A Word to Women   By: Mrs. C. E. Humphry

A WORD TO WOMEN

by

MRS. HUMPHRY ("MADGE" OF "TRUTH")

Author of "Manners for Women," "Manners for Men," etc.

London James Bowden 10, Henrietta Street, Covent Garden, W.C. 1898

BY THE SAME AUTHOR.

And Uniform with this Volume.

1. Manners for Men. ( Thirty sixth Thousand. )

2. Manners for Women. ( Twentieth Thousand. )

One Shilling each.

LONDON: JAMES BOWDEN.

PREFACE

My book "Manners for Women" has met with such a kindly reception that I am encouraged to follow it up with the present little volume. Of a less practical character than the former, it yet follows out the same line of thought, and is the fruit of many years' observation of my countrywomen in that home life for which England is distinguished among nations.

C. E. HUMPHRY.

London, 1898.

CONTENTS.

PAGE

MOTHER AND DAUGHTER 9

OUR SCHOOL GIRLS 18

WHAT ABOUT SEWING? 25

MOTHERS AND SONS 32

OUR CLEVER CHILDREN 38

ULTRA TIDINESS 46

GOOD MANNERS AT HOME 51

ARE WOMEN COWARDS? 57

A GLASS OF WINE 64

SOME OLD PROVERBS 70

CANDOUR AS A HOME COMMODITY 76

GOLDEN SILENCE 81

A SOCIAL CONSCIENCE 88

OUR DEBTS 94

THE DOMESTIC GIRL 102

THE GIRL BACHELOR 108

THE MIDDLE AGED CHAPERON 114

LIGHTHEARTEDNESS 117

A BIT OF EVERYDAY PHILOSOPHY 122

DEADLY DULNESS 129

THE PLEASURES OF MIDDLE AGE 136

GROWING OLD 145

A WORD TO WOMEN.

MOTHER AND DAUGHTER.

[Sidenote: The golden mean.]

There is a happy medium between narrowness and latitude; between the exiguity which confines the mind between canal like borders and the broad, expansive amplitude which allows it to flow with the freedom of a great river, though within certain definite limits. The tendency of the moment is towards breadth and the enlarging of borders, the setting back of frontier lines, and even to ignoring them. "One must move with the times" is a phrase constantly heard and read. It is true enough. One would not willingly be left stranded on the shores of the past; but then, in the effort to avoid this, one need not shape a wild and devious course. There is always the golden mean attainable, though occasionally it needs some seeking to find it.

[Sidenote: Some modern daughters.]

In nothing so much as the relations between mother and daughter is this modern tendency prolific of difficulty. For some generations the rule of severity that began with the Puritans has been gradually relaxing more and more, and now the spectacle of a harsh voiced, domineering young woman, ordering her mother about, is by no means an infrequent one, detestable as it is. Nor does she always content herself by merely ordering. Sometimes she scolds as well! If the mother, in these revolutionary times, has any chance of maintaining her own position as the elder and the wiser of the two, she must keep her eyes open to the successive grooves of change down which the world is spinning. The daughter must not be permitted to suspect her of old fashioned notions. That would be fatal!

[Sidenote: The bicycling craze.]