LADIES' PAGE.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 767, 12 November 1886, Page 4

LADIES' PAGE.

Saving appointed a lady to conduct this page, vie have to request that all communications upon domestic matters, dress, cuisine, &c. dec., he addressed to Madame Elise, of the New Zealand Mail.

RECOLLECTIONS.

Often to my ear is wafted Note of song, Bringing bock the recollections Buried long. Distant sound of restless ocean

Evermore Calls to mind our frequent wanderings By the shore. Autumn fading into winter Brown and sere. Fills my thoughts with deep reflections Ever dear. Tone of voice, and merry laughter Binging sweet Brings back many a happy moment Bright, but fleet. Sitting round a winter fire All aglow, Telling tales of past adventure, Bong ago, Spring revives these aspirations, And we search For a thousand ideal notions Out of reach. Travel in imagination Far away To the land of art, and music Bright as day. Tramp of many horses’ footstep Coming fast Brings to mind a glorious canter In the past. Fade away ; sweet recollections Evermore,

Haunt my memory with thy voices Nevermore. Sunbeam.

THE RING’S MOTTO.

A lover gave the wedding-nng Into a goldsmith’s hand. • Grave me,’ he said. ‘ a tender thought Within the golden band.’ The goldsmith graved, With careful art, * Till death us part.’

The wedding bells rang gladly out. The husband said, ‘O, wife. Together we shall share the grief, The happiness of life. I give to thee My hand, my heart. TUI death us part.’

s Twas she that lifted now his hand (O love, that this should be), Then on it placed the golden band, And whispered tenderly; ‘ Till death us join, 80, thou art mine , And I am thine !

4 And when death joins we nevermore Shall know an aching heart, The bridal of that better love Death has no powers to part, That troth will be For thee and me \ Eternity.’

So up the hill and down the hill. Through fifty changing years. They shared each other’s happiness, They dried each other's tears. Alas ! Alas ! That death’s cold dart Such love can part!

But one sad day she stood alone Beside his narrow bed; She drew the ring from off her hand, And to the goldsmith said: ‘ Oh, man who graved With careful art, “ Till death us part.”

J Now grave four other words for me—‘Till death us join.’” He took The jweoious golden band once more, With solemn, wistful look, And wrought with care, For love, not coin, ‘ Till death us join.’

ON THE EDUCATION OF GIRLS-

(By a German Lady.) At the risk of drawing on myself the hostility of many mothers blessed with daughters undergoing the * Higher Education,’ I venture to affirm that it would be a good thing if every so-called ‘ high-class ’ school for girls were closed for a perpetual holiday. Let us see what are the gains and losses of a pupil of one of these institutions. After spending ten long years in acquiring a dozen branches of knowledge for some five or six hours daily, the rest of the day being devoted to preparation under the eye of a ‘ finishing governess,’ she comes to look upon herself as a marvel of perfection, an opinion in which she is largely encouraged by her mother. As long as she is young and pretty, and nothing is demanded of her at home bub to shine at parties and balls, there is no shadow on her untroubled life. The duty of marrying well may be kept for a time in the background, but entirely effaced it certainly will not be. Sooner or later the artificial system on which our young women are educated must come into conflict with the claims of real life. In the school of the world the attainments have to be gained which ought properly to have been created and developed in childhood. Ido not speak now of governesses who aim at teaching others later on ; it is bad enough that we think we need governesses who know everything. What, then, do girls gain in the higher schools ? They collect, in the shape of geography, history, and literature, a heap of rubbish, of which they will never want a half through life. It is astounding how intimately acquainted the high school-girl is with every corner of the world, how full her head is of the height of every mountain, and the population of every town. As for history, she has figures at her fingers’ ends which, one would think, are only of importance for the historian, and she can describe the course of a battle as though she were a professional strategist. In natural history she holds us spell-bound with her Latin names, and she is equally at home in the aerial regions as in the upper and lower worlds. Every winged or creeping thing she has studied in most painful detail. Both teacher and parents gaze with pride upon the triumphant school-girl. Old German literature is studied to tedium-point; then the clasical period is thoroughly gone into, though Schiller and Goethe, owing to misplaced prudery, are seldom appreciate! properly, while everything that is later than the so-called poet-heroes is taken in a lump and superficially skimmed. Undoubtedly literature is not to be disregarded as an element in the education of girls, and if the duty of more frequently reading the best works, both prose and poetical, of modern authors were insisted upon, we should have more women possessed of true culture to take the place of the many superficial ventures to whom a doubtful love story seems the best mental food. As for arithmetic, women are usually held to be bad at figures, and justly so. What is the reason? At school many a girl is able to extract the hardest cubic root, to solve the most complicated algebraical problem, and yet, incredible as it may seem, when later on she goes into housekeeping she cannot balance her accounts. When she buys things she continues to be cheated until she has at last learnt the arithmetic of every-day life. Then as to physics, chemistry, anthropology, and the like, would not half the usual quantity suffice ? What need have young girls to know special sciences which they can put to practical use only in exceptional cases, for which a special course of study could be provided. And what about languages ? A wide acquaintance with foreign languages is not to be lightly esteemed at the present day, and its value will increase in the future. The study requires a special aptitude, and let those who are fortunate enough to possess it exercise it to their heart’s}, content. But those, on the contrary, who are wanting in this faculty should content themselves with studying the one language which appears to be indispensable for their future success. But let no one forget the mothertongue for foreign languages. I know young girls who have well-nigh mastered English, French, and even Italian, and who cannot write even the simplest German letter without gross blunders of orthography and style, to say nothing of those precious commas which are either put in when the letter is finished, or are conspicuous by their absence. Then, again, as to religion. Young girls learn a large number of Scriptural stories, of pithy maxims, and spiritual hymns. This is necessary, and must not be undervalued, A woman without religion is a flower without perfume ; and a teacher will know how to utilise the contents of the Bible in such a way as not only to teach the mere letter of the text, hut to impress upon the child the general sense of the words, so that both the doctrine and the practical example are involuntarily assimilated with his life. But bow few good religious teachers are there in our century ? How few are there that are not either bigots or avowed atheists ? Such teachers are the ruin of young girls. The bigot makes a hypocrite of the pupil; the atheist loses his labor if he thinks that the formal and mechanical disquisition on some given topic will exercise a moral influence.

The modern high school for girls does so much for the mere knowledge of the pupils that but little time is left for the formation of their character, The good old principle that all instruction should be but the means to an end—to education that is—receives but scant consideration. The question of over-pressure is of still greater importance for girls than for boys. The longing to shine dominates everybody—teacher, pupil, parents. Learning makes a braver show than sterling womanly qualities. No examination is held in the latter; only accident brings them to light, and evokes the admiration- whidT'is there due. But high schools cannot wait for accidents, so they have to content themselves with stereotyped moral lessons, and go on drumming, ‘ learn, learn, learn.’ They turn out living books—at best intellectual ladies, but useful maidens and women never. The superabundance of knowledge gained with the help of modern educational methods is acquired at the expense of the character and the heart. If a better state of things is to be established, half, at least, of the usual curiculum must be eliminated, and the time thus gained devoted to more important and less exacting pursuits. Double the usual time must be given to composition and the' literature of the student's native land, for both studies are of the highest importance for the development of the feminine character, especially when they are prosecuted under the guidance of a capable, intellectual, and sympathetic teacher. Instead of insisting upon subjects which are of little or no practical use for women, we must make those educational studies obligatory which are all but indispensable for them, I mean, in a word, the science of teaching, to which the last year at school might be set apart. For what i 3 to be the vocation of most young giris ? They either marry, or they have to undertake in the families of relatives or strangers duties such as are imposed bymarriage. unless they spend all their lives in working for warehouses, which can hardly be the case. The science of ’ teaching, then, is clearly a subject of supreme consequence for them. There are few families without children, and upon children every energy is concentrated. But is everything done when .their physical well-being ha 3 received the utmost care ? On the contrary, the soul is the most important part of the child, and needs the most tender nurture at an earlier period than it is usually bestowed. Woman is the great educator ; her influenoe is allpowerful. Wealth and position do not affect the matter. . Many rich women are bad mothers because they think they are bound to fill up their time with frivolous amusements, and prefer to read bad novels rather than works on education. Women of the poorer class, on the other hand, have no opportunity of studying such works, and yet it is just to them that the education of a people is entrusted which has neither law nor sovereign, neither judge nor God. Let woman be better educated in heart and character, and then, perhaps, Socialism will gradually be deprived of its foundations, and crime be diminished. The last year at school appears to me the most suitable time for instruction in the science of teaching. Will it be said that it is absurd to teach children how children ought to be taught ? Every master on parting with his apprentice gives him the means of carrying on the trade he has learnt, of becoming a master himself, and having apprentices of his own. Why should the teacher alone make a secret of his craft ? I am afraid that most of those who wish to keep their educational methods to themselves have very little to divulge? It seems to me, moreover, thst it cannot be anything but advantageous to the pupil to realise how onerous teaching is, and how much gratitude is due to a conscientious teacher. Nor will it require much consideration to discover the method by which the instruction I am advocating may be imparted. Those who enter upon the work lovingly will find the right words spring to the lips ; while those who come to it unwillingly will get little help from a dozen books. A handbook, however, or at least some short rules, might be useful, because the pupil would have something to refer to afterwards, and because, too, the book would probably fall into the hands of the parents as well. A sentence, or even a word, might startle them, and make them read on, with a result that could hardly be otherwise than good. I maintain,- then, finally, that schools are in duty bound to teach their pupils how to teach, because the circumstances in which every woman is placed point to the need of such instruction. And how great are the advantages which such teaching most confer upon the Family, and eventually upon the State ! There must follow from it a happier family life, established by an intelligent, practical, and, in the highest sense, well-conducted womankind. And favorable consequences for the State will assuredly not be wanting.—Berlin Gegenwart.

AN EGYPTIAN ROMANCE. St James’s Gozette.

The National Zeitung gives the following interesting summary of the papyrus which the Berlin museum recently acquired from the heirs of Richard Lepsius, and the reading of which has only just been completed. This papyrus, which was written in the vulgar tongue, is not only of archaeological importance, but of much literary interest; being neither more nor less than an historical novel, though left in an unfinished state. The papyrus dates from the sixteenth century 8.C., and from the eighteenth dynasty ; but the story related in it goes back nearly a thousand years to the reign of King Cheops, the fabled builder of the pyramids. When the story opens, King Cheops is seated among his sons and listening to their tales of the miracles said to have been wrought at the Court of his predecessors. Prince Chephren, who afterwards built the second pyramid, related that a magician in the reign of King Nebka had made a waxen crocodile which, if placed in the chamber of a wife untrue to her husband, would seize her and her paramour and deliver them over to. the husband. Another prince related that King Suefru, the father of Cheops, feeling oppressed, and not knowing how to * relieve his heart,’ took counsel of a wise mani who advised him to go to the banks of the lake near the palace and let all the maidens of the court row up and down the water. This

was done, and the monarch’s heart was relieved. But all of a sudden one of the maidens began 3 to make lamentations ; for she had dropped a jewel into the water, which was forty feet deep, A magiciau was sent for, and, reciting an incantation, he coaxed the jewel up from the bottom of the lake and returned it to the maiden. King Cheops was so struck with wonder at these stories, that he ordered sacrifices to be offered to the manes of this sage and of the magicians, but Prince Hardadaf informed him that they were not all dead, and that one of them, named Dedi, dwelt in the city of Ded-Sneirii. Prince Hardadaf described him as being one hundred years old, but as still able to eat daily five hundred rolls of bread and the quarter of an ox, and to drink a hundred flagons of beer. He was able to reunite a head to the trunk from which it had been decapitated ; to make lions follow him like dogs ; and he also knew the place where would be found certain precious materials of the house of the god Thoth, which King Cheops was very anxious to get for the building of his pyramid. The king sent Prince Hardadaf to fetch the sage Dedi, whom he found stretched upon his bed. Dedi consented to accompany him into the king’s presence, and, upon being asked by his Majesty whether it was true that he could reunite a decapitated head to the trunk, replied in the affirmative ; whereupon the king ordered a prisoner to be brought out for experiment. But the sage Dedi asked that an animol might be supplied him, and not a man; whereupon a goose wss brought. Its head was cut off and placed in the eastern corner of the chamber, with the body in the western corner, and Dedi then pronounced a form of words, immediately after which the body got up and walked, the head wriggling along the pavement until the two met and rejoined; the goose then waddling away. Dedi repeated the same miracle with a duck and a bull, and the king then questioned him as to the house of Thoth. Dedi said that the materials which the king wished for were in a house at Heliopolis, but that he had no power to make them over to him ; the only one who could do so being the eldest of the three sods whom Red Dedt should bear. Red Dedt, he added, was the wife of the Priest of the Sun at Sachebu. ; and she would bear three sons to a god, and these three sons would all be kings, the eldest being also high priest at Heliopolis. When the king heard those words he was troubled. There is a hiatus in the papyrus at this point, and, without being told what course King Cheops has determined upon, we arrive at the main incident of the story—namely, the birth of the children of the Sun. When Red Dedt felt the first pangs of childbirth, the Sun sent for the goddesses Isis, Nephthys, Mesechent, and Hekt.as wellas the god Chnum, and said to them, * Deliver Red Dedt of the three children, who will one day be kings of this land ; they will build you temples, they will feed your altars, they will make you many libations, and will enrich your sanctuaries.’ The gods and goddesses assumed the shape of mortal women, and went to the house of a priest and offered to deliver his wife. The priest accepted, and Red Dedt accordingly gave birth to three boys an ell long and with lusty arms. Mesechent predicted that they would all reign ; and they were, in fact, the three first kings of the fifth dynasty—Userkaf, Sahure, and Kakar. The priest, full of gratitude, gave corn to the supposed midwives, who then took their flight into the empyrean. But, when the divinities got near to the domain of the sun, Isis said, * How is it that we have wrought no miracle for the children whom wo have delivered from their mother’s womb ?’ Thereupon the goddesses stirred up a tempest, and, after having enchanted the corn, caused the wind to carry it into the priest’s house. When Red Dedt, after two weeks’ rest, resumed the management of her household, the servant told her that the corn given to the midwives was still iu the granary. Red Dedt sent her to fetch a little of it; but she returned in terror, saying that she had heard in the granary the sounds of mu;ic and song * as when the birth of a king is being celebrated.’ This miracle was nearly being fatal to the children, for, when Red Dedt on one occasion punished her servant, the latter left the house in wrath and said to the neighbors, * How dares she to punish me, this woman who has given birth to three kings ! I will go and inform King Cheops.’ Here the papyrus ends, so that no information is given as to what King Cheops did to get rid of these future pretenders, or how they escaped his persecution ; and this—as Herr Lepsius in his prefatory notice remarked —is all the more unfortunate because the papyrus evidently hands down a tradition of facts. Thus we may learn from it that Chephren was a son of Cheops ; that the fifth dynasty originated in the town of Sachebu; that the three first kings of it were brothers, and that the eldest was priest at Heliopolis before ascending the throne. The papyrus in question is the oldest known document in the popular tongue. ELOPED TWICE WITH THE SAME WOMAN. It is not often that a man elopes with the same woman twice, yet Baltimore county, Md., comes to the front with one of these rather remarkable characters, writes a Baltimore correspondent of the St. Louis Globe-Democrat. The fact that the woman in the case also eloped the second time with the same man does not occasion so much surprise, because of woman’s traditional devotion. Two years ago Miss May Conway was one of the most attractive girls in the little village of Texas, Baltimore county. She was not handsome, but bright and winsome, and the county beaux were drawn to her like bees to a honeysuckle. She appeared to be modest and good, and sang in the village church choir. She also taught a class in the Sunday school, and it was there she'met her fate. Howard Poe, it is said, was a teacher in the same school. He was an industrious man with no bad habits, and until he became too fond of his fair fellowteacher, he was a devoted husband. He had been married some years, and his wife was an excellent lady. The conduct of Poe and Miss Conway soon became the talk of the village, and the discarded wife was terribly distressed. Finally, one Sunday after school, the couple disappeared. They came to Baltimore and put up at a hotel here. They went to Washington, but in a few

weeks they repented of their nnholy ..loveand sought forgiveness of their relatives. He was received again by his wife, who forgave him and believed him thoroughly re»pentant. May was received into the bosom-, of her father s family as a prodigal daughter. From that time until about a month ago the exemplary conduct of Poe and Miss - Conway silenced the tongues of the gossips. In all that time they were never seen in each other’s company. They bowed whenever they met, but that was all. Recently however, they were thrown into each other’s society at several picnics, which Poe attended without his wife. The result was a revival of the old affection, which led to another elopement, and the couple are now living together near York, Penn. Mrs Poe * lives alone in Texas, supported by her own . exertions and aid from her husband’s father.. A PECULIAR ACCIDENT. ' Glasgow, Sept. 27. —Seven persons, including the Glasgow magistrates, were suffocated to death on Saturday while viewing - the monster blast at Lock Fyne side quarries. Seven tons of gunpowder were used in the blast. The crowd paid no attention to the warning to keep at a distance, but rushedpast the persons giving the advice. An indescribable scene followed. People looked as if under the influence of an intoxicant, undergoing convulsive contortions, accompanied by laughing, crying and screaming as they returned to consciousness. Medical men say that after the explosion, which loosened about five hundred thousand tons--. of granite, a clond of nitrous oxide gas--ascended, and, in the absence of any wind, fell to the earth and enveloped the spectators. A number of persons escaped unaffected, while others, probably one hundred and fifty, detected a pungent taste and odor, accompanied by difficulty in breathing. This was followed by convulsions and vondt- - ing.

A YEAR’S SALVATION ARMY WOBK IN BONDON.

The annual report of the Salvation Army’s operations in London has been issued, from which it appears that there are abouteight thousand * soldiers/ exclusive of those in the training home, working in the metropolis, and it is claimed that during the year ended April 30th last 10,000souls|were saved. The work in Marylebone has! been very successful, although the Salvationists havereceived very rough treatment. The report states: ‘ Oar lasses’ dresses have been torn from their bodies ; our girl officers have had.' to lead their corps to victory with black eyes and further on says ;‘ At Romford, the foes of earth and hell have united to overthrow the corps. We are driven to the streets, where, until a few weeks ago, kicks and cuffs were as common as “ Hallelujahs ”' among Salvationists. Our good old friend, the big drum, is a perfect auxiliary to our work.’ During the year about three hundred soldiers entered the Clapton Training Home. The balance sheet shows that for this year the London income from all sources was £5951. Of this L 3492 was collected by the local divisions, and the whole sum, less 30s, paid from headquarters for the rent of build--ings. The remainder of the income was spent in salaries, printing, travelling expenses, rates and taxes, etc.—Pall Mall Gazette.