The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1883-03-24 00:00:00

WOMEN AND THE POOR LAW,

Under the auspices of the Society for Promoting
the Return of Women as Poor Law Guardians a
meeting was held on Saturday afternoon at 15,
Bruton-street, London, the Rev. A. J. Ross, vicar
of Stepney, presiding. Several letters were read ex-
pressing tha writers' sympathy with the movement.
In opening the proceedings the chairman observed
that there were three classes of women with whom
boards of guardians had to deal, especially requiring
the attention of ladies, viz., the women located in
workhouses, the children in the pauper schools, and
the young women who were about to become mothers.
The latter class especially required the help,
advice, and refining influence of their own sex,
to prevent them sinking into further degrada-
don, He thought that in the cases to which
he had referred they ought to appeal to Par-
liament, as he could see no reason why a lady
should be eligible to be a member of ths School Board
and not be eligible as a member of a board of guar.
dians. He was in favour of doing away with the
property qualification in the case of ladies ; at any
rate, he urged that there sh: uld be a committee of
ladies connected with every board of guardians, to
whom such cases as those he had mentioned should be
referred.
Mr. J. Bonthron moved the following resolution:
"That it is desirable that there should be a fair pro-
portion of suitable women upon every board of
guardians."
The motion was seconded . by Mr. C. M'Laren,
M.P., who observed that it had always seemed to him
that the presence of women on boards of guardians
was desirable from public and other points of view.
Every one admitted that women were more fitted than
men to regulate domestic affairs. Independent of that,
however, the refining presence of educated ladies on
boards of guardians would, beyond anything else,
check the irregularities which existed at many boards.
He also expressed himself in favour of abolishing the
disability of married women to sit as members of
boards of guardians. He had prepared a bill on the
subject, which had been laid before Mr. Dodson, when
President of the Local Government Board, for his
approval, but which had been rejected. He, how-
ever, hoped that Sir Charles Dilke would take a more
enlightened view of the matter.

The motion was carried, and a vote of thanks passed
to the chairman for presiding.

CUTTINGS FROM AMERICAN PAPERS.

"Oh, George; "- a Boston girl exclaimed while gazing
at the comet, "how transcendently beautiful and
precious it is ! I should so love to study botany ! "
When a Buffalo young lady (writes a Western
editor) parts from her beau who is too bashful to
understand the nicer usages of his position, she will
say, "William, if you were to kiss me, you might be
afraid ma would hear it; but if I creak the gate she
won't know the difference 1"

A member of Congress began a speech as fol
lows :—" Mr. Speaker' the generality of mankind in
general are disposed to exercise oppression on the
generality of mankind in general," when he was pullel
down to his seat by a friend, with the remark, "You'd
better stop ; you are coining out of the same hole as
you went in at."
A man in a Vermont train was heard to groan so
frightfully that the passengers took pity on him, and
one of them gave him a drink out of a whisky-flask.
"Do you feel better ? " asked the giver. "I do," said
he who had groaned." "What ailed you?" "Ailed
me ? " " Yes; what made you groan so ? " " Groan !
Great land of freedom, I Ina singing!"

"Is married preferable to single " we argued
at a recent meeting of a debating society. Only cue
married man appeared for the negative, and he came
down to business next day with his arm in a sling, a
green patch over his eye, and a general appearance of
having slept out all night in the cellar area.

A man recently exploded I.olb, of gunpowder under
a platform where two score cats, allured by a liberal
spread of milk and bones, were having an oratorio by
moonlight. There was a general feline transformation
scene, a shriek that would have made the hair stand
up straight on a billiard-ball, and fifteen minutes after
the oats, organized on the roof of a neighbouring wood-
shed, passed resolutions expressive of their sentiments,
and then went on with the performance just as if
nothing had happened.