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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.]

When the bicycle craze began many mothers disapproved of the exercise for
their girls. But with doctors recommending it, and the girls themselves
looking radiantly bright and healthy after a few preliminary trials, what
remained for the mother but to overcome her first dislike and do all she
could to persuade the father to buy bicycles for all the girls? The next
step was, often, to learn to ride herself, and to benefit enormously
thereby. The mother who failed to follow her daughters' lead in this
particular, as in others, proved that she was too narrow to accept new
ideas; just the sort of thing to give the daughters a lead in these
century-end days. And of that one must beware! The poor mothers must not
give a single inch, or they will find themselves mulcted in many an ell.

