MAINLY FOR WOMEN

Greymouth Evening Star, 25 March 1922, Page 8

MAINLY FOR WOMEN

1 I '• "" “■ NEWS AND NOTES. (The Lady Editor will be pleased to receive for pubheation ia this column items of social or personal uews. Such items should be fully authenticated J A royal road to health, and beauty is said to be skipping. “Skip and be beautiful’’ is the advice George Cook, the Australian boxer, gives to women. “Half the ailments from which modern girls suffer would disappear if they would only devote a few mioui-s every morning to skipping. I advise them to drink a little wjrm water and milk before they commence, while the knees should be well drawn up while skipping so that the muscles are brought into play.’’ A brilliant girl chess player of Cuba, Maria Teresa Mora, who is only 17 years old, may possibly win the women’s open chess championship this year. Capablanca, the world’s champion, considers lieu to be “the equal of any woman player in the world.'’ He is to bring her to England. Mr L. P. Rees, secretary of the British Chess Association, told a Press representative that there could be no doubt about her selection. “Why on earth do you taxo in washing?’’ This is the question many of Lady Cloiiinell’s friends aro asking her, for the Countess has started a laundry (says a London paper). “At the beginning of the war I began to feel it was time I was doing something,’’ she said. “Several activities of various kinds have always occupied my time, and during the war I was interested in many organisations.

Therefore, recently I have found plenty of time on my hands. I men- - tinned the matter to Gordon Selfridge, and said ‘I wish I had something to do.’ ‘AVell,’ he replied, ‘why not start a laundry?’ That was about six months ago. To-day my business is patronised by people, not only in I.on- ) don, but in the provinces, in Scotland, and even in Ireland. We all know how careless laundries are. I have had every sympathy for the thin-neck-ed gentleman who receives from the laundry 12 16in collars. That is one i thing that is ruled out in the ‘White , Elephant,’ as I call my laundry — L there are no mistakes.’’ For the second time in 12 months .fudge Jlnffaker has reprimanded a woman witness in his court for what he considered was too lavish a display ' of silk-clad limbs. According to a “Central News’’ wire from Knoxville, Tenn., the witness, in ■ the opinion of the judge, drew het 1 skirt 100 high, and then crossed her legs within the view of the judge and jury. When she was reprimanded she tried to reply, but was silenced by the judge, ami left the court weeping. The judge declared that no womail could come into his court and insult a man’s sense of modesty. “Short dresses,’’ he said, “are no doubt to blame in a large measure for the lack of modesty prevailing in these times.’’ At eno time it did not seem to be thought necessary for girls and women to be first-class swimmers, even though the average boy was, states an exchange. Now, however, girls and women go in for swimming and life-sav-ing as much as men and boys, as is clearly evidenced by a visit to any of the beaches or baths. That is locally of course, but it is the same in England and other parts of the world. A recent English paper described a gathering of lady members of the Bath Swmming Club when in an examination of candidates for the awards of the Royal Life Saving the entrants had attained a high degree of excellence, Lady .Alary Ashley-Cooper, daughter of the Earl of Shaftesbury, and Miss Helen Bruce Dick, gaining the award <>f merit, and many others first-class awards. ’These honours aro by no means easily attained ; to attain them' i the entrant must enter the water fully rlressed in ordinary clothes, rescue a 1

living subject and carry her a dis tanco of 20 yards. They have t< swim 600 yards by three differen styles of swimming, dive from the stir face and bring up a weighted object from a depth of six feet. They alsc have to undress on the surface as well as dive from heights up to 10 feet and prove their ability in seientitle swimming such as floating and other methods useful in life saving. English womenfolk are great sports, and when they go in for anything they do it in heart and soul fashion. The New Zealand Red Cross nurse, Miss Edith Webster, writes of the marvellous provision and organisation of the London City Councils *oi the relief of the poor in London. Woikhouses, receiving homes, fresh-air schools, dispensaries, and many other relieving organisations are all excellently and humanely managed. Apparently, from Miss Webstcrs’ act (i nt g of things, the conditions wh’< h Dickens so vividly portrayed in "Oliver Twist” are quite things of the past. Miss Webster remarks on the kindness and cheerfulness of those in charge, and the genuine happiness and gratitude of the inmates. It seems a *‘far cry” from Mr Bumble, Mrs Corney, and Oliver Twist and his poor little petition for “more” of the miserable food measured out grudgingly by hard hearted officialdom to the cor. dif ions mentioned to-day. Dickens accomplished a wonderful work n bringing under the notice of a self-satisfied and comfortable world the miserable conditions which existed in Merrie England before and during his time. Perhaps his books, and the later beautiful touching poem “The Cry of the Children” by Elizabeth Barrett Browning, awakened as much interest leading to reform as. “Uncle Tom’s Cabin,” which accomplished such a great work in America. There seems to be little doubt that by poem and t story much more good has been ’ brought about, and in a far wider circle than by all the Blue Books ever compiled.