THIS PASSING SHOW.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXVI, Issue 8191, 5 August 1912, Page 5

THIS PASSING SHOW.

Some little Talk awhile of Me ana nice There was—and then no more of Thee and Me. -OMAR KHAYYAM. Wonderful people we are. we women! So much more wonderful than wo ever dream. Of the stuff that fools, rnartys, and saints are made. Terribly interested each one of us in our own individual power and influence, vet ignorant of and indifferent to our influence and power collectively. The stuff that fools arc made of we all concede, for no one is so hard on a woman, as women, and we may always be counted on to realise another woman's folly. The stuff that martyrs are made of: let the English suffragettes prove undeterred by the now well-Known torture of the forcible feeding regime, the sordid routine of prison life ami labor, the rough, contemptuous handling—not only of arresting poliecmen. hut, angry crowds—tlte suffragettes are "militant" again. Saturday's cablegrams toil of these women fwilo in cold blood are not only willing, hut eager, to make martyrs of themselves for their cause), setting fire to letterboxes in Liverpool, and severing telephone wires in Edinburgh. There is no longer any cry of ‘‘hysteria’'—it is something deeper, higher, more wonderful: it is sacrificing self for a principle—it is the martyr spirit, no less.

But the importance of Ourselves—of 'Women—that is the amazing thought! what we are to trade and industry, how the looms of the West and the embroiderers of the East are working for UH. How, at this moment, a million jewellers, embroiderers, art-workers, lace-makers, craftsmen, and women all over the world arc working—for ITS. How princely palaces where the great artists like Worth, Paquin, and their confreres amass fortunes, are supoorted in all their splendid arrogance hy women. How beauty doctors, toilette specialists, the hundred and one experts who alter, improve, add to. take from. Nature's clumsy work, are supported by XJH. Years ago. when ribbons went out of fashion, thousands of women and children were threatened with starvation in the ribbon-making centres. Last year the world of trade was suddenly shocked to find that "underskirts” for the fashionable woman, had ceased .to exist. The petticoat, m all its blameless frilly fascination, the very standby of virtue and respectability, was left to the “middle-classes.” Whole firms .passed out of existence. That is how wo influence Trade!

Tills year, the plaint of the petticoat having passed, yet another grievance In that strange world which lives bv ministering to Our needs, is reported. There is nothing for the bootmakers to do! And this is how James Douglas talks in "London Opinion" about the latest convulsion We have created in trade, the success wit), which wo have banished boots, and enthroned shoes: "The tyranny of the short skirt has placed a terrible strain upon the feminine understanding. It has dragged the ankle into the limelight. The fierce light .that beats upon the throne is dim compared to tho fierce light that it has allowed to boat upon tho foot. Suddenly the ankle dominated tho dreams of womanhood. There arose an insatiable cry for shoes that would minimise its dimensions and enhance its grace. Hitherto woman had been content to mince and amble through life with shoes of two colors, black and crown. Without warning she called for shoes of many colors to match stockings of many colors. The resources of tho shoemaker were pitilessly exhausted in order to comply with tho passion for colored feet. Tho poor man tore his hair as lie ransacked the earth for dyes that would glut tho rage of coquetry."

Our own Quecu.wiso and well-informed woman that she is—though she does dress dowdily, and her hats are archaic—understands the importance of women and their influence on trade. She uses her Knowledge to foster and encourage British tradeIt was her influence which originated and brought about this year’s exhibition of British silks at Prince s Skating Rink, London. Wo all remember how the sillts and velvets for the Coronation robes were specially woven in English looms, and now at the Exhibition of British silks, tho thousr amis of women visitors saw the exquisite silks ordered by Queen Mary being woven in the looms. Among them was an exquisite design of brocaded ivy leaves on a background of green and gold. Keenly interested in tho different exhibits at the eighty stalls of the exhibition, the Queen spent more than two hours there, being especially interested in the successful application of a process of hand-block printing to silk, which has hitherto only been applied to cloth. —ZEALANDIA.