MAINLY FOR WOMEN

Greymouth Evening Star, 25 August 1928, Page 4

MAINLY FOR WOMEN

ITEMS OF INTEREST

(Notes by

Marjorie)

THE WOMAN AT HOME. ALWAYS NECESSARY. The more girls ami women take up careers in the world, the more trained women will be required in the home. Someone must look after the .roof that shelters us and the space it eovears, not. to mention equipment, personal clothing and food, to reduce our needs to the lowest practical level. Wo hear a great deal about women running both a. home and a career in the world most successfully, but un-

biased investigation will invariably reveal the fact that there is some indispensable woman there to keep the machinery in order, even if the woman with a, career (who considers she runs ihc house) turns the handle. It. is this indispensable woman who is my concern, states a writer in a. London exchange.' 1 don’t care whether she be mother, wife, sister, daugh-

li r, aunt, housekeeper, servant or daily “char.” .These women are indis- ' p: usable to the worker —man or woman —who has a commercial or any other career. I defy anyone—man or woman —to make a career in the world without'the belli of one of these treasures. “The woman at home makes her best contribution to the community by knowing how to live. To make things go well in a home is an art and the woman who does this is an artist. Her achievement is an attitude to life. Most women at home have a little of this quality and some are almost per-

fect. Such women are great artists. As a rule, human nature finds some leisure necessary to hold this attitude and this is one reason why, if possible, rhe woman at home should have leisure.” L These are the words of a Canadian girl brought up in a Canadian home. They have wide horizons out there and take wide views. As Lady Ravensdale, president of the Union of Women Voters, said recently, we need to organise capable groups of women so that when legislation comes along affecting these groups we may have l he adequate brains and information. We need most particularly a strong group of home-makers of every type. Not merely those who rule, but those who do the actual work.

A child aged seven years. Josette Trichet, conducted the Colonne Orchestra. recently at the Sorbonne. This item formed part of the prograhune given by <the choral society of Paris girls’ schools to parents and friends. Among other children who helped to entertain their elders was a pianist aged eight years, Zoe Monteanu, and a violinist, aged 12 years, named Perring. Josette Trichet received an ovation and was publicly embraced by Gabriel Pierne, who usually conducts the orchestra'.

The newest thing in sports wear is a, white pleated skirt worn with a jumper that seems literally to contain every colour known to Joseph’s coat. The jumper is hand-knitted in very -fine silk, and the brilliant horizontal stripes cover the whole of it, except the lower edge, the turnover collar and the long sleeves, all of which are Vlain white. Altogether a very attractive outfit for the girl who likes “a touch of colour.”

WOMEN AND WHITE CITY

Some of the strange spheres in which women have established themselves are illustrated at the White City, says an English writer. One woman is a rifle demonstrator. There is some scope for women in this direction, now that so many ladies’ shooting clubs are springing up. A. number of women shoot at Bisley every year, breeches and a mackintosh being the favourite and most practical outfit. Last year Miss B. Badcock. nnty missed by one point being in the King’s Hundred. This year a new competition, called The Amazons, is to be held at Bisley for women. Many of the women’s shooting clubs are run in connection with firms’ sports. But even now women do not shoot as much in this country as they do in the colonies. Puzzle testing is another curious occupation for women which is revealed at the White City. When a new puzzle has been evolved the testers try to help decide whether it will be a popular success. Puzzles are the rage in America just now, having displaced the crossword puzzle there. There is a craze for “puzzle parties’’ al which each guest is provided witli Hie same puzzle, and the person who does it first receives a prize.

THE PRICE OF SUCCESS.

WOMAN’S POINT OF VIEW

No woman who makes an income running into four figures can hope to have many women friends (writes Dorothy Black in the "Daily Mail’’). Someone told me that, years ago, and I did not. believe it then. But the statement rings true to those who, ■aware they have the knack of doing something well, have stuck at it. until they have succeeded. Perhaps the greatest, amt most unconscious enemy of the. successful woman is the Other Woman’s Husband —that hearty and blithe fellow who says: "I hear you make a large income of your own in your spare moments, Miss Dash. Now, Myrtle, my dear, why can’t you do something of the sort?’’ St; Myrtle, who might have been our friend, is lost to us. She will go for ever with that shaft, in her poor pride, hating us in her heart. Useless

to grieve over her, or, indeed, to think about her any more. She can never be won after that. Then again, to be successful lays one open to suspicion of being clever, although in a great many cases it is all a matter of industry and seizing those opportunities all of us get and so many of us let pass by. Cleverness is the hardest of all things to live down. Man will forgive a woman anything but that she may perhapfe catch him out over a Latin quotation. No happy futile moments are allowed to the woman labouring under the suspicion of possessing brains. A dark significance is laid on everything she says or does. There is only one serviceable cleverness for women to cultivate, and that is the ability to disguise it. Not only do people dislike cleverness, they distrust it. They are not sure that, after’ all, the whole business is not a trick. People are loath to believe in the just reward of labour. A few noble souls there are who realise that an actress may be successful because she can act and has worked

hard, and has got where she is through talent alone. There will always be wise head-shakings and whispered stories, and the subtle suggestion that you and I could have got just as far if we had been prepared to stoop to the same depths. Then comes the large class of slightly scornful people who would like you to understand that it is. not that they could not have done just the same themselves, but it was beneath their dignity. They have every technique at their finger-tips, but consider all that kind of thing unworthy of them. Success in one person has a way in bringing out all that is worst in others, which, is one reason why a successful woman does not have regiments of friends. Hard to bear with also, Rs the kindly old party who says: “Ah, dear Miss Dash, I see you have been lucky again.” But it is npt an entirely one-sided affair. Those who achieve anything at all must become a little hardened and a little intolerant in the process. Their attitude, towards their fellow creatures is perhaps a trifle off-hand. Success or popularity—which would you choose?

WOMEN’S PATENTS

If a woman cannot get what she wants in the house and elsewhere, she will invent it. This is the experience of some patent agents, who state that during the period of nearly 100 years they have been practising they have not dealt with so many women’s inventions as during this year (states an exchange). 1 Folding tables, having innumerable uses, electrical hairtreating apparatus, matches, all sorts of cooking utensils for ensuing ease and cleanliness, nursery safeguards, and numerous other useful inventions have been submitted by women this year. THE -‘LOVE SPOON." It is not generally known why lovemaking is sometimes called “spooning.” One may find the (due Io the mystery in a £1,000,000 exhibition of art treasures organised by the British Antique Dealers’ Association, which was lately held in London, says an English writer. Among the exhibits was an eighteenth century Welsh “love spoon” carved out of applewood. These tokens were carefully fashioned by lovers of bygone days, and presented to their sweethearts. The old custom has vanished, but “spooning” still means lovemaking.