WOMEN’S WAYS

Southland Times, Issue 23332, 16 October 1937, Page 16

WOMEN’S WAYS

At Home And Abroad WOMAN TIMBER MERCHANT Thirty-four-year-old Mrs Rose Ray-, mond is such a successful business woman that her husband has had to give up his job to become her partner. Her father, whom she appointed managing director of another business, found it so profitable that he has now retired. For her warehouses in Johannesburg Mrs Raymond imports every year millions of square feet of plywood, also hardwood for veneers. She believes she is the only woman in the world with her own timber business, and she built it up all by herself. “When I left school I went to work as a shorthand typiste in a timber merchant’s office in the city,” she said to a London interviewer recently. “That was at a time when plywood was in great demand but difficult to obtain. I learned a lot in that office. Soon I knew who had plywood to sell and who was likely to buy. I made up my mind to do business for myself. “I was only just 17 when I gave in my notice and became a timber merchant. I took an office, and because it seemed so silly to have my own name up, I borrowed my father’s—but he had nothing to do with the business.” . Enterprising Mrs Raymond began to trade to South Africa, and one day met a transport contractor from Johannesburg. His name was Raymond, and she married him. He had to go back to South Africa, so she handed over her London business to her father and said she would start another in Johannesburg. She did. ABOUT CLIFTON’S After a perfect meal perfectly served in a beautifully appointed building the visitor was surprised to read on the back of the check bearing the price the following words: “Regardless of the amount of this check, our cashier will cheerfully accept whatever you wish to pay, or you may dine free.” The visitor was Mrs Thomas, Louisa street, and that was her experience of Clifton’s Cafeteria in Los Angeles. “Clifton’s is the cafeteria of the Golden Rule,” Mrs Thomas said to The Southland Times, “and its policy is designed to allow guests to adjust their checks to suit their ideas of fair service. If a guest is not entirely satisfied she can walk out without paying and as she goes past the cashier’s desk the cashier will turn away in case the guest should be embarrassed about it.” Mi-s Thomas said that the policy was not imposed upon. The only people who didn’t pay were “down-and-outs” and they were not expected to. Free meals were provided for them in a special room and preference was given to women, and women and children. “Clifton’s does not stop at being just a first-class cafeteria. It includes an art gallery, barber shop and beauty salon. It arranges sightseeing tours, develops and prints photographs, gives free bridge talks and a free dietetic service, organizes clubs and has greup rooms which may be hired for parties or meetings. Its Golden Rule Club is at the service of each guest and will even lend money. It will visit and help the sick, lend books, find friends for the lonely and even listen to problems and help to solve them.” FRASCATI WINES Miss Violet Roscow, Tay street, who has returned from a trip abroad, paid a visit to Frascati during her travels in Italy, and tasted the famous Frascati wine. On the first day of September, Miss Roscow told The Southland Times; all the fountains in Frascati flow wine to celebrate the first picking of the vines—surely something to be dreamed about FORMER INVERCARGILL GIRL In Heidelberg in Germany, Miss Roscow encountered a former Invercargill girl, Miss Sheila McNeill, who is studying at the University there. Miss McNeill’s home is now in Christchurch, and her father was formerly inspector of schools in Invercargill. WHAT WOMAN KNOWS “We are teaching women how to use gas masks, but how many of them are we teaching to cook? “The average woman does not even know how to bake a potato.” Dame Louise Mcllroy, a leading English gynecologist, made this comment after she had given an address attacking British kitchen-craft in relation to the health and well-being of expectant mothers. Sir Francis Fremantle, M.P., during the debate that followed, declared that husbands were selfish. Even when a child was expected they would come home, sink into an armchair, and look for everything to be dope for them. “Husbands whose wives are expectant mothers—and this applies to the middle-class as well as the workingclass —should help their wives with the household duties and in every way they can,” he said.