LADIES’ GOSSIP.

Otago Witness, Issue 3016, 3 January 1912, Page 73

LADIES’ GOSSIP.

for more than half a century, recently died at the age of 72. She was known as the “Grace Darling” of America, because of heroic rescues she made, and the number of persona she saved from drowning. '-1 Mme. Mathilde Kchessinska, a Russian dancer, who recently appeared in London, is the possessor of a fortune in jewels, infinitely the richest woman on the stage in the w'orld, and a great political personage. She is, perhaps, the most remarkable woman in Russia. She holds a salon that is frequented by Royalty and diplomats and the leading Government officials. She is a woman of exceptional personality, and carries herself with remarkable distinction. She began her public career as a dancer at the Imperial Opera, St. Petersburg, and occasionally reappears there. A fair-haired woman correspondent of the Eclaireur de Nice has made an energetic protest against the dictum recently laid down by a French savant on the intellectual and physical superiority of brunettes. The scientist In question asserts that two generations hence fair women will be extinct, and that the blonde woman is a degenerate type. Dark women, he adds, are usually more robust and stronger physically and intellectually than their fair sisters. The correspondent challenges these statements, and says that a true French blonde is a “gem.” The letter is signed “A Fair Woman who Rides Horses, Climbs Trees, and Receives Doctors only at her Dinner Table.” The first jury of women summoned to try a case in San Francisco held that if a woman throws a stone which breaks a window, that fact is evidence that she did not break the window intentionally. Mrs Minto accused Mrs Rodey of breaking her window owing to spite. The evidence showed that Mrs Rodey threw a stone, and also that the window was broken. The women jurors then retired, and, after a brief consultation, returned a verdict of “Not guilty.” The forewoman explained to the surprised court that the jury were only applying common-sense to the case, and had unanimously concluded that no woman could hit a given mark with a stone. She added that as the stone hurled by Mrs Rodey smashed a window, it was perfectly obvious to the jury that she was aiming at - something else, and that the stone struck the window accidentally.

Lady Angela Forbes, -whose second novel. “Penelope’s Progr-jss,” was published tho other day, is a member of a family which includes the Duchess of Sutherland and the Earl of Rosslyn : and the Countess of Warwick and Lady Algernon Gordon-Lcnnox are her half-sisters. Lady Angela Forbes has a charming home In London —the house in which Charles Dickens wrote “David Copperfield,”—but ehe prefers the eguntry. Gardening and house-furnishing are among her hobbies. t— It ia not at all well known that knighthood has constantly been conferred upon women. Many English ladies received the accolade, and many more were members of such knightly orders as the Garter and St. John. When Mary Cholmondeley, “the bold lady of Cheshire,” was knighted by 'Elizabeth for “her valiant

address ” pn the Queen taking the command at the threatened invasion by Spain, did she know that a whole city of Spanish women, the gallant woman of Tortosa, had been knighted for saving that city from the Moors? Alary and ( Elizabeth had both been knighted at their Coronation; but by the time Anne, the Second Mary, and Victoria ascended the throne it had been quite forgotten that, according to English law and use, a woman who filled a man’s office acquired ail its privileges and was immune from none of its duties. The engagement of Air Allan Alackenzie to the Hon. Louvima Knollys has aroused much interest on Deeside, where both bridegroom and bride-elect have been known from childhood. No one would have rejoiced more at the alliance of a Alackenzie of Glenmuick with a family so closely associated with Royalty than the worthy merchant who blossomed out from plain Air Thompson into Sir James Alackenzie of Glenmuick, and built in the splendid mansion, at a cost of some £60,003, in which neither his son nor his grandson have found themselves able to live. Sir James left in his will the quaint direction that Glenmuick {which marches with Balmoral) “should not be let to a cad or one who would damage it or would be disagreeable to the Royalties, from whom I have always received the greatest kindness.” From 1890 until Lady Glenesk’s death in 1898, the place was let to Lord Glenesk, who entertained the Czar and Czarina there in October, 1906. Airs Elinor Glyn, whose new book hears the picture of a red-haired woman, has herself a glorious mass of beautiful

red hair, and she lirnily believes that such hair implies a temperament not easily understood. She always insists that her own personal maid shall have the same colouring as herself, declaring that only such a woman could endure her moods. Moods she certainly has, and when the fever of creation is upon her she shuts herself up in a pavilion which is built in her Essex Garden, and absolutely refuses to see anyone. The pavilion was built out of the proceeds of “The Reflections of Ambroeine” 5 the hall represents “Autumn,” the boudoir “Summer,” and the bedroom and bathroom “Spring,” and it would be difficult to find a more charming environment in which to compose. Mm Glyn works tremendously hard when the spirit moves her, and will spend a whole day curled up on a sofa with a writ-ing-pad and pencil, hardly stopping to eat or drink. \ few years ago there was something of a boom in paper hats. They had their advantages. They were light, and could he made in an endless variety of shapes. Thie season has seen the introduction of paper' rope —a material out of which it is possible to make ‘ some remarkably goodlooking articles for household use. It is easy enough to make the rope from ordinary crepe paper by cutting two strips of paper the full length of the roll and twisting them first separately and then together. The quickest method is to fasten one end. of the strip to the small wheel of a sewing machine, and have one person to hold tho free end of the paper while the other works the treadle. The paper should bo stretched to its full capacity during the process. The wheel should be turned in the same direction when twisting the strands singly, but in the opposite direction when they aye twisted together. Tw6 strands, each lOin wide, or half tho width of the roll, will make a rope about half an inch in diameter. It can be used for basket-making In exactly the same way as raffia, and for making mats it is admirable. In a finer make it can be used to cover glarw jars, and so convert them into excellent flower holders. The homely kerosene tin cut in two and covered with green paper rope makes the best possible receptacle for a

pot plant. The material stands endless wear and tear, and presents itself in a variety of delightful colour. Our Androcentric Culture. The following from Mrs Charlotte Berlins Gilman’s “The Man-made World,” is from T. Fisher Unwin’s M.A.B. : Our historic period is not very long. Real written history' only goes back a few thousand years, beginning with the stone records of ancient Egy'pt. During this period we have had almost universally what may r be called an androcentric culture. The history, such as it was, was made and written by men. The mental, the mechanical, the social development, was almost wholly theirs. We have, so far, lived and suffered and died in a man-made world. So general, so unbroken, has been this condition that to mention it arouses no more remark than the statement of a natural law. We have taken it for granted, since the dawn of civilisation, that “mankind” meant mankind, and that the world was theirs. Women we have sharply delimited. Women were a sex: “ the sex,” according to chivalrous toasts ; they were set apart for special services peculiar to femininity. As one English scientist ppt it, in iaBB, “Women are not only not the race—they are not even half the race, but a subspecies told off for reproduction only.” This mental attitude toward women is even more clearly expressed by Mr H. B. Marriott-Watson in his article on “The American Woman” in the Nineteenth Century for June, 1904, where he says: “Her

constitutional restlessness has caused her to abdicate those functions which alone excuse or explain her existence.” 'ihis is a peculiarly happy and condensed expression of the relative poition of women during our androcentric culture. The man was accepted as the race type without one dissentient voice; and the woman —a strange, diverse creature, quite disharmonious in the accepted scheme of things —was excused and explained only as a female.

She has needed volumes of such excuse and explanation ; also, apparently, volumes of abuse and condemnation. In any library catalogue we may find books upon books about women —physiological, sentimental, didactic, religious—all manner of books about women, as such. Even to-day in the works of Mar holm, poor young Weininger, Moebius, and others, we find the same perpetual discussion of women — as such.

My book is about men —as such. It differentiates between the human nature and the sex nature. It will not go so far as to allege man’s masculine traits to be all that excuse or explain his existence 5 but it will point out what are masculine traits as distinct from human ones, and what has been the effect on our human life of the unbridled dominance of one sex.

See how in our use of language the case is clearly shown. The adjectives and derivations based on woman’s distinctions are alien and derogatory when applied to human affairs 5 “effeminate”- —too female, connotes contempt, but has no masculine analogue 5 whereas “emasculate” not enough male, is a term of reproach, and has no feminine “Virile”— manly, we oppose to “jjuerile”—childish, and the very word “ virtue ” is derived from “vir”—a man. Woman has held always tlje place of a proposition in felation to man. She has been considered above him or below him, before him, behind him, beside him, a wholly relative existence-—“ Sydney’s sister,” * “ Pembroke’s mother”—but never by any chance Sydney or Pembroke herself. Acting on this assumption, all human standards hare been based on male characteristics, and when we wish to praise the

work of a woman we say she has “a masculine mind.” If a given idea has been held in the human mind for many generations, as almost all our common ideas have, it takes sincere and continued effort to remove it; and if it is one of the oldest we have in stock, one of the big, common, unquestioned world ideas, vast is the labour of those that seek to change it. _ Nevertheless, if the matter is one of importance, if the previous idea was a palpable error of large and evil effect, and if the new on© is true and widely importany, the effort is worth making. The task I have undertaken is of this sort. I seek to show that what we have all this time called “human nature” and deprecated was in great part only male nature, and good enough in its place ; that what we have called “masculine,” and admired as such, was in large part jiuman, and should be applied to both sexes ; that what we have called “feminine,” and condemned, was also largely human and anplicable to both. Our androcentric culture is so shown to have been, and still to be. a masculine culture in excess, and thereior© undesirable. In the preliminary work of approaching these facts it will be well to explain how it can be that so wide and serious an error should have been made by practically all men. The reason is simply that they were men. They' were males, and saw women as females—and not otherwise. The world is full of men, but their principal occupation is human work of some sort, and women see in them the human distinction preponderantly'. Occasionally

some unhappy lady marries her coachman —long contemplation of broad shoulders having an effect, apparently ; but in general women see the human creature most, the male creature only when they love. To the man, the whole world was his world, his because he was male • and the whole world of woman was the home, because she was female. She had her prescribed sphere, strictly limited to her feminine occupations and interests [ he had all the rest of life, and not only so, but, having it, insisted on calling it male. This accounts for the general attitude of men toward the now rapid humanisation of women. From her first faint struggles towards freedom and justice to her present valiant elforts towards full economic and political equality, each step has been termed “ unfeminine,” and resented as an intrusion upon man’s place and power. Here shows the need of our new classification of the three distinct fields ot life masculine, feminine, and human. Woman’s natural work as a female Is that of the mother ; man’s natural work as a male is that of the father ; their mutual relation to this end being a source of joy and well-being when rightly held j •but human work covers all our life outside specialities. Every handicraft, every profession, every science, every art, all normal amusements and recreations, all government, education, religion, the whole living world of human achievement—all this is human. That one sex should have monopolised all human activities, called them ‘‘man’s work,” and managed them as such, is what is meant by the phrase ‘‘Androcentric Culture.” Hints ami Suggestions. If thick-skinned lemons are peeled before squeezing it will be easier to extract the juice. Never grate lemon rind without first scrubbing the rind well with clean vegetable brush. The dirt that comes off will show the reason. Wash oilcloth with a flannel and warm water; when dry wipe afterwards -with a little warm milk. Hang woollens out on the line dripping

wet, without wringing them at all. If dried in this way they will not phrink. When mixing starch, the. adaiton of a few drops of turpentine will give a fine gloss to collars and cuffs. . All traces of mud can easily be removed from black clothes by rubbing the spots with a row potato cut in half. " A mackintosh -which is no longer fit to wear can be made into a very useful apron to wear when scrubbing floors or washing up. With the remainder (if any), excellent sponge-bags may be made. To remove paintmarks on the floor t apply a paste made of equal parts of limC and sodi moistened with a little watert Leave this for 24 hours, then wash it oft and the stains will be found to have disc appeared.

Sometimes when lamp chimneys havf become very blackened with smoke, water alone will not remove the grease. But » can be removed without any trouble bj mixing a little spirits of wine with th< water.

It is a good plan always to keep half a lemon in readiness to rub on th« hand* after p'eeling vegetables or fruit. This prevents them from getting stained, and keeps them beautifully soft and white. II you have po lemon, use vinegar.