WOMEN WHO HAVE SUFFERED

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXVI, Issue 8079, 6 April 1912, Page 5

WOMEN WHO HAVE SUFFERED

Them are innumerable women who have been called upon to draw a double black lino across their lives, ruling oil a certain section of the pa-st as done with and beyond recall. Sometimes the double line means that their life has practically ended so far as their hopes and happiness and ambitions aro concerned. It may ho that Deatli has stepped in and taken away one who was their whole world. It may bo that disappointment or failure has served to turn the whole current of existence for them, and at one blow they have seen all their hones utterly wrecked —not a vestige left to cling to. For the moment they are stunned, and when they open their eyes again, they look out on a totally different world—a grey flat world all shadows, without ono single gleam of sunshine. And in a dazed, only half comprehending sort of way, the realisation grows on them that life in future will be just one long succession of grey to-morrows matching the grey to-day: just a monotonous series of blanks that are sometimes harder to bear than actual pain. Many of us have been just hero. It is a woman more often than a man who collapses in this way, simply because a man has usually outside claims that must bo attended to, which leave him little time to brood over his troubles, no matter how real they may be. Moreover, it is essentially a feminine trait to stake everything in life on one particular object; a man splits up his interests more. Now when a calamity of this kind overtakes a woman, sho does one of several things, according to her temperament. Sometimes sho talks loudly and incessantly of her trouble, and pours out her woes to everybody. She is constantly relating How sho loved the ono who is gone, and spares no detail in the telling. She thinks that an immense capacity for

talking about her grief indicates an equal capacity for deep feeling; whereas the reverse is the case. The trouble that is frequently enlarged upon lies very near the surface. On the other hand a woman sometimes allows her sorrow to eat into her very nature and corrode it, like an acid on metal. She does not necessarily talk about her trouble, but she lets it so embitter and warp her life that no one can forget it; and she seems to grudge the smallest happiness that comes to others. There is a third type, who is always a martyr. She does not say much, but she looks it. She would consider it "unfeeling" if she allowed time in any way to heal the wound. She is not aware of the fact, but in reality she gets a oonsider.able amount of satisfaction out of the commiseration that she demands from everyone who crosses her path. Now neither of these women feel very deeply. Their grief is of the shallowest order, and is more than offset by the amount of sympathy and interest they exact from others. But quite distinct from all these is a fourth typo—the woman who never forgets, who cannot forget if she would, but who determines that her sorrow shall make her of more use in the world, and a greater power for good, instead of a burden to everyone. She makes no outward parade of her grief; to her it is too sacred to. be flaunted in public on every, occasion. She does not discuss it with outsiders; sho knows that they cannot possibly understand all her loss means to her. No one but God knows that, so she takes her troubles to the only One who can really understand. knowing that He listens and finding that His sympathy is all-sufficient. And then she realises that the sorrow was sent to her for some definite purpose. . Sho may not comprehend all that purpose, but she knows that it was to widen and ennoble her life, not to narrow it down or embitter it. And she raises her eyes and tries to look beyond the grey shadows that seem to surround her. Before long they begin to lift, and she sees a big work waiting to be_done —From "The Girl's Own." DIVORCE RINGS. Chicago society, which occupies a very high place in tho divorce statistics of the United States, is amusing itself with a new fad in the shape of special divorce rings. At a fashionable reception the other evening it is reported that the attention of a number of guests was attracted by a dainty gold ring on the little finger of the right hand of Mrs Marina Parke. Mrs Parke, the “Mail" says, was

recentlv divorced from her husband, the secretary of the Board of Supervising Traction Engineers. In response to inquiries, Mrs Parke observed; Why, that is my divorce ring. I invented it, and now quite a number of Chicago women are wearing similar rings. Before long everybody will know that a plain gold ring on the little finger of the right hand means that its wearer is divorced. Ihe divorce ring saves you such a lot of embarrassment. New acquaintances no longer inquire about your husband, and oid friends who have not yet heard of your divorce, perceiving the ring, are saved from embarrassing themselves and you by asking awkward questions.” TULIPS GROWN IN BASKETS. A basketful of growing tulips makes a beautiful centrepiece for the winter dinner table. Of course, the basket chosen must bo deep enough to hide a pot or pan, in which should be some drainage holes; this is filled with a compost consisting of two parts of loam to one of mingled leaf-mould and old hotbed manure with a good handful of coarse silver sand added. It should be used in a condition just damp enough to be easily manipulated. Firm planting is essential, and four bulbs may go in a five-ineb pot, covered in with an inch of soil.