Northern Weekly Gazette. — 1903-02-28 (Stockton-on-Tees, Cleveland, England)

RACHEL CHALLICE.  "Drones Must Die" is the striking I title of a powerful novel by Max Nordau, the greet German writer and Philosopher; and this work is such a forcible presentment of the necessary daath of the drones of Parisian society that one is led to warn those of a like character in our own country from the same sad preanature fate. The drones forced upon my mind at the present time are the domestic drones. Some years ago they would have been busy bees, active in making all kinds of food and radmant, keeping the home olean, and, in fact, fulfilling well and capably "the whole duty of woman," according to the interesting cad work of that title published in 1737. But now every shopkeeper and small householder has servants to do the work formerly done by his own womenfolk. machinery-made bread, jam, pickles, etc., ursurp the place of home produoe, and the feminine desire to have fasbionable attire leads to clothing being put into the hands of the dressmaker and milliner. Thus the daughters of the house often become drones. So aimless and empty are the days of these girls that it is evident they must die out if not aroused to the life of work and love which is the birthright of every human being. "But what work, what love is there for us?" I hear these drones ask. The hope of a happy Inarriage, which would make all work a delight, is not easy of fulfilment in England, *here women are in such an overwhelming majority that you often see four, five, and sometimes oven seven or eight single daughters in one family. Yes, indeed, it is impossible to find husbands for all the girls in England. But why should not women bear in mind that there are the hives of our colonies, where men's lives are dreary from the dearth of busy bees to bring the sweets of life to lyarth and home? This surplus of women at home, and the scarcity of them in the colonies, surely ought to be equalied for the sake of both sexes. For it is as baneful for men to be destitute of fitting helpmates abroad as it is harmful for women to feel they are not warted at home.  Phomicia of old prevented this evil by sending women to all her colonies. Not oely was the pressure of the population in Tyro and Sidon thus relieved, but the knowledge of many arts, such as weaving, music, embroidery, and ether, in which he nation excelled, was thus circulated in their colonies. A well-known German historian tells us that. Pluenician women figured in Greece. Egypt, Cyprus, and on mere, distani; coasts oenturies before the Utrisi in era, when the dangers and difficulties of travelling must have been appa.lling. Moreover, Phcenician oolonists had to contend with the superstition that if they met their end away frem the religious rites of their On c.nintry their last hours would be tortured by the demon of th,•4."'tb.• Would they have envied modern travellers, who find their own cult in almost every country? Carthage was, as We all know, a standing proof of a wornan's capacity as a colonist; for it was not a man, but Dido herself, who thought of the device of cutting up the bull's hide into narrow strips when it was known that they might purc.hase on the ooast of Africa as much land as the hide of an ox would compass? Women are not called upon at the prernt day to encounter the difficulties of Dido, this pioneer of colonists ; but there is a lesson to be learnt from this Queen of antiquity, who, when robbed ci her kingdom by her husband's murderer, at once set sail to found another ate. Dido was not of the calibre to  r,,'....,rll