The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1911-10-27

seek it and I regret exceedingly that it was awarded to me. Such honors- if they can be so classified-mean nothing and are a waste of money"
 In an age where everything from pinochle and bowling medals to flute playing decorations are eagerly cov- eted by most of the human race, the attitude of the nurse has evoked much surprise. To the Laird of SkIbo Cas- tie, who returned from his summer vacation in Scotland last week. it came with the force of a jolt, it be- ing the first time since he organized and endowed the hero commission that anyone has refused to accept the hon. ors it has seen fit to bestow on any one for a deed of heroism.
 Friends of Rigo, the gypsy violin ist, who some years ago ran away with the Princess Chimay, are expecting to learn any day of his reconciliation with the much loved young woman whose affairs of the heart have been the subject of international discussion for almost a score of years Following his separation from the Princess, Rigo came to New York and for several years has commanded a large clientele among love-sick women, who affected to recognize in his soulful eyes and emotional fiddling the spirit of knight of old. At the public restau- rants where he played, enraptured fe- males, with longing eyes and heaving hearts, gathered about him nightly and applauded his every move until his ego grew to be oppressive to his own sex. Two or three divorce cases threatened to result and if New York was a smaller place, the gypsy would surely have been escorted out of town on a rail and treated to tar and feathers.
 Despite his protestations of loyalty, his admirers claim they found him f1ckle, wherefore he got them quar- relling among themselves over the the divorce of the Princess from Gui- scope Ricciordi, her last husband is said by the friends of the gypsy to have stimulated his interest in her anew. Recently, he packed up his trunks and sailed for Italy, where the Princess, who before her marriage to the Prince de Chimay, was Clara Ward, an American heiress of Detroit, is now living in handsome villa.
 By way of correcting the widespread impression industriously put forth by those who are opposed to the higher education of women as inimical sto the best interests of civilization, Vas- sar College, probably the leading in- stitution of learning in the world of this class, announces that not sin- gle one of it's graduates is a divorcee. This is submitted as proof that the higher education of women does not make them more prone than their less favored sisters mentally to shrink from the responsibilities of wifehood Or seek trivial causes for the disso-. lution of the marriage tie Officers of
 the college which has more than 5000 living graduates, attribute it's unusual ' record to the fact that the average age of it's graduates is 24 years. No girl is admitted below eighteen and the course is four Or five years. Women who get sdiyorces the officials of the college claim are those who marry early, while the Vassarl young women are still in college. As a further rea- son for the absence of divorcees among women of higher education, it is stated that the training at Vassar and other women's colleges distinct ly encourages domesticity and incul- cates in it's young women a desire for the normal refined life, free from scandal. Some months ago the college authorities collected statistics show ing that the charge that college life for women makes for the Malthusian doctrine of the restriction of babies, is a fiction without evidence to support it. Their latest dictum that college life fosters harmonious, lasting marri- ages is it's final answer to the calum- ny respecting higher female education, which has gone heretofore unchalleng- ed.
 The hobble skirt and other freaks of the Parisian dressmaker have been coming in for much grilling this week at the hands of the local clergy, who decry the readiness of the women of Gotham to bow to the fetich of fash ion in extravagant wearing apparel. x The most pronounced position in opposition to the hobble has been talk en by the Rev. B. A. Wassen, rec tor of one of the Fashionable Protes- tant Episcopal churches. His remarks have startled some of the more sen- sitive of the sex at whom they have been aimed and touched on1a tender spot with the prohibitionists.
 T would rather see a woman drink beer,' said the dominee, "than parade the Avenue in a hobble skirt. A wom- an is perfectly justified in drinking beer, wine or any alcoholic liquor either publicly Or privately, provided there is no infringement on the stat utes of the community. Her morals or her manners will not suffer from a temperate use of stimulants. It is much worse for her to smoke, or even to dress loudly than to drink
 Adverting to the subject of smoking among women, about which so much is being said nowadays in Gotham, he said: "Abstractly,, smoking is as proper Or improper for one sex as for the other. But we are not living in the abstract; we are living in the con- crete. The use the code, the public opinion among us Americans are such, on this subject, that, in my judgment, it is an abomination for a woman to smoke, and a woman who does so is wanting in modesty and in fact in decency. I utterly condemn and re- probate smoking by women.
 Out here. at least, a man who sees. a woman smoking concludes that she is not better than she should be. The same | objection applies to hobble skirts | rouge, powder and all other extremes l of costume. A woman ought not ever to attract an unpleasant amount of attention.
 'sThe old idea that drinking is one of the cardinal sins comes down as heritage from our Puritan ancestors. The Puritans tabooed conyiviality not because 1t contained anything intrin- sically immoral, but because it waa pleasant
 Declaring that in many respects New York was no better off than in St. Petersburg, Dr. Alexis flynn, a distinguished Russian official, sailed for St. Petersburg the other day to put into practice in his home city some of the reforms he had worked out while in America.
 delegate from the Imperial Russian |