will be added to the Scottish Women's Hospital Fund. A writer in an English paper discourses very pleasantly on the entertaining of convalescent soldiers. She says : Looking back over a year's friendly intercourse between the inmates of a certain house and those of a neighbouring convalescent home, I find that the "amusemfiiits" for the guests (who, by the way, have a little trick of "coming to tea" at half-post two), provided partly by the hostess but chiefly by circumstances, were iiiuny and various. They included chopping wood, playing the piano, gathering- fir-cones for fuel, singing part-songs, polishing brown bags, .embroidering handkerchiefs, cleaning ' harness, \ pumping writer, reading poetry, mowing lawns, winding wool, playing with babies, oiling skatos, laying tables, gathering flowers for the wards, making omelettes, digging trenches (merely for celery plants), washing tea-things, planting potatoes, mending fences, and doing gymnastic

exercises as gracefully as might be with such arms and legs as they still had left at their disposition. They entered like schoolboys into whatsoever things the hostess's hands found to do at any given moment. Perhaps that is why one who often invites them recently remarked, "I nover feel more like a mirse in charge of a nursery full of children than I do when I am pouring out tea, for a whole platoon of them." And, indeed, that is the secret of success. When entertaining the wounded the thing to do is to pretend outwardly that you are dealing with, men, but to know inwardly that you have to do with so many children. Why is this ? Doubtless it is because they have been face to face with the realities' lately —they have been down to the bedrock of tilings. And, just think, if the same could be said of us, if our souls as well as our bodies had been. through a fiery furnace, would not a great deal of rubbish have been burnt up? Should wo not I'have ehed many of the conventional falsities that we are wont to wrap round our souls, and should we not have a. truer and clearer vision of a-D. around us? So it is with the men in any case. They know all there is to be known about cold, hunger, dirt, courage, despair, selfsacrifice, weariness, excitement, sympathy, apatliyj heroism, and so on all up the gamut and down again ; they have forgotten all that it is well to forget about petty meannesses, self-assertion, selfconsciousness-,, self-seeking, self-every-thing'except self-respect. And after all that, pray what is left but—the heart of a little child?