WOMAN'S WORLD.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LI, Issue 15625, 3 June 1914, Page 10

WOMAN'S WORLD.

mttesflsonsa&Bceziwg BHPWHIH 'L t: OTHEE FOLK'S TIKE-

UNDUE LIBERALITY. Personal experience often brings strongly to mind tlio remark of a prisoner who had just received) a sentence of twenty years hard. Asked by the judge if he had anything to say, he replied ruefully : "No, except that you're protity liberal with other folk's time!" You know these liberal people, don t 1 you ? The man who buttonholes his | friends aa he's dashing along Customs Street , jat; four and a-half minutes to three, trying to get to the bank before it closes. "By jove, just the chap I wanted to see ho enthuses. "You know that motor-bike I told you about? Well," and then he proceeds to go into full details, and presently tho l>ank door slams either in tho other man's face or on the tail of his coat and the teller scowls darkly and snaps at him because he tries to cosh a crossed cheque in his agitation. Then there's the leisurely girl friend who look in to see you on Vancouver mail days. She trips into your office and calls breezily: "How-do dear? Just going up to Cook's for afternoon tea! Can you come? No? Oh well, I'm not in a hurry." She dusts your employer's chair carefully, seats herself, and rips a leaflet from a certain tiny blue book, with which she powders her nose. Your employer has an awkward habit of striding in at this inauspicious moment. You couldn't feel more acutely embarrassed if it were your own nose. Some employers, those who have been employers a long, long time, say bluntly : " Miss Jinks, I want you to type this right away!" Others turn the knife. They draw back immediately, and say with deadly politeness: " Oh, I beg your pardon. When you're at liberty, Miss Jinks "—emphasis on tho "when." Well, what can a poor girl do You know what you ought to do, of course; we always know that, but rarely have the courage of our convictions.

Speeding the Parting Guest. Hints Bro no use; long experience has taught you that. You know that the right way and the only way would he to tako your caller by tho shoulders and calmly but derisively run her out of the door. Lacking the courage, you venture diffidently: "Look, I'm very busy. If yon wouldn't mind calling again tomorrow." At which the friend cither seats herself more comfortably and says with large tolerance : " Oh, don't worry about him, dear," emphasis on the "him," or else sho gets up in a hurry, and later on you hear from your most candid friend that office work evidently doesn't suit you; you're getting fearfully peevish and rude to your friends!

The Morning Call. Even in the sanctuary of your own homo you are not immune from attack by theso leisurely folk. They drop in at any odd hour, the odder the better, from their standpoint. "I've finished my work," Mich an one will announce complacently, "and no one's coming home to lunch, so I thought I'd just pop in for a minute or two. I know you haven't anything particular to do on Wednesday morning." As you aro only airing ofl clothes, making pio-melon jam, cleaning out the pantry and cooking the dinner, you smile, wryly perhaps, but still, you smile as only civilised woman can, and set about preparing morning tea. "Good-byo," chirps your caller an hour or two later. "So glad to have had a few minutes' chat! One always feels so much better for a little break in the monotony of housework,- don't you think?" Being a lady, and a churchmember into the bargain, you count six before replying, and oven then don't say what you think by a long way. You fly inside again just as the pie-melon jam "catches," and bubbles in a sticky mass all down your nice clean stove and over the hearth. And then, being atill a lady, and a church-member into the bargain, you sit down and count six hundred, very slowly.

WOMEN AS SPENDERS. ECONOMIC POWERS. Peculiar emphasis should be laid upon the opportunities of women as spenders, says an American writer. By their decision to buy this or that they determine whether the manufacturer shall produce oatmeal or cornflakes, whether beans shall be baked at homo or in the factory, whether the manufacture of clothing shall bo carried forward in vile tenements or in sanitary establishments. As spenders women hold the whip-hand of the industrial world. Did they choose to formulate their domands and make them felt through organised action and judicious spending they would eliminate food adulteration, sweated labour, raise the standard of quality of all manufactured products, and in large measure shape the future status of industry.

THE ELUSIVE CHARLADY. WHY SHE NEVES CAME BACK. It is becoming quite the custom in Auckland for women to look after their own housework and to hire a charwoman one or two days a week to do tho heavy ■work. Thus they get over tho vexed question of domestic help, witu its attendant worries, and yet escape tho rough work that' inevitably ages and wrinkles a woman before her time. A really good cbarwom&n .is almost as difficult to find as a blue daffodil, and to keep her, when found, requires the proverbial qualities of serpent and dove combined ! Considering how necessary ehe is to our comfort, it is quite amazing that some mistresses are so short-sighted where she is concerned.

A well-to-do lady from over Ponsonby way called on an acquaintance on what happened to bo " deaiiing-day." The charwoman chanced to open tho door. "I seo you have Mrs. Geo working for you," remarked the caller. "Do you find her. satisfactory?" "Entirely. Why?" was the reply. "Well, I dare say "she suits you, but—" a warning shake of the head, "I wouldn't place too much relianco on her. I had her for a month paid her six shillings a ..-'ay, car fare and all, and iihen gin suddenly left off coming, for no reason whatever. Just sent a note to say she wacn't coming anymore ! Upon my word, the independence of these working people is beyond words! I simply can't get one to stay with me, try as I will."

The Lunch Aesthetic. When she had gone, the mistress of the house wont to her helper. " Why did you leave Mrs. Jay ?" she asked, without wasting words. " Because 1 didn't like being half-starved 1" responded the other,- equally thrifty. "What do you mean?" "Just that! After I'd done a heavy morning's work, washing blonketc and scrubbing floors, I'd go into the kitchen and there'd be a lovely little canary-bird's lunch all waiting! A nice little tray with a lace cloth, with one cup of tea, a few slices of thin bread

and butter and a banana, or a bit oi?rsi cheese about big enough ■» bait a mousetrap! That sort of lunch may do ladies who aro taking the rest-cure, but $11 a woman can't do a hard day's work on f§P it. I had 00 leave, but I couldn't vprvi§3 well tell her why." . And Mrs. Goo's experience in no vise 'fi differs from that of timbers of other Mi working women. .It seems incredible tliat M women can treat their helpers in this '•§ way, yet it is absolutely true. Perhaps -1 in the majority of cases it is only for '% lack of thought, but that doesn't in tho least alter results. Many women never '''? pause to look at things from the working woman's viewpoint. She is expected to 4 be at her place at eight o'clock, and to ' perform eight hours' hard, muscle-tiring work. She has no timo to get herself a * proper _ breakfast, and you may be sure ' there is no ono to prepare a good meal for her when she returns, tired out at night. So that her only opportunity of getting a substantial mes-l is at mid-da-A mid-day meal consist ng of creamcrackers, potted meat, and a cup of tea may bo ail very well for young ladies ot tho house who dine amply at night, but it Is assuredly no fare for the woman whoso strength goes to keep that house clean!

Kindliness Pays. It may be a little extra, trouble to give your- helper a cup of hot tea or coffee when she arrives these cold and frosty mornings, to see that th** mid-day meal has some kind of nutritive value,'but it more than pays, even if one looks at it from a purely selfish viewpoint, Tho woman so treated will not work with ono eye on tho clock, listless and lacklustre. And she won't be nearly so elusive as some of them are! For where domestic help is concerned, tho demand always oxcecds tho supply, and if your charlady doesn't like you, sho knows'she. won't have the slightest difficulty in fill, nig your "day" elsewhere.

LITTLE ACTS THAT COUtfT. A man's life in his family, with hi* wife, with hi* children, with 'his mother with his neighbours, is not made up of grand plays and defiance of the elements and all that sort of thin?. It ; 5 mado up of a series of little acts, and these little acts and little self-restraints are what go to make up the man's character.—Professor William H. raft. Might wo not all resolve that every day we will do at least one act of kindness? Let us write a letter in such terms that the post will bring pleasure V ext day to some house; make a call just to let a friend know tliat he has been in our heart; send a gift on gomeone's birthday, marriage dav, or any day we can invent. Let us make children glad with things which they long for and cannot obtain. And a thousand other things which we could do within a year if wo had eyes to seo and a heart to feel and had the will to take some trouble.—lan Maclarcn.