WOMENS'S WORLD.

Mataura Ensign, 29 December 1911, Page 7

WOMENS'S WORLD.

' tf [ ' A SSNC OF THANKS. "Let my voice ring out a!nd over tin. earth, ] Through ail the grief and c-strife, •With a golden joy in a silver mirth: Thank God for life! Let my voice swell out through the great abyss To the azure dome above, With a chord of faith and a harp' of bliss.: Thank God for Love! . Let my voice thrill out beneath and above, The whole world through: Oh my Love and my Life, oh my Life and my Love, Thank God for you! SINCERITY. To be sincere—to look into the eyes With calm, undrooping gaze; always to mean The high and truthful thing; never to screen Behind the unmeant word the sharp surprise Of cunning; never to tell the little lies Of look or thought; always to choose between The true and small, the true and large: serene high above life's cheap dishonesties— The soul that steers by this unfading star never other compass. All the far waste shall blaze and mock its V straining gaze. Secure from storm and all life's battleshocks, It shall not veer from any righteous ways. Maurice Smiley in 'Leslie's Magazine.' WOMAN IN MODERN CHINA. The discipline and organisation with which the Chinese rebels have taken the field against the Manchus have brought home very clearly to the Western nations that China is waking up, and*that in spite of the national indolence a change nearly as startling as that which has transformed Japan within a quarter of a century is taking place. , The conflict between Oriental and * .Western cultures in China is the subject of a book by Dr E. A. Ross. "The Changing Chinese," which is particularly interesting at the present time. A country may be judged by the condition of its women, it has been written. The following glimpses show the Chinese woman in an uncomfortable stage of evolution: — The Educated Daughter. "The little laughter of a farmer was betrothed to the son of a chair coolie. She showed talent, studied, rose in the schools, was helped through college, took a medical course, and became a successful physician. Nevertheless v4ien the time came she was obliged by memorable custom to bow to the arrangement made for her in infancy and ] ruin her life by marrying a dolt, too j hdld even a chair-bearer's i 3 ob. - J. . j "Some years ago nine Cantonese j maidens drowned themselves together | one night in the Pearl River rather j than accept the lot of the wife. In J three districts in central Kuangtung, where a girl can always get work at silk-winding, thousands of girls have formed themselves into anti-matrimonial associations, the members of which refuse to live with the husband more than the customary three days. j "Then they take advantage of their! legal right to visit mother and never | return save on certain days or after a! term of years. If the parents attempt! to restore the runaway bride to herj Ihusband she drowns herself or takes' opium: so parents and magistrates have had to let the girls have their way. By presenting herself in her husband's home on certain festival days the bride keeps her wifely status." Marriag? Etiquette. The following, however, appears to have been a wife of the old school. "A Hakka tells me that among his people the etiquette in the country districts forbids husband and wife to be seen talking together. Thus a young man and his wife meet in an empty lane and, supposing themselves to be unobserved, he asks her for the key of the -garden gate. "She throws it on the ground with■out looking at him and, once indoors, rates him roundly for speaking to her in public. 'Suppose,' she says, 'someone had seen us!'" 1 On the other hand, there is something .to be said for the Oriental idea •of the, family, which might well be fused '"'Vith Western practices. ™"No thing is more creditable to the -domestic idea of the Chinese than the attractive old people it produces. "The old women, it is true, are not so frequently a success as the old men. The years of pain from their bound feet and the crosses they have had to bear as women too often sour the temper, and kindly-faced grannies seem by no means so common as with us. "The natural result of steadily giving <one sex the worst of it is a distressing crop of village shrews. On the other Tiand, I have never seen old faces more dignified, serene, and benevolent than

1 s have met with among elderly Chinese j farmers. ■ "Often it seems as if the soul behind : :}\c countenance, purged of every selfish i bought, had come to dwell wholly in ; the welfare of others. The rights of i ibo parent are such that every man • v.-'* - h grandsons is practically endowed : v-.Hh an old age pension. Hence you 1 notice more'smooth brows, calm eyes, I p.nd care-free faces among old Chinese 'farmers than among old Western farmers." i *,7a ,- 'i. Dr Ross avers that "oractic- ' nl]v all foreigners in China-who are fannbl? of sympathy with another race warm friends of the Chinese. •Thov not attracted, as in the case of 'ha Japanese, by charm of manner or delicacv of sentiment or beauty of jiirt. but by the solid human qualities : of the folk. "The fact is, the Chinese are exItremely likable, and those who have jk"own them longest like them best. i .Almost invariably those who harshly | disparage them are people who are ; coarse or narrow or bigoted. 1 "They are not a sour or sullen folk. I Smile at them and back comes a look that puts you on a. footing of mutual .understanding:. Their livelv sense of ' humor is a bond that unites them to the foreigner. i J TO AVOID HOPELESS LOVE. "If the woman you love goes off with another man, that is your sign. The v.-oman is not for you—was never meant for you: and you can at once dismiss all thought of her from your mind, and rest easy." Thus writes Lady DuffGorrlon. "You know that Dr William Brown's experiments in psychology just exemplify what is my religion. I have per- . feet faith in the nearness to human beings of the Divine element, whatever it may be. "Divinity is always in us, and the : Divine will always warn us, whether ! our actions and impulses are right or I wrong. ' "Each of us, in everything he does, has only to wait for a sign, to see whether the action is destined for his good. Only he must have eyes to see when p the sign comes." I "I find this New Thought, which is not new to me, helping me every day, . in my home, in my business, with my friends, everywhere. I can tell at once : whether what I am about to do is right : or not. "It is just the same in the particular case of love. You are deceived, as you think, by some jilt of a woman. In the ordinary way you would worry and grieve over the affair. "But we who believe in the new faith, we just say to ourselves—well, I there has been a mistake, and this is our warning of it. Straightway the matter is ended. "Suppose you are married to a woman, and think you do not love her. Ah, that is a different matter. Then you say to yourself: 'I am all wrong in my ideas. Ido love this woman. She is my wife, and I love her.' "Say that to yourself every night beI fore you go to bed, and Ipbn, if the , faith is there, you get your sign. Your 'love for your wife returns. | "You see what you are saved, simply jby faith in the New Thought. . i "Your fate is always looking after j you, and you simply cannot go wrong jif you wait for your sign and read it I aright when it comes. I "I never trouble about anything. I I know that I will get my instructions. If I feel the impulse to love I know what I have to love. "But the impulse to hate is far more potent and less to be taken on its merits. When you are tempted to hate a person, examine yourself carefully and I try to think yourself out of the impulse. You will generally succeed. If you don't, there is no help for it. You are not meant to waste yourself on that person. "And if anyone shows a disposition to dislike you, that is your sign that you must have nothing further to do with him or her. Similarly, if something you want badly does not come along, in spite of all your trust, you know for sure that you are better without it. "Dr William Brown is simply wonderful, and there are so many wonderful women in America, friends of mine, who know all about this practical psychology, and use it in their daily life. "But the English are so dense. If they would only see what this teaching is doing for America they might think seriously about it themselves, instead of laughing and scoffing in their ignorance. "Here is a wonderful little book by Mrs K. T. Anderson. It just tells you bow to get what you want, simply by repeating that you have it. Thus, all you have to do is to say to yourself, over and over again— I am love, I want love. I radiate love. Radiant life, you and I are one in the universe, one in love. is mine. All things love and want me. "And there is the food for a starved heart!"