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6
Worth Womans While
A Domestic Problem Solved.
The servant question which is engaging the at
tention of the entire country, and which has at
last penetrated and permeated the South, is one
of deeper significance than appears on the surface.
If the good domestic servant is to become as rare
an acquisition as present indications would seem
to justify, the home life of America is threatened.
An example of this was clearly shown in San Fran
cisco before the earthquake. There, it was al
most impossible to engage a seiwant other than a
Celestial, all of whom were exceedingly expensive.
The result was that San Francisco was a city al
most without homes, as the small “family” hotel
had superseded the household arrangement. New
York is fast tending in the same direction, and
the South must, preforce, follow suit unless condi
tions are changed. It has been said that this lack
of homes was accountable for many of the social
evils which existed in San Francisco, and it is
entirely possible that this is, in a great measure,
true. At any rate, even the most gregarious man
or woman in the world must desire his own “vine
and fig tree” at some time, and we believe the
normal man or woman does desire a home so ar
dently that all will be interested in the recent plan
of Mr. Charles R. Lamb, President of the Municipal
Art Society of New York.
Mr. Lamb states that his plan is merely to found
a co-operative kitchen for every city block. This
kitchen shall serve meals to families at the regular
times, but in so improved a fashion that all the
horror of the “sent in” meal is removed and all
the comfort of the home-cooked and home-served
table is had, but with a minimum of discomfort.
It is further claimed that the expense, too, is
much less than could be had by individual families
serving the same meals at home. The advantage
of buying in larger lots, of using less fuel, of re
quiring almost no domestic service, are all set
forth in this plan, and it would not be a surprise
to many if the experiment were made within the
near future. The plan would not entail essen
tially different management than is now found in
ordinary large hotels, save that the profits would
be divided equally by the subscribers, should the
monthly balances show an excess of the expenses
at any time.
A Japanese Beauty Recipe.
In every normal woman’s heart there lies a de
sire to possess physical beauty, and every woman
who has it not, be she ever so brilliant mentally,
regrets the lack of physical charm. Yet this is
an elusive 'gift, after all, and does not consist of
mere regularity of feature nor of harmonious col
oring, and the requisites of feminine beauty differ
in various countries almost as widely as do the
types of beauty themselves. For instance, we of
America have always considered our women more
beautiful than any others on earth, yet recent ut
terances of famous foreigners, especially of Orien
tals, disagree with this estimate. An instance of
this is to be found in the published statements of
Mme. Fugi-Ko, the noted Japanese beauty, who re
cently arrived in America. Mme. Fugi-Ko may not
be considered an authority as to feminine loveli
ness, though she is a woman of intelligence and is
herself a famous beauty, but her theory of the
causes of beauty may well be given careful heed by
the women of America. Madame Fugi-Ko con
demns corsets and cosmetics and attributes real
beauty to much higher and nobler aids. In a re
cent interview this fair Oriental expressed the fol
lowing sentiments which would do credit to ad
vanced philosophy here or elsewhere:
“There is no beauty which is not a reflection
of nature, or nature itself. Japanese women lead
natural lives, they are simple in their tastes, their
minds never dwell on anything that is not good and
beautiful, and the long centuries back of them
The Golden Age for October 11, 1906.
have made their lasting impression upon their
physical beings.
“The women of my country have beautiful bod
ies because they have beautiful thoughts. American
women must not scoff at that statement, for if they
would only believe it they, too, might make future
generations of perfectly formed women.
“It will not make a woman’s figure beautiful,
however, for her to sit down and try to think
about beautiful things. It will take longer than a
day’s endeavor before the lasting impressions of
such beautiful thinking could have a definite ef
fect.
“What has thought to do with it? Everything.
If a woman is continually brooding over unpleasant
and ugly thoughts it affects her face first of all.
If you will not admit the material subtle effects, as
I understand them, that continued ugly thoughts
have in bodily expression, perhaps you will admit
that a discontented, worrying state of mind affects
the digestive organs. Will not this have its effect
on the body? That is a gross explanation, if you
must have tangible expressions, but it does not
bring out the effect of thoughts over body in the
full sense I mean it. I believe that beautiful
thoughts express themselves materially.
“The American woman is always talking
about her troubles. If she is in pain she wants
every one to know it. The Japanese woman has be
hind her centuries of reserve, which have schooled
her in the knowledge of the fact that the more you
give voice to an ill the more you suffer.
“Discontent is the maker of wrinkles, and high
living and fast living wears out the body. I mean
by fast living just the instinctive nervousness and
lack of repose that strikes one the moment the ship
sails into New York harbor.
“Os course, there are beautiful women in Ameri
ca, but they spoil their beauty by trying to accen
tuate it. The Japanese woman is content to obey
natural laws. The American woman must improve
on nature. She wears the abominable corset, and
what is the result ? She soon needs it.
“The Japanese woman is as firm as a child, her
flesh is never flabby, and her body, which is ex
quisitely proportioned, needs no artificial braces
like the corset.
“The conscious pride in every curve with which
the American woman walks along the street is a
striking contrast to the woman of Japan, whose
beautiful figure it is her one aim to veil from the
public eye.
“Now, please do not think I am criticising Amer
ican women,” protested Mme. Fuji-Ko. “They are
capable, attractive and well built from the stand
ards of modern development. They are merely the
expressions of what their dominant thought has
made them. You cannot expect them to he artistic
when their thoughts are far away from beauty.”
The Little Mother’s Hands.
The world is so prone to judge from appearances.
We so seldom look under the surface of things.
We have so little time we form our opinions by
what catches our eye and pass judgment on that
basis. If we see a man or woman going to church,
if we hear prayers uttered in loud tones, if one cries
out from the housetops his good deeds we give him
all credit and say to ourselves:
So-and-So is a good Christian; he sets us an
example which it would be well for us to follow.”
And we humbly cry “Mea culpa” and resolve to
mend our ways.
A little story told by Dr. Dawson, a famous
London evangelist, rather puts to shame Pharisaic
criticisms, and in its beauty and simplicity teaches
a lesson which it would be well to take to heart.
“In the course of my ministrations,” said the
Doctor, “through the slums of London, I came
upon a sad case, that of a woman, the mother of
five children, the eldest of whom was a girl of nine
or ten.
“The mother at the time the family first came
under my notice was dying of consumption. The
father, a hard working man, was barely able to
earn sufficient to supply the meagre wants of the
family, and they were often in dire straits.
“The bulk of the work devolved on the oldest
girl, Mary by name. Never have I seen the title
of ‘Little Mother’ more appropriately earned. She
not only had the invalid to care for, but the young
er children as well, and Mary was often a very
tired little girl.
“Mary’s duties soon were lightened to a certain
extent by her mother’s death, but made heavier
in another by the added responsibility of the little
family.
“The burden of the children and the
house was very heavy after the mother had gone.
While she lived, Mary had always felt there was
some one to direct and guide her, but now she was
forced to rely upon herself entirely.
“Mary’s health, none too strong at any time,
soon began to fail under the great responsibility
which had fallen on her shoulders. The care of
the children, the cooking, the washing and iron
ing, the sweeping and bedmaking were too much
for the little woman’s strength. Day by day she
failed, fewer and fewer became the outings which
the lusty baby enjoyed. The little fellow soon be
came too heavy for the thin, weak arms of the ‘lit
tle mother,’ and it was but seldom that she could
muster courage and energy enough to carry him
down the steep stairs and out into the unprepos
sessing streets, which were his only breathing
ground.
“The day came when even the slightest exer
tion was impossible for poor Mary and she was
forced to depend upon the services of kind neigh
bors, as poor as she was herself. Mary failed
rapidly. She was soon confined to her bed, and
then I procured the services of one of my ‘help
ers,’ who took up Mary’s work where the ‘little
mother,’ in sheer helplessness, had laid it down.
“On one of my daily visits, as I stood in the
doorway, unannounced, I heard the murmur or
childish voices. A little friend of Mary’s was sit
ting with her and had been laboriously spelling out
some verses of the Bible.
‘ ‘ Oh, Maggie! ’ I heard Mary say, ‘ whatever will
I say to Jesus When I meet Him and He asks me
why I did not go to church and why I did not pray?
You know I was so tired, Maggie, so tired, I just
couldn’t.’
“ ‘Never you mind, Mary,’ the other child re
plied. ‘When you see Jesus just show Him your
hands, Mary, and He will understand.’ ”
Mrs. Helen E. Troy of Auburn, N. Y., has mas
tered the language of the Onondaga and Mohawk
tribes of Indians, a language of more than 20,000
words, and has compiled an Indian dictionary and
several other volumes relating to these tribes.
A magnificent hospital, to be known as the Mo
Min Ling, has just been opened by the Governor
of Hong Kong. It was built at the expense of
Mme. Wu Ting Fang, wife of the late Chinese min
ister to the United States.
Miss Elizabeth E. Boit of Wakefield, Mass., who
was once a mill girl, started a factory on a small
scale, and now employs over 400 men and women,
who turn out about 600 dozen pairs of stockings
daily.
A unique occupation for women is that of street
cleaner, yet even this field is being occupied by the
fair sex! In Bavaria, there are three female street
cleaneis, which fact is worthy of comment even in
a country which lays claim to having women brick
layers, women rag pickers, wood carriers, etc., etc.
Aet street cleaning does seem just a step beyond a
woman’s realm I