PACIFIC TREE AND VINE 



23 



AVoman's Realm 



A famous statesman on being 

 asked what he considered the great- 

 est type of beauty in woman, re- 

 plied : "The woman who is beauti- 

 ful and does not know it, and the 

 homely woman who by her intelli- 

 gence and graceful bearing makes 

 you forget it." 



Many huge silk bags are carried, 

 some of which, with their superbly 

 worked silk and brilliant colors, 

 would make the plainest toilets gay. 

 The newest models in these are in 

 chatelaine design, with handsome 

 gilt and silver trimmings, often 

 gemset. The ostensible purpose of 

 the bag is to hold the libretto, fan, 

 handkerchief, glasses and smelling 

 salts The incidental object is di?- 

 tinctlv l)eantif\ini:. 



In n case before a Philadelphia 

 court in which a popular actress had 

 to appear as a witness, the judge 

 Irjsitated about asking the lady, as 

 he was in duty bound to do, what 

 was her age. Evidently he con- 

 sidere 1 tint su'di a question, put to 

 such a witness would be a direct 

 incitement to perjury The way in 

 which he ;^()t on' of the diffioulty 

 was ingenious, althoiigli decidedly 

 irregular. He aske 1, bef)re she 

 was sworn, "Hnw old are \ou, ma- 

 dun ?" .•\fter a little hesitation the 

 lady owned to being 29 years of 

 age. ".And now that you have 

 told tiie court your age," continued 

 the gallant judge, "you swear to 

 tell the truth, the whole truth, and 

 nothing but the truth ?" 



In France there are 15,319 wo- 

 men employed as gatekeepers at the 

 railroad crossings. They get very 

 small pay, but the railroads provide 

 each one with a house and a small 

 garden patch rent free. These wo- 

 men work every day in the year. 

 They may not leave their posts tor 

 a day off, even on Sundays and 

 holidays, and their working days 

 are from fifteen to eighteen hours 

 long. Five thousand two hundred 

 and seventy-fi\-e of these women 



earn not more than •t2.9o]a month; 

 7,700 receive from that sum up to 

 $4.80; 1,680 get from $4.82 to $7.72 

 and 601 from ilig.Qi to$io.6i. Only 

 sixty women get higher wages than 

 this, and none gets more than $31.84 

 a month. 



News comes from St. Petersburg 

 that the minister of agriculture has 

 decided to establish an agricultural 

 college to which none but women 

 shall be admitted asstudents. Tho.se 

 who know the minister's views in 

 regard to the proposed college say 

 that there will be no institution like 

 it in the world. His object, it is 

 said, is not to teach women practi- 

 cal farming, but to enable them to 

 acquire a thorough knowledge of 

 agriculture, so that those among 

 them who desire may eventually 

 become either teachers in the num- 

 erous agricultural schools in Ru.ssia 

 or overseers of imperial or private 

 estates. Only those who have 

 graduated from the ordinary scliools 

 will be admitted as students, and at 

 the end of th college cour.se a rig- 

 orous examination will be held and 

 diplomas will be awarded to those 

 who deserve them. Women who 

 obtain such diplomas will be en- 

 titled to all the privileges that are 

 accorded to men wdio graduate from 

 the other agricultural colleges. Fin- 

 ally, any student who desires to 

 lake uj a special study at the col- 

 lege, such as poultry keeping or 

 dairy farming, may do so. 



Literature has handed down no 

 tales in Japan better loved than 

 those wdiich embody the tenderness 

 of women, their charms are sung in 

 the brightest verses, and in the ex- 

 quisite art before which the world 

 bows woman has furnished chief in- 

 spiration. Of the sovereigns of 

 Japan nine have been women, one 

 of them, Jingu, the conqueror of 

 Korea, having been deified. Im- 

 ages of Kwannon, Goddess of 

 Mercy, draws the prayers of the 

 people all over the land; and the 

 Sun Goddess, the chief deity of 



Japan mythology, symbolized in the 

 mirror that occupies central place in 

 every Shinto temple, comi^els the 

 worship of all followers of that 

 faith, including the imperial house- 

 hold and the mikado himself. In 

 the eleventh century, when it was 

 considered learned for men to de- 

 vote themselves to Chinese, litera- 

 ture in the Japanese language had 

 women as its chief exponents. 

 Among the fruits of that period was 

 "Genji Monogatzari," one of the 

 most celebrated classics in the lan- 

 guage, and the many other works 

 then produced by women contri- 

 buted not a little to confirm Japan- 

 ese as the liierary language of this 

 people. 



The Division of Entomology of 

 the Agricultural Department at 

 Washington, D. C, has appointed 

 Miss Henrietta Aiken Kelly, of 

 Charleston, S. C, as special field 

 agent of the United States Govern- 

 ernment to establish silk culture in 

 this country on a scientific basis. 

 Miss Kelly will prosecute investi- 

 gations in all parts of the United 

 vStates where the white mulberry 

 may be successfully grown, and will 

 compile two monographs for the 

 government, one on the subject of 

 silk worm culture and the other on 

 mulberry growth. Miss Kelly is 

 wealthy and is noted for her philan- 

 thropy. .She has been interested 

 for years in the possibilities of silk 

 culture in the United States as an 

 industr>- in which much idle labor 

 in all part of the country could be 

 employed. She has recently com- 

 pleted the first scientific culture of 

 silk at her Charleston home, having 

 imported silk worm seed from the 

 Royal Ob.servatory at Padua, Ital}', 

 from which she incubated more 

 than forty thousand silk worms. It 

 was her success in this venture 

 that led to her receiving her appoint- 

 ment from the government Dur- 

 ing the past year over fifty thousand 

 dollars worth of silk was imported 

 from foreign countries, and Miss 

 Kelly firmly believes that the United 

 States will soon produce an equal 

 amount on its own account. 



