THE LADIES’ WORLD

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 2432, 22 February 1909, Page 7

THE LADIES’ WORLD

■ THE CAPABLE WOMAN. The capable woman is as distinct from the managing woman as is the purely tactful woman from the truth-at-any-price-and-at-all-times one. Yet there is a blending of -all three in her composition. The capable woman sees life from a common-sense, practical point of view. Sentiment or emotion rarely warps her better judgment, for- she is by temperament rather phlegmatic than passionate. Still beneath a surface of ♦Apparent indifference to her fellows’ affairs there is ever a ready hand to aid the distressed, and an unselfish activity to set right the wrong and straighten the crooked growth. Her strength lies in her power to detach herself from all distractions, and centre her mind solely on the matter in hand. Her mind is evenly balanced, and while conscientious concerning her own conduct, she is not unduly critical regarding that of others. At heart slio is a true economist, and inclined rather to store than to be prodigal of her physical strngtli. Cheerfully energetic, she neither meddles in concerns foreign to her own department, nor fussily wastes her time in overdoing to the detriment of welldoing. In a word, she is thorough in all she attempts. Incompetence, /to her, is responsible for failure, and failure in her idea is abhorrent, even while she sympathetically discerns the circumstances, stronger than human power, that lead to it. She is clearsighted, not only through inheritance, but a cultivated habit of carefully adjusting her mental vision, that never permits her to repeat an error. Intensity of purpose, at times gives to her an apparent harshness that hides a good heart —the goodheartedncss of a woman keen enough to discriminate between a sentimental sympathy that gives no more than mere lip service*, and the practical helpfulness that refuses to lighten tho grip on weakening fingers until strength is magnetically given through the stronger handclasp. Her place in the ordinary workaday world may, in homely metaphor, be likened to the post in a bush fence, in the support she unobtrusively gives to these about lier. He move the post, and the wire lies useless, and a danger to unwary feet; take away the capable woman, and the result is miserable chaos, in place of the comfortable order that formerly reigned. And it not infrequently happens that until this state of confusion occurs no attention is paid to her capability, and the part she took in the scheme of life’s comfort- is not really widerstood. For her light, though not exactly hidden under the bushel of utter self-effacement, is as certainly not set on a pinnacle of self-aggrandisement of her own making. It would be a sorry and disorganised world without the capable woman at hand to- gather up the ragged fragments of good, and shape -and.invisibly patch them together by her industry and well-directed energy.

FOR BETTER FOR WORSE. “Hid you enjoy it?” asked the young wife. •‘No, I didn’t. I was utterly wretched.” answered her husband. They had been spending a holiday with ills brother in the country. “But whv, dear?” “Because I can’t give you what Alice has. She has a fine motor car, you ride in a ’bus; a couple of nurses look after her baby, while you have no nurse at all; Alice has silx iroc.vs and von have cotton ones ; she has no housekeeping worries—no trouble about making both ends meet — “i\lv dear boy, I wouldn't change places with Alice for worlds. I love looking after my own babies, and you don’t know what pride I take m the frocks I make myself. I love P-an-nino- and contriving, -\iicc s tile would ho deadly uninteresting to me. She never has to make any sacrifices, never has the fun of saving up ior little treats. She knows nothing o tho joy of making puudings and bargains. Because she has no unties, sheis bored She was discontented when she was poor, she is bored now she is rich. We won’t be either. Lets do as we agreed to—take everything just as it- comes and make tho best ol it.” “For richer, for poorer, di? Oil. all right, little woman—if you don t mind!” x

TOILET NOTES. Scouting the hair—which so many people affect nowadays—must be looked -upon as a delicate art m mself, and only with experience can the juste milieu be defined, most amateurs committing the fatal error of overdoing it. Only a fciv drops of scented oil at a time should be sprinkled on a fine tooth comb, and this, if passed once or twice through tlie tresses, will impart a delicate aroma, which should not be prominent enough to be distinctive * Our grandmothers Avere adepts in this matter, and among the many specifics they employed, oil ot jasmine and A'iclcts took a prominen placer To prepare this they blanched and crushed SA\ r eet almonds, beating them in a bowl in a handful of jas-, mine floAvers by means of a wooden spoon, and then putting them on one side for ten days in a damp place, or covering the boAvl Avitli a clotli av rung out in Avater. At the end of that time the almonds and floAvcr-heads were squeezed in a cloth, and the extracted oil bottled for use. . Other oils Avere made m like manner, another favorite being that of SAveet violet, while lavender and orange bloosom oil Avere made m similar fashion from the freshly-pluck-ed flowers.