MEN AND WOMEN.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XX, Issue V, 29 January 1898, Page 125

MEN AND WOMEN.

When Queen Amelie of Portugal was out walking the other day she came across a woodcutter who had been injured by the branch of a falling tree. The Queen, who has studied medicine, attended to the man's injury, and then with her companion assisted him to reach his cabin. Later on the Queen called to see how her patient was. 'Then you are a doctor, madam, since you know how to take care of me'?’ asked the woodcutter, who did not know his benefactress. 'Yes, my good man,' was the reply. 'I am sorry for that," continued the woodcutter, 'because I shall never be able to pay all I owe you. But you must give me your address, and as soon as I can go out I will bring you a basket of fresh eggs and butter by way of thanks.' The Queen replied evasively, and the surprise of the woodcutter may be imagined when he subsequently learned the rank of his physician. Mrs Emily Crawford, the wellknown Paris correspondent of the •London Daily News', tells 'Lorna' of the 'British Weekly' that there is no opening at all for women journalists in Paris. 'The manners of the country." she says, 'are entirely against it. The French press is at present in the hands of a rough, pushing, serambing set of men. who guard their own rights most jealously against any intrusion of women, if a girl tried to force her way into a Paris newspaper office, she would meet with scant courtesy, and would be looked upon as an interloper who deserved no mercy. If this is the way Frenchmen treat women who interfere with their earnings, it is not difficult to believe that they would show even less merev to women who stood in the way of their lives. 'Worse stories are believed in Paris about the conduct of the men at the Charity Bazaar fire." says Mrs Crawford, 'than any which have appeared in print. The men at the bazaar were not of a good type—they were the idle loafers and hangers-on of society."

The new mayor of West Ham. England. Mr Ivey, has managed to squeeze into his thirty-six years many out-of-the-ordinary experiences. He began early. At the age of nine he 'played the hop" from school, and took an appointment in a boot factory, afterwards trying his hand at newsagency. ironmongery, and the telegraph service. At the age of thirteen he started to learn the trade of a sheet-metal worker, and made progress. At the age of nineteen he went

to Australia as engineer in charge of a condensing apparatus on an emigrant sailing ship, and on reaching North Queensland he struck inland to sample life in the bush and on the goldfields. With an ancient pistol that wouldn't shoot he made the knees of a lot of unfriendly aborigines to smite together, and preserved a future mayor from untimely death.

A young English lady who has recently arrived in Bengal, has decided to become a Yogi, or Hindu nun. She has already donned the ochre robes, and has chalked out a programme of work to lie carried on in India, the main object of which is the spiritual regeneration of Hinduism, whieh is much below par at present. She will establish a 'convent' at Calcutta. It is likely that she will be joined by another English young lady at present in Lindon. ami who will come out early in December. The lady who has already Iteen converted to Yedantism is a graduate of Cambridge. and. while in London, was one of the leaders of the Woman's Suffrage movement. —Bombay 'Advocate of India."

Lady Jeune speaks out in a contemporary on behalf of the much-abused custom of giving wedding presents. She says: —'It is the fashion in these days to decry every innovation or find fault with its intention or results, ami every one will persist in saying that people only give wedding presents for two reasons: first, that they may be asked to the wedding ceremony; and secondly because they hope to receive presents themselves in return. or in some way to benefit by their generosity. If it were a social law that every one was to give and receive presents, there might be good cause in complaining of such a tax: but as the gift is voluntary, no one should complain, as it is their own fault if they do not evade it- We fail to see why wedding presents should be considered such a grievance, and have no sympathy with those who cry out against the custom."

We do not wish to be flippant on a serious subject, says the 'Academy." but we must confess to having found a little book, entitled ‘When Thou Prayest." rather amusing. This is a manual of suggestions for daily prayer, compiled for the use of young communicants by the Rev. W. llewetson. and prefaced by the Bishop of Coventry. The body of the work is not matter for comment: but a little list of subjects for intercession, arranged alphalietically. invites it. Herein we find: —

Reviewers are omitted. No set. form of prayer is given. Girls may always rest assured that if a shy man shows indication of affection for them, these indications are but slight- evidences of a really great affection. A shy man is never insincere. anti he simply cannot flirt. Girls sometimes despise the shy man, because it occurs to them that, he is a physical coward. And women, no matter what their station in life, their education or their depth of feeling, unanimously, and as a sex. abhor the man who is a coward. The shy man. though he is thus so retiring in manner. is always, without exception, braver than the blustering man. who in the trivialities of life has things so much his own way. When a shv girl wins a man’s affections he really thinks he is the luckiest man on earth. Of course, he ought to think this, but some men only say they think it.

A young woman has been elected county registrar in Kansas. She rode on horseback to every ranch in the county, and fiersonally appealed to all the cattlemen for their votes, backing up her persuasive accents with a liberal supply of free cigars. The other candidate was 'snowed under." Many old houses in Holland have a special door whieh is never open save on two occasions—when there is a marriage or a death in the family. The bride and groom enter by this door. It is then nailed or barred up until a death occurs, when it is opened and the body is removed by this exit.

There is a certain minister in Kansas who has an eye to the physical us well as the spiritual welfare of his congregation. He brought one of his recent Sunday sertnona to a sudden close with the following

words: ‘Brethren. 1 will now close, for I see that we are going to have a thunderstorm. The congregation will please follow me to Brother So-and-So’s field and help him stack his wheat.’ And they went. The peasant on the shores of the Solway Firth that Fronde tells about in his ‘Life of Carlyle' held, it may be remembered, an altogether different opinion of what was necessary under similar circumstances.

Miss Taylor, a young English woman who recently returned from Thibet ami is now gathering missionary recruits for that mysterious country, says that men and women who understand medicine will l>e most successful in that field. The knowledge of drugs, she adds, among the natives is almost equal to that of the English themselves. The position of women, according to Miss ’laylor. is higher in Thibet than in any other country in the Orient save. |»erhaps. in Mongolia. In place of polygamy, so common among the Mohamedans. polyandry rules in Thibet, a woman being married, as a rule, to all the brothers of a family. In consequence of the nomadic character of the people, usually one of the husbands is at home at a time, the others being absent in more or less distant parts, selling the products of their lands. Women in Thibet. Miss Taylor asserts, are never punished —a fact to which she attributes the saving of her life on several occasions.

A scientific gentleman has been making forecasts as to the future of the human race when it has outgrown the world it lives in. This time it is the Marquis de Nadaillac. who calculates that a few centuries will suffice for the number of mouths to exceed the food supply. Russia, for instance, at her present rate of increase, will in 100 years have a population of 800.000.000 to feed, ami there are no data as to how she will manage it. Universal peace. science, ami improved sanitation make it rash to exj>ect overwhelming catastrophes such as occur periodically to thin out the lower creations. The only thing will be to regulate the number of offspring. and that, owing to modern prejudices, is at present beyond the boundaries of discussion. Tn the light of the above statements, and the threats of imminent overcrowding, it is curious to come on a re)>ort of a scientific expedition which travelled for five months without meeting with a single human being. This was not in the Arctic regions, as might have been supposed, but in Patagonia. The expedition was that sent out by Princeton University under Professor W. B. Scott, of the United States Geological Survey, which, after considerable hardships, has returned with a fine collection of geological, botanical and palaeontological information.

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