DOMESTICATING GIRLS.

Marlborough Express, Volume XLVIII, Issue 15, 19 January 1914, Page 2

DOMESTICATING GIRLS.

CAN IT BE OVERDONE?

It has been said that the modern^.. sporting, educated girl makes a very successful wife because she is not excessively domestic, and prefers totalk, say, about golf rather than about servants, states a writer in an, English paper. She has so many, interests, that she is not likely to boreher husband with domestic troubleaand details.

It is undoubtedly true that many homes have been spoilt by too much! domesticity. Charles Kingsley was so afraid of this that he made it a rule that no domestic matters should be mentioned after ten in the morning. Anything that Mrs Kingsley had to say about the house; or the servants, or the dinner, had to be said between 9 a.m. and 10 a.m., or not at all. The rest of the day was strictly, reserved' for other things. If the cook gave notice at 11 o'clock the distressing news could not be told to Kingsley till 9 the next morning. If the kitchen tire refused to burn properly, not a word must be said about it.

Probably many households would be the happier for such a plain. "I know many cases," said Mrs Charles Marshall, the well-known lecturer on domestic matters, "where what should have been a happy marriage'bus been spoilt by the excessive' domesticity of the wife. It should be a rule in every house, that all domestic things are barred after six.^ in the evening. When a man comes homo he does not want to hear about the shortcomings of the servants, the imperfection -oi the tradesmen,' and' the peculiarities of the cook. But many women become so obsessed with the domestic r.ide of things that they can talk about nothing else. Every evening the husband has to listen toa recital of household trivialities. One day he is told that the cook is- ' excellent, another that she- is careless, another that she is extravagant, and so on. Kingsley was a sensible man. He Scnew the' danger o£ x allowing, domesticity to run loose in x a house, and he very, properly refused' to ■■, discuss household things except at' a certain hour.

"It often,happens, when a woman worries her husband ■, with kitchen details, that he shows after a time that he is not very interested, or that he thinks she takes such things too seriously. Usually then she rer proaches him with, lack of sympathy. This starts an argument, which! ' degenerates before long into a" quarrel. Nearly always the wife isto blame. A man will' rarely bore his wife with details of every trial"! and difficulty in his work, but many women think nothing of boring a husband with. trivial domesticproblems, though he dan do nothing:; ?' to solve them.

"I quite agree that the modern girl is less likely to make such a mistake. Usually she has a healthy dislike* for the merely domestic things, and she \ i*^ not so likely to magnify the little •" household worries of evpry day into serious problems needing lengthy discussion. When a man comes home he is anxious to forget about his1 • work. Many wives, on the contrary, refuse to forget theirs, and seem to--lorok forward to the evenings as a time when they can pour out all their | domestic worries. - -■

"There has never been a happier* home than Kingsley's. It would! certainly be a good plan if-his rule regulating domestic discussion were in ev«ry homo in th& country."

' In its obituary notice of Sir. , Frederick Young, "United Empire,' r the journal of the Royal- Colonial Institute, says:—"Almost the ; last public act of the veteran Imperialist i was to address a letter to Mr Massey, j Prime, Minister of New Zealand, urg- [ ing the incorporation of the Maoris in the ranks of the British ,Navy, a policy which he' characterised as the ', wish of his heart.' It is understood that Jle received a favorable rePly." ■,;■ ;