Woman’s Racing Cars.

Taranaki Daily News, 7 February 1931, Page 6 (Supplement)

Woman’s Racing Cars.

Mies Victoria Worsley, daughter of 'Sir William Worsley, of Hovingham Hall, York, who is an expert motorracing driver, is to run a team of highpowered racing cans this year. She is now forming a syndicate and engaging some of the cleverest mechanics in the country, states the Daily Mail. Miss Wooley has taken part in many reliability trials and repaired her own cars, as she is an expert mechanic. Glut of Silk Stockings.

The wave of feminine economy in tho matter of silk lingerie, dresses, and stockings is blamed for a crisis in the real and artificial silk industries in New York, states £ correspondent to the Daily Mail. Representatives of the rayon industry in the United States are now en route for Europe, where conferences will be held with European rayon makers with a view to meeting the situation. Inventories of silk stockings in the United States show the. enormous total of 1,700,000 dozen in excess of the normal requirements. Lady Isaacs.

An account is given in an exchange of BJady Isaacs, wife of the first Aus-tralian-born man tp be appointed as Governor-General of the country. It is stated that Lady Isaacs is fully alive to the importance of the high position she is to occupy. "There are great traditions to be lived up. to,” she remarked to an interviewer, and the opinion formed was that she would fulfil the part well. She stated that she was not looking forward to the social side of the position so much as to the enormous amount of charitable and service work which would necessarily fall to her lot, and she npoke of her hope that she would be able to relieve distress. Lady Isaacs, it is said, is a very handsome woman, tall, gracious, and with tact and charm which are essential for Australia’s chief hostess, while she combines a breadth of view which is a necessity in the wife of a Governor-General. She is very proud of the great honour bestowed on her husband, and, having returned recently from the first trip away from him in the 40 years of her married life, she is ready to take hold of the and help to the best of her ability. ■Nationality of Married Women.

A writer in an Englishwomen’s paper makes the following comments on the latest developments of t]ie controversy in regard to the nationality of women who have married aliens: ‘‘The Labour Party was founded upon the principles of class and sex equality; but whenever an opportunity of proving the sincerity of its views on sex equality comes along, Mr. MacDonald seems to turn his back. The Labour record (as to party) on the suffrage question is too well known to need recalling; its policy on women in industry has been actually to increase and perpetuate sex inequality. Mr. MacDonald promised widows’ pension® and votes to women under thirty, but he left it to Mr. Baldwin to carry both measures through Parliament. Now, after having declared itself in favour of altering the law in order that women may retain their nationality on marriage, the Labour Government comes before Parliament as the opponent of the actual Bill to promote this change, on the grounds that it tied its hands at the Imperial Conference by a pledge to take action ‘after previous consultation with the Dominions, and unanimously.’ Such an undertaking should never have been given, The statement to the women's organisations had already been made; and since when has it been the duty of this country to await a lead from 'the Dominions? The Government would be well advised to change its mind once again on this matter, and allow the Bill introduced by ■Dr. Ethel Bentham to proceed.”

CHANGING LONDON. BACK TO VICTORIAN ERA! A writer in the Daily Mail gives an amusing description of the- change he noticed on returning to London after an absence in “his hot and humid outpost of Empire.” He says: “I went away five years ago convinced that we were firmly fixed in a new world expressed by short skirts, bobbed hair, and jazz music, and that the conventions of pre-war days were as extinct as the Great Auk. I return to find London reaching out for the very things she discarded so contemptuously. People arc turning to the ways of their grandmothers.” The writer goes on to describe a girl he saw who looked graceful in a skirt with more than a suggestion of crinoline. She wore lace mittens; her black hair was drawn down smoothly over her ears, and she danced the polka with restrained enthusiasm. Other girls he describes in the transitory stage between shingled hair and the heavy coiffure of thirty years ago. This he found, a depressing sight, and suggests that they go into retirement "until it is no longer necessary for them to wind their insufficient locks around their hats.”

Another grudge was that he had to include a chaperon at a dinner party originally intended for two. The chaperon he described as most youthful, but more than superfluous. “She looked disdainfully at a defiant survivor of the jaz age whose hands were bare.” Also she refused to smoke cigarettes between dances. There were more waltzes than fox trots on the programme, and the writer’s efforts at the polka appear to./have caused considerable surprise. Hatless women in the streets were still another shock. Taxis becoming faster and acres of standardised, hastily-built houses, blotting some of the most delightful bits, of rural scenery in the Homo counties, made him wonder what London—and England —will be like when he returns again in 1935. RULED OVER BY PETS. AMERICAN LADY’S WILL. “People professed astonishment the other day when they heard' that a. wealthy American lady had made a will in which she Idft her mansion and her staff of servants to her cat,” states a London writer. “There was really no call for astonishment. Probably the cat had been the virtual owner of the mansion for years, turning night into day to suit its own feline requirements, ordering its own food or, at least, declining what it did not like—raiding the larder at all times and sleeping on the beds —in short, behaving exactly like every other cat. , “There are thousands of these households that are ruled over by their pets. We are all familiar with homes where the people cannot go away because of the cat and where their friends'cannot come in because of the dog; houses where the door must be kept shut because of the kitten and the window must not be opened because' of the canary. Even a sixpenny goldfish swimming sunnily in a bowl the size of a football can throw an entire family into a tumult every time the goldfish’s bathwater is changed. “I once knew an old lady who kept a parrot. It was a lean, gaunt harridan of a bird, with a fanatical staring eye like an assassin’s. Any human being so unattractive in appearance, so blasphemous and repetitive a conversationalist, and so lazy in habits, would not have been tolerated in that spinster establishment for a moment. But the old lady worshipped that bird like an idol. \

“Every morning at 8.30, when the cage was tidied, the parrot had fresh water and millet seed and gravel.

Grapes and cuttie fish followed at noon. A cloth was spread over the cage from 2 to 4 for the parrot to enjoy a siesta. More grapes and a handful of nuts came along at 7. And the cloth went over the cage again at 10.30. Then the old lady (who was a chronic invalid) snatched a little rest. I. soon saw that it was the old lady and not the parrot that was in the cage.”

Woman’s Whitehall Post. A woman has been chosen for the first time as secretary of a departmental committee, states the Daily Mail. She is Mies Evelyn A. Sharp, an assistant principal at the Ministry of Health, who will act in this capacity to a committee set up 'by the Minister of Health to investigate the qualifications, recruitment, training, and promotion of local government officers. Miss Sharp competed at the examination for the Administrative Grade (Class 1) in 192 b, and was seventh in the list. She was the only woman successful. Women were first admitted in 1925 to this examination, which is considered the stiffest in the world.

WOMEN UNREASONABLE. STOCKINGS. AND. TEMPER. Silk stockings, apparently, are the cause of much logs of temper among women. It was stated recently that the girls who sell stockings are far less polite to customers than are those who serve other items of women’s dress. When a Daily Mirror reporter mentioned this criticism to an assistant who sells silk stockings, this is what she said: “Women are more unreasonable over their stockings than they arc over anything else. It needs the patience of a saint to cope with their complaints. They always seem to think that it is the assistant who is responsible for the appearance of ladders, when very often- it is their own carelessness in putting them on or in washing them- And anyhow, it is of no use being angry with us. We don’t make the stockings. If customers were more polite to us we should, feel more inclined to be pleasant to them-” “Then ten girls in a big office were asked what made them mo?t angry about their clothes. Each girl replied that nothing was more irritating to her than to find a ladder in her stocking. ‘lt annoys me for hours,’ one girl said, ‘and if I suddenly discover that I’ve a hole or a ladder in my stockings when I’m out, the afternoon or evening is ruined.’

“And yet, according to a woman writer, the manager of a. large store in Toronto likes to have a proportion of his staff drawn from girls with experience in large London shops. The reason he gave was that English girls have such good manners, which makes them valuable when dealing with customers here, especially with Americans. No mention is made of assistants who have specialised in the selling of silk stockings! And so the problem remains unsolved.” ROYAL BABYHOOD. LE&S CEREMONIOUS.

Royal babies have a far happier and less ceremonious babyhood than they had iii past years, states a Loudon writer. Even the fact that Mr. Clynes, the Home Secretary, had to go up to Glamie Castle for the happy- event which took place some months ago only conforms to an age-old tradition, and has little other real significance. How different was the case of the Home Secretaries of former years! When Queen Victoria was born at Kensington 'Palace in 1819 a whole batch of Ministers, including the Duke of Wellington and the Marquis qf Lansdowne, as well ae the Archbishop bf Canterbury and the Bishop of London, assembled to “pay homage.” The baby Victoria was not born until 4 o’clock in the morning, and the Ministers were cold and rather worried because the Duchess of Kent had refused, to be attended by medical men, and, &S was the German custom,, had retained the services of a so-called “Dr.” Charlotte from Berlin. After the baby’s birth, and after the child had been carried, round on a pillow to be scrutinised by each Minister, a large meal was eaten, and messengers who were kept in readiness were sent running “to give the good news to the City of London.” It was only by the greatest fluke that any member of the Cabinet was present at Frogmore when King Edward’s first son was born. The event was not expected until March, and was to take place at Marlborough House. In January the Prince and Princess of Wales, as they then were, went to Frogmore,/where the little Prince Albert Victor arrived, nearly two months too soon. No preparations had been made. There was no nurse; no baby linen, and no doctor, except Mr. Brown, the Wind.sor physician. Luckily Lord. Granville had been asked down to dine with the Prince of Wales that day, and he sent the startling news to the other members of the Cabinet who could not be summoned in tipie. How modern _ .by comparison were times when pur Prince of Wales was born at White Lodge, Richmond. The late Lord Oxford and Asquith, then Mr. Asquith, was Home ■Secretary, and directly he had seen the child he telegraphed to. the Lord Mayor of Londpn, while in a large room on the ground floor nine secretaries handled innumerable telegrams and cables. Mr. Asquith was shown the little Prince in the bassinet which was used by all Queen Victoria’s children, grand-child-ren, and great-grandchildren; quilted' in fine white soft, silk, it was flounced about with rare cobwebby lace,, although—and how characteristic this is of Queen Mary—the little Prince who lay in it always wore the simplest little cambric slips. And so to quite modern times, when little Princess Elizabeth was bom at 17, Bruton Street, and Sir. W. Joyn-son-Hicks, now Lord Brentford, edngratulated the Duke of York in the name of His Majesty’s Government. No stuffy robes -marred this little Princess’ joyous babyhood, for at last it has been found out that a Royal baby is the same as'other babies, and needs the same treatment.

Hygiene has rightly stepped in, and has completely ousted tradition where Royal babies are concerned. 1 DOOR-STEPS THAT SAVE WORK. PERMANENT COATINGS. Half the trouble of keeping stone doorsteps clean can be cut out by mixing a little quicklime with milk, and painting the previously washed steps with it. Where many steps need treating, bo that the use of milk is not economical, boil in two quarts of water half a pint each of size aiid blue-water, two tablespoonsful of whiting, and two cakes of pipeclay each the size of a tablet of toilet soap. Wash the steps with this mixture, and, when dry, rub with a flannel, and brush off the dust. To make the blue-water, dissolve in half a pint of water sufficient stoneblue to bring the liquid to the desired shade. If you use red ochre, mix it with cold wider to a smooth paste, and pour this solution into boiled starch till the right shade is obtained. Lay this evenly on the steps, and allow it to dry thoroughly before being trodden on.

•Painted doorsteps also afford a cheap and easy method of reducing cleaning operations. Clean the stone or- concrete with soap and water, dry thoroughly/ and give two coats of rapid drying varnish-paint of the desired colour. Apply the colour thinly at first, and let it dry and harden before the second coat is put on. Treated thus, the steps will •withstand any amount. of hard wear and be impervious to water. Painted steps do not show footmarks so readily as do plain stone or concrete surfaces coloured with water solutions.

Many steres put up these paints in small tins, and one tin should be sufficient to keep six steps in condition for eeveral months, providing they are rubbed over now and again with a damp leather cloth. .

Should you desire to remove the paint at any time, apply boiling water containing a strong solution of caustic soda, rubbing it well in with a scrubbing brush.

heroines of fiction. POPULARITY OF GOVERNESS. Before the advent of the typist the governess as a heroine had claims to popularity superior to those of any working woman in history, says an English exchange. If the dressmaker’s life had tragic elements tempting to authors, so had Her gentility was easier to demonstrate. If her beauty did not shine upon the gloom of a crowded workshop, it languished alone in an attic schoolroom. She was oppressed not only by her employers, but by her pupils and by the servants. She was insulted by rude guests. .Equal to her employers in birth and intelligence, often, superior, she was treated worse than a servant. But love came to her, in spite of her sad fortunes. At best, an aristocratic caller saw her drooping figure and instantly lovdd her. 'Wanda Fraiken Neff, in an almost encyclopaedic study of the life of the Victorian Working Women, leaves no stone unturned in the life of the governess, and she attributes her emancipation from absolute drudgery to .the glories of a romantic heroine to the fact that she had a governess for her historian. Maty Wollonstonecraft, even before the Brontes wrote their self-revealing books, had shown the power of an educated woman turned author. She -knew from experience the farce of domestic education for girls. Mrs. Jameson wrote fiery essays on governesses and other working women, but Charlotte Bronte finally proved that it takes a governess to write about governesses. With her came a type of heroine altogether new—plain, passionate, intelligent, witty. Jane Austen’s 'Pamela had a low cunning. Elizabeth Bennett and Emma a sprightly charm; but the woman of 'brains was ushered into fiction with Jane Eyre, Lucy Snowe and Becky Sharp. All the governesses were not heroines, however, to those Who wrote about them. A young woman like Miss Wade, in Little Dorrit, who prided herself upon her determination to re.sjst all the kind overtures of her employers, must have been a. prickly inmate of any household. The "Christian Lady’s Magazine” suggested thaat the governess “ought not to stipulate for unlimited access to the evening circle.” Harriet Martineau, guided always by common sense, scolds the governess who wants to sit at table when there are dinner parties, and insista upon a permanent invitation to the drawing-room. Harriet even makes Miss Young (a. governess) say, “Let a governess learn what. to exipeet; set her free from a hankering after happiness in her work, and you have a happy governess.” For a profession offering co little material reward the advertisements for governess exposed the impossible, array of qualifications expected. This one actually appeared in The Times, June 27, 1-S4ls:— Wanted, a governess, on Handsome Terms. Governess—A comfortable home, but without salary, is offered to any lady wishing for a situation as governess in a gentleman’s family, residing in the country, to instruct two little girls in music, drawing, and English; a thorough knowledge of the French language is required.” ■ One mother, in search of an ail accompliehed. and superior person,” appealed to' her brother by means of a letter stating requirements in detail. His answer is a delightful rebuke;— “My Dear Sister—l have never yet met with such a woman as you descril>e; but when I do, I shall make her my wife, and not your governess.” The governess herself, according to tradition, was supposed to be a girl of gentle birth. As one writer said: “The real definition of a governess, in the English sense, is a being who is our. equal in birth, manners and education, bpt our inferior in worldly wealth. There is no other class which so cruelly requires its members to be .in 'birth, mind and manners, above their station, in order to fit them for their station. Novelists represented these daughters of ruined gentlemen as commonly becoming governesses. Maria Young, Clara Mordaunt and Margaret Sutherland were all martyrs of wrecked fortunes. The daughters of clergymen grew up ■with the fate of governesses before them from their infant days.. Not all the governesses of fiction, however, were so irreproachably born. Esther Lyon, in Felix Holt, was brought up as. the daughter of a Dissenting minister. Becky Sharp was the daughter of a Bohemian artist, and Maggie Tulliver of a miller. Before the Brontes had revolutionised the life of the governess the girl who faced this occupation had no illusions. Jane Eyre, in choosing to teach in St. John Rivers’ school, said: ‘‘lt was plodding, but then, compared with that of a governess in a rich house, it was independent, and the fear of servitude with strangers entered my soul like iron.” No heroine in fiction, however, rose to the heights of a rebellion against the hardships of her employment as did the most brilliant- and sharp-tongued of governesses—Charlotte Bronte. She wrote, in a letter, “I hate and abhor the very thought of govern-ess-ship.” She refers to her work as “governess drudgery,” which, she would gladly tave exchanged for “work in a mill.’" ' J , Charlotte Bronte was able to make a governess something greater than a clotheshorse upon which fihe hung her personal wrongs. She created a woman of dignity and force, who did not allow her lowly occupation to deprive her oi the esteem of her employer. Jane Eyre is the proud working woman who respects herself and makes others respectis the proud working wonian who respects herself and makes others respect her. That, labour should be no disgrace was the final accomplishment of the governess of literature. "

The “Curiosity Complex.” It whs in a church crammed to capacity, while 10,000 Melbournites squeezed and jostled outside, that Kingsford Smith began his rpatrimonial flight with pretty Mary Powell on Wednesday evening, December 10, states the Australasian. Four maids —'Misses Molly McBride' (of South Australia), Kathleen Gepp, Boris Kingsford Smith (San Francisco), and Margery Calthorp their brows banded with deep blue_forget<nenots, and frocked in softly falling lace of the same sweet tone, preceded the bride. Her billowy pink tulle veil was matched by her bouquet of water lilies, while her gown of ivory georgette meshed with silver thread was mounted over pink. Following her came two small nieces, quaint and demure in long tulle blue frocks and forget-me-not hair bands. Waiting at the altar was a uniformed, group of aviation, officers—the bridegroom, his breast starred with medals, . and his attendants— EhghtLieutenint Charles Ulm (beet man), Flying-Officer Max Allan, Flight-Lieu-tenant J. Waters, and Squadron-Leader Hepburn. It is a fierce and ever-present blaze of publicity that surrounds the doings of popular heroes. Press cameras clicked, in the vestry, police cordons ■gave way before the surging crowds as the party left the church, while guests arriving for the dinner given by the bride’s parents after the ceremony, in eonio cases had to be actually carried by police through the throng to the reception rooms.