AS SEEN THROUGH Woman's Eyes

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XXI, Issue XVI, 15 October 1898, Page 514

AS SEEN THROUGH Woman' s Eyes

The woman who is not athletic now finds herself absolutely old-fashioned, behind the times, and quite off from many enjoyments in which others are indulging. There are some timid ones who from fear of bodily harm or from lack of moral courage never make an attempt at athletics. These should be tactfully urged by those who are interested in them to at least take up bicycle riding. The balance once acquired, the path to proficiency is half travelled and as strength grows unconsciously, the rider is soon able to compete with younger women in the matter of endurance.

It is the first step that counts, and all the middle-aged women should be urged to take this step. Those who do. feel that a new zest has been added to life. Women are made of the same physical material as men, and therefore require the same, although a more delicate, physical training. Abnormal development from athletics is undesirable in either sex, but moderate physical training tends to produce the ideal figure, and gives grace, endurance, ease of action, and perfect health. Perfect bodily health conduces to an elevation of tone both moral and mental. Gymnastics and athletics clear the brain and make of mental work a keen pleasure, whether the owner of the brain be a college girl with lessons to con or a woman of older years with life’s problems to study. Women, therefore, need athletic training as much as men but it should be so suited to the sex and the individual that it may not defeat its own ends.

What attracts a man is one thing; what will hold and command his respect is quite another. A woman’s smile, for example, attracts a man. but an even temper retains him. A pretty gown attracts a man; the knowledge that it was inexpensive delights him. A pleasant manner attracts a man; brightness of brain holds him. A knowledge of how-, when, and where to be a little stately attracts a man; an appreciation of the folly of frivolity wins his respect. A respect for the religious belief of every human being attracts a man; irreverence in a woman is to him abominable. A chat in which there is no malice attracts a man; neither scandel nor evil speaking makes a woman seem sweet or lovely to him.

Miss Adele Fielde, one of the progressive club women of New York, aroused considerable interest lately by declaring she had discovered a worthy successor to the new woman. She calls her the ‘newest woman,’ and says she possesses the traits that made her mother and her grandmother w’insome, besides knowing all about hygiene and the proper functions of the heart, liver, and lungs. She asserts she will be distinguished for her domesticity, because she knows that the well-being of the nation depends upon the perfection of its homes; and. finally, she believes the ‘newest woman’ will remain the finest type of our civilisation until the new man, whose mother the newest woman is to be, is evolved. Very sensible arguments! Miss Fielde has very aptly expressed the sentiments of every true woman, whether she be of yesterday, to-day, or to-morrow. EYES AND EYELASHES. The practice of cutting the extreme ends of the eyelashes occasionally increases their growth, but this practice must not be continued beyond childhood, or the result will be to make them stubby at the ends, and not to increase in length. IXO one, says the ‘Household.’ can have good eyelashes who has anything the matter with his eyes, so that you must at once cure anything of the kind if you wish your lashes to be in good condition.

The habit of some misguided people, grown-up ones as well as children, to rub the eyes with the fingers, is the worst possible thing they could do. It not only is apt to cause inflammation but as eyelashes have no very great length of root, they are easily rubbed out, anil the lashes become very thin looking in consequence, and very scrubby.

The eyes should be opened each morning in tepid water as soon as you get up, and if the lids have any inclination to stick together, you should only open them after placing a sponge of warm water over them. Otherwise the lashes will stick together and be dragged out.

A lady strongly condemns the practice that many wives—and especially young wives—have of shutting up their house and going for a long summer holiday, leaving their husband in town. There are wives, she says, who revel in the easy part of grass widows while their money-makers toil uncomplainingly in the heat and dust of the town. These are not necessary selfish or evil-minded women; they- are simply in most cases, gay hearted, ‘semidetached’ women, who are bored by leisure and heat and want some change, or who, in the stupid and pitiable phrase in use by some young wives in this day, ‘must be amused.’ They insist that no change has come over them, that their husbands are as dear to them as they- were on their bridal day, ‘but, don’t you know, one must have a change, and he cannot go.’ The best test of the barometer of their love is, how would they have received a decree of banishment from a husband a week after the wedding? Would not any climate, any quarters, have been welcome by his side? She would be much better at home, waiting her husband’s leisure to accompany- her for a short visit to some nealthful place. Nothing is more to be deprecated than separation for a season between man and wife. Absentee husbands and wives are the growing social evil of our day-, and the woeful consequences every-one sees. The happiest married people, so far as I have observed them in my long and varied life, are those who are as little absent from each other as possible. If marriage is found to be a heavy and grievous yoke, the couple will cease to shrink from the weight when it is never taken off them—custom reconciles us to any condition. If, on the contrary, it has been a happy union, the needless separation of the pair is an entering wedge in their love, for in long absences begin the mental reservations from each other which are the death of a perfect union. THE MORNING MEAL. An Old writer—l think it is Chaucer —tells us that ‘Breakfaste shoulde blesse ye daye;’ and when we consider what an influence the first meal of the day exercises over the whole of the family, from Paterfamilias himself, down to Master Baby, fresh and rosy from his bath, we really ought to do all we ean to make that meal a cheerful, enlivening, and—to use a slang but expressive word—a ‘jolly’ time. Let it be placed on the table punctually, and insist on punctual attendance thereat; but don’t let it be a. scrambling, hasty meal. Fix an hour that will allow it to be partaken of leisurely; let confidences be exchanged, plans for the future discussed, or past pleasures ‘talked over.’ Too often, I am sorry to say, breakfast is anything but a pleasant episode in the household, and there is a general sigh of relief when it is over. Father is annoy-ed because his bacon is badly cooked, or his egg hard boiled; he scolds those members of his family who put in a late appearance at the table, and they are either sulkily silent, or wrangle among themselves. While mother, in trying to make peace, only draws the storm down on her own devoted head. Breakfast should be a sort of happy ‘send off” for the rest of the day, and it can easily be made so if all unite in the effort. As I have said above, punctuality is the chief thing to aim at. Add to this an attractively spread table; careful cookery, even though the viands be plain; and a determination on the part of everyone present to sink all unpleasant topics, and breakfast will, indeed, ‘blesse ye daye.’

At this chilly season of the year women are compelled to think about their complexions. Mere applications are not of a great deal of use. though

something of the kind is required by most people who lives in cities, certainly- by those who spend any length of time in rooms heated by fires, or lighted by gas; for the drying process that goes on requires, to speak plainly, a certain amount of grease to counteract its effects. The difficulty that ruddy complexioned girls have toencounter is the liability of their colour to get patchy or veiny. They must be careful, in the first place, with regard to their diet and not eat very- much meat, substituting eggs, fish, fowls and vegetables. Very active exercise during a hot part of the day or in hot rooms must be avoided, but should be taken in the cool of the evening and morning. Half a pint of milk, to which half a teaspoonful of finelypowdered alum has been added, has a very cooling effect upon the skin. It the face is too red and given to flushing, a lotion may be prepared of one part each of carbonate of soda, prepared chalk, borax anil glycerine, mixed with eight parts of oatmeal water. Then, of course, salted meats and highly spiced food of any kind are not good for the skin—in fact, they are exceedingly dangerous for those who are predisposed to eczema. And I wonder how many- people know the value of onions? They are extraordinary beautifiers of the skin and maybe made into soup or taken simplyboiled in milk. Shell fish upsets the skin of some people, and many are not strong enough to digest much cold meat, in which cases, of course, it has a disastrous effect on the complexion. Before bicycling or facing the wind in any- way the application of a little fresh cream, or if the skin be of too greasy a nature, fresh cream mixed with the juice of a cucumber, will preserve it from any hardening or roughening effects.