NOTES FROM LONDON.

Patea Mail, Volume XXXIV, 9 October 1911, Page 1

NOTES FROM LONDON.

Homecraft for Girls. London, August 4.

This is a subject being taken up very

I seriously by the High Cliff School at | Scarborough, said to bo the first school to introduce systematic training in I mothercraft for the daughters of the well-to-do, with practical demonstration and experience. A special house has been set apart for the teaching of homecraft generally, and a nursery is reserved foi babies, which come at the age of seven weeks and are placed under the care of a highly-trained nurse. The girl pupils must be 17 lears old before they are allowed to take any actual part in baby management. They go into the -nurscry in detachments of two or three, and for the first few weeks only look on. They are then allowed, under tha nurse’s supervision, to bath, dress and feed the baby. During the three or four hours a week spent in the nursery by each girl lessous are given on all matters pertaining to the care of infants. Skilful Woman Motorist. At the inter-club motor race meeting held last Saturday, a lady, Miss Muriel Thompson, won the Declaration Handicap (10y 3 miles), receiving a cup presented by the Kent Automobile Club. skilful driver also won the blindfold (haying, competition, for which she was awarded a trophy., This event was open to any class of ■xiotS'X car, owned by any member or associate of the Royal Automobile Club. The drivers, blindfolded, started their cars on« at a time from a mark in the vicinage [ of the fork on track, and drove in a circle on the forward gear, striving to bring their ears to rest on another defined spot, the winner being the driver whose wheel hub cap was nearest to the proper point of stopping. Each car carried an observer, who was seated at the side of the driver, and who sounded a hell wherever his driver was running into any danger, whereupon the driver was compelled to stop., 4 Frenchwoman’s Daring.

An amusing story comes from the little village of Brioude, in France, this wedk, in explanation of the trial of a young Frenchwoman, Maria, GrenierBertrand, on a charge of “humiliation caused to a public officer.” The facts, it appears, are these:—A fire, broke out in the village three weeks ago, and was burning furiously before the nearest fire station, some miles away, even heard about it. There was no time to be lost, and in a few minutes all the villagers were at work on the blaze. Maria Bertrand was yerj prominent in this improvised but numerous fire brigade, and worked like a Trojan, both at using the hose and in urging her fellow-villagers to get on with the work. All obeyed except one severe-looking gentleman, who contented himself with watching operations. This was too much for tho lady, and she immediately gave him a bit of her mind, which the onlooker scornfully resented. Unable to contain her feelings, Maria turned tho hose upon the phlegmatic personage, and then, seizing a bucket filled with water, she jambed it ou his head. The fit was rather too exact, for it took three gendarmes half an hour to get it off, and during this time the Procureur of the Republic, for it was no other than he. was subjected to a volley of ironic comment, amid fits of laughter from the highly-amused onlookers. Thus, wounded in his dignity, the enraged Procureur had the woman arrested. She has just been tried, and when a sentence of three months was passed trouble was expected from the crowd in court, hut as the magistrate added that the sentence will only he served if the lady is again brought up for any other offence, and therefore meant acquittal, no disorder occurred. A Woman Sign-Painter A woman sign-painter plys her trade in New York in the person of a young Texan girl, Madge Claiborne. She is a miniature painter, and, since her work lias been pronounced good by competent critics, has taken up her present business in order to make sufficient money to enable her to study under good people. Victorian Women Artists. Women are making such undoubted headway in arts and sciences in France that M. Darbonx, the permanent sccre--1 tary of the Academy of Science, makes no doubt that Mmo. Curie will ultimately find a place among the learned men. The Academy of Beaux Arts has just awarded the Troyan prize for painting to Mdllc. Marcelle Noyon. The subject for competition was a landscape entitled “Two bulls fighting at the edge of a wood in autumn.” The Rome prize also fell this time to a woman—Mdlle. Heuvelmans. Women Medicos to be. No less than 28 women’s names were conspicuous ou the piss lists for the first and second examinations for medical degrees at Burlington House yesterday. Housewifery. The Willosden Education Authority hpve decided to make provision in two now schools they arc about to erect for instruction in housewifery. “ Pit Brow Lassies.” A storm of indignation has been raised among the brawny women who work at the mouths of the pits in South Lan- : casliire at an attempt made in the Coal Mines Bill to prevent women from work- . ing above ground at the mines. The ' Standing Committee of the House of Commons decided on Wednesday, by 15 votes to 13, on the motion of Sir A. Markham, to insert a provision in the Coal Mines Bill to the effect that no girl or woman oilier than those employed ou or before January I, 1 IB 1, should be permitted to be employed above ground at any mine. This amendment was carried in spile of tho protest of "

Mr. Masterman, M.P., who is in charge of the Bill, and straightway there has come to London a deputation of pit-brow lassies to see how matters stand for themselves and plead their case. If the ! Bill goes through, of course,, tremendous numbers of women will be deprived of I work. At the debate on Wednesday widely different views were expressed. Sir A. Markham said it was not right that women should have to push tubs weighing from lOcwt to 35ewt, sometimes with their backs against the tubs. Mr. Stephen Walsh replied that the work was the lightest physical labor that one could possibly be put to, and Mr. Masterman poistively opined that the colliery women were healthier than women engaged in other industries. If they were driven from this work they would have to find some other. Mr. Atherley Jones, on the other hand, said the work was foul work. It was a disgrace that the women should be employed at it. Etc supported the amendment i “in the cause of public decency, progress and civilisation, and in the interests of j children.” Yesterday we heard 'the girls’ own views, and all seemed intense- | ly eager to assert that their work was | light and pleasant, and their pay satisfactory. Many of them prior to taking ■ up pit-brow work had worked in mills, but their health breaking down under ' the strain had been advised bo give up that labor for their present employment, i with the result that they are now quite ! well again. Their work consists of picking <s>ut stones, shale and dirt from the coal as h no ises along endles belting to bhe tnn ks, They start work at 0 ( a.m., finish at 2.J0.0r 3.30, with an horn and. a-half for meals,' stnd-generally work only five days a week. As 'showing the • strides that the question of woman suf-i frage has made in the last few years, it must have been satisfactory to all suffragists to find the lack of votes for women openly deplored in Parliament yesterday when Mr. Masterman, M.P., said, in the midst of a speech regretting the committee’s action, that the amendment enforced on-his mind the necessity of votes for women. C T think the position unanswerable, that if you have an occupation for women that is in no way dangerous, unhealthy or immoral, a men’s Parliament, elected by men, has no right to prohibit women from that occupation,” he concluded.