THE LADIES’ WORLD

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 2428, 17 February 1909, Page 7

THE LADIES’ WORLD

ARE MARRIED PEOPLE HAPPIER THAN SINGLE. With few exceptions modern movels end just 1 where they should begin. Between cover and cover the comprise two or three years of amorous vicis-' situde. Then the longed-for opportunity arrives at last, the fateful, word is spoken, hero and heroine fall upon each other’s necks, and the reader is left to surmise that they live happily ever after. Whether the novel type of hero and heroine do or •> could live happily after is perhaps a rwpiestion. They conduct themselves so amazingly differently from the normal type ol : man and maid that people who have gained their knowledge in the school of experience may be pardoned a doubt. WHERE NOVELS ARE ALL WRONG. The love affairs of life are by no means ordered as in novels. How many men and women now married can say that they made or received •the sort of formal proposal which forms the grand passion scene of. the novelist? Very few, probably. In general, what happens is this. Two young people are introduced, or “get to know each other.’’ Finding special and peculiar pleasure in each other’s company, they seek opportunities for meeting more often. The pleasurable acquaintance ripens into love. Each idealises the other in some way; each finds the other an affinity. They have many happy walks., by sunlight and moonlight. They lcfiss when they meet and they kiss when they part, often risking a cold by lingering over-long at the front door or tiic garden gate, for, as Juliet says, “parting is such sweet sorrow.” They promise lip to lip and eyes to eyes a thousand contradictory things, and believe them all. THE LOVER’S PARADISE. Not a doubt ever comes into their minds that when they marry they will sit and hold hands, and bill and coo, and gaze longingly and lovingly into ■ each other’s eyes for long hours as tirelessly as they do now in the dear sweet present. Truth to tell, the modern novelists are right. They will never be quite as happy as they are now. There are few married people who would not give much for the power to recall the days of their courtship, with their blissful tenderness and “linked sweetness long drawn out.” Those days linger in their hearts and minds as a fragrant memory. They may still be happy—and despite those who sneer at marriage there are many, many thousands of married men and women who are—they are happy in a different way. For when people marry they change subtly, gradually towards each other. Or perhaps it is that they do not change at all. Perhaps they merely get found out. The ideal of courtship gradually fades away in the hard test of the real. Marriage discovers us for what we are. Courtship discovers in us only what we think we are. LESS HAPPINESS AFTER MARRIAGE. This is the reason novelists close the chapters of their romance with the last passionate scene in which the hero folds the maid of his choice and yearning to his wildly beating heart. When and if it occurs as they depict,

there is only one moment in a lifetime V when it is possible, and for a lifetime it must- last. Taking the average, people are- less happy, or at least differently happy, married than single. If the ecstasy of courtship were to last all through the years, how happy married people would be. One wonders sometimes whether in the greater number if cases those who arc the happiest in courtship make the best and the most of married life. "Wretched marriages frequently follow romantic courtships; tne happiest often follow matter-of-fact courtships. Romantic people are usually the first to show their disappointment with realities; matter-of-fact ones often make the best husbands and wives. They expect Jess of happiness in marriage than others do, and for this reason, perhaps, they get- more out of it by making allowances. And, when all is said, it is only by “making allowances” for each other that mairied folk can expect to be reasonably happy at all. HOUSEHOLD HINTS. To Keep Cheese Fresh.—lf a cloth is wetted in vinegar and wrung out as dry as possible with the hands and wrapped round the cheese, and then the whole put into a large paper bag and kept in a cool place ,tko cheese will retain the moisture and freshness of one freshly cut and will not mould. Hair-wash. —Rut into a saucepan one pint of water, a quarter of a pound of soap cut into thin shavings, half a packet of washing-powder, and one spoonful of borax. Rut on the hie and let it simmer until it becomes a icily. Roar into a jar. When cool add the yoke of an egg. This makes an excellent hair-wash. To Clean Glazed Tiles. —It- glazed tiles arc spotted, wash them with lera-on-juce, leave them for a quarter of an hour, and finally rub them with a soft cloth. Tiles should not he washed but only rubbed with a damp clotn, ■and then polished with skim-milk and water. Perhaps a rag on which a little parafin has been sprinkled is the best of all polishers; but it should lie used before a fire is lit m the grate. Children and' Toothbrushes.—lt is always difficult to train growing children to keep their tooth-brushes m separate places. They will not realise how important this is. They early learn not to use "’anyone else s brusn, but they have such >a hard time finding their own. To avoid all this a mother should get a toothbrush holder- that has grooves. Each child can choose his or her own groove, and will take a good deal of pains to 'keep the others out of it. In this way order and cleanliness will be taught. Gems in Rings,—Rings set with precious stones should always bp inspected from time to time to ascertain if the gems are at all loose, especially in the case of claw settings. It is also a good plan to wash them periodically in warm soapsuds to which a few drops of sal volatile have been added, an exception being made, however, in the case of turquoises, which should not be damped. In every case the claw sotting should be cleaned by means of a wisp of blotting paper rolled into the form of a shading “stump” and worked into the mtei stices so as to clear them of any accumulation of dirt.