WOMAN'S WORLD.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLVI, Issue 14142, 18 August 1909, Page 9

WOMAN'S WORLD.

VERY DUTIFUL WIVES, AND A NOVEL BREAKFAST PLAN.

The curious home-life of the East is described with unusual insight in "The Turkish People," by Lucy M. J. Garaett (Methuen and Co.). That the Turk has not jet, in Meredith's phrase, "doubled Cape Turk,'' may bo gathered from the following short extract describing a ■ very attentive wife :—

"Like all Orientals, the Osmanli matron is an early riser, and after partaking of a cup of coffee and a cigarette, she is ready to wait upon her husband.

" She places his slippers by the side of his couch and holds his pelisse ready, and as soon as he is comfortably seated on the divan, after making his morning toilet and performing the first of the five daily prayers, she pours out his coffee from the little ibrik, in which it has been brought in by a slave, places the cup in the silver zarf, and hands it to him.

" She also fills his tchibouk, should he prefer one to the more fashionable cigarette, hands him the amber mouthpiece, and then proceeds to light the fragrant, finelyshredded Latakia by placing on the bowl with a tiny pair of tongs an ember of glowing charcoal. She remains in attendance, seated on a cushion at his feet, while the slaves roll up the bedding and stow it away in the wall-cupboards. "The children then troop in, uncombed anu unwashed, in their quaint night-gear —wide trousers and quilted jackets of coloured cotton kiss the hand of their sire and to be caressed by both parentsNo nursery breakfast, however, awaits them ; and they presently begin to clamour for pence with which to purchase their morning meal.

" The ten and twenty para pieces distributed, the children scamper down to the courtyard gate, near which they are almost euro to find a vendor of ring-shaped cakes covered with sesame seeds; or, if he is not in sight, they make their way to the nearest chandler's chop, where they have their choice of halva —a gweetsturf made from sesame seed and honey, cheese, or fruit, as a relish to their bread.

" After this irregular meal the boys and girls over eight years old are tidied up and sent, escorted by a male servant, to the parish school, where the children of the rich and poor meet on a common footing. The babies, meanwhile, roam freely about the haremlik attended by a slave who performs, after a fashion, the duties of maid.."WHEN CHILDREN BITE THEIR NAILS. . - The habit of biting the nails, while not a disease in itself, nevertheless may be taken as a distinct warning that something is wrong with the nervous mechanism of the offender. The word offender is used advisedly here, because too often mothers of children who bite their nails look on the habit more as tho outcropping of some inherited, tendency to wrong-domg than as a symptom of some physical abnormality. Punishment, then, is the last treatment that should be resorted to in attempting to break a child of the habit. The ill-effects on the health caused by habitually biting at the nails are many. The victim has often the habit of standing with the head slightly bowed and the chest contracted, and the resulting evils of this stooping are too 1 apparent to need emphasis here. • More than this, the whole shape of the lips and contour of the mouth is very apt to be changed by the pressure of the finger tips. Again, tiny fragments of the nails are apt to be swallowed with a more or less irritating effect in the intestinal tract. Fragments of nails have even been found in diseased appendices after their removal for appendictis. BAD FOR THE DIGESTION, . The constant biting and chewing at the nails has a decidedly adverse effect on the digestion. When eating, the act of chewing stimulates e the salivary glands and leads to the pouring, out into the mouth of the saliva. This saliva contains a most important digestive ferment. Chewing at the nails produces a similar stimulation of the glands, leads to 'an unnecessary outpouring of the ferment-carry-ing saliva, and the result is that the gland is overworked, and overtired when mealtime comes and may not be able to supply the digestive juices when they are really needed. , '

Foods, then, which require the salivary ferment for their digestion will pass into the stomach without being first thoroughly mixed with saliva, and so dyspepsia or indigestion results. The slight lack of nervous stability which is the commonest cause of the habit, may be due to general weakness, unsuitable food, going to bed too lata (with the resulting curtailment in the hours of sleep), lack of ventilation in the sleeping rooms, or to excessive mental excitement due to either playing or studying top hard. The feeling of "the teeth being on edge," occasionally noticed in acid dyspepsia, sometimes starts the habit.

The only treatment necessary to cure 99 cases of 100 ie to appeal to the child's vanity, and to build up her general health (nail-biters are nearly always girls) by giving suitable nerve-building and blood-form-ing food, by cutting down her brain activity both in school and play hours, by keeping her out of doors as much as possible, and by making her go to bed early. For the first week or two of the treatment inking the nails is sometimes useful simply as a reminder. After this, however, the mother should make every effort to get the child interested in the cure by carefully manicuring and polishing its nails, and then contrasting the new _ and improved state with the former condition. In a case known to the writer the child could never refrain from biting its nails long enough to give any of them a start to grow. As they never got long enough to be trimmed or rounded the shining example of what could be done with them if they were unbitten was beyond proof. Finally the child was persuaded to wear a glove night and day on one hand, while free permission was given to bite the nails of the other. After a week of this the nails on the gloved hand were smoothed, rounded, pink-tinted, and highly polished. The result made such an appeal to the child's vanity that she immediately gave up biting the nails 'of the other hand, so that they, too, might become things of beauty. The gift of a manicure set or a ring for each hand is sometimes enough to breed the real desire for reform, which must be the basis of all successful treatment. The habit is an unhealthful one, and seems to increase rather than alleviate any tendency to nervousness. It is too serious a matter to be neglected, and the careful mother should try every legitimate means of breaking up the habit before it becomes, as it sometimes does, a chronic, incurable confession of nervous weakness.

TO WASH CHIFFON. To wash and restore chiffon the length is folded and soaked in a soap lather, and the hand is occasionally drawn down it while it remains therein. It is also patted between the palms of the hands until clean then removed and pressed betwen the hands in order to squeeze out the soap, rinsed in plenty of clean water and pressed as before, this time to extract all the water. It should never be wrung, but be folded flatly between thick cloths and passed under a wringing machine, after which it should be ironed immediately. ONLY BY INVITATION. In every household where there are grown-up daughters, I think they ought to be provided with a ' sittingroom in which they can receive their own friends without elder supervision. After all, like cleaves to like, and perfect sympathy cannot exist without similarity of age and interests. The presence of even the kindest mother is felt as a restraint when the daughter and her chums indulge in girlish gossip and harmless nonsense,

ANY WHITE WOMAN LOOKS A BEAUTY.

While there may be found here and there among the native women of Africa one who has some claims to beauty, as beauty is understood by a European, the vast majority are ugly, and even repulsive, in appearance. It is not wholly surprising, therefore, though it is amusing, to hear a white man who has seen no other kind of woman but these for a year or two tell how his first meeting with a white woman affects him after his return to civilisation.

A stewardess on an Elder-Dempster steamer — the usual run of her class for looks and personality— assured me, says Lewis R. Freeman in the New York Tribune, that she had averaged two proposals every Homeward voyage during all the three years of her service, nearly every one of which, as coming from a man far above her in station, she had religiously made a point, of accepting. Out of all these men—l forget how many dozen in all not one had ever come back for her after he had crossed the gangplank. Several of them had made return trips to Africa with her without. so much as vouchsafing her a nod, but one who had made the London voyage from Africa for a second time on her steamer had repeated his proposal. No, she never brought a breach of promise suit, but' a a stewardess on another of the Dempster liners had done so, only to lose her case on a ruling by the judge to the effect that a, man who had not seen a white woman for two years was not responsible for what he said to the first one he met on his return. THE WOMAN WHO WORRIES. A woman who never worries declares that there is nothing more detrimental to beauty in woman than worry. The worrying woman does nobody any good. She simply invites the hand of Time, which writes plenty of wrinkles on her brow, around her eyes and mouth, paints her face yellow, and gives a lack-lustre eye that no artifice can brighten, says the Woman's Home Journal. »'•-

It is quite unnecessary to worry, and it is a total waste of energy, which* could be better employed. ..' You know a worrying woman the moment you see her. Her character is written in her face in wrinkles which you would think nothing short of a miracle would obliterate. Downright ugliness is a heavy price to have to pay for the possession of a bad habit, but there it is. And not only does worry directly influence the complex for evil, its more remote effects are no less potent in robbing the face of the peachbloom tints which are the admiration of the poet, the painter, and the general public. Worry affects the entire nervous system, and through it the liver and of digestion and the heart. The things a woman thinks have more than anything else the power to make or mar her beauty; so let her beware of worrying overmuch, lest she lose the greatest of all the gifts.

GIRLS THEIR OWN HELPERS. The ways in which a girl may help herself—her future, if not her present self are many, and each and all of them practical to the last doing. The division: of her day into a routine may seem a matter of but slight importance, but the best division of the busy day of a housekeeper, a business woman, or of the woman of large social duties is of vast importance and comfort or discomfort to its divider. x- A regular time for arising, which; will -permit the proper dressing of one's ; self, and the undressing of one's bed and airing of one's room before the A breakfast; hour, ■; is a matter of habit which, when established in girlhood, becomes, of the {greatest use in later years. . The apportionment of the morning hoursas these are least liable to interruption domestic duties, study, or practice, and to any church or charitable work necessary, will leave the afternoon free for receiving or making calls, for outdoor exercise, and for amusements or duties which are only occasional. The habit—for this ,is what it : becomes—of constantly endeavouring to make of whatever place a girl finds herself temporary or permanent mistress, a tidy and pretty abode, occupies many minutes, but they are well-spent ones.