WOMAN'S WORLD

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 23, 21 July 1911, Page 6

WOMAN'S WORLD

(Conducted by "Eileen"). AUSTRALIAN TWINS. AS LIKE AS TWO PEAS IN A POD. Australia has sent Europe a puzzle in feminine resemblance that has set vaudeville patrons of several capitals talking. For two sisters—Ailcen and Doris Woods —belonging to a trio that has been pleasing audiences in England, Russia and France, are as like as two peas. Nobody but themselves can tell who is Doris and who is Aileen. And that, as may be supposed, is an awkward circumstance, calculated to breed trouble. From their father, a public official in Sydney, New South Wales, and their uncle, a cricketer and footballer of world-wide fame, they inherited tremendous enthusiasm for sport. So wherever the twins are playing they hunt out some match—football, cricket or baseball—and join in the merry din with the best of them, From their mother they gained their musical ability,.for she was a pianiste, vocalist and composer of talent.

When they arrived in the world— Aileen half an hour before her sister—everybody concerned saw the puzzle of identity at once. So they put a blue bow on Doris and a pink bow on Aileen, for without these distinguishing marks their own mother could not tell the girls apart. . Once the colors got mixed, with the result that one of the twins got two doses of medicine, instead of one dose for each, for both suffered from the same ailment at the same time.

Never for a single day have they been parted. So close is their unity that they always think in the dual. They consulted a doctor one day, and the sisters asked in unison, "Do we suffer from a weak heart, doctor?" That is typical of their feelings, on all physical and mental sensations. Two winters ago both had larynoitis .at the same time, and the specialist was astounded to find their throats absolutely duplicates in form and symptoms. Even their teeth go wrong simultaneously, in the same places. Their tastes are the same in everything, from food to literature and art. An order for two is safe enough at a restaurant, so long as one is consulted. Johnnies in Piccadilly get quite excited when the twins appear on the street, and they try to remember if the previous evening's libations were too liberal. And once or twice the girls themselves have been deceived, for Aileen, catching sight of her reflection in a Bond street mirror, thought it was Doris, and waved her.hand to her. Calling out is just as likely to be misleading, for voices and mannerisms are exactly the same. What will happen when the twins come to think of matrimony? No two mere men are near enough alike to suit both, and bigamy is forbidden in England. "Neither of us could go away on a honeymoon without the other," they say wh'"i the subject is mentioned. Which .shows they have puzzles of their own as well as being puzzles to other people.

[ GERMANY ABOLISHES GOSSIPS. [ In Germany, where everything ap- | pears to be "verboten," officialdom in the person of a lone burgomaster has at last invaded the most sacred right of women—gossip. All Germany is looking askance at the I town of Hattersheim, in Hesse, apprehensive of the widening waves of authority that would undertake to bridle the tongues of the fair. Neighbor now greets neighbor with a peaceable "Gute Morgen"; husbands come home from their work with appetites destined to remain unmarred by recitals of daily quarrels; and there has been a marked diminution in the number of alley fights that have landed their participants in the local courts. The spirit of peace abides, because the mailed fist of "verboten" has come down with a bang on all scandalmonger-, ing- J "Prosecutions for libel and slander," declares the stern burgomaster, "have attained of late great proportions in a certain section of our city. Bitter enmities and litigaton costs that amount 1 to heavy financial losses are among the consequences." | He remarks that the cause is usually] tho same: "The men are hard at work whiU the women fritter away their time in gossiping and quarrelling, the children's training being neglected and the house-, hold suffering for lack of care. When the breadwinner comes home and tho i day's events arc untruthfully told to] him, he must betake himself, as the protector of his angry wife, to the police i or a lawyer or to the court of arbitra-1 tion." I

On such persons, remarks the burgomarter, the teachings are wasted which require a woman to occupy herself at her own fireside, scorn scandalmongers, and seek only to provide a comfortable home for her husband and her children. There is no true domestic happiness with them. "Therefore," concludes the burgomaster, solemnly warning all and sundry who are offenders, "poor relief will henceforth be given in exceptional cases only where people have involved themselves in prosecutions for scandal. The police, besides, have been instructed to compile a list of such persons and warn all landlords and tenants against them."

Thus far no other burgomaster in (Jer-i many has imitated Hatterheim's execu-l tive, and it may happen that, after the' first silence of astonishment at his temerity, the good women of Hattersheim will dispute his right to enforce the regulations he proposes. While the power of the burgomaster ia very extensive and can, in emergency, be supplemented with all the force requisite to make it operative, the moral force represented by a community of recalcitrant housewives is something which even Germany's system of things "verboten" must pause before. And, thus far, no man who has lived' lias been able to check the world's flow of gossip, in which scandal invariably/ plays so large a part. Hattersheim'sl burgomaster has, however, one august!

ally—the Kaiser—whose sermons define woman's place in the household. But even the Kaiser has not had nerve to try to shut off gossip. If.the Hessian town prove that scandalmongers can be abolished, the daring burgomaster ! who undertook the difficult job stands a large chance of advancement.

A REMARKABLE CASE. A case presenting some remarkable features came bfore the Court at Melbourne. A man and woman had been living together, and the woman, being in need of money, pawned some of the man's furniture and a suit of clothes. The man, on discovering it, thrashed her so severely that she had to be admitted to the hospital, also taking what was left of the money in her possession. The woman then laid a charge of assault and battery against the man, who was remanded after the woman had given evidence. When the case came on again, it was stated that the pair had got married, and the wife's evidence could, pot be used against accused, who was, however, committed for trial. When the trial .came on the wife said she could not recollect the circumstances of the assault, and she had forgotten who ,it was that had actually assaulted her. The judge directed the prisoner's acquittal, and, turning to the woman, told her how sorry lie was to interrupt a honeymoon, but there could be no question that she had prevaricated in order to defeat the ends of justice, and sentenced her to seven days' imprisonment.