MAINLY FOR WOMEN

Greymouth Evening Star, 14 June 1930, Page 3

MAINLY FOR WOMEN

ITEMS OF INTEREST

(Notes by

Marjorie)

MARRIAGE MADE EASY. FLATS AND FURNITURE. An easy road to marriage is provided municipally at Birmingham, where the Corporation has extended its scheme to provide young couples with cheap homes by not only erecting flats for them, but furnishing them on the-4iire-purchp.se system. Overcrowding was being increased by the marriage of young people who had to live with their parents for lack of-other accommodation. So many married couples with children were on the municipal housing register that there was little chance of newly-weds securing houses. So blocks of flats were erected in Garrison Lane, .Birmingham, containing living-room, bedroom, scullery, and bath, and were let at 6s lOd a week Then the suggestion that furniture Should be provided took effect. Now there were many happy young couples contentedly paying an extra 3s a week to become owners of thenown household goods within three years of marriage. The aipi of th© scheme is that when children come along a move should be made to a corporation house and the flat vacated for other newly-weds.

BABY ORPHAN’S HOME-COMING. PARENTS WHO DIED IN INDIA. LONDON, April 20. There, will arrive at SpplhaniptQu to-morrow a two-months-old orphan whose parents died in India within sixteen months of their marriage. The father was Dr. Sydney Hartley, formerly house surgeon at Bethnal Green Hospital, who in December, 1928, niarried one of the nurses, Miss Megan Richards. Two months later, Dr Hartley and his wife left England to settje ip Peshawar, where the doctor took up a post under the Indian Medical Service. In February of this year Dr Hartley died from pneumonia, and -shortly afterwards’ his widow gave birth to' a child. Mrs Hartley decided to return to England, but before .she could do so, she too, became ill and died. The baby is being brought hqpie to its grandparents by Major and Mrs Wilson, of Peshawar.

INFANT PRODIGY.

TALKS AT FOUR MONTHS

West Australia’s latest prodigy is a four months’ old baby, the son of Mr and Mrs Harry ’ Stone, Hay street, Perth.

Seen by a Press representative the baby, who is a husky youngster with a great sense of humour, distinctly said “Mumma,” “Daddy,” and “Harry,’' the Christian name of his father, and he is now struggling to say “Hullo” and “Tata.” Perth doctors consider that the child is absolutely normal in every way', is physically perfect, and has a very high’ mental development. In local medical knowledge, there is no record of any child ever having articulated words at such an early age. SAFETY-FIRST GIRL. A PASSPORT COMEDY. Extreme care in packing her belongings for a trip to America almost ended in a pretty girl tourist being left on Liverpool landing stage. She was about to embark in the Canard liner Scythia, when she was asked to produce her passport. “I put it in my packing case for safety,” she smilingly replied, “and the case is in the ship.” Officials discovered the case m the hold, and the ship’s carpenter broke it open, the examination of the passport being completed only a few minutes before the gangway was raised.

LOVE AS DISEASE. DOCTORS PUZZLED. The joke that love is a disease is no joke to a Birmingham man, who every* time he falls in love becomes actually ill. Doctors who have examined him are puzzled by his case, and are at a loss to account for the indisposition which-follows air-attack of the tender passion.

This martyr to love is Mr James Harold Bergman, a 30-year-old salesman. He met and proposed to, a young woman whose acquaintance he made at a. dance. Next day he was in bed suffering from no known ijlness which the doctors could diagnose, but which they state was in some way set up by the emotion of falling in love. Three times since he was 20 Mr Bergman has fallen in love, ajid on each occasion it has affected him in similar fashion.

“Really, it is becoming a serious matter for me,” he said. “At present I have acute nervous trouble coupled with occasional rises in temperature. It all sounds rather funny. 1 know, but I can assure you it. is no joke for me. “One doctor says it is my nervous system that is at the root of tho trouble' Another declares that it is my blood pressure. I have been subjected to a number of electrical tests, but my case, apparently, '£&• mains ag baffling as ever. Mr Bergman is shortly to be examined by a London psychologist. “My fiancee says she will not marry 'mo until I am completely cured,” Mr Bergman added,., sadly. “However, I seemed to have enriched the cause of science and proved that after all love really is a disease. 6 ’ WASHING DAY HINTS. How many women realise the common cause of failure in laundering? This is usually due to a sudden lowering of -the temperature of the watgr. Fibres expand when fibres are immersed in*.warm water, thus permitting the soap and wafer to loosen dirt in every part of the garments. But if'they are taken from the hot soapy water and plunged into cold water the fibres quickly contract -and hecemp hard. In this sudden contraction the' soapy substance, mixed With the dirt it has collected, is retained before it can escape in the rinsing water,'and that is why after several rinsings a filmy grey substance sometimes clings to tlpe fabric.

-Tl)en remember thqt the soaping should be quickly done, and the garment should not be allowed to soak in soapy water. According fg the recent investigations of two, domestic scientists’ if this operation lasts more than seven and a-half minutes the clothes become dirty again! The reason for this is that. thpTpiyimical action of the . soap is to dissolve the dirt into small particles and so loosen them from the threads of the material; but as they divide into still smaller "particles after the period mentioned, they aggip distribute themselves over the clothing and soil it again. It is therefore wise to remember that the essentials for successful washing qre plenty of water of an even temperature, a. good supply of soap, speed in its application, and thorough as well as speedy rinsing. These should render clothes spotlessly clean. Dry out-of-doors if possible.

PUBLIC SCHOOL GIRLS.

TOUR OF NEW ZEALAND.

In 1928 the Society for the Oversea Settlement of British Women (the Women’s Branch of the Overseas Settlement Department) organised a tour of Canada for secondary school girls. * This was such a gieat success that a second one has been planned, the country to be visited being New Zealand. It has been arranged for next year, and the party, under the leadership of Miss Edith Thompson, will sail early in January, and return home towards the end of May. The inclusive cost of the tour will not exceed 150 guineas, and already many applications have been received from girls of 14 schools. The party will be limited to 26. From what one hears, many parents feel that' such a tour as this is a good finish to the education of a girl who dees' not wish to specialise in any subject at a university. Miss Thompson, who is in charge of the party, with an assistant director is an active member of the Council of the 5.0.5.8.W., and was leader of the Canadian girls’ party. She is an expresident of the All England Hockey Team. She took a representative girls’ hockey team out to Australia two years ago, and previous tq_ that she took a team to South Africa.

THE CHILBLAIN PROBLEM. Tho best treatment of chilblains is, of course, to prevent them in the first instance —a difficult problem in the cold, winter days, says an Australian writer. This is chiefly done by regular exercise at least once a week. A four-mile walk, a dance, to the small hours, a day’s skating, will cure any chilblains, however painful the process. Where these remedies are not available it is a very good plan to soak the foot in strong soda water, as hot as it may be borne. This cannot be done often, as it softens the feet too much for hard wear. It should take place before going to bed, and tho foot should then be wrapped in a compress, composed of witch hazel, bandaged, and a sock worn to prevent the bandage from slipping. This is very effective in reducing any painful inflammation. When the chilblains seem only to be beginning, a good rubbing with whisky or other spirit often makes for a cure. Similarly, the various iodine mixtures can be rubbed in with success. lodine itself, if not used too frequently, often alleviates the inflammation. Of all these remedies, however, that of the soda water in conjunction with the compress is tho best, as it not only takes tho sting out of the inflammation, but prevents it froin setting up again. Io prevent broken, chilblains, it is a good ; plan to wear as many different pairs of shops as possible-. The pressure of every shoe ib djfffifpilt, aijd thus strain on the same spot is avoided,

THE AMY JOHNSON HAT. “When the charming and dashing Amy Johnson arrives in Sydney it seems probable, that Sydney girls will greet her all wearing Amy Johnson hats,” wrote an Australian writer recently. “The Jason’s Quest hat icached Sydney recently. Like Amy, it is cute and smart, and dashing. It is the brilliant idea of Mr Gordon Engleheart, who trades under the name of Gweneth, and it fits closely to the shingled head after the style of Amy’s aviator cap. Two wings mee t in Iho centre of the forehead, and widen over the ears, and these are cleverly stencilled io give the effect of flight. Of all Australian felt, the hat is stencilled in a cloud pattern to represent tho climatic conditions through which the game little English girl has passed, and the Moth ’plane. -Jason’s Quest, is embroidered in brown Australian wool, making to-_-Auoralte, the la-lid of the Golden Fleepp,' which is also embroidered in its own rich wool, •