11 June 1881 - 'Literary Work for Girls' by An Editor's Wife

The question of remunerative employment for women is becoming every day a more absorbing one. The time has, we believe, almost – would that we could say quite! – gone by when work of any and every sort was considered a degradation to a woman gently born and reared. Poets in all ages have sung glibly enough of the dignity of labour, but it is hard for us to realise the dignity when we find ourselves tabooed and thrust down in the social scale by virtue of our work.

Happily, this nineteenth century, which has so many evil things to answer for, has at any rate done us good service in materially altering the aspect from which women's labour is regarded. There is nothing so ennobling and invigorating to the mind as good honest work, whether undertaken of necessity or simply as a right use of the time placed at our disposal.

There is no such powerful incentive to perseverance and thoroughness as keeping before our eyes some definite object to be attained by our labour, and there are no such impartial critics of our work as those who gauge it by its market value, entirely apart from all sentiment whatsoever.

This is in itself as strong an argument as needs be why girls should, if they be disposed, turn their attention to remunerative work, even supposing other considerations to be absent.

The scriptural view of the matter the "labourer is worthy of his hire," applies indiscriminately to all sorts and grades of labourers, whether they be men or women, labourers from necessity or from a sense of responsibility; and she who labours well and thoroughly, with due qualifications for her task, deserves and is pretty sure to gain the hire which Christ Himself has declared to be her due.

"Well and thoroughly." Here is the great secret of women's work, and in no case does it apply more forcibly than with regard to the branch of work we have chosen as the subject of this paper.

"Surely literary work is the most pleasant of all ways of earning money," I have heard many a girl say. "There is no going from home among strangers, or weary plodding to and fro in all weathers, and no wear and tear of refractory children, as in the case of a governess, no terror-inspiring examinations and outlay for being taught, as with telegraph clerks, no expensive course of lessons or stern apprenticeship, as with art needlework, designing, or even such work as millinery and dressmaking. If only a girl possesses a talent for writing she can sit quietly at home and make money with comparative ease, and if she is really clever she gets known, and then see how well she is paid. How fortunate to be able to gain a livelihood with such ease!"

And then if the girl is of an energetic turn of mind she will very likely sit down and dash off a few verses or a story, and feeling quit assured that she has read many in print that were no better, she dispatches it to the editor of any magazine she happens to take in, and impatiently, yet hopefully, awaits the result. This is tolerably sure to be a refusal. The literary aspirant is cast down and somewhat indignant. She is so sure that many compositions not in any degree better than hers have been printed somewhere. She sends her manuscript off again in another direction with the same result. Then she arrives at the conclusion that editors are the most blind, unfair set of beings in existence. They might at any rate have deigned to say why they refused her composition. She throws down her pen in supreme disgust, utterly disheartened, and very probably never taken it up for literary composition again.

Now, granting that her own estimate of her work was right, which, however, it is little likely to be, any more than the estimate of admiring friends, and that her verses or story were really equal in merit to others she has seen in print, is there any reason, apart from the blindness and exclusiveness of editors, why she should have failed? This is the question that we will endeavour fully to answer in this paper.

I will quite agree with my would-be literary girl that writing is a pleasant and profitable occupation, well adapted from many points of view for supplying a means of income without the attendant disagreeables attaching to many other employments. I will add, that never at any time was there such a field open to the literary worker as at this moment when magazines are multiplied and "of making books there is no end."

But I can go with her no farther. Literary work is not easy, at any rate to a vast number of those who live by it; it cannot be entered upon without training, and it requires much more than mere talent. The thorough practical training  for the work is even more advantageous than a decided talent devoid of cultivation, although I will not be rash enough to affirm that talent is unnecessary. But that it is useless without training I am firmly persuaded. On another point, too, I must differ from my disheartened girl friend. Editors are by no means the dragons that many people paint them. What they may have been in past days, I cannot say, but my own experience is that they are as a rule most kind and courteous, and only too ready to accept a manuscript that really meets the requirements of their magazine in all their particulars; for, incredible as it sounds, the number that comes under this category is surprisingly small.

My girl readers would not wonder that their MSS have received such summary treatment, if they could see the formidable pile of papers lying each morning on an editor's table. I should like the discontented literary aspirant to have practical experience of the work of examining, sorting, reading, and returning just for one day, and her only wonder will be the editor has not thrown her manuscript with a score or two of others at once into the waste paper basket, without even going through the brief form of rejection which has so roused her indignation. Fancy, if you can, the Editor of THE GIRL'S OWN PAPER writing some twenty or thirty such letters every day as the following, besides having to wade through the twenty or thirty accompanying MSSS, in every style of undecipherable handwriting, and probably varying in length from a page to a fair sized volume:-

"DEAR MADAM, - I am extremely sorry to be obliged to return your MS. In the first place, the story is three times as long as the greatest length we allow for short stories, and only about a third of the length required for a serial. Besides this, the interest is not sufficiently maintained, the characters are too unreal, and the whole tendency of the plot so extremely romantic that I am afraid it would give our girls very false notions of life. The writing, too, bears evidence of inexperience, the composition of many sentences being even grammatically incorrect. Under these circumstances I am compelled most reluctantly to reject your story. I would willingly accept it, so far as I am concerned, for I am sure you have taken great pains, and there are many very pretty ideas in it; but I am afraid the girls would not consider it sufficiently interesting, and that their parents would not approve the tone. Unfortunately, we are obliged to consider these points, as we would rather sell THE GIRL'S OWN PAPER than give it away. If you would quite alter the plot of your story, making it more practical, and in some way connecting the incidents; if you could make the conversation less frivolous and the characters a little more sensible, and if you would alter all the sentences that are not well expressed, I should be happy then to look at it again.

"With many apologies for wounding your feelings, I remain, dear madam,

"Your humble servant,

THE EDITOR."

There, girls! It looks rather weak in print, doesn’t it, but isn't that the sort of letter that you really wanted? And I can assure you that would be but a mild criticism of the inappropriateness of most amateur contributions sent to editors. Besides these, there is another class of contributions quite as useless, but far more distracting. Every editor knows them only too well. Shall I give you one brief example?

"DEAR SIR, - I send you herewith a MS., which I earnestly entreat you to accept. I am in the sorest need – an aged curate with a large family and small income. The long illness and recent death of my wife has reduced me to penury. My own health is failing, and, the new rector of this parish not requiring my services, I am thrown destitute upon the world. My only hope is that I may by happen be able to maintain my family until I obtain something else. Unless I have ten pounds by next Friday my belongings will have to be sold. Oh, sir, in the name of that religion which your paper so ably advocates, help me to avoid starvation, beggary, and disgrace. There is nothing before me but the workhouse, unless you can give me a start in your valued paper. I beseech you do not dash away my last hope…"

How do you think the editor feels over a letter like this? The article is perhaps some abstruse theological treatise, deeply learned, no doubt, but containing, maybe, extraordinary views which no one would look at, unless they emanated from some celebrated man. If the editor were to accept it no one would read his paper, and he knows very well if he gives this poor man the least encouragement he will probably be deluged with other similar compositions. He can, therefore, only return it, with the usual short form of rejection which seems so cruelly hopeless to the disappointed author. Yet if the editor were to make it his business to instruct would-be litterateurs in the art of writing, what would become of his magazine, or when, indeed, would the girls get their paper? And this is no overdrawn picture. Even more distressing circumstances than this are brought to an editor's notice, so that he is not unfrequently tempted to afford the help out of his own pocket which he dares not supply in his editorial capacity.

Therefore I say that if an editor even looks at all the MSS and letters he receives he is very good, but if he returns what is unsuitable he is a paragon of kindness. This is the honest opinion of one who has had some experience both of rejecting and being rejected. Then, what is wanted to enable a girl to use her pen profitably? First, ability; secondly, TRAINING; thirdly, powers of discrimination and observation.

I need not dwell much upon ability. Although it is the first thing, it is in some respects the least of the three essentials: that is to say, a comparatively small amount of ability combined with the other two qualifications will go further than a large amount of ability devoid of the. A vivid imagination is very necessary to the writer of fiction, but if unaccompanied by education and experience it will be of little use to her, whereas these two latter would very likely enable her to write plain, practical articles without the aid of the former, especially if she be possessed of sound common sense. Patience and perseverance, I need hardly say, are needed by authors of every class.

We see, then, that although exceptional talent is undoubtedly required to make an exceptional writer, the absence of any extraordinary intellectual ability need not be regarded as an entire disqualification.

Now, to come to the question of training; and this is indeed a wide and important side of my subject. It has indeed been the point where women's work has generally failed, though I am glad to see each day is carrying us on the right direction, and opening the eyes of women to its importance. We must always remember the fact that there are always more, far more, girls willing to work than there are openings for them. Thus the best qualified, as a matter of course, come best off. "As a rule those who can supply what is really required, meet with those who will purchase their merchandise. It is inferior workers whose labour brings no profit," says an experienced writer upon the question of women's work, and her remarks are as true of literary as of any other branch of work.

When boys set themselves to learn a business, the same writer remarks, they bend all their energies to the accomplishment of the end they have in view. All other matters are made subservient to it. But girls imagine they can take up an occupation without any sort of special training. Is it any wonder that women's work is regarded from quite a different standpoint, and depreciated often beyond its just value? Another lady of great experience says:- "Partial training has been the ruin of many attempts to gain new employment for women. It is often spoken of as desirable that they should do 'a little work,' but the 'little' which is meant to apply to the matter of quantity is transferred to that of quality, and this effectually bars the way to success.  It is very undesirable to see a lowered standard for women's work, and yet what reason is there to expect the attainment of a higher one in any way, but with the same amount of time and labour given by young men?" Another writer says:- "After an experience of life, neither very small nor very brief, I must candidly confess that my difficulty in trying to help my own sex has not been so much to find work as workers – women who can be relied upon – first to know how really to do what they profess, and next to have conscientiousness and persistency in doing it."

It is needless to multiply examples. All those who have deeply considered the subject have arrived at the same conclusion – that want of training is a principal cause of want of success to women-workers.

In the case of literary work, how is such training to be effected, supposing, for instance, the girl's education is considered finished before the idea of writing has occurred to her?

In the first place, if she is not already well qualified in that direction, she ought persistently to follow up the study of composition, which she can easily do with the aid of such books as are to be had, if she have ordinary intelligence. In the next place, she must read widely and observantly good literature in order that she may obtain command of language, that she may acquire the habit of looking at a subject from diverse points of view, and form an enlightened opinion upon men and things, for we are all of us, even the most original minds, greatly influenced and educated by the thoughts of the great men and women who have gone before us. An authoress of some reputation once said to me, "Nothing displays to you your own ignorance more vividly than writing. I was quite overwhelmed with my own ignorance when I began to write. I was continually finding myself landed, unconsciously, as it were, upon subjects of which I felt I was too ignorant to speak with authority, and in the midst of a paper upon some particular topic, I would find my thoughts had carried me along to side questions, necessary to be considered, but which I was obliged to stop and carefully study before I could write accurately."

Does not every girl reader perceive how this literary aspirant was giving herself the very training she required?

A very necessary point in magazine writing is to be able to say what you have to say in a given space. It is excellent practice to choose a subject, and allow yourself a certain number of sheets or lines in which to treat of it, rigidly adhering to the space assigned, while at the same time endeavouring to state the whole matter clearly, concisely, fully, and attractively. If the article fails in any one of these points, the author should regard it as she would an ill-worked problem in Euclid – only fit to be destroyed – and set herself to work out the problem over again. Does this seem very discouraging? Without such patient labour, no success can be hoped for.

And when our girl author has conquered the difficulties of composition, has acquired the art of expressing herself clearly and fluently, and has by a diligent course of reading acquainted herself with the views of distinguished thinkers upon all sorts of subjects, and learned moreover to think out a subject clearly and logically for herself, what more is required of her before she may attempt to send an article to an editor with a reasonable chance of success? Why, the practical application of the qualifications she already possesses to the subject she has in hand.

To explain more fully what I mean: it will be best to glance at the principal reasons why articles and stories intended for magazines meet with rejection, even when they are carefully and thoughtfully written. One great reason is inappropriateness of subject, or a treatment foreign to the expressed or understood policy and lines of the journal; and another, scarcely less important, is the matter of length, most amateur papers being written with an utter disregard to the nice balancing of articles and stories in a periodical journal which may be almost termed the alphabet of editorial work.

Here it is the powers of observation and discrimination must come in. The magazine writer must be able to observe what are the tendencies and scope of the journal she hopes to write for, and about what space is allotted to the kind of paper she proposes to write. She must then cast about for a subject, which, while being sufficiently original, will, she believes, be one likely to fall in with the editor's ideas of suitability; and everything depends upon her nice discrimination of this point. It is not so much what best pleases her as what is most likely to please that particular portion of the community for whose delectation the journal exists. This quick perception of the fitness of things is as invaluable as it is indispensible to a successful magazine writer.

So far I have confined myself to the consideration of magazine writing, because the field of literature is not only one of the widest and most diversified, but also because it yields the quickest return for a certain amount of labour. There are, I should say, few literary aspirants who would be so rash as to attempt the gigantic task of writing a book until they had gained some sort of footing by the publication of less ambitious efforts. The consideration of the best way to proceed with such an undertaken as a continued story or work of fiction is too wide to enter upon here, and must be reserved for a future article.

28 May 1881 - Answers to Correspondents - Miscellaneous

MAUD LEWIS wishes to know the names of "Female Hospitals' for Incurables. Without commenting this novel idea, we may suggest a few designed for incurables amongst others, perhaps, equally good, where women may be received when there are vacancies. The "Home for Confirmed Invalids," South House, Highbury Park South N.; weekly charge 10s; superintendent, Miss Warren. "Home for Incurable and Infirm Women" (over fifty years of age), 21 New Ormond-street, £25 per annum; Miss Twining. "St Elizabeth's Home for Incurables," 68 Mortimer –street; from £16 per annum and upwards.

LILY – Good riders ride safely and with greater convenience at the near side of their companion, but little girls, such as many of our correspondents, not trained as you appear to have been, can be the better taken care of if on the gentleman's off side, as his right hand is free for seizing her rein if necessary.

KANGAROO – To say "spoonful" is correct. You write very well.

AN ANXIOUS ONE – You ask a question often put and hard to answer. If not strong enough for service, there are few employments open for you. Being quick and accurate at accounts might be a recommendation. Look out for advertisements where bookkeepers in shops are wanted, or advertise for such a situation. Many girls are thus employed in bootmaker's, a butcher's, and other tradesmen's shops, besides libraries and fancy work stores.

HONEYSUCKLE – If she cannot get a change of scene, try to engage her in some active occupation. Has she no taste for needlework, if not for some out-of-door employment?

TOPSY – The face powder must have had white lead or other vile poison mixed with it. The powder used for babies is purest starch. Fuller's earth is also pure. But all powder interferes with the healthy action of the skin.

FACTORY GIRL – We are truly pleased to learn that our directions on many points have been found so useful to you and other factory girls in Scotland. The cookery hints, you remark, are more suited to England than to your country, where the diet of working people is plainer. There is the less need for lessons in cookery. Do not be offended when we advise you to spell more after the way in THE GIRL'S OWN PAPER.

BHAER – Exercise with dumb-bells or clubs may counteract the tendency to stooping, and plenty of exercise in the open air with cheerful companions will be useful for general improvement.

MAGGIE M – You had better consult a friend if you have no mother. The shoulder-blade can hardly be out-of-place without pain, but if the difference is so marked, something may be wrong.

17 July 1880 - 'Nursing as a Profession' by S.F.A. Caulfield

 I am given to understand that many of the readers of this paper are anxious to obtain all the information that can be procured on the subject of nursing, with a view to its selection as their vocation in life. The task of writing an article on this question is one of some little difficulty. Although regarding it as a grand profession, and one supplied with a staff most inadequate in numbers for a population such as ours, I decline the responsibility of recommending it, or of dissuading those disposed to join its ranks. According to the rough calculation made, and that probably under the mark, "to nurse the sick of all England properly, twenty-five thousand trained nurses, officered by one thousand fully-trained lady-superintendents, are required." In such hands with the work to be done could be fairly proportioned.

Before supplying any information as to the schools and hospitals in which the requisite training can be obtained,  the individual qualifications for a nurse should be carefully considered. These may be classed as mental, moral, and physical; each and all being indispensible in a "probationer."

Under the mental and moral she must possess good temper, self-control, patience, punctuality, cheerfulness, and a willing obedience to those in authority over her. Under the physical, good health, good sight, a delicate touch, quickness of hearing, dexterous fingers, cleanliness, and suitability of age. A chronic cough, a heavy tread, a tendency to faint, or to attacks of hysterics, any description of deformity, or repulsiveness in appearance and expression, would disqualify a candidate for permanent employment as a nurse.

Furthermore, it is only fair to those having so arduous a calling in contemplation, to prepare them for loss of rest, painful scenes, and the necessity  for the performance of every office that one human being could perform for another, both to relieve suffering, and to render the surroundings of a sick bed as comfortable and cheerful as possible.

No "fine lady" who calls any charitable service "menial work" should adopt such a vocation. And besides the trial of performing personally repugnant and painful duties, the ill-temper, ingratitude, and fretfulness of her charge must all be anticipated, and accepted patiently, as a part of the sacrifice that a nurse has to make.

Nursing should not be lightly undertaken, nor merely as a means of obtaining a livelihood. A competence, a home, an interest in life, and in some cases a small pension, are to be found by the professional nurse, but certainly not a fortune.

Judging from those whom I have seen or known, they seem to be happy and contented, and even cheerful; yet with a certain amount of gravity, which an intimacy with so much suffering must inevitably produce. But the cheerfulness can be quite as naturally accounted for in the fact that, they are able to assuage that pain, to aid so much in the cures effected, and to comfort the sad and sorrowful. You may now weigh the blessedness of the work against all its trials and self-denials, and then deliberately make your decision.

The profession is divided into three departments - viz., District Nursing, Hospital Nursing, and Private Nursing. Thus the intending nurse has some choice permitted her in the description of work to be done, and the external circumstances with which she would prefer to be surrounded. Beginning with the first-named departments - giving, as I consider, the severest description of work - I cannot do better than quote from Florence Nightingale, when she describes the extra labour incumbent on the "district nurse," over and above the personal attendance / sick. For instance, she goes into a dirty, squalid-looking room, and before she can hope for any change  for the better in her patient, she must "recreate the home," and "show it clean for once; sweep and dust away; empty and wash out the dirt; air and disinfect; rub the windows, sweep the fireplace; carry out, shake, and replace the scraps of carpet; lay them down again, fetch fresh water, fill the kettle, wash the patient and the children, and make the bed." Besides this she must "bring such sanitary defects as produce sickness and death to the notice of the public officer whom it concerns."

Having shown the dark side of the picture, I proceed to tell that the district nurse is well cared for when she returns to the home provided for her, and the pleasant companionship of those who have selected the same honourable profession. I need not enter into particulars, as the intending nurse should visit the several institutions where training is to be obtained. Let her see the home for herself, learn its rules, and take a view of the prospect which would open before her, as a probationer in one of the twenty-two institutions that train for themselves, or supply other hospitals.

The "Institution for Nursing Sisters" in Devonshire-square, is the oldest of the kind, and was established in 1840. It provides no less than 20 districts each with a nurse free of charge, but untrained; and trained ones for those who can pay for their services.

With the "Metropolitan and National Association' for providing trained nurses for the poor (free of charge) I have had some acquaintance, for through the kindness of Miss Florence Lees, late Superintendent-General of the institution, I have inspected every part of the central home in Bloomsbury-square. The four branch homes connected with it are all governed by the same regulations. In these houses candidates reside for a month on trial, and if suitable are passed on to the Hospital Training School, as "nurse probationers," to receive a year's training in hospital nursing. They are then returned to the Central Home to be trained in "district nursing," receiving technical class instruction during a period of three months, when, if found satisfactory, they are entered on a register, and placed on the staff of the association. A member so enrolled is expected to continue in the service of the association for three years, three months' notice being given on either side, should a termination of the engagement be desired. Nurse candidates have to pay £5 on admission to the home, to cover the expense of her board, lodging, and washing during the month of trial.

For the year's training in St. Thomas's Hospital Training School the probationers pay £15 on admission, and £15 after six months of residence and training. For this she will have full board, 1s 6d a week for washing, a uniform dress, a separate furnished bed-room, and the use of a common sitting-room. The instruction is paid for out of the "Nightingale Fund," but in case of dismissal, or of voluntary withdrawal the cost will be charged.

When the probationer returns to the home, after the year's training, she will have to pay in advance £14 for three months' training in "district nursing," class instruction, books, full board, and extras; 2s 6d allowance weekly for washing; a separate room (or compartment), and the general sitting-room. Once fully trained, and on the staff of the association, the nurse receives a salary, payable quarterly, of £35  for the first year, £38  for the second, and so on, increasing by £3 yearly until the sixth year, when it will amount to £50 per annum, in addition to their uniform dress, full board, separate bed-room, washing, etc.

From giving a sketch of the terms on which the candidate enters the "Metropolitan Nursing Association," I will give a general idea of those of other institutions. The age at which a candidate is taken varies between twenty-five and forty. At St. Thomas's Hospital she enters as a "Nightingale probationer," at a rising salary, beginning at £10, with partial uniform; and her services are at the disposal of the committee for a period of four years. Here ladies may be trained on a payment of a £30 premium, and after one year will receive a salary rising from £25 to £50, but they are expected to give their service for four years.

At the Royal Free Hospital (Gray's Inn-road) the nursing is done by the "Training School of Protestant Nurses," of Cambridge-place, Paddington, and probationers begin with a salary equivalent to fourteen guineas, rising to £25. Here they give a three months' training at the rate of £1 15s per week, or £30 for one year. In this latter case they are required to give their services for a period of two years extra.

At the Middlesex Hospital lady pupils are receives for not less than six months at one guinea a week. Probationers begin with a salary of £12, rising to £18 after the first year, and then by £2 yearly up to £26.

At the London Hospital "nurse probationers" receive £12 on admission, rising to £21; but they are not promoted to be "sisters." These latter are educated women entering as "sister probationers," whose salary begins at £25 six months after their admission. Both these and the nurses are required to remain three years in the hospital.

At King's College and Charing Cross Hospitals, probationers receive £15 per annum and their uniform. They are bound for three years' service, an engagement renewable for another three years, with a rising salary. Both hospitals are nursed by the community of "St. John's House," Norfolk-street, Strand. Pupil nurses for district work or other institutions are trained for six months at the rate of £24 per annum. Ladies also are trained for not less than three months at a rate of £50 per annum.

At Westminster Hospital probationers begin with £16 per annum. If willing to pay £52 for their training, they are not required to remain there beyond it.

At University College Hospital nurses receive £16 per annum, and everything found for them.

St Mary's Hospital, Paddington, trains gentlewomen and nurses desirous of qualifying for public appointments, or private nursing for one year. If required by the matrons so to do, they remain for fifteen months. They serve then as assistant-nurses, and are paid at the rate of £10 and uniform. Those who pass this year of probation satisfactorily are entered in a register, and recommended for employment.

The Deaconess Institution and Training Hospital will train women of known religious character gratuitously, if they propose to become deaconesses; and will supply them as nurses to public institutions at £12 per annum. (The Green, Tottenham, N.) These have a branch institution at Mildmay Park, and a hospital at Poplar.

The Institution of Nursing Sisters, in Devonshire-square, supply's Guy's Hospital, where the annual salary of sisters amounts to £50 and dresses, and which has a Superannuation Fund for them.

Nurses are also trained at St. Bartholomew's and other institutions in town, including the Children's Hospital (Great Ormond-street), where lady pupils are received of from 21 to 35 years of age, at one guinea a week; and nurses of from 17 to 35 years at 7s 6d a week, for not less than six months. At the London North-Eastern Hospital ladies are received for training at a guinea a week.

In Edinburgh and Dublin, at Liverpool, Manchester, Cambridge, Leeds, Winchester, Leicester, Rhyl, Nottingham, and elsewhere, training is to be obtained.

There are other descriptions of work connected with the profession of nursing, such as, for instance, tending the insane, into which it is not necessary that I should enter in this article. Were I to give my private opinion as to the nature of the work to be performed, in the three departments to which I have referred I should say that "district nursing" was the severest of all; hospital nursing ranking next, in the trying nature of its experiences; and private nursing the least troublesome, allowing, of course, for some exceptional cases.

I have only named a few of the training schools for intending probationers, amongst the twenty-two or more valuable institutions which exist in London or its suburbs. Of the "Bible and Domestic Female Mission" at 13, Hunter-street, of which Mrs. Ranyard was founder, I should have made a particular mention, but that our magazine is especially designed for young people, whereas the nurses connected with this missionary society are required to be nearly of middle age. Still, the young nurse may have this institution in view, as providing a sphere of usefulness for her of a two-fold character in her after life.

Of such a sacred vocation as that of nursing it may indeed be truly said that

"If it is twice blest;
It blesseth him that gives, and him that takes."

5 June 1880 - 'Sunday School Treats'

Who that has had anything to do with the management of Sunday schools cannot recall some protracted teachers' meeting convened at the beginning of summer to discuss the plans  for the children's summer treat? First there is generally a warm discussion as to whether they shall have a treat in the summer at all, or whether an entertainment in the winter would not be better; but when everyone else is thinking of their approaching holidays, it seems hard that the poor little children, particularly those in the back slums of our large towns, should not have one day's enjoyment of the fresh pure country air.

We think a change of air once a year to the country or seaside almost a necessity to the children of the higher classes, but hundreds of poor little creatures, cooped up all the year round in close rooms and narrow alleys, would never have a change of air, nor see the fields and lanes of the country at all, but for the annual excursions which have now become so general in all Sunday and ragged schools.

For children living in the country, who have plenty of fresh air all the year round, and a far larger share of healthy play than falls to the lot of the little ones in towns, there is much to be said in favour of winter treats instead of summer excursions. Being held in the schoolroom, there is not the fear that a storm of rain will damp the children's spirits and spoil their best clothing, and the anxious and responsible teachers are not kept in a constant panic by rumours that a boy has fallen into the river, or a girl is lost in the wood; and last, but by no means least, it is considerably less expensive. But, on the other hand, a very strong argument  for the excursions in the summer is that they afford a great, often the only, opportunity for a teacher to become on a friendly footing with the scholars. The lower classes of scholars are too apt to look upon their teachers, either secular or religious, as their natural enemies, only one grade less obnoxious than the policeman, and these holidays give us an opportunity of showing them, by entering heartily into their happiness, that we are their friends as well as their teachers; and, indeed, that religion, of which we are in their eyes the representatives, makes us better able to sympathise with others in everything, their enjoyments as well as their troubles.

In most schools the discussion ends in favour of the summer holiday, and if this conclusion is come to, the next question to be decided is "Where shall we go to?" the details and minor arrangements being usually left to a select committee.

It has been said that if Rome had been built by a committee it never would have become the mistress of the world, and happy the school which has one competent person who will undertake all the arrangements and so dispense with the endless discussion of a committee meeting.

But to return to the question of a desirable spot  for the excursion. This is generally a very knotty point, and a unanimous verdict in favour of any one place is as difficult to arrive at as though it were left to the decision of twelve stubborn jurymen. One timorous person puts his veto upon a lace, perfect in other respects, because it is too near the river, and children seem to make a  point of getting drowned if within a mile of water. Another has a ghastly tale of tell of youthful scholars, decoyed away by gipsies, when it is proposed to pitch their camp  for the occasion in a wood.

In choosing a suitable place the distance should always be considered, as the cost of conveyance is a serious matter to a poor school. Except in large towns, it is seldom necessary to travel far; the convenience of the place is the chief thing to be considered in the selection, for beauty and scenery are not so much the attraction to the children as the novelty of a picnic out of doors and of having a whole day with nothing to do but play. Nothing can be better than a large field, particularly if it contains a few trees, to which swings can be attached; for though in a limited space like a field it is necessary to provide more amusements, the extra trouble is more than compensated for by the comfort of knowing that all the children are safely under your eye and not getting into any of the mischief which children are so expert in finding out. Failing a regular field, we might put up with a common, or wood, or any private park which is open for parties.

One important consideration which must not be overlooked is the chance of obtaining shelter in case of rain. No one who has not suffered it can fully sympathise with the despair a teacher feels who has no means of sheltering the children, on seeing them huddled together during a heavy storm, like a flock of sheep, and looking very minute more wet through and miserable. One experience of this kind is generally quite enough to prevent its recurrence. It is most important that the superintendent, or some other competent person, should visit the place first to ascertain that there is a barn or room that can be used if required. If there is no such accommodation to be had, the best plan is to hire one or more large tents, the comfort of which will be found quite worth the outlay, and as the owner will always send men to put up and remove them, they are no trouble.

In the country, when a field can be had for the purpose close at hand, the greatest difficulty of these summer treats, that of conveying the children to their destination, is avoided, an advantage which country teachers cannot too highly appreciate. Comparatively few schools, however, are so fortunate; but there are contractors to be found in nearly all towns who will provide covered vans at a moderate cost, and most of the railway companies make special arrangements to convey schools at less than half price, so that the travelling expenses need not be so large as is generally imagined. The trouble and anxiety is a much more serious consideration, though if the teachers will all come forward t do their part even that is a very trifling matter.

It is generally arranged to meet at the schoolroom, when the children are divided into small parties, each party being assigned to the care of a teacher, who undertakes to see that they neither get into a wrong train nor are left behind altogether. This arrangement saves the superintendent a great deal of anxiety, and, indeed, if going by train, is almost a sine qua non.

And now, having reached our destination, how are we to amuse our young guests? As usual, the boys are most troublesome to cater for; but we generally succeed in making them very happy by providing some cricket-sets, a large ball for football (the goals have to be improvised on the spot), some bats for rounders, and any other games after which boy-nature is supposed to hanker. The number of each provided depends, of course, upon the size of the school.

In addition, we generally organise some jumping and running-matches, and other athletic sports. The prizes need not be at all valuable. We give simply a rosette of ribbon, which makes the winner proud and happy for the rest of the day, and is a most trifling expense to the school.

 For the girls we take balls and a quantity of rope, to be cut up into swings and skipping ropes, both single and long ones; but they are much more easily entertained than the boys, and are usually quite content with different games which do not require any materials providing. Here comes in a splendid opportunity for a teacher who is fond of any kind of natural history to persuade those who are tired of games to notice the different flowers and birds and insects around them, explaining a little about each. It will be found that some of the girls will think little walks with their teacher a delightful change after a surfeit of games.

By the time the children have played for a couple of hours they will probably begin to get hungry. In most schools who go  for the whole day no dinner is provided, but the children are expected to take their own; generally, however, their provisions are eaten, if not before their arrival, at least very shortly after it; so that when the proper dinner hour arrives they are very hungry and have nothing left to eat. In anticipation of this, it is customary to give each child in the middle of the day, either a large biscuit and cheese, or a thick slice of bread and butter, on the strength of which they can go till tea-time, which is generally about four o'clock. This meal, being the only one, is an important feature of the day; and the arrangements for it, unless it is contracted for, generally fall into the hands of one of the lady teachers.

When practicable, it is very much less trouble to put the whole thing into the hands of a contractor, who will provide a good tea, with crockery, tables and seats, for about sixpence a head; some of the large contractors do it for less. In consideration of the great saving of trouble and the little extra expense, this plan is much to be recommended.

For the assistance of those who are out of reach of these advantages, and compelled to manage the commissariat themselves, I will give a list of the average quantities supplied for 50 children.

Tea, 1lb; milk, five pints; sugar 4lb, bread, four quarterns; cake, 20lb, butter, 2lb.

If the children have not left home till after their dinner rather less than these quantities of bread and cake will be sufficient; but when they have been playing all day, with only such dinner as they take with them, their appetites become sharpened to a marvellous extent, and this supply will not be found at all too large.

The best time for treats has not been mentioned, but no rule can be given for it; as it must depend upon the convenience of the teachers, their presence in good numbers being of the first importance. Generally speaking, July is the favourite month, because as far as we can judge at all in our variable climate we expect more settled weather then than earlier in the year; there is also the advantage that the hay harvest being over, there is less difficulty in obtaining the use of a field.

31 January 1880 - 'On Earning One's Living - Fruitful Fields for Honest Labour' by S.F.A. Caulfield

"Into what pleasant fields do you propose to lead us?" I think I hear the query from the lips of many readers of this magazine. Here, in this dingy city of ours, the vision of fresh green glades and of strolls between fragrant hedges of hawthorn, clematis, honeysuckle, and eglantine make the heart bound. But alas! I cannot treat all of you to a pleasure exactly like this; yet, although my heading is only metaphorical, some of the plans which I shall suggest for earning your daily read may really lead you amongst these very fields and flowers.

With a hope that a few amongst you may some day find your way out of the noisy streets to a far more agreeable dwelling-place, I recommend you to turn your attention to a new society, called the "Ladies' Association for the Promotion of Horticulture, Food Industries and other Country Pursuits".

To keep bees and make a profit out of their honey - to raise poultry - to keep cows and have a dairy, and learn to make either butter or cheese, or else to take a situation in some great place as head manager of the dairy - to raise flowers for sale at the markets of large towns, or to undertake the charge of conservatories, winter gardens, pineries, and hothouses of all tropical plants - these are the industries which this Society will assist in placing at your service. Of course you will be taught in a thoroughly and scientific as well as practical way, and if you wish to know more of the new College about to be instituted for this purpose, you must make your inquiries at the office of the Society, 22, Berners-street, Oxford-street, London.

But many amongst you may have duties and ties at home, and those homes may be respectively fixed for a long time, if not for life, in London. All the same, there are, even there, charming and varied employments for your industrious fingers.

SCULPTURE IN WOOD

Is most delightful work - classes for teaching it are open to all, and an artist well able to direct the students superintends their labours. The Society of Arts opened the "National School of Wood Carving". You may hear all about the classes at 22, Bernes-street. The tools are not expensive, and if, in addition to skill in using them, you have any taste in designing patterns, you may get work in the trade from upholsterers, or private orders to sculpture panels, brackets, backs of pianos, backs of books, and portfolios, cabinets and picture-frames. There is now an excellent institution opened at 9, Conduit-street, called the "Institute of Art" where any such objects in wood-carving may be exhibited for sale by paying some trifle for their exhibition. I have done much in this most fascinating work, and certainly, as articles for bazaars held for charitable purposes, I never found any other work to sell half so quickly, or to fetch so high a price. Get a carpenter to prepare a piece of box-wood or walnut for you, or procure the kind of pieces you require at a fancy wood-carver's, and then draw your pattern upon it, or paste on a paper outline, and try the first cutting out with a small chisel and mallet. Then, if you find that you like the work, you would do well to join the classes I have named.

But I fancy that

ENGRAVING ON WOOD

Is likely to prove a more profitable business than carving, only it will require very good sight and a steady hand. Title-pages, headings for new chapters, decorative tail-pieces; armorial bearings, mottoes, and names for pasting inside the covers of books; portraits from photographs; facsimiles of sketches and copies of paintings - all these subjects provide work of a lucrative character for those who have learnt this beautiful art. Probably some of my readers will inquire - "Where could I obtain the needful instructions?" You can apply to the Secretary of the Lambeth School of Art, at 122, Kensington-road, should you like to join the technical class of wood engraving established there. But I should forewarn you that to be admitted to these classes you must qualify yourself first of all by obtaining a second grade certificate of the Science and Art Department. There is also a class held at 43, Queen-square, W.C.

Another sister art is

DESIGNING PATTERNS

For paper, for mouldings in wood or plaster, for carpets, for calico prints,  for the Indian or African export trade, or for home use, as well as for china-painting. Designers for muslin and Swiss lace curtains can get good employment.

CHINA-PAINTING

Is a means for making a living, or of assisting towards it, which deserves some notice on your part. As an example of what may be gained at this work, I may observe that for a well-painted plate you may earn from twenty to fifty shillings, possibility more. Ladies are engaged in decorative work on stone-ware at Lambeth Potteries, also at several large commercial houses in China and faience painting, and in a lower department at Lambeth many young girls paint stone-ware etc., for which they obtain a fair salary.

At the School of Art, South Kensington, there are instructions given in other branches of art work as, for example, glass-painting for slides, etc., engraving on glass, plain and coloured lithography, colouring of maps and botanical works, fan-painting, tile-painting, and drawing outlines on silk and velvet,  for the use of ecclesiastical or other embroiderers.

REPORTING AND SHORT-HAND WRITING

Afford a living to a moderate number of persons. The Government pays a guinea a day  for the taking of notes, and a shilling a folio is paid by Law and Parliamentary Committees (72 words in a folio); and when the work is executed out of town, two guineas a day, with travelling expenses.

I have already suggested horticulture as a profession, and now I may propose

AGRICULTURE.

You are not all required to live in the old home circle. As with the birds, the nest will not hold the young when they have grown old enough to build for themselves, and some amongst you may obtain permission to seek your livelihood in France or Switzerland; if so, you have a new field opened before you in those countries. At the Great Exhibition in the Champ de Mars, Paris, there were splendid specimens of all manner of fruit-trees raised by women agriculturists, from all parts of France, growing in great pots, or painted wooden tubs designed for city or garden decoration; textile plants from Algeria and the cloth made from them; and dried and preserved fruits, all women's work. There are no Government schools for this occupation, but in orphan refuges, and under the care of various communities, the business has been taught with great success. Amongst other parts, in the Gironde women are engaged in utilizing the sandy district between Bayonne and Biarritz. In the neighbourhood of Bordeaux there are societies of Farming Sisters and Gardening Sisters, and besides these I may also mention there are women who conduct laundries worked by orphans, by means of steam and all the latest improvements in machinery, and bake-houses also for those who prefer a dry, to a wet sphere for work.

But perhaps the most remarkable of all the institutions for teaching gardening and agriculture in France, and with astonishing success, is the Atelier Refuge of Darnetal, near Rouen, which began with so small a sum as eightpence, and a school consisting of two little girls from a reformatory, and now has more than 300 girls from six years old to eighteen; more than 400 acres of land cultivated entirely by the girls; a large house, infirmary, schoolroom, church, and a garden-house; and is worth no less a capital than £32,000. The two little girls of whom I spoke entreated to be taken back to prison, for they had no home nor friends, and the official lady-visitor, on consulting the chaplain of the jail at Rouen about them, followed his charitable advice to "look out for a room, buy a loaf and a candle - for to-morrow God will provide". And help did come, and by agriculture all these girls have been supported in a great measure, and have learned a way of support for their future lives. They dig, sow, reap, plant, mow, prune, plough, and cart home the hay and corn. Besides this, they spin, wind yarn, make read, butter, and cheese; they understand the cares of cattle, have 100 cows, more than 1,000 head of poultry, 23 horses, etc. I tell you all this to show what young girls can do, and I must also add that, although their hands are rough, they have no coarseness of manner - nothing really unfeminine about them; they are very neat in their dress, and many of them sing very sweetly.

In Switzerland the Government provides courses of lectures on farming and gardening to ladies, and at the present time there are 104 students, from 16 to 30 years of age, attending them; and they likewise teach all kinds of domestic arrangements - preserving, cooking, bleaching linen, etc. There are also similar schools in Denmark and Sweden.

I think I have said enough about agriculture, and may now give you a list of some of the other occupations for women which can be pursued indoors, as many girls could neither leave home altogether, nor possess the strength to bear exposure, even for directing out-door work as head of a farm or garden, nor the muscular power required for any really manual labour.

BOOK-BINDING

Is by no means a difficult business, and much taste may be displayed in the decorative department connected with it. I have tried my own hands on a volume, and think it would prove a fair means of earning some addition to a small income. Some hundreds of women are employed in London at this business, folders and binders earning from nine to twelve shillings weekly, and vellum binders from twelve to fifteen shillings. Ladies might set up an establishment of their own, and procure trade orders.

In the stationery department there is also work for women's hands. Envelope makers are paid from ten to twelve shillings, best black borderers from fifteen to twenty, and in the relief and coloured stampers, from twenty to twenty-five shillings weekly.

PAINTING ON PANELS

Can be very quickly learnt, and at but small expenditure; birds, flowers, and butterflies are the usual subjects selected for it.

MOSAIC WORK

Is another branch of female industry quite worth consideration, of which you might obtain some information at the "Ladies' Self-Help Institute" in Baker-street. I believe that the floor of the crypt of St Paul's Cathedral is paved with the mosaics made by the inmates of some Female Reformatory. But work of a very much finer and more delicate description would be more suitable for you; and if you pay a visit to the South Kensington Museum, perhaps your fancy may lead you to select the formation of pictures and portraits in coloured glass, when you have seen those full-length figures of illustrious men that surround the walls of one of the galleries. Finer work may also be accomplished, such as for inkstands, brooches, etc.

FLOWER-MAKING

Is not necessarily an unwholesome occupation, as care may be taken with regard to the colours employed. Left-handed people work better at this industry than others, unless very expert with both hands. A year's apprenticeship is requisite, and the wages for work done out of the house are from fifteen to twenty-five shillings a week, and in the house from twenty-five to fifty.

FRAME-MAKING AND GILDING

Is a pleasant occupation, and any one wishing for an insight into the work, and to see a woman thus gaining a living, can pay a visit to 24, High Street, Camden-town, where a woman carries on this business and works  for the trade.

Yet one more branch of art-work, and I will turn to a different class of employment; I refer to

REPOUSSE BRASS-WORK

For which you may find an opening in a "Rococco" shop. I believe that this is not more difficult than caring in ivory, another delightful occupation, accomplished by very fine instruments and the assistance of a lathe. From the editor of the Women's Gazette (42, Somersetshire-street, Portman-square) you can easily ascertain further information about it.

I need scarcely speak of the schools of cookery and needlework, as stepping-stones to the profession of teacher or the trade of a manual worker, so much has already been written about both. But I will make an exception in the case of needle-work, and that is to draw attention to the great opening there is for

SEAMSTRESSES,

Who will go out by the day at a moderate price - say, at from 2s to 2s 6d, and their board - an ample remuneration. These persons should be able to sew well by hand, and machine; turn or remake dresses; make or mend linen, or do upholstery work; good fitters, and be able to trim a bonnet delicately and with good taste. Such useful workers as these are inquired for in all directions, and few, alas, are the recommendations that can be given.

School teachers, like governesses are increasing in alarming numbers. Do not turn your thoughts in that direction, unless seriously disposed - as I hope some of you will be - to select one or two branches in an educational career that I shall now propose. In the first place, if you are fond of children, the

KINDERGARTEN SYSTEM OF TEACHING

Is not overstocked wit aspirants like the others. A college  for the training of students is established at 31, Tavistock-place, W.C. Should you make up your mind to adopt such a profession as a teacher under this system, you must be prepared to pay £20 a year in fees.  For the second year, however, you will get some return for your work - if you have succeeded in "qualifying".

The other branch of educational work to which I very earnestly direct your attention is that of

TEACHING DEAF MUTES,

Not by the finger alphabet, nor by the language of signs, but by the wonderful art known as "Lip-reading". If any of you would like to know how a deaf mute can read each word you utter by watching the movements of your lips only, and if you would like to hear those poor little afflicted children utter words in reply to sounds they have never heard from you, and in the distinct tones of their own voices, which they never can hope to hear, I recommend you to write to a lady who devotes her life to the work of teaching some gentlemen's children - all mutes when they come to her - and ask her permission to call, and see how she teaches them at her house in South Kensington (89, Holland-road). This lady (Miss Hull) will give you all the information you would require should you wish to enter the new college instituted for training teachers of the deaf. There is a great opening for them in this country, as well as abroad; and teachers who would go out as governesses for them would be far better paid than any others. But patience is one of the chief virtues - perhaps the most essential of all - that a teacher must bring with her into such a situation. It is so long before the mute can e made to understand what is meant by the first signs that are to lead the way to his learning even the names of the objects he sees, not to mention the far greater difficulty of understanding a conversation, and then of speaking himself.

The

DISPENSING OF MEDICINE

Has of late years been carried on by women, and very suitably so; but whoever undertakes such a profession should possess great steadiness of character, thoughtfulness, cautiousness, punctuality, and presence of mind. She should be very methodical also - in fact, such a position of grave responsibility should not be undertaken without serious consideration as to personal suitability, however competent she may be in point of attainments. To the daughter of a general practitioner, who has a dispensary of his own, training for such a profession would incur little expense, and she might also have facilities  for the study of botany in her country walks. Women are by law admitted to the examination entitling them to keep a chemist's shop and practice this calling; and since October last women have been admitted as members of the Pharmaceutical Society.

If you would like to attend the lecture of the "Pharmaceutical Society" you can pay your fees, amounting to £4 4s, and avail yourself of them at their offices, 17, Bloomsbury-square. Both lectures and laboratory course are open to women at the South London School of Pharmacy, 325, Kensington-road, and this is the only place where you may fully qualify  for the examination that will enable you to open a dispensary and practice. The expenses  for the whole course, which extends over a year, amount to about £15.

I have said nothing of

MILLINERY,

But should at least observe that second-rate workers out of the house can, in the six busy months, make from £1 to £3 weekly, and in the first-class from £30 to £120 per annum. Much money is also made in dressmaking, although so few women appear capable of fitting well. Any ladies, however, who have a fancy for leaning, with a view to profit, or otherwise, should apply to the "Ladies' Dressmakers Association",42, Somerset-street, Portman-square.

There is a ladies'

LAW-COPYING

Office at 12, Portugal-street, Lincoln's-inn, conducted by two ladies, where all necessary instruction is given, and a good engrosser can earn from 17s to £2 a week. After two or three years of training, clerkships may be obtained from £30 to £40 per annum

NURSING

Is a good vocation, and one desiring to devote her life to it will have a large choice of institutions wherein to select her home, with a salary rising up to £50 per annum, food, fire, uniform, and some other perquisites, winding up with a pension for old age. But the fatigue and hardships are great, and many women are unsuited to do more than nurse their own families and relatives.

PAINTING IN WATER COLOURS

Here is a very large field for female labour and art, and it has many branches, such as painting from nature, both figure and landscape; but especially in flower painting do ladies appear to excel. Witness the many choice and valuable examples in the exhibitions of the "Society of Lady Artists", the Grosvenor, and other galleries every year. A very large and increasing demand is also arising for cheap spirited handwork for valentines, birthday and Christmas cards. Miniature painting also offers a wide scope, and now that it is so frequently painted on a photographic basis, that knowledge of drawing, formerly indispensible is not so much required. A lady may easily earn from one to three guineas when she has once mastered the touch required for this kind of work. An immense quantity of photographs are retouched in black and white only, which is nice and comparatively easy work.

OIL PAINTING

Many ladies find it easier to work in oil colours than in water colours, and although the latter is the cleaner of the two, the former has its advantages in greater brilliancy and durability. As regards painting photographs, any one who can paint them well in oil is certain of a very handsome income indeed.

I have but taken a rapid survey of some of the various occupations by which you could spend a useful life, earn a livelihood, or add to the pecuniary means you possess. I trust that while giving but an imperfect sketch of these far-differing fields of women's work, I have said enough to inspire some amongst you to make good use of your head and hands, either for your own support, or  for the good and comfort of others.

9 May 1891 - 'A Servant's Wedding Outfit' by Maude Robinson

I am not certain whether this article is genuinely how Maude Robinson, a servant, budgeted for setting up as a married woman. In the article she refers to herself as Ellen, so it could be one of the GOP's "life advice in form of a short story" pieces.

We have had plenty of good hints in the Girl’s Own Paper for the outfits of girls who need evening dresses and white satin wedding gowns; but so many of the readers are working girls, that perhaps it will not be amiss to explain to them how I managed to get such a comfortable outfit when Richard and I settled down in our cottage home.

When I came to consider what I needed, I found that I had more than £50 in the Post Office Savings Bank.  That seems a great deal for a girl of twenty-six, whose wages have never been more than £16 a year, but I will tell you how I managed.

I always had an idea of saving, since a poor old lady, a cousin of our next door neighbour’s, who came out of the workhouse on visiting days, used to tell me her story.

She had been a very good cook, taking her £20 or £25 a year for many years, until rheumatic fever came, and crippled her poor hands so that she could not even tie her bonnet-strings, or lift her tea-cup for herself.  She had no home to go to, and only £3 or £4 in hand, so that at thirty-five there was nothing before her but the workhouse infirmary for the rest of her life.

“But what did you do with so much money?” I asked her once, for £20 sounded like a fortune to my childish ears.

“I just squandered it away, my dear,” she said sadly, “on pretty clothes, and treats, and excursions, for myself and my friends.  My fellow-servants always praised me for being so open-handed, but not one of them ever comes to see me now.  If ever you go to service, Ellen, be sure and put by a bit for a rainy day,” and her eyes would fill with tears.

I have been fortunate in having no call to spend my savings.  My health has always been good, so that I have had no doctor’s stuff to pay for.  My parents are not old, and father has good, regular work as a gardener, so that I have never needed to help them, though many a useful garment for the little ones have I made with my sewing machine of an evening out of my own clothes, which were no longer fit for use in service, to save my mother’s yees, which are weak, and she has plenty of mending to do without making.

These quiet opportunities for needlework have been a great saving to me.  In each place I have had, I have found time to make all of my clothes except my very best dresses; and having been well drilled in needlework, both at school and at home, it is no trouble to me.

“My places have all been in my native town, so little money has gone for travelling, although I have always gone the summer-trips of our Temperance Society, which is generally to the sea-side thirty miles away. 

I do not mind confessing that another motive for saving has been that I always thought a good outfit was such a nice thing for a girl if she got married, especially since I helped our Miss Ethel make and pack her pretty trousseau when she left us for a new home in the north of England.

Since Richard and I made up our minds, two years ago, I have actually saved nearly £24, by careful repairing and contriving, in order to have plenty to spend when the important time came.

Mistress has always given each of us a black merino dress each Christmas, and I must say that the visitors have been very liberal to me, although I am sure that I have never put myself forward to get their “tips”, as some ill-mannered servants do.

I was not quite thirteen when I first went to service.  I had done well at school, and there were plenty of mouths to feed at home without a great hungry growing girl as I was then.

So mother fitted me out as well as she could, and I started in life as a maid-of-all-work as M Shaw, the greengrocer’s, at the other end of the town, for the small wage of a shilling a week.

My mistress, who had several children, was very strict and particular.  She had been in good service herself, and knew just how things ought to be done.  She as kind, too, in her way, and took pains to teach me my work, and to keep my clothes mended up of an evening.

But it was my master whom I remember with most gratitude.  He was a cheerful, jovial sort of man, and often softened even his fault-finding with a joke.  It was he who put me in the way of the Post Office Savings Bank.

On my thirteenth birthday, my mother, who thought I should be feeling homesick, sent me a little parcel, with some apples and lardy cakes, a pair of woollen gloves, and a sixpenny story-book.  How pleased I was, to be sure!  When Mr Shaw saw me with them he said, with one of his merry twinkles, “You have been a good girl this three months, Nellie, so I think we must give you a book too. You shall come with me and get it after tea, if the missus can spare you for five minutes.”

I thanked him heartily, privately thinking that five minutes was not much to allow for a visit to the bookseller’s.  But when the time came, he led me into the Post Office next door, put down half-a-crown, and before I understood what was being done, an account was opened in the name of Ellen Williams, and the thin, buff-coloured book was handed to me.  I was so pleased, for I knew that father wanted me to begin to save as soon as possible.  The account being opened on my birthday, has made it easy for me to remember to send my book to be made up, as you have to do on each anniversary.

It was not much that I managed to put by in that place, although Mrs Shaw soon raised my wages to two shillings a week, for, like most girls of my age, I grew out of my clothes and wore out my shoes terribly fast; but at the end of two years I had added seven-and-sixpence to my good master’s “nest egg”.

When her eldest daughter left school, Mrs Shaw gave up keeping a servant, and she got me a place with Mrs White, a widow lady with a large family, where I was to have £7 a year.  I was the only servant there too, but no one was idle in that house.  All the family were in business, or at school, but they all lent a hand to the necessary work.  Even the little girls made their own bed before totting off to school, and the young gentlemen were not a bit above blacking their own boots of an evening in the privacy of the scullery, and yet I am sure they were real gentlefolks, both in birth and manners.

When they were fairly started for the day, Mrs White and I were very busy.  She always worked with me, and taught me what I did not know, and to be sure there was plenty for us to do, cooking and cleaning, washing and ironing, mending and making – there seemed no end to it; and yet we always did get through comfortably by Saturday night.

My mistress was a clever, managing woman, and now that I have a home of my own, I am thankful that I had those five years with her, and especially to have learnt her thrifty ways, and tasty, inexpensive cooking.  She gave me a rise each year up to £10, to beyond which her small income did not allow her to go; but I managed in those five years to bring my banking account up to a little over £11.  £3 of this i withdrew, when I was about nineteen, and with my mistress’s approval bought a good lockstitch hand sewing-machine.  She had taught me to use hers, and often had allowed me to do the longer seams of my own garments upon it, so I thought best to buy myself one of the same sort.  I was so proud of that machine when it was new!  It has proved a good friend to me, and must have done miles of stitching in the seven years I have had it.

When I was just twenty, Mrs White decided to take all her family to Australia.  She had relatives in Adelaide, who promised the young people better prospects than they had here, and they were all eager to go.  So my mistress disposed of her furniture, packed her boxes, and started on the long voyage, leaving me very sorrowful at parting from as true a friend.

But she did not forget me among all her business, for before she left she procured for me an excellent place as house and parlour-maid with a cousin of her own, Mrs Leslie, at “The Cedars”.

I had £14 a year from the first, which was liberal of my new mistress, considering that so much was new to me – the waiting at table, the plate and lamp cleaning, and the care of so much handsome furniture.

When I had been there three years, my wages were raised to £16, and then I treated myself to a nice little silver watch, a thing I had long wished for.

When we decided last Easter that we would look to being married in September, we talked over ways and means.  Richard had savings enough to pay for all the main furnishings, and being a carpenter, he made many useful things.

He said if he paid ready money down he should get a good discount – “No hire system for him, making you pay far more than the goods are worth, and having the weekly payments hanging over your head like a nightmare!”

I said I would undertake all the house-linen and crockery for my share, and began, with mother’s help, to make lists of all that I would need.  I did not mean to spend all my savings – “rainy days” may yet come; and if it please God to grant us little ones, the money will come in handy for the extra expenses which they bring.

I had a grand time for getting on with my shopping and work, for my master’s family were away the whole of July and August; and the mistress, knowing what I had in hand, usually gave me leave to go out as much as I liked.

One of my first visits was to my friend, Lizzie Brown, a member of our Bible Class, who supports her invalid mother by dress-making.

I took up a piece of oversewing to help her while we talked.  I told her that I had decided to get two good stuff dresses to begin with, and she said at once, “I tell you what, Nellie, if you can get them soon, I will make them at leisure times, and only charge you five shillings for each of them.  I wish I could afford to make them for nothing, but the lower price is all I can give you by way of a wedding present, for we have had so many extra expenses lately”.

So we settled that I should get a nice grey cashmere for a wedding dress, which would do for Sundays next summer, and a grey bonnet to match.  I have a fancy for bonnets, being tall, and broadly-built hats are not becoming to me.  Lizzie made me the bonnet, and put some bows of narrow pink velvet in it, and made one for the neck of the dress.  This, with grey silk gloves, and the white flowers which our young ladies brought me, made as pretty a set-out as nay bride in my station in life could desire.

For the second dress, which was my Sunday one for the coming winter, I chose a blue serge, which kind Lizzie took the trouble to braid for me, and I bought an excellent cloth ulster for 18s. 6d. at a sale.

I had two very good stuff dresses by me, and four cotton ones; but these were very light, and I thought, through the winter, when drying was bad, I should not want one of them added to the necessary washing every week; so I put them by for summer wear, and bought an every-day dress of old-fashioned brown linsey.  This only cost 10s and I made it myself, with full sleeves and wrist-bands.  There was a loop inside these, and a little button on each shoulder, so that I could fasten them right up when at work, and yet they would come down in a moment for meals, and to answer the door.

I made the skirt short, to avoid getting draggled when I was in and out of the garden feeding the fowls or hanging out the clothes.  I cannot tell you what a comfort that warm substantial dress  has been to me already.

I did not need a good jacket – indeed I Had a very good stock of half-worn clothes to go on with.  A hat I brought last winter only needed a shilling’s worth of ribbon to make it nice for every day, and I got a black fancy straw bonnet, lined it with a piece of velvet which I once had on a hat, and trimmed it with a handsome scarlet and black ribbon, for Richard likes to see something bright and cheerful.

The new things which I needed were the following.

Grey cashmere dress - £1 3s 6d
Grey bonnet – 5s 6d
Serge dress – 17s
Dressmaking – 10s
Linsey dress – 10s
Ulster – 18s 6d
Winter petticoat – 6s
Six nightdresses – 12s 9d
Six combinations – 9s
Two flannel petticoats – 6s
Three flannel vests – 6s
Three flannelette vests – 3s
Four large aprons – 3s
Two pairs of stays – 6s 6d
Six pairs of stocking at 1s 6d – 9s
Twelve handkerchiefs – 5s 9d
One pair of boots – 10s 6d
One pair of shoes – 7s 6d
Bonnet and hat trimming – 4s 3d
Two pairs of gloves – 3s 4d
Collars and necktie – 2x 3d
Cottons, tapes, etc – 8d
Total - £9

My clothes finished, I turned my attention to the house linen, and with the help of my good sewing-machine soon made it all more strongly and neatly than any shop-made things.  We had only two bedrooms to furnish, and I bought two gay-striped Austrian blankets to lay over the beds in winter.

Two pairs of blankets at 15s - £1 10s
One small pair of ditto – 8s 6d
Two Austrian blankets – 15s
Two counterpanes - £1 1s
Four pairs of sheets - £2
Two tablecloths at 10s - £1
Two ditto at 5s – 10s
Twelve pillow cases – 6s 6d
Twelve huckaback towels – 9s
Six Turkish towels – 4s 6d
Four toilet covers at 1s 3d – 5s
Kitchen and pudding clothes – 4s 6d
Window blinds – 2s 6d
Two pairs of white curtains – 10s
Two red tablecloths – 6s 6d
Total - £9 17s 6d

These prices are by no means the cheapest at which the different articles might be had, but I had seen in my places of service how much more satisfactory is the wear of eally good material, so I resolved to buy only such.

Besides these things, I made up many useful odds and ends out of scraps I had by me – iron-holders and dusters out of pieces of print, oven-cloths from the best parts of worn-out working aprons, and a couple of house-flannels from a very thin old petticoat quilted together.

When it came to choosing the crockery, I had two pleasant surprises.  Master and mistress said they must give me something after six years of faithful service, and chose a dinner set.  It is a real beauty, with a brown pattern on a cream-coloured ground, and such a number of plates and dishes.

Then the cook, who is a quiet middle-aged person, insisted on spending 14s on a lovely pink tea-set for me.  I protested that it was far too much, but she only laughed and said she should feel free to come and dink tea out of it very often, as she has no relations in our parts to go to on her Sunday out.

These presents saved me so much that I felt justified in buying what I had longed for, but had felt I ought not to afford, namely, a small mangle and wringer combined, which saves so much work on washing day.

But the tea-set was far too pretty for daily use, so I bought six strong blue cups and saucers, some plates and dishes, a brown earthenware teapot, six different-sized jugs, some basins and pie-dishes, kitchen tins, knives, spoons and forks.  Two sets of bedroom china cost me 15s, and I brought sets of blacking and black-lead brushes, brooms, a good scrubbing brush, some tin candlesticks, and a strong double-burner lamp.

I had little need to spend on ornamental things, for our young ladies gave me some framed pictures, and the little boys a pair of vases; master’s old aunt sent me a plated teapot, and my Bible Class teacher a nice little clock, besides smaller gifts from my relations, and from Richard’s brothers and sisters.

I bought and trimmed a new brown bonnet for my mother, and gave my little twin sisters new pale pink gingham frocks, white sailor hats, and white cotton gloves; and with their long fair hair (which they generally wear in pigtails) all brushed out, they made as pretty a pair of little bridesmaids as you could wish to see, and very proud they were of their office.

After all this, I still had £20 in the Saving Bank, which gives one a very comfortable feeling in looking forward to the future; and I have the satisfaction of knowing that for years to come I shall need next to nothing from Richard’s earnings for my personal needs, and that many of the household goods which I have bought will, with careful using, be comforts all my life.

8 March 1884 - 'A Few Hints on Nursing for Our Girls' by A Hospital Nurse - Part 1

The fact that almost every woman has at some time to act as a sick-nurse is generally acknowledged, but only very little provision is made for training our girls to be intelligent and efficient aids to the doctor, when their turn comes to take the management of a sick room.  I wish on this occasion as a nurse of some experience to address the readers of THE GIRL’S OWN PAPER as young nurses, and to give a few simple hints which may be useful either in attending sick friends, or on meeting with some of those cases of accident to which we are liable every day of our lives; cases in which a little knowledge and presence of mind may avert a great deal of trouble, sometimes may save even life itself.

To begin with, I have a piece of encouragement to give you as inexperienced nurses, if you are suddenly called upon to act.  Remember that loving care, unselfishness, and obedience will make up for a great deal.  If you can get your patient to like your attendance, and not to object to receive your assistance when necessary, you may, by obeying your doctor in every point, carry through a case very creditably without regular training.  Still, study and experience are not to be undervalued; for one thing, even if you have had but a little, it is a comfort to yourself to know that you have at least a fair idea how things ought to be done from having done them before, or having seen others do them.  I know from personal experience that even when the patient and friends are satisfied, and the doctor complimentary, there is yet a keen sense of incompetence, or at least of uncertainty; a feeling that if so-and-so had been done otherwise it would have been better; a haunting fear of something absolutely necessary for the well-being of the patient being left undone.  This is all very foolish.  When we go into hospital for training, we learn that what we have to do is carry out orders; not to originate, or to fancy that things have been forgotten.

However, we must come now to practical matters.  Suppose you have a member of your family laid up at home with a bad knee and the doctor orders a blister, would you know how to apply it?  First be sure you know the exact place where it is to go on.  Some doctors mark it on the patient’s body, and it is a very good plan.  The place should be washed clean, of course, leaving the mark.  When you get the blister-plaster, if there is a little bit of stuff like silver paper over the flies (the brown part), take it off before applying, unless the patient’s skin is exceedingly tender.  Warm the blister slightly, holding the back to the fire.  The doctor will tell you about how long it is to stay on and the signs by which you will know when it is to be taken off.  The ointment for dressing the blister should be spread upon a piece of lint or old linen cut to the right size before the plaster is removed.  Have a pair of sharp scissors ready or, failing them, a needle will do.  Then take the blister off as gently as you can without dragging.  The best way to do this is to take it with both hands and draw it towards the middle from the edges.  Have a piece of cotton-wool or old linen to catch the “serum” as the fluid that runs out is called, and if the blister has risen much it may be well to put a saucer underneath to save the sheets.  In hospitals there are trays for such purposes.  Snip or prick the blister at its lowest part, and the fluid will run out.  If possible, do not let any flow over the healthy skin, as it is apt to scald.  You may help it out with a little gentle pressure.  There will be some dead loose skin.  Opinions differ as to whether it should be cut off at first or not.  It will come away in time.  It is always removed if the blister is to be kept “open”; but the doctor will explain this to you.  By keeping it open I do not mean leaving it uncovered; this is never done.  I mean keeping up the irritation by means of some smarting ointment.

A blister should be dressed at least every morning and evening until the place heals up.  In some parts of the body the dressing will keep its place if laid on, but it is generally well either to bandage it loosely or to fasten it down with two or three strips of strapping or diachylon plaster.  If you use this for any purpose, heat it first by holding the back – the linen side – to the fire, or by putting it round a vessel of hot water.  Otherwise unless the skin is very hot it will not stick.

Sometimes a poultice has to go on when the blister comes off.  In this case if you have to attend to all yourself, you must open the blister first, and cover the place with a piece of lint or old linen, while you make the poultice, which would be quite cold if you made it first, besides, it does not take long to prepare, and ointment is often very tedious to spread.

If you are set to make a poultice and are not in good practice, do not be afraid of having it too hot.  It is much more likely to be too cool with all your pains.  Do not be afraid, either, of having it too big if for a surgical case.  In poulticing the breast cut a hole for the nipple.

First spread out your linen or whatever you are going to spread upon so as not to waste time after the poultice is mixed, then scald out the vessel in which you are going to make it.  Throw away that water and pour in some more, as much as you think will do, from a kettle hissing and boiling furiously, put your meal in by degrees, stirring it in quickly until you have a thick smooth paste with no dry meal at the edges of the bowl.  Always stir in the same direction, not backwards and forwards.  Turn out on your linen and spread it evenly, about a quarter of an inch in thickness; cut the edges straight, leaving a good margin of linen to turn in like a hem.  The linen should be double.  I have often seen poultices spread on lint, but it is great extravagance, for large ones, at any rate.  Tow does very well for the purpose, but is requires some practice to lay it properly, and a badly-made tow poultice is very uncomfortable.  Dipping the knife or spatula into boiling water makes it easier to spread the meal.

When taking off a poultice or any dressing, if it sticks never drag it; moisten it slightly with warm water and it will come away.  If a poultice is likely to remain a good while unchanged, and is over an open sore, a very little oil spread upon it will keep it from sticking.  Some people recommend oil with all linseed poultices.  I do not.  It is hard to put little enough, and it is rather dirty.  A properly made poultice ought not to stick, but in a case where one might not like to disturb a patient during the night I should use oil, as if left on many hours a poultice is apt to get dry.

A mustard poultice is an old-fashioned remedy for cold on the chest.  The approved way to make it was to use cold water, and spread it on brown paper with a little bit of muslin over the front to protect the skin.  This could not be kept on long.  Perhaps ten minutes or a quarter of an hour is as long as one could bear it from the time it is first felt.  Nowadays I generally see linseed meal mixed with the mustard, or mustard leaves are used.  They are very good and clean and easily applied.  When you take off a mustard leaf lay a folded pocket-handkerchief or a piece of old soft linen over the place.

The nicest way of making a bread poultice that I know is to grate up stale bread in a colander, pour a little boiling water upon it, and stir it up with a knife.  It takes much less water than you would think, as it should be a pretty stiff paste, and if sloppy it is no good and will fall to pieces before coming off.  With a little oil spread over it, it is a very soothing application but this does not make a very hot poultice.  If heat is required, and you use bread, first scald out your vessel, put in a little boiling water and then some coarsely crumbled bread, stir it, and leave by the fire or in the oven to soak for five minutes or so.

Most extraordinary mistakes have been made about blisters and poultices, though they seem simple things.  It is not fair, however, to expect people to know what they have never been taught.

Not long ago I left a blister on a patient, and asked his wife, a middle-aged woman, if she knew what to do when the time came to take it off.  She told me that she had never seen a person blistered but once, and then she fainted.  The first blister I put on, many years ago, did not rise.  If it had risen I should certainly not have known how to treat it, though probably some one in the house could have told me.  It is, however, very stupid and very wrong of people nursing the sick not to ask for directions in a case of this kind if they are not quite sure that they know what to do.  In some arts we learn a good deal by one of our own mistakes, but a nurse’s mistakes mean suffering to her patient, and this being the case she ought never to be ashamed to confess ignorance and ask for instructions. 

A clever person not long ago who was too lazy or too proud to ask for directions in a simple matter, set about making a linseed poultice by blending up the meal with cold water – I suppose with a vague idea of making starch.  If it ever reached the spreading stage it must have been a nice sticky mess.  Many years ago a doctor in the North of Ireland, prescribing for one of his out-patients, gave the wife a blister, a bottle of medicine, and some other things that were required, with, as he thought, full directions how to use them.  Calling a few days afterwards to see how the man was getting on, he found that the woman had put all he had given her into a saucepan and boiled it, giving the mess afterwards to the patient as a dose.  The doctor said that the man would most certainly have been poisoned, only that the flies of which the blister was composed made him very sick, and he brought the whole thing up, so that after all no great harm was done.

Fomentations or stupes are often ordered to relieve pain.  There is a particular kind of material called spongio-piline used in hospital for the purpose, but a stupe can be made quite well by wringing out coarse flannel in boiling water.  If not wrung every day, a fomentation is about the most miserably uncomfortable thing that can be imagined, and is almost certain to give the patient cold.  A good way to prepare one is get a strong towel and lay iyt over a wash-hand basin; then lay your flannel in the towel, and pour boiling water upon it until it is well soaked.  By twisting the ends of the towel in opposite directions, you will not scald your hands, and you will be able to wring the flannel dry.  Two people can prepare a fomentation much more easily than one.  To relieve acute pain opium is sprinkled on the flannel before applying, and turpentine is sometimes ordered as a counter-irritant.  If the stupe is to be plain hot water, bring the flannel to the bedside in the towel so as to keep it as hot as possible, shake it up just before applying, and it will keep warm much longer.  Fold a dry towel and lay it over the fomentation when you put it on.  In hospitals a piece of waterproof material is generally used for this purpose.  Sometimes these stupes have to be changed very frequently, but the doctor will tell you this.  If you have many to prepare it will be worthwhile to make a regular “wringer”, by running a stick or lath into a hem at each end of the towel.  By twisting these sticks in opposite directions, you can wring with little or no fatigue.  The wrists soon get tired doing it the other way.

When a doctor asks you any question about yourself or anyone else, be quite sure you understand what he means.  If you do not, tell him so.  I remember once hearing a girl unintentionally quite deceiving a physician about a shivering fit she thought she had had; it was probably just a little chilliness, but she made herself out so very much worse than she really was, that he thought she must have had a severe rigor, as it is called, and sent her to the fever hospital, where, I believe, they rather laughed at her and sent her away in a day or two as having nothing the matter.

Another thing: When you get a prescription made up at a dispensary, be sure you understand how the medicine is to be given.  Doctors have ways of their own of writing directions, meant for the dispenser, not for you.  A girl once brought me a piece of paper that had been given her with a bottle; from having been some time in the hospital as a nurse I could explain it to her, but before I went I could have made nothing of it.  In most of the London hospitals I believe they have printed labels for all the bottles, “Take two tablespoonfuls three times a day” and so on.  It is a good plan and ought to be universally adopted.  If you do not understand the directions, however, and ask the dispenser, he will always tell you when and how the physic is to be taken.

There are a few simple things to be noticed in giving medicines that you may as well understand.  It may perhaps be an unnecessary caution to tell you if you are directed to give, say, a tablespoonful of anything, only to measure it in the spoon and bring it to the patient in a cup or glass.  I have known a spoon put to the sick person’s lips with the dose.  A moment’s thought will convince you that is a most slovenly and uncomfortable proceeding.  Always wash your cup and spoon immediately after giving medicine.  If you have to give castor oil, first rinse your vessel and spoon in cold water; then put your milk, or brandy-and-water, or whatever you are going to give it on, into the glass, measure the oil in a spoon, and pour it as carefully as possible into the middle of the glass, not letting a drop touch the sides.  It is well to pour out castor oil near the patient, as carrying it across a room is apt to shake it up . When it is desirable to make the oil act quickly it should be stirred up in hot water.  This must be a most abominable dose; but, given as I have described, castor oil need not be hard to take at all.  However, some children, and grown people too, are very obstinate, and if this medicine is ordered will point-blank refuse to take it.  For them we had a plan in hospitals of shaking the oil up with about twice the quantity of peppermint-water in a soda-water bottle.  Any bottle, of course, would do, provided it was clean and big enough.  It takes a good deal of shaking until it comes into a sort of creamy stuff.  It seems to me that this would be far nastier than the oil in its usual form; but I am bound to say that I have seen a boy who would roar for half an hour if you suggested castor oil in his hearing, but would take this mixture without the slightest fuss.  A nurse, who has had large experience, told me that she never knew a child object to it.

Sometimes when a pill is ordered for a patient one is rather put aback by the statement that he or she never did and never could swallow such a thing.  I have sometimes been able to persuade one of these incompetent people to try a very simple plan, which I never knew to fail even with a small pill, which is more difficult to swallow than a big one.  Put it back as far as possible on the tongue, and take a drink of water; it is almost sure to go down.  In case of a child, however, or a patient who is determined that he cannot take a pill on any terms, the best way i s to scrape it up and mix it with a little sugar in a teaspoon.  Then, of course, there is no further difficulty. 

15 March 1884 - Answers to Correspondents - Miscellaneous

It's kind of like Jeopardy!, isn't it.  The questions themselves are anybody's guess.

D.P. – Certainly; no one, employer or not, has the smallest right to take possession of another person’s private letters, whether picked up in their house or obtained by other means, and whether with or without her knowledge.  It is possible that, under certain peculiar circumstances, such as the recognition of a son’s writing and discovery of a clandestine correspondence with one enjoying their confidence, thus dishonourably abused, they might be tempted to act in a manner equally dishonourable on their part.  But this betrayal of their confidence confers no legal right on them to steal or read the letters.  Their proper course would be to present them unopened and unread to the governess, and to say that the writing outside being recognised, they must request, for the sake of the mutual regard between all parties, that an explanation be given.  But either to read, to retain, or to obtain any letter “privately” would be highly reprehensible.  But we are only suggesting exceptional circumstances.  In your case you should write and say that “a third application proving fruitless, you would be reluctantly obliged to take legal prgs”.  This you could do by sending them a lawyer’s letter, for which they would be charged 6s. 8d. each time.

TAFFY – We consider £25 the least salary that could reasonably be offered you, and £30 more in proportion to all that you had to do.  But we warn you not to give up a home, if otherwise satisfactory, at your early age, unless very certain of securing one as agreeable at a higher salary.  Clergymen are often unable to give much beyond a home, where all meet on equal terms, and live together.  A certificate for a short term of residence does not carry much weight.  We recommend patience.

AUTUMNA – It is not at all necessary that you should thank your hostess for “a most agreeable evening” if it have been a particularly dull one.  Give her a pleasant smile, and do not let her see any look of dissatisfaction.  Nor is there any reason why you should give any opinion of the prettiness of a baby.  Smile at it, and take its little hand, and give kind looks at it, which will obviate any apparent obligation to tell stories.  As to a picture, to give no opinion is unfavourable.  Ask some question instead, or remark on the picturesqueness of the view instead of speaking of the workmanship.  To remove the inkstain from the white marble, try cream of tartar and salts of sorrel, one ounce of each; mix well, and keep in a stoppered bottle. 

GIPSY – To marry at seventeen would be very unwise.  A girl should be in the schoolroom at that age and when introduced into such society as that to which her parents belong, she should wait for two or three years at least – so as to make more acquaintances and have a choice – before taking so serious a step in her life as marriage.  The young recruit sees little more than the becoming uniform, the delights of travel, and the inspiring drum and fife and military band.  Just so the raw, inexperienced schoolgirl contemplates the trousseau, the fete and wedding presents, and the dignity of being a matron over a household of her own.  And so both rush blindly into anxieties, pains and penalties, of which neither had previously formed any idea.  To “stick to a fellow, although all the world would be against him” may be praiseworthy in a wife, but would be an evidence of a very headstrong, perhaps undutiful, girl – wanting in commonsense, under any other circumstances.

“THE MOST MISERABLE GIRL THAT EVER LIVED” – is the name adopted by a little girl only just brought into association with older people.  She feels shy, and has not been so raised as to feel otherwise than awkward and out of her place.  We doubt that her condition, painful as it is, could justify our shy little friend’s claim to such a name.

QUANDUM – It is very vulgar to say “beg pardon” and the phrase does not mean what the speaker intends.  It means “I beg your pardon” instead of which, by omitting the “I”, he commends you to beg his!  When anyone thus desires you to excuse any accidental unpoliteness on their part, you should reply “Pray do not mention it” or “Thank you, it is of no consequence”, or “Not at all!”; “No harm is done, thank you!”

A PAISLEY CAT – is informed that we do not answer impudent letters, and hers is consigned to the wastepaper basket on this account.