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.
Table of contents (by pages)
- 1: A Word to Women by Mrs. C. E. Humphry
- 2: Sidenote About Chaperons and Chaperonage
- 3: The ideal daughter is the unselfish
- 4: Goes further towards self culture
- 5: Play sett after sett of tennis
- 6: Sidenote Dangers of High Schools
- 7: Sidenote Hygiene and sanitation
- 8: Sidenote Harriet Martineau on overdoing it
- 9: Sidenote Those barbarous samplers
- 10: Although the cricket ball chastised us with whips
- 11: But the hardening process need not
- 12: But genius is not always lovable
- 13: Sidenote Recognising our limitations
- 14: Where tidiness and cleanliness reigned rampant
- 15: Sidenote Those messy flowers
- 16: Sidenote Their rampant egotism
- 17: Sidenote Tyrants of Nursery land
- 18: Sidenote Are we moral cowards
- 19: Sidenote Cowardice with friends
- 20: Sidenote A recipe for fault finding
- 21: Or spirits is a dietetic error
- 22: They would not be affected by the abstinence of others
- 23: There would be fewer brabbles in their path
- 24: Quite recently there was published a sonnet
- 25: Sidenote The brutality of some qualities of candour
- 26: It is like the peau de chagrin in Balzac's famous story
- 27: Sidenote Unintentional slights
- 28: Sidenote Blessed are the peacemakers
- 29: Sidenote Umbrellas as weapons of offence
- 30: And then there is the matinee hat
- 31: Sidenote The unpunctual woman
- 32: Sidenote An odious characteristic
- 33: Bought nearly L30 worth of goods
- 34: Sidenote Not necessarily a dowdy
- 35: The Marchioness of Londonderry
- 36: Sidenote Sensible millionaires
- 37: Here the girl bachelor gets her stores
- 38: Cooking comes almost by nature to the bachelor girl
- 39: Sidenote Lightheartedness and animal spirits
- 40: And lightheartedness is of every age
- 41: Can subdue even lightheartedness itself
- 42: A child in a house is a wellspring of pleasure
- 43: Even dearer than their pet dogs
- 44: And opens the door to the dulness that settles down upon us
- 45: Anything is better than deadly dulness
- 46: And then comes a strange and beautiful aftermath
- 47: Sidenote After the storm and stress
- 48: Sidenote The gist of the matter
- 49: A little blitheness from the smile
- 50: Sidenote Middle age and dress
- 51: Humphry knows as much about dinners as about dress
- 52: Humphry discourses with knowledge