THE LADIES’ WORLD

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 2400, 15 January 1909, Page 7

THE LADIES’ WORLD

“,IF I ONLY HAD TIME ”

A number of women are always deceiving themselves by saying that they would do great things if they had the time. In almost every case thev have the time but they do not use 'it. A v oman cannot get what she wants out of her garden because the soil is so poor ; but if rich soil is to be had for nothing on an adjoining plot, wiiose fault is it if the garden goes barren,? A iv oman wants physical vigor ail i active circulation, mental energy • there is a road in front of her house and she can walk miles in any direcWhose f ault is it if she remains a weakling? Certainly not Ahe fault of Jier circumstances. iProvideseo does not pauperise us bv puttingclothes on our backs, and roofs ever our herds, and food in our mouths; Providence gives us raw materials and bids us make ourselves comfortable by the sweat of our brow. Providence does not give us knowledge of science, art, music, books, •language, Nature; Providence gives us eyes, brains, will, and time, and bids us teach ourselves. Time is not mere duration; it is duration intelligently used. Hours of rc'il idleness are not wasted' time ; they are raw material that was never used. There are a few who work up all the raw material of duration; but most of us are surrounded by material which we never use; spare hours here and there, on trains or cars, between business and play, on holidays and Sundays. 'Many a one has learned a language going to- and coming from shop or office. If you have not time enough to know more and become more competent, make time for yo-ur-. .self. -Look about you, Lind you will find plenty of raw material. FASHION AND CUSTOM. People are inclined to be a little suspicious of any one who departs too much from the orthodox standard. If we see a man with long hair and sandals, we promptly put him down as a “simple life” enthusiast whose brain lias become unhinged by following Natnre too assiduously, since custom lias insisted on boots and shoes and the masculine close-cropped head. Fashion may be ia capricious mistress, and lead her votaries many a fantastic dance, but anyway she is" always in favor of change; one eon never brine; the charge of monotony against her. "With custom it is exactly the opposite. Behind her rigid rule lies the weight of centuries. >Slie is bounded by walls of precedent and prejudice ,and hard is she indeed on , tlioso who dare set her at defiance. There arc many men land .women in XewZcaland, kindly, well-meaning, honest folk, who have tan absolute horror of change. “"What was good enough for my father is good enough for me,” is their cry. “Old tilings are the best, old ways arc the safest,” and they do all they can to hinder the wheels of progress. They have grown so used to certuin conventions that they would hardily be happy without thorn.

We all know how “use doth breed a habit in a man.” "We can get accustomed to almost anything in course of time, even discomfort, bad climates, ill-health, and want of money. W'e do not like being uncomfortable, or ill, or poor, but we can suit ourselves to our circumstances in the most wonderful manner, because lmbit so soon becomes second nature, ■gb It is the same with' children and animals. “We always take this shot cut .from the beach,” says the small girl who lias arrived at the seaside throe days previously, and is more athome there than the oldest inhabitant. Our dogs, too. Give them a fresh sleeping-place, a different arm- • chair, or a pile of rugs in the ball, and ■if they spend a night or two in the new quarters and like them, they will go to them afterwards as a matter of course. Custom is largely 1a matter of latitude and longitude. What is right in is often wrong on the other side of the Channel, and the ways of one country may be -anathema to its next-door neighbor. Yd lien travelling abroad, it. is always a good pilau to adapt one’s self to one’s new environment, -and to do more or less in Rome 'as Rome does, for the unwritten laws of a land 1 .are generally founded on practicability and, common sense.

LADY, HENRY SOMERSET ON IDEALS OF FAMILY LIFE.

“The first thing that struck mo about American family life was the constant presence of children with their parents,” flays Lady 'Henry Somerset, in an .article on “The Child’s Development,” in the Wipdsor '.Magazine. “This .seemed an ideal state of things, and I contrasted it with the way in which many English children are kept in nursery and schoolroom, with a set hour for visiting the drawing-room, and a routine life which seldom varies. I congratulated inyseM that this American!, habit was gaining in our country, and that children were, on the whole, far more in the company of their elders than of old; but my theories have, on mature* observation, received some rude awakenings. The society of adults is good for children only in so far as they realise that they dare not disturb the child’s poiiit of view, that their focus of vision is. <x differ out- onc ; and. that to adjust life for child eyes as it suits their own is to distort it hopelessly. In later years the benefit derived by the prolonged period of home life cannot he exaggerated. “The evidence is seen in the way m which woman is regarded, due, I believe, almost entirely to the fact that American boys and girts (are not separated almost from ibabyhood, as is the case in England. The American boy is not taught from his earliest years to regard his sisters at; agreeable adjuncts to his holiday pleasures, and to accept their sacrifices with kind and indulgent complacency. Ihe certainty of his _ male superiority is not fostered as it is here. In later life he .attends lectures given by women and in his educational career ho owes some of his success in college to their wisdom and brains. All this bus h. very distinct influence in the formation of a character which from earliest childhood' is taught to regard woman with respect * and admiration. The differences - that the whom system of education engenders are too great to be dealt with m this short article, hut that they are of supreme importance, it would be idle to_ deny. From babyhood the English . bo £. believes himself superior to his little sisters, and this nob, diminish with the yeais. ;

FRENCH GIRLS MAKE GOOD WIVES. “The French bride,” says a writer in Cassell’s Saturday Journal, “is incomparably less extravagant than her British sister. Where the latter requires 15s a head for weekly housekeeping, the former will manage on 10 francs. The Frenchwoman does not regard hor husband as a mere mo-ney-making machine and her house as a place simply to sleep in. As soon as she is married she is her husband’s partner in business as well as in private life. She considers it her duty to make herself acquainted with every detail of her husband’s business. No French husband would dream of taking any important step without consulting bis wife, and her advice is often amazingly shrewd.” The Earl of Eanfurly has been appointed president of the Atlantic, Quebec, and Western Railway Company.