MAINLY FOR WOMEN

Greymouth Evening Star, 15 February 1930, Page 9

MAINLY FOR WOMEN

ITEMS OE INTEREST

(Noles by

Marjorie)

SECRET OF LOVE.

“DISEASE LIKE DIPHTHERIA. ’ The truth about love is out at last. The reason why lovers get hollow-eyed and distraught-looking has been discovered. According to the icscaiches conducted by Dr Waldermar Schweissheimer, love is nothing more than a disease to be compared with measles, or any other infectious complaint. The professor, who has just completed a clinical examination of the tender passion in the safe confines of his laboratory, explains that, as in all infections, the “love disease” has its incubation period between its inception and crisis. This, he states, is similar to the incubation period in diphtheria. Once the “love disease” has broken out, he says, the symptoms are uninis. talcable. “The eye m blurred, the heart palpitates, the face becomes pale, sleep is irregular and the sufferer loses weight. “Those unhappy in love may pine away like flowers deprived of sunshine, while, on the other hand, those whose love is reciprocated will re ■coyer.” He does not hold out any hope, however, that one day love will be cured by inoculations of a curative serum. MAGICIAN AS BRIDE. A TEA-PLANTER’S ROMANCE. Miss Mary Maskelyne, the charming girl magician, stated in London recently. that, she had cabled to Nyasaland accepting a proposal of marriage from ■i young tea planter. The prospective bridegroom is Mr Ronald Campbell Miles, a former Lorn don man, whose marriage offer arrived with the Christmas mail. His bride-to-be got the surprise of her life when she opened the letter, for out of the package rolled a diamond and sapphire engagement ring. “When the marriage takes place,” said Miss Maskelyne, “which will not be just yet, I shall abandon my profession as an illusionist and quit the stage for a tea plantation out in Nyasaland, where I shall live and make my home.” Miss Maskelyne, is a granddaughter of Mr J. M. Maskelyne, and the only girl among the present generation* of the famous family of magicians. She has been appearing at the Maskelyne Theatre with her brothers, Jasper and Noel. “I met Ronald at a friend’s house during the summer,” Miss Maskelyne said. “He was home oh leave. We became great friends, and when after two months he went out to Africa again, there was a little private under standing between us. I had promised to wait for him and I thought I should have to wait some time, but it was not to be.” Mr Miles went to Africa tbn years ago, and became manager of an estate in Nyasaland, which he planted himself. “No,” added Miss Maskelyne, “he is not afraid of marrying a magician. He is quite sure I shall not be a vanishing lady to him.”

BRITISH WOMEN IN INDIA. A New Zealand woman once wrote to India regarding the chance of earning a'salary in Bombay, and was answered, “Do not come unless you have an income. With an income, you will have an excellent, time.” The various clerkships and typistes’ positions, which are now almost a feminine preserve in some lands, are there filled by Anglo-Indian young men or natives. Nursing is the best occupation, ami of women doctors more could be taken, while in the various Y.W.C.A. hostels young Englishwomen are of course required for positions of responsibility. As European children are now kept in India longer than formerly, positions as governess or nursery governess are often open, and lead to an interesting life, while some have taken up positions in the zenanas where English training is desired. The merely handy woman, however, will find little for her in that land where so much is done by the natives, and of course land jobs are out of the question. Nevertheless, we hear of one venturesome lady who experimented in a poultry farm, and did so well that she demonstrated from a train that toured the country. WOMAN ELECTRICIAN. Miss Winifred Hackett, a twenty-three-years-old student of Birmingham University, has beaten all the men in the electrical engineering department of the University and won a scholarship entitling her to a year's research course. A public tribute to the excellence of her work has been paid by Professor Cramp, chief of the department, who declares that she is head and- shoulders above any of the men in originality, persistence and patience. Miss Hackett belongs to a family of engineers on her father’s side, and a boy cousin recently won an equivalent scholarship in the same subject elsewhere. She passed through an elementary school to King Edward’s Birmingham, and went on to London University. She spent a large part of her vacation last year working in the factory of the General Electric Company. She has hud several posts offered to her, but has declined them all, being intent on her present studies and convinced that she has a “research brain.” She wants to go abroad, particularly to Germany. In her spare lime Miss Hackett does social work —but she turns away from things electrical reluctantly.

CAREER FOR EVERY GIRL.

COLLEGE PRINCIPAL'S VIEW. That, every girl, .no matter what her social position, should be trained for a career that will support her n necessary is the opinion of Eleanor Lodge, principal of Westfield College for Women (University of London), Hampstead, reports the “Daily Telegraph.” Miss Lodge, who is a sister of Sir Oliver Lodge, is shortly resigning the post, which she has held for nine years. She was the first woman to receive the degree of Doctor of Literature at Oxford in 1908. Only one other woman has attained the degree since. “It is a great mistake that the daughters of our aristocracy and well-to-do are not going into the universi tics to be trained for something,” she stated in an interview. “Instead they go to some silly finishing school and then abroad for a year. “It is a great pity that they do not all go on to the universities, as their brothers do. If they did they would not find themselves so badly fitted for public life as they are to-day. These is too much of a tendency for our universities to be filled only with young women who know they will have to earn their own living, and who go there with that in mind.” Turning to new openings for women, Miss Lodge, who was at one time chairman of the Central Bureau for the Employment of Woman, said that many of the new careers for women were opened only to one or two. “Women will have to prove themselves better’than men before they can hope to obtain positions in any of the new’ professions now open to them,” said said. “Unless • they do, there will always be the tendency to give the job to the man.” She regarded teaching as by far the most interesting occupation for girls, and the medical and nursing professions offered splendid opportunities. “But,” she added, “to bo a doctor, a nurse, or a teacher, a girl must have tremendous taste for the work.”

WIDOW’S BIG BEQUEST. TOLD TO MARRY AGAIN. . A contrast to the numerous husbands who in their wills have threatened their widows that if they marry again their legacies will be reduced was provided in England recently. Mr Edward Earle Meugens, of Edgbaston, Birmingham, added this note to his will:—“In the event of my wife marrying again, I wish it to be known to all my friends and relatives that it is my earnest desire that she should |lo so. In fact the more quickly she thus demonstrates that she finds life intolerable without a husband, the greater will I consider the compliment to her memory of me.” Mr Meugens, who was 56 years of age, was a partner in the firm of Messrs Peat, Marwick, Mitchell and Co. He died on October 16, leaving the whole of his £32,264 estate to his wife absolutely. Inquiries by a newspaper representative in Birmingham showed that Mrs Meugens had not expressed any intention to remarry. Mr and Mrs Meugens were devoted to each other,” said'a friend, “and I have no doubt that the reason for the husband’s wish was that he feared that she would grieve too much if she remained alone. “Mr Meugens was one of the best men I knew. He was generous almost to a fault both to his business friends and those in humble circumstances. Even in golf—he played at Edgbaston —he conceded, his opponents longer putts than was necessary. “One of his caddies lost no fewer than nine balls during a first, round, and when Mr Meugens complained the boy said it was due to defective, eyesight. Mr Meugens sent the boy to a specialist, and bore all the expenses both of the examination and spectacles.”

An example of a penalty placed on a wife if she remarried was presented in the will of a shipowner who left £900.000. He left £lO.OOO a year to his wife during widowhood, or £3OOO a year if she married again. .

HEARTS AREN’T ALWAYS TRUMPS There are quite a number of girls who appear to agree with Mrs Battle, who declared that “hearts was her favourite suit.” Eileen’s one of them, and to her hearts are always trumps, a subject beside which everything also sinks into insignificance. ! Tell her that someone has invented a machine that enables one to see a thousand miles, that a cure for cancer has been discovered, or that you’re sailing for the West Indies to-morrow, and she’ll merely remark: — “Yes, dear, how interesting. But what do you think he really meant when he said my eyes were ‘intriguing’? I’ve had a most peculiar letter from Jim. I do want to ask you ” When she is not sighing, dashing wildly for the post, or listening, with an absent air, to any little bits of news you may have, she is telling you tearfully “all about, it,” with maddening reiteration of “he said,” and “I said,” or reading you the more obscure bits from letters worn to breaking point at the creases. ‘ Most of us have been through periods when we were vague, sentimental, bad-tempered, ami lyrical by turns, when the postman’s knock was more important than the fall of empires. and when snapshots and pressed violets were apt to drop out of “Pitman’s Shorthand Instructor.” but a. brief spell of madness was always succeeded by a return to normal. We’ve had enough sense to realise that there tiro other people in the-world besides ourselves and the young man-of-the-moment, ami that though we’d prefer to go nap on hearts, others may be more interested in clubs, or spades, or diamonds.' But to Eileen, hearts ar.- always trumps, it. is not only her strong suit, but her only and unvarying one. Her sole topic of conversation is the particular “him" of the moment; her only interest what “lie” has said, or will say. She is an emotional glutton, who cannot believe that, it is possible to fuco life without a. perpetual heart interest and, what is worse, she seems to thiuk it’s an interest that all her friends must share! There is no surer way of boring people. exhausting their pat|ienee, aud

trying their tempers than by relating -your heart throbs to all and sundry. However sympathetic your friends may be, they don’t want to hear “all about it,” all of the time; so if you’re inclined to be like Eileen, do remember. before i/’s too late, that hearts aren’t always trumps!—Women’s Weekly.