MAINLY FOR WOMEN

Greymouth Evening Star, 26 October 1929, Page 9

MAINLY FOR WOMEN

ITEMS OF INTEREST

(Notes by

Marjorie)

FOR GIRLS WITH GRIT.

£6OO-A-YEAR

FOR NURSES

Wanted.: At salaries of £3OO to £ 600 a year, women who are prepared to rough it. Paint and powder flappers need not apply. This is the requirement of the Overseas Nursing Association, which is anxious to enrol competent nurses to carry 6n its heroic work in the lonely outposts of Empire.

Here are a few of the necessary qualifications for applicants: — Minimum age 27. Character and good education.

Capacity to suffer hardships. Fearlessness in face of danger. C.M.B. and general nursing certificates.

“We have vacancies for really competent women,” the secretary of the association, Miss Turner, said in aq interview.

“The work offers a first-class openbig for girls with the spirit of adventure and a real love for humanity.”

An example of the type of work 'hat prospective applicants must be prepared to undertake is that in the ase of Miss Summers, of Worthing, >ow on her way to take up nursing work at Nain, a little Moravian mis.ion station on the coast of Labrador.

For eight months in the year the tation is icebound, and during the winter mails are only received once every six weeks.

Miss Summers will be at once doctor, dentist, and district nurse to the Eskimos and settlers for a radius of many miles, and will have to do her ionely rounds over the ice by dog sleigh.

CRECHE FOR BABIES. IN DUNEDIN THEATRE. DUNEDIN, October IS. A creche for babies has been created by the Regent Theatre management in /portion of the vestibule, during the matinees. The creche is the first of its kind opened in a New Zealand picture theatre, and a generous service is given free to mothers. In charge is a fully qualified Plunket Society nurse and she is able to keep the children happy with her expert care and with toys provided by the management for the entertainment of the babies. The creche is barricaded, and no harm can come to the children. The playground is an airy place, and mothers who wish to enjoy the pictures to the full without being disturbed by the tearful claims for attention by the babies, can rest in the theatre satisfied that the babies are safe. Moreover, the creche is far more beneficial to the health of the tots than their being in the theatre, and more enjoyment is given to other patrons. The creche is an admirable initiative step and it has been given the endorsement of the Plunket Society.

CONSTANTINOPLE’S UNWED. FIVE OF EVERY SEVEN ADULTS. A champion ringer of marriage bells in the days of polygamy, Constantinople now celebrates fewer weddings, annually, than any of the great cities of the world. Out of a population of 700,000 adults, only two-sevenths are married, according to statistics gathered by a Belgian expert, M. Jacquart, who has been conducting the first reliable census ever taken in Turkey. Four hundred thousand bachelors and bachelor girls and 100,000 widows, widowers and divorced persons who have not remarried, form five-sevenths of the adult population. In the first three months of 1928 marriages in the city totalled 1050. In the same period this yeai* the number dropped to 795. The severe economic crisis in Turkey is a factor. Taxes are going higher every year, and the cost of necessities every month. Proportionately down goes the ability of the average man to support anybody but himself.

PRIZE BEAUTY.

KILLS HUSBAND IN ROW’

MEXICO CITY, August 25.

Mrs Maria Teresa de Landa de Vidal, “Miss Mexico” at the 1928 Galveston beauty carnival, to-day shot and killed her husband and then attempted suicide.

Her act followed reading in the newspapers that the first wife of her husband, General Moises Vidal, had filed a suit for bigamy against him. The couple were married recently here, and it was said that the General kept secret the fact that he was already married and had two daugh ters.

The girl used the army pistol of her husband. After emptying all chambers with shots into his body, she reloaded and turned the gun on herself.

The bigamy suit story was published on Saturday, but the second Mrs Vida saw it only to-day. She handed the paper to her husband and pointed out the story, and then, when he read it. ent into his bedroom and obtained hi"- pistol.

She told him that she was going t--•ommit suicide, and that if he inter inred she would kill him too. He trier, to seize the firearm. She fired six -hots into his body, one entering hi: heart and another his forehead. She then turned the gun on herself to find it empty. Mrs Vidal became ivsterical. Later, she said she feared mprisonment on the bigamy charges Under Mexican law, this might have been possible in her case.

DANCING DANGERS.

A DOCTOR’S ADVICE. Some women, visiting the recent Dunedin music and dancing competitions, started discussing the advisability of having step and fancy dancing taught to young children. One of them, a mother, said she would not allow her Alice to start straining her legs, and another advanced the opinion that toe dancing in early life induced varicose veins in grown-ups This suggestion made such an im pression on a third member of the party that she -resolved, in the inter osts of her children, to consult the family physician, and his answer is here given for the guidance of others. It is to this effect: That dancing in moderation is a desirable form of exercise, but that teachers should hr careful to call a halt when they sec that any child who is being taught fancy dancing is becoming tired. The result to be feared, if rest is' not given, is that the arches may be impaired, and thus cause flat-footedness, un reasonably lengthy spells of dancing may also strain the calf muscles, and ultimately throw the legs out of shape. The warning applies generally, but more particularly to toe dancing. The risk of varicose veins is negligible. Dancing develops the muscles, not the veins. The dreaded varicose condition that is disabling so many women is largely attributable to hereditary causes, and may be brought about in shop girls by their having to stand too long. CITY OK PRETTY GIRLS. Nottingham was annoyed during the summer months at the repeated assertions that the prettiest girls in England are to be found at the seaside resorts. “And I don’t mind telling you,” said one of the city fathers in an interview, “that they can still hold their own with the girls anywhere. The remarkable thing is that you find extraordinary beauty among lassies of the working classes. I suppose generations of hard work has kept their figures supple and their wits and the splendid air has looked after their complexions.” WORLD’S OLDEST CAT. Known among her friends, as the world’s oldest living cat, “Mommie” celebrated her 29th birthday recently at the. home of her master, William. S. Arthurs, postmaster of a village in Deleware (U.S.A.).

The exact date of the cat’s birth is not known, but it was in June 1901, that a very small and emaciated stray kitten mewed piteously outside the back door of the Arthurs’ home and was taken in, fed, and adopted. That kitten was “Mommie.” She was a very hard worker until her age began to tell on her. She shows her age now, lying around almost all the time. She is very fond of milk, but eats very little of anything else.

“Mommie” is a white cat, with a few streaks and spots of black and brown. Though her teeth are no longer serviceable, and her hearing is poor, her tongue retains much of its old-time vigour, and with it she keeps her fur

sleek, fluffy, and immaculate. Mr Arthurs’ claim of 28 years as “Mommie’s” age is not disputed by cat experts. “Healthy cats are more long-lived than dogs,” says “Encyclopedia Americana.” “Authentic records tells of not a few over twenty years of age, and of some even thirty.