MAINLY FOR WOMEN

Greymouth Evening Star, 28 September 1929, Page 9

MAINLY FOR WOMEN

ITEMS OE INTEREST

(Notes by

Marjorie)

MILLIONAIRE GROOM.

LORD YPRES’S GRANDDAUGHTER.

DENVER (Colorado), September 2. Miss Valerie French, granddaughter of the late Earl of Ypres, is crossing the Atlantic aboard the Homeric to marry Mr Henry Bradley Martin, the junior scion of . a multi-millionaire New York family. Martin, who was a student at Oxford University, met Miss French three years ago. They planned to be married in London following Martin’s graduation, which occurred in but recently, Martin broke his hip in a motor car accident, and must lie until November in Denver Hospital, where the ceremony will take place under the surgeon’s watchful eye.

GIRL’S OFFICE “UNIFORM.”

LONDON, September 3

Because a girl clerk at. Frankfort turned up to business wearing a bathing costume, thus disturbing the decorous atmosphere of the office, the manager summarily dismissed her. The Labour Court, to which the girl took her grievance, decided, how rever, that an employer had no right to dismiss an employee if he believed her to be immodestly clad.

RADIOPHONE GIRLS.

LONDON, September 6.

England and Europe will be well prepared for the inauguration of Australian beam telephony in more ways than one.

A splendid contribution to this, although it is entirely due to the recent great extension of ordinary telephony throughout Europe, will be ability of ‘he telephone girls to speak in various languages. For example, anybody requiring to phone to Sydney from Berlin will find a German girl able to call up Sydney in English. The same will be possible from Paris and other cities.

The girls, who are not specially trained, rapidly become expert linguists. So far as the London Post Office is concerned, they are merely ordinary telephone girls who have passed the ordinary telephonist’s examination, but, probably knowing- languages before entry, they are allowed to specialise and eventually spend periods abroad, while foreign \girls come here in exchange for similar training. It is now possible to find almost any language among the London girls.

CORSETS. REMARKABLE EVOLUTION. SYDNEY, September 20. Mr Arthur Burley, manager and secretary of Berlei, Ltd., giving evidence before the Tariff Board yesterday de scribed the remarkable evolution in recent years in the manufacture of corsets. “You have probably heard of the corsetless craze, as it was called, when some years ago women revolted against the heavily-made, big-boned corset of that day,” Mr Burley said. “A comparatively short period of this freedom had a marked effect on the figures of all but slender types. Women began to lose their figure lines and developed flesh at the hips and abdomen. As soon as this was realised many went to the other extreme and the vogue for rubber corsets, fortunately brief, was almost sensational in some-countries. This demand for figure control was met by borrowing from surgical corsets by the incorporation of strips, buckles, vests and other features which, hidden beneath the dainty fabric of the modern garment, proved so popular that they were adopted by every manufacturer. The result of this general borrowing of the control features of the surgical corset has been that it is now impossible to draw a line of demarcation between the two types.”

THE WOMAN OF FORTY.

MENTAL & PHYSICAL CONFLICTS.

The day is over when the woman of forty was supposed to have passed the best of her life. The pendulum has swung the other way, and in many aspects of life, the woman of forty counts for more than her sisters in the twenties and the thirties (writes Ethel Browning, M.D., in “T.P.’s Weekly”), . t . Yet the woman of forty is not always able to take full advantage of her opportunities because she herself is subject to certain mental and physical limitations. It is natuial and inevitable that during the years when she is passing from youth to early middle age, she should undergo both mental and bodily alteration, but it is not necessary that either of these should entail suffering. Some of the most vigorous activities of early life must certainly be slowed down, and rerhaps the ordinary round of life has < ome to be felt as a slight effort, but hese drawbacks can easily be remedied by the exercise of common sense. DIET AND REST. Physically, the necessary steps for health and comfort resolve them,elves into a reasonable diet, a moderate amount of rest, an abundance of resh air, and a sufficiency of exercise. Physical exercise is a necessity, even more than it is in youth, if the bugbear of middle age, obesity, is to be voided. Not only from an aesthetic .tandpoint, but from the point of view >f health, is overweight a handicap .0 the v, r oman of forty; and obesity is argely a matter of diet and exercise, 'inlden and violent exercise, such as Igorous games to which she has .over been accustomed, are not adisable, for undue fatigue is as much obe deplored as lethargy. But the | mtivation of outdoor sports often. •p-s with it a mental stimulation. : enjoyment which is no less im-! ••'ant than its physical benefit I

The troubles of which many women if forty complain, however, are more mental than physical. A mental flatness, a vague depression and unrest, varying with circumstances, are often felt" by the married woman whose interests have been centred in the iimning of a home and the bringing up of children. She finds that now, when the children are grown up and have their own interests, when perhaps the home runs more easily and when hei husband has developed many outside occupations, she is left with much time on her hands and not much to do with it. The unmarried woman of forty, with marriage no longer a probability, feels that now, more or less definitely, the rest of her life is in her own hands, to make what she will of it. Both, unless their psychological need is satisfied, are likely to suffer. And the suffering is emphasised if the woman is one who has depended for her happiness on physical atraction. Such a women sees with omething like despair the modifica’ons of radiant youth. She does not calise that to others the appearance latural to her age has its own charm; ■nd this charm can be enhanced by easonable care. The well-dressed, well-groomed woman of forty need un. dergo none of the mental conflict which is no figment of a vain imagination -n- , Her reconciliation to the dignified inevitability of a less youthful appearance is only one aspect of the mental discipline which can remove so many o£ her difficulties. CAUSES OF DISTURBANCE. She must have congenial occupation, for anything which truly satisfies the mind and prevents it from indulging in morbid introspection means salvation to the woman whose leisure has ceased to be a source of enjoyment, and has become filled with restlessness and dissatisfaction. But such occupation should not be regarded as merely a refuge from depression and unrest. Running away from difficulties is not the way to conquer them; it only means that the trouble will recur whenever circumstances leave the mind prepared to receive it, and a constant search for something to do leads to the vicious circle of restlessness and nervous exhaustion.

The cause of the disturbance must be located, and a determination to remove it must be undertaken. In cases of domestic unhappiness the remedy is 'difficult, even impossible, without the faculty •of endurance, which some- women find much more difficult than others to acquire. But in the case of the majority of women who suffer from mental ill-health between forty and fifty,, the root of the trouble lies not so much in their circumstances as in themselves.

They regret too much, worry much over trifles and fail to cultivate a serene and cheerful outlook. The passing of youth is nature’s law and to that law we must all bow. Resistance is not only futile but foolish, and delays the coming of the compensations which every age holds. It is a well-known fact that all psychological conflict leads to nervous disturbance, and much of the conflict of early middle age is as unnecessary as it is harmful. Irritability .depression, and semi-invalidism are the consequences of refusing to face the inmost workings of the mind. Emotion is so closely bound up with bodily activity, especially the activity of the endocrine glands which play an incalculable part in maintaining the normal balance of mind and body, that too much stress cannot be laid upon the importance of controlling the emotions. That part of the nervous system which directs the unconscious mechanism of the ordinary daily life reacts and interacts with every influence to which the mind is subject. If the mind is swayed this way and that by troublesome and irregular disturbance, the various bodily systems fail to work in their regular and normal rhythm. It is not easy to keep a firm hand over the fluctuations, of feeling that recur with disturbing rapidity in the ill-balanced mind, but the effort is worth making, always remembering that each victory makes the next one easier.