Woman in the World

This literary page is supervised by Mrs. Asma Tubi.

The charming swimmer Esther Williams asked the director of the homes for the blind in Hollywood to allow her to take eight blind children to her house every day. Today Esther takes the children, gives them food and drink, and then begins giving them swimming lessons. The kind actress says the purpose of this is that a child may be able to stay on the surface of the water should he happen to fall into a river or a pool; moreover, swimming teaches the blind child self-confidence. In the evening Esther carries the children back in her car to the home. In the pictures she appears at the edge of the swimming pool and in the water, training the children, embracing them, and kissing the winner among them.

...the noblest of services. The American papers published her pictures as she received the decoration from the hand of the Archbishop, with the rector of the Catholic University in Washington and the chief priest of Notre Dame at her right and her left. The Heart Diseases Association also presented the actress with a frame containing a certificate acknowledging her services to the association, and she was given the title of the first sweetheart of the Heart Diseases Association.

Nylon was invented ten years ago, and from it were made underclothes, stockings, toothbrushes, parachutes, and other things. Today, by means of skillful weaving and dyeing, they have made attractive, costly dresses whose distinction is not only that they live long, but that they can be tucked into a suitcase any which way without wrinkling. When the lady arrives at the hotel she wears one without ironing; when it gets dirty she washes it and hangs it up, and it is dry within an hour, and she puts it on again — again without ironing it.

Miss Marcelle Baouz obtained her flying license at the age of 17, and a survey by the Gallup Institute has shown that the proportion of women in civil and military aviation has risen above 12 percent in America and Europe.

The Lebanese doctor Tarcici has invented an apparatus for putting sunlight to household uses, and he has named the apparatus "the fire of the sun." He drew up its design in Paris in 1941, in the days when the Parisians were deprived of coal, gas, and electricity; for all its simplicity, it has the power of electricity. Its inventor says: We prepared in Paris a meal for four persons, consisting of fried eggs, beefsteak, macaroni, and jam, and a cup of coffee roasted on the apparatus — all this in less than an hour. The merits of the apparatus are: doing entirely without fuels and their taxes; complete cleanliness for the one who uses it and for the utensils; the absence of gas and smoke in the house; and then, when it is placed on the markets, its costs and its price will be cheaper than any other apparatus.

The famous writer Margaret Mitchell, author of the book "Gone with the Wind," died in London following an automobile accident.

Rumors are current of the approaching divorce of King Carol, former King of Romania, from his wife Magda Lupescu. He fell in love with her thirty years ago and forsook his throne and his country for her sake, his young son Michael assuming the throne in 1927; then he returned with her to Romania and mounted the throne a second time; then he fled with her once more in [19]40 and alighted in Spain, then Portugal, then America, without the two of them finding any welcome, until they settled in Brazil. In 1946 she was at death's door, so he concluded his marriage to her — but she did not die. Today the papers carry the news of his resolve to divorce her, after tremendous sacrifices and a violent passion that lasted 30 years.

The Catholic Church has granted the film actress Irene Dunne a decoration. It was stated in her citation that she receives it because she lives a completely religious life and serves her denomination

In Italy woman has taken up Japanese wrestling as the fashion of the season. The men who train them declare that wrestling has proved woman to be more savage than man, and that she very often loses control of her nerves so that the reins of the situation slip from her hand — to the point that one woman nearly killed her partner and another nearly strangled her rival. Thus Japanese wrestling has become, for woman, not a sport but an ordinary brawl, laying bare her latent instinct and savagery.

Sayyid Idris al-Senussi is accompanied on his visit to London by his lady wife, who appears walking through its streets wearing a hat and the very latest fashions.

After nineteen months of marriage and eight months since the birth of her child, Princess Elizabeth now has an independent house, called Clarence House, which lies between the palace of her father and that of her grandmother, the Queen Mother Mary. But the Princess and her husband can enjoy this house only on the Sunday of each week, for it is the only day their many duties leave them. Ever since King George VI was stricken with his latest illness, the Princess has had to carry out in their stead many of the customary duties, and her health has been affected by this to such a degree that the greatest English newspapers ask: is the English people not asking a great many things of its coming queen? His Majesty the King has lately asked his daughter not to accept any invitation extended to her throughout the month of August; and so the Princess will spend this holiday with her husband and her child in the country house where she passed her honeymoon.

Barbara Hutton is counted the richest woman in the world; she owns thirty million pounds and the variety stores spread across the world under the name of Woolworth. Barbara was carried to the hospital when she learned that the American courts had ruled that her son, aged 13, be taken and handed over to his father, from whom she was divorced 11 years ago. She told the correspondent of the New York Times that she is the most wretched woman in the world, and that the doctors expect she will not live long.

The American writer Edith Sitwell brought out a book that met with great success, whereupon a friend who had been ignoring her invited her to lunch. She replied: "I thank you for your kind invitation on the occasion of my book's success, and I wish to tell you frankly that had I not accustomed myself to making use of my time and not killing it in visits and parties, my book would not have succeeded; and had I accepted the invitations of friends, women and men, my time would have been lost and my book would have failed — and then I would be invited to no lunch or dinner, and no more parties would be given in my honor, by you or by anyone else."

Loretta Young is called the perfect lady of Hollywood, for she has captured the hearts of all with her lofty model of noble character and elevation of soul. She works in the Society of Young Mothers, and what pains her most is that the society's homes cannot hold all those young girls, between 12 and 14 years of age, who stumble and, in their innocence, do not know the measure of the danger that awaits them. Loretta has imposed a tax on every foul word, insult, or oath by God — truthful or false — that anyone utters in the studio: if a word slips from someone, he goes of his own accord to Loretta, holding out his hand with the tax, and she takes a dollar per word from the director and the senior employee and half a dollar from the humble workman. At the end of the day she opens the box, thanking everyone for their contributions, and sends the money to the society.