THROUGH A WOMAN'S SPECS

Marlborough Express, Volume XLIII, Issue 118, 17 May 1909, Page 7

THROUGH A WOMAN'S SPECS

(Written for Mablbokough Expeess

" Woman needs no eulogy, she speaks for herself."

A highly esteemed "Constant Reader" of The Express has sent me word that in Cumberland there is a musical union among the dairy cows, and that no self-respecting cow will yield up her supply of lacteal fluid except to the accompaniment of vocal music, They are very particular about the milkers being in good voice, too. If one sings at all out of tune, all the cows within hearing distance upset the buckets, and refuse to be milked till the offender is removed. It is quite a serious business over there starting the' dairying industry- Sometimes you are fortunate enough to find an operatic "star" who is anxious to lead the simple life, but he, or she, is in mortal terror of any kind of fourfooted beast. Then you many-meet with someone who is afraid of nothing visible or invisible, but who does not know a bar of music;from a bar of soap, so is utterly useless among cows of such high culture.

At a meeting held in the Lambeth Town Hall, recently, to, further the claims of the Widow's Friend Society, which has done much to help poor widows, and which celebrates its centenary this year, Mr Brinsley Harper read the following letter which" he had received from a man at West Hartlepoql:—"Please, could you supply me with a good young or middleaged girl for wife, who can share her living with me, for poor wages cannot enable me to get a good girl. I am a stone-breaker for corporation, md get 10s to 12s a week, but I get poorer wages in winter. I am nearly thirty years of age; I am deaf and dumb, and I do not drink or smoke. . I want to know is you could get a young or middle-aged widow, with few children, in this town or any other town who have shop for selling tobacco and or selling chips and fried fish for their living. If a good widow would be willing to become my wife, I could pay her my poor wages every week. I have written letters to many religious societies and matrimonial agencies, but they could not supply. A good girl must be hearing girl, not deaf and dumb." What a chance for one of those exceedingly rare ladies who like always to get the*last word. A deaf and dumb hubby would never be able to answer back. i

A lady of Belgrade sent her last year's hat to Vienna for reconstruction, and got back a model of strange hue and shape, which completely baffled all the local milliners' endeavours at imitation. It has now transpired that the police at Vienna mistook the parcel for a Servian bomb, and after subjecting it to various tests, including immersion in water, returned it unopened.

Miss Annie Morgan, daughter of J. Pierpont Morgan, the great financier, has joined the ranks of the restaurantkeepers of New. York. Armed with a special license from the Federal authorities, she will open at the Brooklyn Navy Yard, in May, a first-class eating-house, at which wholesomely cooked meals will be served at moderate rates to thousands of Government employees. The' restaurant will accommodate 700 diners. "It will not be managed," Miss Morgan says, "as a charity, but/ as a sqund business enterprise. We expect to realise a handsome profit, thereby furnishing the Government with a much-needed ob-ject-lesson." Many of the best known ladies of .New York society, including Mrs Andrew Carnegie, Mrs J, B. Harrison, and Mrs H. L. Satterlee are associated with Miss Morgan in her enterprise.

Queen Margherita, of Italy, is the most enthusiastic of Royal motorists. Her Majesty, has just returned to Turin im her car after a mountain-trip to the Hospice of, St. Bernard, an exceedingly arduous journey, which she is the first Royal person to undertake. She has a passion for long trips, and pursues her. recreation in spite of many adventures and several escapes from serious injury. Her car is most luxurious, seated for six persons, with folding arm-chairs, and lighted and warmed by electricity. During her recent 5000-mile tour' through Europe she was preceded by a police pilot car, so great was popular dislike to the motor. In Switzerland she was several times "held up" and fines exacted from her. Once, when descending a mountain, she was thrown violently out of her car, escaping death by a miracle.

"Irreclaimable bachelors" are now having a bad time in the State of Maine, where a legislative Bill has been proposed with the obect of taxing ungallant citizens, and providing a pension for old maids with the proceeds. Kansas has bravely taken up the cudgels on behalf/of the ladies, and a grand assault against selfish, unsociable man is being developed in other progressive States, which will require much bachelor strategy to defeat. Representative Campbell's Bill, introduced into the Legislature of the State of Maine, is framed on a basis that men who make no reasonable attempt to marry, by the time they are thirty years old, should help to support "the spinsters who have never received a proposal on reaching the age of forty. Mr Campbell proposed to mulct every unmarried man of 30 or over at the rate of £2 a year.

The law has some relief measures for bachelors or widowers who., oan show that they have made a reasonable effort to get a wife, by proposing three times, either to the same woman or to three different ones. "Reasonable" offers are held to be any proposal of matrimony made in good faith, by any man not an inmate of an insane asylum and unconvicted of felony or infamous crime. No benefit exceeding £20 a year is to be paid to any one spinster. Mr Campbell has, received many assurances of support for his Bill. What a stirring among the dry bones there would be if a similar measure were introduced into ,our own Legislature.

Dr. Win.. Harvey left notes of the post mortem examination which he made of the. body of Thomas Parr, believed to have been at the time of his death 152 years and nine months old. The organs were all healthy, and most of the signs of old age were absent. Now the interesting thing in connection with the healthy longevity of old Parr, is his diet. "His ordinary diet consisted of tub-rancid cheese and milk, coarse and hard bread, and sour whey." It seems highly probable that one of the leading factors in the long life of old Parr was his diet of sour milk. All the same, I would rather live half the time and have a* more varied bill-of-fare. Wild duck, for instance, now and then!