LADIES' COLUMN.

Timaru Herald, Volume XIC, Issue 13438, 9 November 1907, Page 3 (Supplement)

LADIES' COLUMN.

BUSINESS V. SENTIMENT

Miss M. Beet ham Edwards, an officer of public instruction in Fiance, comparing French with English nuiniag«- system, savs:—

"I think that to this subject th,> homely saw. the proof of the pudding is in the eating applies with unanswerable, force. Now, it is over a quarter of a century since mv vtrv close acquaintance with French family* life bsgan. an.l I can honestly pay tha't the unsentimental. i.e., the French "ma'rriage. scents to me eminently satisfactory. Indeed, no happier or more comfortable unions have I ever known in onr own beloved country, where love, admittedly, and almost universally, reigns lord of* all. In the first place, under the French system, human beings, imperfect at be"st. are saved the bitternc-is of disillusion. Whenever French marriagesare based upon romantic sentiment, witness poor Balzac's, disillusion follows. It mav be urged that the great novelist's case is hardly pertinent, long yearn of courtship ending in the wedlock of two elderly, much-tried valitudinarians. Balzac, at the time of his marriage with his once beautiful stranger was, in truth, an utterly broken down man, but life had still a* very strong hold upon him, and we gather that the goddess of his dreams, his adored countess., his star of the north, once become Madame Honore de Balzac proved a terrible disenchantment. Be this as it may. there is no doubt that in the logical matter of fact, unsentimental French character lies the bastguarantee of fireside stability and comfort. As Mr Gerard Mansell points out, a certain school of effeminate fiction misleads the average English girl, giving a totally false i :and unreaiisable view of wedded fife. And, as in all ranks and conditions with us. young people of both sexes are allowed a freedom of intercourse quite foreign to French customs. such ideals are fostered from early years, boys and girls exchanging rings ere fairly out of the schoolroom. As I have observed, elsewhere among French workpeople, a reserve "exists which we should rather expect to find in a nation of Puritan antecedents. Thus no respectable girl in France, however humble her walk in life, would dream of doing what is daily done by fiancees of the better classes here, who go on cycling, boat-ing.*-and "other expeditions, and even, to theatres, unchaperoned. If no other harm generally comes of such unrestrained intimacy, * there is little doubt that foolish engagements and consequqent disillusion often follows wedlock.

But a point equally vital to the question at issue remains to be set forth. I allude to the strict confidence necessitated and cemented by the French system. Alike among the rich, the well-to-do, and the working classes, marriage is a mop.tserious affair, regarded from the material, rather than the financial, point of view. The marriage contract of a shop assistant and a girl of equally modest position is as important an arrangement,, as that of wealthy contracting parties. The pecuniary circumstances of both bride and bridegroom being minutely gone into ,and in this, sense, wedlock being apartnership, there, is no misconception. and no after misconception on either side. The wife, to borrow a business term, having put her capital into the concern, and being shrewd and practical, as are all Frenchwomen, is naturally consulted on every monetary transaction. Thus, wives are never left utterly in the dark as will happen here, with regard to money matters. French widows, middle-class and others, do not wake up to find themselves suddenly reduced from easy cirenmetances to penury. How often is the reverse witnessed in. England! I have known ladies accustomed to every comfort, even luxury, and moving in good society, whose whole married life ha 6 been passed in a fool's paradise, widowhood reducing them to almost absolute, want. This will occur not from want of hohourableness or affection, but from tradition- and habit. The wife, having come- to her husband penniless, every stick and stone of property being his own.. he has not thought it incumbent- upon him to take her into his confidence. Or he may have mismanaged his affairs and wanted heart to distress her by gloomy prospects. Such cases have come under my notice, some being of peculiar hardness". And illustrative is this fact: The only example of the kind coming under my notice in France, was that of an Englishman married to a French wife. A devoted husband, a man of strictest honour, he had ever been vague as to his circumstances, final enlightenment coming as a great blow to his widow. . The subject is so interesting and important that a volume might well be devoted to it- Here I have only been able to touch upon two points that occur to me as the most- important in comparing English wedlock and the carefullv arranged marriages which are alike the basis and the force of French domestic life"—M. Betham-Edwards. (f----ficer de l'lnstruction Publipue de France.

MUSCULAR FEMININITY.. It may be. as is said, a sign of a na- | tibn's decay when its women grow taller and stronger than its men. If this is the case, then indeed must England be on the downward grade, for surely this physical superiority of women will soon have to b? f acknowledged. In fiction the heroines are no longer represented by sickly Evelinas and fainting but by wholly human women, strong in mind .ini body, ; courageous in the presence of , danger, capable of noble endurance to the bitter end. On the stage the Gibson Girl represents the modern ideal of healthy womanhood, while in art we see the same craving to combine the; perfection of physical strength with the highest type of feminal beauty. The whole trend of a girl's education to-day is to make her strong. She can do everything a man can do, and, do it on less food, and with less sleep. No man could live the life the ordinary society woman leads and not be a wreck at the end of his first season. Has anybody, I . wonder, ever yefc met a man who would not get rheumatic fever if he were to sit in a transparent- shirt in a howling draught? Does the man br«af.he who -would not have an attack of pneumonia if he walked through a soaking field in house shoes and open-work stockings? Yefc women do these things day without being one bit the worse, (m the coldest winter night they will remov? nil the woollen garments and the fnr* whuii have been protecting their chests ar,d their lungs by day, while after conpng ouiof a stifling theatre they will stand in tie open air waiting for their carriages to come up without even taking the trouble to fasten tlie thinnest of cloaks over their bare chests. As for a woman's digestion, it is no exaggeration to say that she can eat and drink things which would kill men off like flies. The way in which women disregard Nature would be appalling if it for the fact that it suits them so well. Every doctor and dentist will tell vou which is the stronger sex where the "capacity for endurance is concerned. Indeed, if you can keep p. woman sufficiently excited there are no limits to the sufferings she will cheerfully undergo, as has often been proved since the days when women made as brave masters as the strongest men. In physical as in mental crises"a woman will keep up long after a man has gone under, while, as far asmere energy is concerned, a woman is never tired unless she is bored, and then nobody knows how she can ache. So long, however, as there h anything to keep her going she will go. She was never meant to work, but when she has to. 6he can combine haf-a-dozen professions

in a way that would be the complete undoing of a man. Before, however, congratulating our-sc-lvtti on the improved physique of the feminine part- of the population, we should ask ourselves whether there is not a corresponding weakuti-s in that of man. which will, I am afraid, soon had us into sight of the beginning of the end.— L'lnconnue. in the Ladus' Field. TO ECONOMISE SPACE AND ' TROUBLE. SUPPLEMENTARY WARDROBE ACCOMMODATION. Such knowledge as is gained by bitter experience where the "average small house is concerned usually reveals the fact that wardrobe accommodation is not a strong point of the ordinary establishment. To lav in a sufficient stock of chests of drawers at once is something out of the question when furnishing lias to bs accomplished little by little from purely economical reasons, and it- becomes, nevertheless, an important matter to improvise supplementary cupboard room by every possible means if the supplies of dresses and wraps for day and evening wear as well as other possessions are to be at all presentable when in use. Few articles are more useful than are the ordinary cupboard dress boxes in which wearing apparel is returned from the modiste or draper's shop, and which may be converted into most presentable "furniture" depended upon to do yeoman service until more permanent receptacles can be obtained. To render them kss unsightly than they are in their original condition, each box may—at the cost of a few pence—be made to look perfectly decorative when covered with wall-paper, or, if a more lasting article is wished, with chintz. ' If wall paper is-used, it is a good plan first to paste narrow strips of book muslin over the edges and joins, so as to prevent the box from breaking where there is most strain, many people also taking the precaution to slit" down the front of each box on one of the longer sides and bend it so that the cardboard will fall down luce a flap. If two broad tapes are pinned on to the bottom of the box across the flap, so as to form a hings, and the sides ot the lid treated in the same manner, a succession of boxes can be packed one on the other, and the contents removed from the lower one without, disturbing those above. Both dress and hat boxes can be treated in this manner and stored in the corner of a dressing-room or even on the top of ■a wardrobe or cupborad, the boxes, if covered with the identical paper which has been used in papering the room, being almost undistinguishable at a distance from the walls themseslves. In cases where thev are destined to hold white toilettes or milinerv, it is a good plan to line the boxes with pale blue art- muslin, so as to preserve the freshness of the contents. " The wicker lining of a children s travelling bath mav with little trouble be 11111186°! as a receptacle for blouses or lightdresses, the .precaution having first been taken to cover the wickerwork with a remnant of cretonne or chintz, while a flat coyer of the same will be found to protect the contents from dust. A capital provision for evening dresses which will do much to preserve them unsoiled when not in wear is that of an old sheet or two, which can l>e sewn together to form a large bag. Each bag, if slung on hooks across an alcove, will act as an excellent supplementary wardrobe, dresses being hung between the folds of the sheet and protected thereby from crushing or dust. A better substitute for old sheets, although these may be excellent from' uneconomical point of view,, may be found' in glazed calico, dust being more effectively kept from spoiling the contents than if the worn threadbare cotton oilmen were all the protection provided. - An excellent shield for dresses which will protect- a fair number at a time may be made of from eight to nine yards of calico, which should be cut into three lengths, and the selvedges joine*d together' so as to make one large sheet, these being finally sewn up in bag form. The top should then be turned in, hemmed down, and furnished with a double row of rings. which may be slipped over the cupboard pegs and hooks. When completed, first set of rings should be fitted on to the; row of hooks, the dresses suspended from the Fame hooks and • slipped into their respective places will close the aperture and keep the contents dust-proof. When a skirt is required, all that is necessary is to unhook a.couple of rings and slip itout.