NOTES FOR WOMEN.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XLV, Issue 23, 7 December 1910, Page 61

NOTES FOR WOMEN.

LONDON, October SI. Ta*oul American Women. Following shortly upon the lamented death of Miss Florence Nightingale cornea news of the death, last Monday, of a famous friend of “the angel of the lamp,” Mrs. Julia Ward Howe, widow ©f the brilliant philanthropist, Dr. Samuel Brindley Howe. Mrs. Ward, whose name has been joined with Harriet Beecher Stowe’s as “an oracle of humanitarian America,” was not only a Unitarian preacher, lecturer, writer,a prominent leader in the women’s suffrage, prison reform, and peace movements, but the composer also of the 'battle hymn of the Republic, Written early in the Civil War, while she was visiting the camps around Washington. It was set to the music of “John Brown’s Body,’’ and immediately (became popular with the soldiers. The first verse runs: — “Mine eyee have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord: He is tramping out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored: He hath loosed the fateful lightning of His terrible swift sword; His truth is marching on. Other of her works are “Passion Flowers,” “A Trip to Cuba,” “Sex and Education,” “Is Society Polite?” and “Sketches of Representative Women of New England, 1905.” Before the Civil War Mrs. Howe and her husband conducted the anti-slavery organ, the “Boston Commonwealth,” and after that question was settled she became active in the causes of female suffrage, prison reform, etc. Despite her advanced years (she was ninety recently) the famous writer was in full possession of her faculties and mental keenness, and still showed great interest in all the great public questions of the day. Among her very large circle of friends Mrs. Howe has numbered such famous people as Sydney Smith, Florence Nightingale, Longfellow, Thomas Carlyle, Samuel Rogers, Dickens, Lord Houghton, Landseer, Wordsworth, the Hon. Mrs. Norton, Gregory XVI., and Miss EdgeWorth. It was in the early ’so’s that Mrs. Howe’s first volume of poems, “Passion Flowers,” treating of the struggle of the Hungarian and Italian patriots, appeared. This was followed bv another, “Words for the Hour.” A play. “The World’s Own,” described as “full of literary merits and of dramatic defects.” was produced at Wallack’s Theatre bv the elder Sothern and Mathilda Heron. Another was written for Edwin Booth, B>ue never produced. Women's Hostels. The Duchess of Marlborough presided at a conference held on Mondav at the British Institute, at which the subject—undoubtedly an urgent tn’e in this great city where it should long ago have been attended to —of hostels for women was discussed. There is already established in Manchester a municipal home for women, which is very successful. The Duchess has urged that hostels be run on similar lines in London. A speaker in proposing a motion in flavour of approaching the L.C.C. in order to get them to move in the matter, spoke ■of the dangers which a young girl encountered when looking for a night’s lodging in London, and said it was a disgrace to society that such things should be possible. Now that public attention had been focussed upon the evil, a definite effort should be made to cope with it immediately. This lady also quoted a number of reasons for showing how necessary it was that mtiniCipal rather than private enterprise should undertake the establishment and (Control of lodging-houses for women. Tn order to call attention to the Urgency of this question a National Conference is to be called in the spring,

under the auspices of the National Association for women's lodging homes. Women Juan. A somewhat unusual incident took place at a county court in Northamptonshire this week. A woman who waa defending an action against a dressmaker wanted to have the dress tried on in court to show that it was a misfit. The judge thereupon asked all the women in court to decide the point, and they retired with the defendant to another room. There they saw the garment tried on, and by a majority reported that the dress was too long, but that it could be remedied. His Honor said the plaintiff must put matters right before she got a verdict. New Zealand Anti-Suffragists. A large number of New Zealand ladies, resident more or less permanently in this country, who have practical experience of the working of the female franchise in their own Dominion, are being circularised by the Women’s National Anti-Suffrage League. Representations have been made to the league that many of these ladies desire, without undue publicity, to dissociate themselves from those of their fellow-countrywomen who advocate the passing of similar legislation in England, on the ground of the benefits that it has conferred on women (in New Zealand. Alfter consultation with several ladies in London the league has issued a form of letter for signature, denying that female franchise in New Zealand has been for the benefit of women. A Wonderful Lily. The A ietoria Regia, the great Amazon lily that has been for many years the pride of the Botanic Gardens, uiiat lives in a glass palace in a perpetual tepid (bath, has a bloom that is a foot across. The great spiked leaves are in some cases, even in London, eight feet wide. Tire A ietoria Regia has only once been known to disclose more than one bloom at a time, and when the remarkable flower opens it generally only lasts for a couple of days. Woman Manager’s Enterprise. A correspondent in this week’s number of the “Era.” in replying to Mr. Redford’s contention that no theatre in England booked all its seats, points out that Miss Horniman—on whom, it may be remembered, the degree of M.A. was recently conferred by the Manchester University—has, since the reconstruction of the Gaiety Theatre in Manchester, allowed all the seats in the place to be numbered and reserved.