WOMAN'S WORLD

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 317, 5 July 1912, Page 6

WOMAN'S WORLD

(Conducted by "Eileen.") EASTERN LOVEMAKLNG. Mr Sliriilkar V. Kctley had as the ■■■■'>- ject of a lecture in London recea !y "Tlio Art of Making Love in Anciuit India."' In the course of the lecture ho said that researches had shown him that the subject of love had the most powerful attraction for the ancient Indian poets. In Sanskrit more than half the poems -which he had seen were devoted to this subject. The poets and the philosophers of that time were at constant war with each other; centuries and centuries were spent in virulent ink-.sling-ing-. The poet bent over his papyrus and said, in a thousand different ways, that woman was an exquisite goddess, who condescended graciously to remain on the earth with vile man. Whereupon the philosopher took out his roll of papyrus, and dashing away at a frightful pace in his complicated handwriting of Sanskrit characters, said that the poet was a hopeless ass—just in the style of Eatanswill—and that woman had not even the intelligence to appreciate man's surprising virtues. In those dear days the art of love was carried to its highest expression by the teaching of love professors. These professors, endowed with all the degrees that the subject of love could give, acted as companions to high-born youths and maidens. The young prince who met a young princess for the first time knew that she had learnt all that it was possible to learn about the tender passion, just as surely a» a modern prince .spoke French. This system had great advantages. It put .youth and maiden on a more equal footing, and if a princess liked a prince very imuch she would not propose to him, but would suggest that he should steal her and carry her off from her parents » —which is much the same thing. The ' prince, who thus abducted his- bride was 1 accounted the very pattern of what a prince should be.

"FINGER-HARKED" GIRLS. '"White silk, fair pages, delicate flowers, and human lives are spoiled by being finger-marked," says a writer in The Girl's Own Paper and. Woman's Magazine. "Here is a young girl reading the details of a divorce suit in a newspaper; her soul is being finger-marked. The unclean story leaves a smear across the fair page of her life. If she is not accustomed to this sort of thing, she feels a sense of physical stain from the reading. The same is true of some novels and of some plays at the theatre. They take hold of one with dirty fingers. Presently the souls of those who expose [themselves to such defiling influences | are like the coats and gowns which are ' smudged and spattered, and which bear I the records of carelessness. These effects i are inevitable. No woman—and no man either —can read or see that which makes light of the dignity of the purity of life without suffering a degradation. They are finger-marked. The same result is true of some of the petty familiarities of social life. Girls sometimes permit themselves to be addressed in terms which take out of conversation all the sweet and wholesome influences of courtesy. They permit themselves to be touched. But every familiar touch takes off a bit of bloom. It leaves a finger-mark. The consequence is that some very -well-meaning but unthinking young woman, whose only serious offence is that of a careless spirit, become like smeared books. They are offered i at 'second-hand'—here a corner is turnled down,and there a soiled thumb has left its mark . They have become fingermarked."

An American suggests the following apt lines as a reply to the popular song, "All That I Want is Love." They are headed ALL THAT SHE WANTS IS LOVE. All she desires is love, you say? That shows how much you know, She wants to see the matinee, And to the circus go. She wants a cluster diamond ring, She wants a rope of pearls; She wants a poodle on a string, She wants some extra curls; She wants a bonnet twice a year, She wants an Easter hat; She wants to read her title clear Unto a stylish flat; She wants a four-seat motor-car, She wants a real * Worth gown; She wants a trip to Europe, or At least to Newport town. She wants a cask of rare Cologne, She wants a diamond pin; She wants a carriage of her own To go out calling in; She wants the Earth, the Milky Way, And half the stars above; And yet you have the nerve to say That all she wants i* Love! THE OLD AGE OF NURSES.

The future of nurses who have become unfitted through age from carrying out their ordinary duties was discussed at a nursing conference in London recently. Among the suggestions made was that such ladies might start small convalescent homes. A modest "rest-house" may he most useful, and pay satisfactorily if started in connection with a nursing home. Such a home of recovery, where lengthy treatment can be carried out at less expense than in a town nursing home, might be run by two or three delicate or elderly nurses together. A home of this kind, it was suggested, would do best at a health resort such as Harrowgate, Buxton, or Bourne, mouth. Two ex-nurses were quoted as doing well with an invalid kitchen. In a town where convalescents abounded a fair living might be made by preparing dishes for chronic invalids, nursing homes, mid hospitals, or in acute, cases of illness in private houses. Real turtle soup, beef tea, by the gallon, or the teacup, jellies, etc., could be provided. A good needlewoman, it was pointed out, might do well by establishing a "mendaries," the repairing being highly skilled, and comprising not only the darning of fine damask but coarser household work such as re-lining rugs, and even repairing worn-out dolls. Where this has been started, the original founders have in time had to employ several girls. Another prospect which might suit an elderly retired nurse is that of manager of village property and rentcollecting. A nurse with a taste for cooking also, it was suggested, take up a confectionary business or tea-rooms, active girls being employed for the hard work. Hand laundries, too, were mentioned as likely employment, while beekeeping and gardening, dressmaking, jam and marmalade making were in turn suggested.

SILENT OPERA SINGERS, Verdi's "11 Trovatore" was given recently in full at the- Vaudeville Theatre, Paris, with mute actors, actresses, arid chorus. A gramaphone in the prompter's box supplied the voices as -well as the orchestral'! accompaniments, the Mail says. The principals, as well as the chorus, had nothing to do but imitate the action of sinking- in time to the notes of the gramaphone. They were elaborately costumed, and made up, exactly as if the whole were being played under normal conditions. The performance whs criticised on the ground that the voices of the chorus were not sufficiently loud in comparison with those of the singers, while the different instruments were heard unequally.