X 
LAND AND WATER 
October 17, 19 14 
THROUGH THE EYES 
OF A WOMAN 
Some Leaves from a Feminine Note Book 
TAKE us on the whole, we are not an imaginative 
race. It is very difficult for us to picture the 
h)rrors of invasion when such a thing has never 
happened in our experience nor in that of our 
forefathers. Owing to what has been neatly 
described as a geographical accident, the people of this 
country are in very different case from those on the Contment, 
and this has its natural result on life in general. It is probably 
for these reasons that the charge of apathy has been made 
against us. Fugitives from abroad, escaping from scenes of 
horror and desolation, marvelled and were perhaps somewhat 
shocked at seeing us proceeding on our way much the same 
as usual. They asked whether the English really knew they 
were at war. We may perhaps have been slow in fully 
realising it, but every day now drives the fact harder home. 
To those living in London one of the first visible signs of 
being in a state of war has been the darkening of the streets 
at night. This most certainly helps to stimulate the imagina- 
tion. Gone are the sky-signs, the illuminated lettering, and 
all the eye-catching devices of electric advertisement. No 
longer are there the brightly-lighted shop windows that in 
times of peace remained brilliant and shining far into the 
night. The street lamps are carefully graded, those which 
are not absolutely necessary for the safety of traffic being 
unlit. Added to this, folk who are awake at night can some- 
times hear a patrolling airship with engines throbbing dis- 
tinctly as she passes overhead. It is the first unusual 
demonstration we have had, though it probably will not be 
the last. Many people lately have made a pilgrimage to the 
Embankment after it is dark to see the effect of the search- 
lights that pivot from the top of Charing Cross against the 
sky. This also is new to our experience, and makes its own 
peculiar claim upon the imagination. 
The Families Left Behind 
The Soldiers' and Sailors' Families Association has been 
very busy since the outbreak of war and has relieved several 
cases of distress that almost instantaneously arose. It will be 
remembered that Queen Alexandra made an appeal on behalf 
of the Association, but this was withdrawn shortly after 
to allow freer scope for the Prince of Wales's Fund. Those in 
authority felt that the two appeals running simultaneously 
might interfere one with the other and lead to confusion. 
Lady Londonderry, as President of the Durham County 
Branch of the Soldiers' and Sailors' Families Association, has 
just made a statement regarding the administration of relief 
in that county, which makes very interesting reading. The 
Association here has had no fewer than 11,151 cases on its 
books, and the numbers have increased week by week. The 
organisation is relying for funds upon the balance of the 
money collected in Durham for Durham families at the time 
of the Boer War, upon contributions and subscriptions which 
have been given now, and a contribution from the Prince of 
Wales's Fund. This last has been sufficiently large to enable 
Lady Londonderry to hope that there may be no need to 
make any further appeal on behalf of the Association. A 
detailed return is shortly to be published giving an account 
of the way in which the relief has been distributed amongst 
the dependents of our troops at the front. 
All those who have been interested in the Association in 
the past are anxiously waiting to see how the new scheme of 
the Government, which came into operation on the 12th of 
this month, vrill work. The Government has undertaken to 
make the payments direct, and it is now a matter of State 
control. \Vhcther this means the resulting decrease of 
personal interest remains to be seen. That, as we all know, 
is the danger of the State machine. The county branches of 
the Soldiers' and Sailors' Families Association have counted 
many helpers amongst their ranks, who watch over the various 
cases and pay frequent visits to the different homes. The 
personal note, therefore, has not been lacking in the past, and 
in "many instances has proved of great value in the good work 
accomplished. 
Patriotic Shopping 
Women have many duties at present, and not least 
amongst them is patriotic shopping. We can all do a very 
formidable best to encourage home industries. It has been 
shown quite recently that though we are at war with Germany 
German commercial agents still overrun our markets. The 
German trader, naturally enough, is sufficiently astute to 
know that he must disguise his nationality . but this presents 
no difficulty. To this end German businesses are making an 
effort to be turned into English limited liability companies 
and traders in neutral countries are being used as middlemen 
by German concerns. By these subterfuges German trade 
with this country is by no manner of means as completely 
closed as it should be. The remedy for this lies in the hands 
of the English shopping public. If everybody made a point 
of examining the articles they buy and mquiring as to their 
origin the British trader and British trade would have a very 
decided stimulus. There has never been such a chance as 
the present for promoting English manufactures and strangling 
German competition. If every mistress of a house makes 
up her mind that nothing of German manufacture shall enter 
her doors she will help her native land in the most practical 
of all practical ways. Nor need this be an uninteresting task 
to perform. If we once set our minds to cope with the 
question we should learn more about the clothes we wear 
and the food we eat than we probably have ever known 
before, and the study cannot fail to be a fascinating one. 
Lace aixd the Belgians 
Belgian lace is being given a foremost place in the 
catalogue of many a great shop's wares, and the examples 
now being displayed amply merit attention. Apart from 
all sentimental value attaching to work done by our brave 
Ally, lace made by the Belgians has always ranked high in 
excellence and been a foremost industry of the country. The 
specimens shown in London are particularly beautiful, and it 
is no wonder that many people have taken the opportunity to 
add to their lace collection. There are various signs that lace 
is to be much used on evening frocks and tea gowns. This is 
a time when the tea gown has undoubtedly come into its own. 
Women who have been out all day, serving on various charity 
organisations, attending first-aid lectures, and working in 
many other ways, are well inclined towards the rest frock 
when they reach their own home again. And the rest gown 
at its best is as becoming a garment as the heart of woman 
can desire. Planned upon up-to-date lines, it partakes much 
of the nature of an evening dress, but is infinitely easier to 
don. A pretty gown of Neapolitan violet charmeuse, intended 
for the trousseau of a war-wedding bride, had wide scarf 
sleeves of delicately-meshed lace, with a tiny edging of hand- 
embroidered violets, outhned by a background of leaves in 
very natural colourings. The lace was toned to the shade of 
old parchment, of the colour to which the inferior denlelks 
never aspire. That the cheaper kinds of lace, however, rareh' 
justify their existence is too well established a fact for pressing 
at this or any other time. 
A Good Response 
Many gifts have reached Devonshire House in response 
to the Queen's appeal for knitted belts and socks for the 
troops at the front. No fewer than six thousand pairs of 
socks have been forwarded by the women of Dundee through 
Colonel Hill, chairman of the Dundee Territorial Association, 
and from Lady French's Fund comes a regular supply every 
week. Lady Salisbury has sent five hundred pairs, Mrs. 
Ronald Greville seven hundred pairs, and Lady Phillips has 
sent over a thousand pairs of socks and three hundred belts. 
It has been requested that the givers of socks will see that 
each pair is sewn together, so that one sock may not escape 
from Its fellow. This small detail, however, is "forgotten by 
numerous people, and the result is that a staff of a dozen 
sewmg women is kept constantly employed at Devonshire 
House sewing the socks together in pairs. 
Erica. 
36 
