Mundane Musings Feminine Pirates

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 144, 8 September 1927, Page 5

Mundane Musings Feminine Pirates

A woman I know has a reputation among her friends for being a delightful, amusing creature. Her humour is not very perilous stuff, for she thoughtfully turns to her own ends the bits that take her fancy in any book she may be .reading. She is always springing mild, provoking surprises upon her friends, and although she is not considered a very serious person, she has the satisfaction of knowing that she is never dismissed as a bore. Stealing Ideas There are any number of women who do this with varying degrees of success. Perhaps it is just a phrase they take or a point of view which may be their genuine opinion, although it hasn’t occurred to their own busy minds. Others, less discriminate, repeat parrot fashion the sentiments of

the heroine in the last book they have read. With a good deal of inside information as to her feelings, they pirate a whole personality, and regard it as their true state of mind until another mythical creature claims their attention.

A few years ago a popular novelist created a character which is still the summit of feminine attraction in a good many women’s minds.

No woman ev„er feels incapable of cultivating subtlety even if she has a face as plain as a ham. A peculiar sadness is the latest thing to strive for, and it hung about this particular heroine like a smell of disinfectant. Overcoming Drab Surroundings It is the inherent actress in every woman at work. Actually “life is real and life is earnest,” but to find a few devious paths where one may innocently amuse oneself, without harm coming to anybody, is a temptation that nobody resists. Women conveniently overcome the drabness of their lives by slavishly imitating more fortunate beings, and it rarely brings them more trouble than a teasing laugh if they are unfortunate enough to be detected. They imagine themselves in the same clothes, in the same haunts, with the same alluring and alarming sophistication. Hard living and light thinking are delightfully muddied in this scintillating atmosphere.

I am sure that one fine, day somebody will discover a diary, and we shall .read that the fascinating Nell Gwyn was by no means as original as we suppose her to be, and that she was often caught stealing chatty bits out of the works of her favourite authors for the beguilement of the hard-worked and jaded Charles.

start soon enough to teach them they will love the bones and crusts and ask for more. Oat-cake should be given, and well-baked brown bread instead of white; toast (crisp right through), twice-baked bread; plenty of vegetables and fruit, cooked and raw; lettuce and celery and cress. The child may have most ordinary, plain, wholesome foods, but at every meal there should be something hard or tough, and the drink should be taken at the end.

The W'orst kinds of food are the soft, pappy, starchy, or sugary things—puddings, calces, sweets, and biscuits; they cling round the teeth, and cause the acid which eats into the enamel to be formed.

The Apple Rule The very best thing to do is to make an invariable rule of giving a little piece of apple at the end of every meal. This cleans the teeth better than any toothbrush, though that is necessary, too. Gleaning the Teeth Every child should have its own toothbrush, and learn how to clean his teeth by brushing up and down, not just across their surfaces. To sum up this little story of the teeth, let us condense it into the following points:— Remember the mother’s blood makes the baby's first teeth, w'hich begin to grow seven months before birth. Remember breast feeding gives baby the best materials for building his second teeth. Remember to give children some hard food at every meal, and to end the day, not with a sweet, but with a piece of apple, well chewed. To end with, may I quote a few lines from Sir Truby King’s book, “Feeding and Care of Baby?” Sir Truby says: “This care of the teeth is not only a dental question, it is not only a medical question, it is not only a national question, but it is probably the most important of all questions affecting the physical well-being of humanity throughout the length and breadth of the civilised world.”

For many further details of great interest and importance we refer our readers to the pamphlet by Sir Truby King, “The Story of the Teeth, and How to Save Them.” This can be obtained at all Plunket Rooms or at most booksellers.