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-The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Girl's Own Paper, Vol. XX, No. 1025,
-August 19, 1899, by Various
-
-This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and
-most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions
-whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms
-of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at
-www.gutenberg.org.  If you are not located in the United States, you'll
-have to check the laws of the country where you are located before using
-this ebook.
-
-
-
-Title: The Girl's Own Paper, Vol. XX, No. 1025, August 19, 1899
-
-Author: Various
-
-Release Date: August 2, 2020 [EBook #62826]
-
-Language: English
-
-Character set encoding: UTF-8
-
-*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK GIRL' OWN PAPER ***
-
-
-
-
-Produced by Chris Curnow, Pamela Patten and the Online
-Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-[Illustration: THE GIRL’S OWN PAPER
-
-VOL. XX.—NO. 1025.]       AUGUST 19, 1899.       [PRICE ONE PENNY.]
-
-
-
-
-LONDON’S FUTURE HOUSEWIVES AND THEIR TEACHERS.
-
-[Illustration: A HOUSEWIFERY CLASS AT BATTERSEA POLYTECHNIC.]
-
-_All rights reserved._]
-
-
-If one stands at the entrance of a large Board school either at dinner
-or tea-time and watches the pupils trooping out, one often wonders
-what will become of all these lively children in a few years’ time,
-what they will make of their lives, and how enough work is to be found
-for them all. Has it ever struck any of my readers that, whatever the
-boys may do in the way of work, sooner or later that of the girls is
-certain? They are going to be the wives or housekeepers of these or
-other boys. They will be dressmakers, tailoresses, servants, factory
-girls or what not for a time, but their final business will be
-housekeeping, and housekeeping too on small means, so that a great deal
-of skill, care and knowledge will be needed if they are to do it well.
-
-How are the girls to be trained for this very important work of theirs?
-Their school life is very short; the time they will have to spare
-after leaving school will be very little, their leisure hours in the
-evening being wanted for rest and recreation as well as for learning;
-it will be small wonder if many of them marry without any knowledge of
-household management and if the comfort and happiness of their home is
-ruined in consequence.
-
-The question is so serious that people interested in education have
-given it a great deal of thought. There is little doubt that, if it
-were possible, the best plan would be to give a year’s training in
-housekeeping to every girl when she leaves school; but alas! since
-most girls from elementary schools are obliged to earn money as early
-as possible, this plan cannot be carried out. The only thing that can
-be done by the managers of elementary schools is to proceed on the
-principle that “half a loaf is better than no bread,” to give the
-girls, while still at school, weekly lessons for a certain number
-of weeks each year, in cookery and laundry-work, and sometimes in
-housewifery generally, and to encourage them to attend evening classes
-after they have left school. A great deal of good has been done in this
-way, but the children are so young and the lessons necessarily so few,
-so far between and so fragmentary, that the result is very far from
-being all that could be wished.
-
-Seeing this, the Technical Education Board of the London County Council
-five years ago began to establish, one after another, Schools of
-Domestic Economy to which girls should go for five months at a time
-after leaving the ordinary schools, and where they should be occupied
-for the whole school hours five days a week in household work, thus
-giving them an opportunity of really understanding their future
-duties as housewives. The question of enabling poor people to afford
-this five months’ extra teaching for their girls was a difficult one
-to meet, but as far as it could be done it has been done by giving
-free scholarships at these schools and by providing the scholars with
-their dinner and tea free of cost, and providing also the material
-required by each girl for making herself a dress, an apron and some
-under-garment during her time at the school. With only two exceptions,
-these schools, which are nine in number, are held in the polytechnics
-or in technical institutes, a capital arrangement whereby the rooms
-needed for evening classes for adults are used also during the day-time.
-
-Let us look in at one of the schools and see of what a day’s work
-consists. We will choose the school at the Battersea Polytechnic,
-because a Training School for Teachers is held there as well as a
-school for girls, and we shall have a double interest in the work.
-The Polytechnic is a great building standing back from Battersea Park
-Road, and at about nine o’clock in the morning we shall find a stream
-of teachers and pupils hurrying into it, masters and mistresses of the
-Science School, the Domestic Economy School, and the Training School
-for Teachers of Domestic Economy; boys and girls of the Science School;
-girls and women students of the two Domestic Economy Schools; and a
-few minutes later we shall find these all gathered in a large hall
-for “call over” and prayers, and then filing off to their separate
-departments.
-
-Let us ask Miss Mitchell, the head of the Domestic Economy Schools, to
-spare us a little of her time and explain the work to us. We follow the
-women and girls to a separate wing of the building, and as they divide
-off into the different class-rooms we enter the large cookery school
-and watch the students in training settling down to their morning’s
-work, fetching their pots and pans from cupboards and shelves, looking
-up the list of their work on the blackboard, weighing out ingredients,
-and so on. We look round the room, a little confused at first with
-all the movement, and see that it is large and well lighted with
-coal-stoves at one end and gas-stoves fixed into two large tables in
-the centre, with a lift, up which provisions for the day are still
-being sent, and down which, as we find later, the dinner is to go to
-the dining-room punctually at one o’clock; large sinks and plate-racks
-are fitted in one corner, low cupboards with shelves over them run far
-along the walls, and at the end of the room opposite the stoves is a
-stepped gallery, where forty or fifty pupils can sit for demonstration
-lessons. The head cookery teacher is busily engaged inspecting the
-food materials bought in by the student-housekeeper, criticising the
-quality and hearing the prices given, and Miss Mitchell explains to
-us that the students take it in turns to be housekeepers, and have to
-buy in materials for dinners for some sixty people every day; they
-are given lists of what will be wanted by the teachers, but the whole
-responsibility of choosing and buying the food rests with them, and so
-out they go every day into the neighbouring streets, taking with them
-two or three girls from the Domestic Economy School, to choose fish,
-meat and vegetables from the shops and stalls of the neighbourhood, for
-they are to learn how to choose and make the best of such provisions
-as the working people of the neighbourhood are accustomed to buy, and
-capital training this is for them.
-
-“Do the students here cook dinners for sixty people?” we ask in wonder;
-and in answer, Miss Mitchell takes us next door into a smaller cookery
-room, where fifteen girls are at work under the charge of a teacher and
-a student, also busy on dishes which are to be ready by dinner-time.
-Everything left from one day’s dinner, we are told, is brought up to
-the cookery schools again by the “housekeeper” to be re-cooked and made
-into dainty dishes—no waste of any kind is allowed.
-
-Crossing the corridor we find two rooms given up to dressmaking and
-needlework; here again both students-in-training and girls are working
-in separate classes. One of the students, who has nearly completed
-her course of training, is helping a teacher with a class of girls
-(fifteen in number again we notice), and the other students, under
-the head dressmaking teacher, are busy on their own work—this morning
-they are drafting bodice patterns for various types of figures, but
-that their work is not confined to pattern-making is evident when the
-cupboards are opened and dresses taken out for our inspection—dresses
-made by each student to fit herself, funds being provided as in the
-case of the girls by the Technical Education Board. Very neatly made
-the dresses are, and proud the students seem to be of them, though
-their pride is tempered by anxiety as to what the examiner’s opinion
-of them may be when the time of examination for their diplomas comes.
-Each student has to make two dresses, that is, sample garments to show
-her plain needlework, and to learn to patch and mend old dresses and
-under-garments, her pride culminating in a sampler of patches, darns,
-and drawnthread work, such as that hanging in a show cupboard on the
-wall. The girls, we are told, in their shorter course make themselves
-one dress, one apron, and an under-garment each, and spend one lesson
-of two hours each week in practical mending of worn garments.
-
-We ask why it is that every class we have seen consists of fifteen
-pupils only, and are told that in all classes for practical work for
-which funds are supplied by the Technical Education Board the number of
-pupils is limited to fifteen, so that the teacher may be able to attend
-thoroughly to the practical work of each pupil, instead of having to
-teach her class somewhat in the manner of a drill sergeant, as must
-inevitably be the case when dealing with large numbers.
-
-But the morning is getting on, and we hurry downstairs to the laundry,
-perhaps the most striking of all the class-rooms, a glass partition
-shutting off the washing-room, with its large teak troughs where a busy
-set of girls are at work, from the ironing-room, fitted with long solid
-tables on which blouses of many shapes and colours are being ironed
-into crisp freshness. A special feature of the room is the white-tiled
-screen keeping the heat of the ironing stove, with its dozens of irons,
-from the rest of the room, while the height and good ventilation keep
-the room fresh and pleasant even in hot weather. We turn away from this
-vision of dainty whiteness to be in time to see the last class we are
-to visit this morning, the “housewifery” class, which is conducting a
-“spring-cleaning” in one of the social rooms of the polytechnic, which
-lends itself admirably for the purpose of teaching the girls how to
-turn out a well-furnished sitting-room. The housewifery lessons are a
-great feature of the Domestic Economy Schools, we hear, and include
-the whole routine of household work apart from actual cooking, washing,
-and dressmaking, these being, as we have seen, taught separately,
-so that girls who have gone through the course ought not to find
-themselves at a loss in any department of housekeeping, the whole
-series of lessons in each department being made to dovetail one into
-the other.
-
-It is nearly one o’clock now, and Miss Mitchell asks us to come into
-the dining-room, where the tables are just laid for dinner, and we find
-the housekeeping-student in charge, lifting dishes on to “hot-plates”
-as they come down from the cookery schools, with the group of girls
-who are told off to help her giving final touches to the tables,
-these being laid with pretty blue and white crockery, and with here
-and there bunches of flowers which have been brought by one or other
-of the pupils. The teachers aim at having the tables laid as nicely
-as possible and at giving the girls a high standard of neatness and
-daintiness to take back with them to their own homes.
-
-Presently a bell rings and the girls file in and take their places at
-three long tables, with a teacher and a student at the head and foot of
-each, the other students-in-training having a table to themselves. We
-feel rather intrusive as we watch them take their places, and, turning
-out of the room, ask Miss Mitchell to spare us yet a few minutes to
-answer some of the questions that are in our minds.
-
-“How many of such schools are there? Where are the others, and how do
-the girls get their scholarships? Can we help girls we know to get such
-a chance, and specially how are the scholarships for training teachers
-to be obtained, and what chance is there for these teachers at the end
-of their two years’ training?” Miss Mitchell tells us laughingly that
-to answer all this fully would take much more than a few minutes, but
-this much she can say: that at present, though the number of schools
-is far from enough to give as many scholarships as are needed for
-all London, they are steadily increasing in number; there are such
-schools at the Borough, Chelsea, Woolwich, Clerkenwell, St. John’s
-Wood, Bloomsbury, Wandsworth and Norwood, while others will be opened
-in Holloway, at Globe Road, Bow, and at Deptford next term: that the
-girls’ scholarships are given on their being nominated by their school
-mistresses for the approval of the Technical Education Board, and that
-therefore anyone interested in getting such a scholarship for a working
-girl should write to the offices of the Technical Education Board of
-the London County Council for information, and then get the girl to
-apply to her mistress for a nomination for next term. As regards the
-training scholarships, they have to be won by passing an examination,
-not in itself very stiff, but sufficient to ensure that the teachers
-of domestic economy trained in the school shall possess a fairly good
-general education. All particulars can be obtained from the offices
-of the Technical Education Board. As to the chance of employment,
-the experience of teachers holding good diplomas from the Battersea
-Training School has been very happy, few of them having had to wait
-long for work. And so she wishes us good-bye, and we leave the building
-feeling that we have had a glance into a new world, one full of energy
-and hopefulness, and giving promise of happier conditions of life for
-future generations of citizens in our great city.
-
-[Illustration: A NEEDLEWORK CLASS, BATTERSEA POLYTECHNIC.]
-
-[Illustration]
-
-
-
-
-THE HOUSE WITH THE VERANDAH.
-
-BY ISABELLA FYVIE MAYO, Author of “Other People’s Stairs,” “Her Object
-in Life,” etc.
-
-
-CHAPTER XXI.
-
-THE TELEGRAM FROM THE NORTH.
-
-The days went on: the mysterious “knocks” did not recur, and as the
-police inspector made no more inquiries, and the Marvels attempted no
-further intercourse with the little house with the verandah, the very
-memory of them readily faded from the minds of the little household
-there, and especially from that of its mistress, ever becoming more
-pre-occupied with the prolonged delay of letters from Charlie, or
-indeed of any news from the _Slains Castle_.
-
-Lucy’s brother-in-law, Mr. Brand, went down to Bath to attend Mr.
-Bray’s funeral, and his wife Florence accompanied him “to be with the
-dear old lady in her sorrow.” Indeed, Mr. Brand left his wife with the
-widow while he went to and fro between Bath and London, looking after
-his own business and winding up Mr. Bray’s affairs. Lucy would have
-liked to visit the old lady in the early days of bereavement, but, of
-course, in her circumstances any such expression of sympathy was out of
-the question. Still, every evening, no matter how tired and despondent
-she felt she wrote a loving little note to her mother’s old friend,
-so that every morning she might find it on her breakfast-table. Also,
-Lucy copied a little picture of the Surrey village where she knew Mrs.
-Bray had first met her dead husband, and she sent it to the widow as
-a tender sign of sympathy. Lucy did not wonder that Mrs. Bray herself
-never acknowledged these tokens of love, for she knew the lady was old
-and feeble, and that deep grief is sometimes very silent. She knew that
-Mrs. Bray received all her remembrances, for Florence wrote delivering
-the old lady’s “thanks for all kindnesses,” and adding how grateful she
-also was for Florence’s companionship, and for all the arrangements
-“Jem” was making for her welfare.
-
-“There is not so much property left as one might have supposed,
-considering that Mr. Bray has earned such a large income for so many
-years,” wrote Florence. “But then the Brays have always lived among
-people of rank and wealth, and naturally they got into the habit of
-spending as their friends did.”
-
-“Ah,” said Miss Latimer, as Lucy read the letter to her. “In that way,
-earned incomes, however big, soon break up and vanish, as did the clay
-jar in the fable, when it raced with the iron pot!”
-
-Lucy resumed her reading. “Florence goes on: ‘Never mind; they have both
-enjoyed the best of everything, and have had many advantages which they
-might not have had, if people had not believed them to be rich. Jem is
-always saying that there’s nothing so expensive as poverty. Therefore,
-though there is not much property left, it won’t matter much, for
-in many ways Mrs. Bray’s spending days are necessarily over. Jem is
-managing so cleverly that she will scarcely know she is poorer than she
-used to be. She will even be able to afford to go on living in the same
-house, when she returns to London. It would be a great trial to her
-if she could not hope to do that—and it can be managed, for, you see,
-she is old and can’t live long. She trusts Jem implicitly and leaves
-everything to him. She always says, “I don’t want to know anything
-about money matters; I never have known and I don’t wish to begin now.
-I ask for nothing but my little comforts and Rachel to look after me.”
-And then Jem assures her that is quite easy, and so she is satisfied. I
-can’t think what Mrs. Bray would do without Rachel. She is more devoted
-to her mistress than ninety-nine daughters out of a hundred are to
-their mothers. I don’t anticipate that my girls will be half so kind to
-me when my dismal days come—and of course, I hope they’ll be married
-and gone off long before I’m an old woman. I should not like to be the
-mother of ungathered wall-flowers! But where am I likely to find a
-Rachel? I’ll just have to go and stay at an “hydropathic” when I’m an
-old woman. But old age is a long way off yet—and I devoutly trust that
-I’ll be dead before it comes.’”
-
-Those last words struck Lucy. She had heard them before—the very same
-words—spoken by a humble working woman, whose strenuous labours could
-not provide for more than the wants of each day.
-
-All that woman’s year’s work for a certain company had actually brought
-her in less than Jem Brand got as annual dividend upon each hundred
-pounds he had invested in its shares. Lucy had heard that woman say,
-“I’ve only one chance to escape the workhouse. I hope I’ll die before I
-am old.”
-
-The poor overworked woman had felt thus for one reason, and now the
-wealthy idle woman felt so for another. What did it all mean? Where had
-life gone wrong? Of these two women, one had all that the other lacked,
-yet it did not suffice to save her from the worst bitterness of that
-other life. Lucy remembered having read somewhere that Lazarus does not
-perish for lack of aught that is good for Dives, but for lack of that
-excess by which Dives destroys himself.
-
-But in these days Lucy did not think over theories and practices as she
-had been wont to do. She hardly dared to think at all, for the moment
-thought got a-working, it seized on the terrible reality that still
-neither word nor sign came from Charlie!
-
-A delay so prolonged must mean something. If it meant some
-rearrangement of plan, or unexpected detention at the port of some
-Pacific Island, then surely a letter would have come. Nay, Lucy felt
-certain that if Charlie knew that any suspense were likely to arise,
-then a telegram would have arrived. Charlie and she had made their
-thrifty little pre-arrangements on that score. His firm had a code
-name, and they had agreed that this, with the name “Challoner”—the word
-“saw” to stand for “safe and well”—was to suffice for Lucy in case of
-any unforeseen contingencies.
-
-But no letter came and no such telegram came!
-
-Alarm had now a wider basis than anxiety for Charlie’s health. An
-inquiry sent to Mrs. Grant in Peterhead promptly brought back a quite
-remarkably brief answer that she too had heard nothing. Inquiries made
-at the London office of the shipping firm concerned with the _Slains
-Castle_ elicited that they too had no tidings, though they made light
-of the fact, and dwelt on the many delays to which sailing-vessels were
-subject.
-
-Lucy’s anxiety swamped all her other worries, though unconsciously to
-herself those worries might still prey on the nerve and fortitude which
-endurance of the great trial demanded.
-
-What did it matter now when the little china tea-set which had been one
-of her birthday gifts to Charlie was dashed to the ground and almost
-every piece of it shivered to fragments? It grieved her once; now it
-did not affect her at all, save as a type of the general wreckage into
-which life seemed breaking up.
-
-She did not give much attention to Clementina’s eagerly-tendered
-defence concerning the accident, given thus—
-
-“I had nothing to do with it, ma’am. I was in the back kitchen at the
-time, and I’d left it sitting safely on the dresser. Then all of a
-sudden I heard the crash, and when I looked in, there it was—all in
-fragments on the floor.”
-
-“You must have placed it too near the edge of the dresser, Clementina,”
-urged Miss Latimer, “and the slight oscillation caused by some heavy
-vehicle passing by must have caused it to tilt over.”
-
-It was strange that Clementina repudiated this explanation.
-
-“I didn’t hear any heavy traffic,” she answered. “There’s never much of
-it near here, anyway. No, ma’am, such things will happen sometimes, and
-there’s no accounting for them and there’s no use in trying to do it.”
-
-If Lucy’s attention could have been directed towards anything but the
-terrible fear which absorbed all her soul, she might have noticed
-that at this time Miss Latimer became rather anxious and observant
-concerning Clementina. The old lady was aware that the servant was
-growing restless and uneasy. Her superstitions seemed all astir. She
-began to see omens on every side. The tense atmosphere of the household
-mind evidently affected her very much. Miss Latimer could only hope
-that it would not affect her so much as to cause her to “give notice.”
-For in many ways the old lady’s experience told her that Clementina
-was a treasure not to be found every day, since she was scrupulously
-honest, clean and industrious, and the very last person likely to have
-questionable “followers.”
-
-So the dreary days went on in the shadow of the storm-cloud, now so
-lowering that it became too much to hope that it would pass over
-harmlessly.
-
-The monotony was broken at last by a telegram which came in late one
-evening. But it did not come to end Lucy’s agony of suspense, either by
-joy or sorrow. It was simply a telegram from Mrs. Grant of Peterhead,
-announcing that by the time it reached Lucy she would be on her way
-to London, as she had despatched the message just as her train was
-starting. She might be expected by the first train reaching London in
-the morning.
-
-“What does this mean?” asked Lucy with white lips.
-
-Miss Latimer and Tom strove to soothe her by assuring her that
-naturally Mrs. Grant was as anxious as herself. Perhaps she wanted to
-seek further information about the _Slains Castle_, or possibly to
-consult with Lucy as to whether there were joint steps that they might
-take in search of news. Lucy was not readily pacified. Her first fear
-had been that Mrs. Grant had had private word of the loss of the ship
-and her passenger and crew, and that she kindly wished to communicate
-this news to Lucy personally. It was comparatively easy to persuade
-her that this was most unlikely. Her next misgiving was more difficult
-to dislodge. It was that Mrs. Grant had at last heard from her husband
-with some bad news of Charlie—a private matter with which, of course,
-owners and underwriters could have nothing to do. This foreboding could
-only be allayed by Mrs. Grant herself.
-
-The north train arrived so early at the terminus not far from Pelham
-Street that Mrs. Challoner and Tom were able to go and meet the
-traveller before they were respectively due at the Institute and the
-office. They had breakfast (as indeed they often did) by gaslight, and
-then hurried off, Lucy taking Hugh with them. Lucy could not bear him
-to be out of her sight now for one moment more than was necessary,
-and Hugh himself begged to be taken. Miss Latimer had not yet come
-downstairs when they departed, but Clementina protested that “the
-precious darling” might well be left with her—her work was so well in
-hand that she need do nothing but amuse him—it was a pity he had even
-been roused up when he might have had another hour’s sweet sleep, and
-she wondered his ma wasn’t afraid to take him out when the morning was
-so dull and raw, an argument which would have overcome Lucy but for
-Hugh’s plucking at her gown and pleading, “Take me with you, mamma,
-take me with you.”
-
-It was no distracted weeping woman who descended from the through
-train. Mrs. Grant came out briskly, and looking round at once
-recognised the group awaiting her, though she had never before seen
-more of them than a photograph of Lucy. The worthy lady had travelled
-with plenty of comfortable wraps and a hamper of home-made food.
-It gave Lucy some reassurance to note this practical attention to
-creature necessities. She could scarcely realise that the sailor’s
-wife, a resident in a seaport town, had already stood so often, for
-herself and for others, in catastrophes of life and death, hope and
-despair, that she had learned that our bodies require adequate support
-and consolation if they are, ably and long, to serve and second our
-spiritual nature, above all our powers of endurance and initiative.
-
-“I’ve got no news for you, neither good nor bad,” she said promptly.
-“If aught has happened to your husband it has happened to my good man
-too. But it’s my private belief that the office folks here know a
-little more than they will admit. I got a letter from them yesterday
-afternoon saying that they know nothing at all, and I disbelieve that
-so much that it was this very letter which made me start off here
-straightway. If they do know anything I’ll manage to get it out of them.
-
-“I don’t imagine they know much,” she hurried on, noting the whiteness
-of Lucy’s face. “If they knew much we should hear fast enough, never
-you fear. But whatever they know, little or much, I’ll know too, before
-I go home!”
-
-As she spoke, the cab drew up at the Challoners’ house. In the
-dining-room the lamps were still alight, revealing the bounteous
-breakfast-table which Clementina had spread after removing the
-impromptu cups of tea which Lucy and Tom had hastily snatched before
-going out. But as Tom opened the hall door with his latchkey he was met
-by a pungent odour not given off by toast and ham.
-
-“An escape of gas!” he cried.
-
-(_To be continued._)
-
-
-
-
-CHRONICLES OF AN ANGLO-CALIFORNIAN RANCH.
-
-BY MARGARET INNES.
-
-
-CHAPTER XI.
-
-    HARD WORK FOR THE MEN—HARDER WORK STILL FOR THE WOMEN—THE
-    CISTERN—RATTLESNAKES—THE GARDEN—HOMESICKNESS—PIPE-LAYING.
-
-The ordinary business man at home in England would think it rather a
-mad suggestion if his friend were to prophesy that some day he would
-have to set to and make his own roads, the drive up to his house, lay
-his own water-pipes from the main, build his own rain-water cistern and
-cesspool, dig and plant his own garden, and fence that in too.
-
-I think he would be equally surprised if he could realise how quickly
-and easily he would adapt himself to such unaccustomed work, and how
-well he could accomplish it.
-
-To the man who loves an outdoor life, and is clever with his hands,
-and has ingenuity, too, and some skill in creating something out of
-nothing, “making history,” there is much zest and enjoyment in all
-this. But, of course, it is very hard work; and when the sun is fierce
-(which it usually is), the glare and heat are most trying, out on the
-perfectly shadeless stretches of land.
-
-The body does not accustom itself easily to these new labours, and the
-new burden must not be laid upon it too heavily; all the health-giving
-power of ranch life depends largely upon this precaution. Therefore the
-question of being able to pay for necessary help is a very important
-one. It is pitiful to see the weary, broken struggles of men untrained
-and unaccustomed to the heavy physical work of a ranch, and unable to
-pay for help. A breakdown, more or less serious, is almost certain,
-when the work all falls behind, and things become more and more
-hopeless. It is a great mistake for a delicate man, who has broken
-down at his office work at home in England, to come out here to ranch,
-thinking to recover his health in the open-air life, but not having at
-the same time the means to pay for help, nor the capital to be able to
-wait the necessary years till his ranch can yield an income.
-
-Of course, I am not speaking of the man born and bred to such work at
-home; he will find a true land of promise here; the pay he can command
-(one dollar a day and his board), will soon enable him, if he is a
-thrifty fellow, to buy a bit of land and build a home of his own, such
-as he could not dream of in the old country; and the work is what he
-has always been accustomed to, and for which his body has been trained
-for generations.
-
-But for the man of gentle birth and breeding it is a very different
-story. He would be better shut up in an office at home.
-
-The life is splendidly healthy so long as one is not overdriven; the
-physical exercise of the different occupations, and all in the open
-air, is like the training of an athlete. Hoeing round the lemon trees
-is as good for the chest and arms of the labourer as for the roots
-of the lemon trees; but only always if the worker be not overtaxed.
-Indeed, from our experience it is only by carrying on sure regular
-active work in the open air that one gets the real benefit from this
-climate.
-
-With thirty-one acres planted, we have found the help of one ranchman
-with Larry, our eldest son, and his father to be sufficient; so all
-our digging and piping and road-making went forward without too heavy
-a strain. The accepted theory is that one man can manage ten acres of
-planted land, and do justice to it; and a ranchman costs from twenty to
-thirty dollars a month, and his keep.
-
-If the rough work and life are hard for men to accustom themselves
-to, it is much harder still for the women, especially, of course,
-for delicate women, who are supposed to have been brought out “for
-their health.” And here is the place to point out what a farce it is
-to suppose that any frail woman could possibly get any benefit out of
-the finest climate in the world if, in addition to the burden of her
-illness, she has to take upon herself the onerous duties of cook and
-housemaid and charwoman, and everything combined. Again the important
-question is whether the rancher has money enough to pay the very high
-wage demanded for even the simplest household help during at least
-five years, while he is waiting for his ranch to yield an income. Even
-then the wife must be prepared to work much harder than she was ever
-accustomed to at home, since one pair of hands, even if they are the
-most talented Chinese hands, necessarily leave a very great deal to
-be done. In our case, for instance, the Chinaman never touches the
-bedrooms or drawing-room, except to turn them out once a fortnight,
-when he leaves them fairly clean, but all topsy-turvy.
-
-But this is as nothing, when one sees so many ranchers’ wives doing
-without any help at all. That is a cruel life for any man to bring his
-wife to, unless he has absolutely no other choice; it is to my mind
-quite unforgivable. Let such men come without womenfolk.
-
-We had a wearisome long piece of work—building the rain-water cistern
-and the cesspool, for they had to be dug out of the hard granite. The
-cistern was finished, however, in time to catch part of the winter’s
-rain, and though we feared it would become stagnant, this danger was
-quite overcome by the simple little pump used, which is made almost
-exactly after the pattern of the old Egyptian pumps, and consists of
-a chain of small buckets, which revolves, and as one half come up and
-empty themselves through the pump spout, the other half go down into
-the water full of air; and thus the contents of the cistern are in this
-way constantly revitalised.
-
-We have never done congratulating ourselves on possessing this cistern,
-for the water is always cool and sweet, and as our roof is very large,
-it soon fills the cistern, which holds three hundred barrels, and lasts
-all the year. The flume water, which we use in irrigation, and which
-is also laid on in the house for the boiler, etc., comes from the
-mountains in an open aqueduct or flume. It is at times full of moss and
-impurities, and is besides quite tepid in the summer.
-
-We had many discussions, standing on our front verandah, and looking
-down the rough hill slope, as to how the drive should be laid out. We
-meant to have an avenue of pepper trees on each side, and once these
-were planted, the road could not well be altered. Meanwhile, sixteen
-more acres had been cleared of roots and brush, ploughed and harrowed
-for more lemon trees. In the spring we planted seven hundred young
-trees, which made in all one thousand five hundred.
-
-The kitchen garden was set in order, and fenced in to keep out the
-squirrels and rabbits. They were a great nuisance that first year, but
-have now retired to their own wild part of the land, which certainly is
-roomy enough. The rattlesnakes, too, though we were constantly coming
-across them in the beginning, have now quietly withdrawn to the stony
-mountain tops.
-
-That first year I was haunted with the fear of those hideous creatures,
-and the dread of an accident to one of my dear ranchers.
-
-But all the same, it was a thrilling excitement when each one was
-caught and brought down to the barn to be gloated over; and though it
-was dead, it would still wriggle its ugly body, and snap its terrible
-jaws at anything that might touch it, and with the power still of
-deadly effect.
-
-One of the boys brought down from the hill a particularly large fellow,
-hanging on a forked stick, its frightful mouth gaping so wide open that
-the whole head seemed split in two, and big amber-coloured drops of the
-terrible poison hanging to its fangs.
-
-One certainly gets accustomed to anything; and here even the little
-children think nothing of killing a rattlesnake on their way to school.
-It is true they are easily killed, and are always in a hurry to get
-away. The danger is, of course, that one may tread on them unawares,
-for their skin is so like the colour of the ground. But on the road
-they are easily seen, and in walking through the brush one keeps a
-sharp look-out.
-
-The house looked terribly bare, perched on the hill-top, without a
-touch of green about it and no single patch of shade far or near, so
-we were in a great hurry to make the garden, which was to surround the
-house, but was only to be a small one, as when once we had made it,
-we should, of course, have to keep it in order ourselves. When it was
-finished, we could not but laugh at our cypress hedge of baby trees
-about ten inches high, standing round so valiantly, and through which
-the smallest chicken walked with easy dignity. However, now it is a
-thick green wall, six or eight feet high, and there is a fence as well
-to keep out barn-yard intruders.
-
-Shade trees were planted, perhaps too profusely, in our eagerness for
-the shade and the dear green for which our eyes so hungered.
-
-Among the many different pangs of homesickness, a longing for the
-trees, and the beautiful green of England, is almost as painful as the
-_sehnsucht_ that pinches one so surely at times, for the sight of an
-old friend’s face.
-
-We are unusually fortunate in having within reach exceptionally
-charming cultivated people; and their kindliness to the newcomers, has
-made all the difference to us in the happiness of our social life.
-
-But old friends grow ever dearer to the exiled ones, and I often think
-that if those at home who have friends in “foreign parts” knew with
-what joy and gratitude each simple sign is received, which proves that
-still they are remembered, then, indeed, many an odd paper, or little
-book, would be dropped into the post, when time or inclination for
-letter-writing failed. The paper has tenfold its value, because of the
-unwritten message it conveys from friend to friend.
-
-After the garden was finished, we cleared a piece of land on the
-hilltop, at the back of the ranch, about one acre in size, and made a
-small plantation there of eucalyptus, for firewood; it grows very fast
-and needs little attention. Also six acres on the hill-slopes, that
-lay too high for irrigation, and therefore would not do for lemons, we
-cleared, and planted with peaches.
-
-In April we worked hard, laying more piping. Pipe-laying is the
-pain and crucifixion of a rancher’s life. No part of the work is so
-detested; it is very back-breaking work to begin with, and there are
-frantic half hours spent over screws that will not screw, where the
-thread of the pipe has been broken or injured in the transit, or
-faultily made; and there are the bends in the land, which the pipe has
-to be coaxed round, and there are “elbows,” and “tees,” and “unions,”
-and “crosses,” and “hydrants,” each of which has its own separate way
-of being exasperating.
-
-(_To be continued._)
-
-[Illustration]
-
-
-
-
-DIET IN REASON AND IN MODERATION.
-
-BY “THE NEW DOCTOR.”
-
-
-PART II.
-
-THE MIDDAY MEAL.
-
-Englishmen fall into two classes as regards their diet; those that take
-a small lunch and their chief meal in the evening, and those who make
-the midday meal the chief and take a small supper before retiring.
-
-Social position is the chief agent which determines to which class an
-individual belongs. The working classes usually dine in the middle of
-the day, and the professional and upper classes dine in the evening.
-
-We will continue our remarks on the diet of the richer classes, not
-because it is better or more suitable than the plainer diet of the
-working classes, but because the rich naturally keep a more varied
-table, and so will give us more material to criticise.
-
-Luncheon is a desultory sort of meal, and though most people eat
-something, many do so only because they think that it is the thing to
-do, and not because they are really hungry.
-
-If you will accompany us, we will go to see the luncheon given by Lord
-X. at his Surrey home. But we cannot go as guests, for not only have we
-not been invited, but we are going to criticise many things about the
-table and the meal. We must, therefore, remain invisible and inaudible,
-for it is unpardonable to make remarks at the table, even if those
-remarks would save a whole company from indigestion and a sleepless
-night.
-
-Before the meal is served, our eyes are offended by something on the
-sideboard which is sufficient to destroy the appetite of any extra
-delicately-minded person if she only knew its secrets.
-
-The object is nothing less than a cold pheasant pie ornamented by
-the head or feathers of the bird whose flesh the pie is supposed to
-contain. We want you to examine that ornament, and we feel pretty
-certain that if you do, you will never again eat meat pies.
-
-In order that the carcases of dead animals should not encumber the
-earth, it has been ordained that when an animal dies, its body rapidly
-decomposes and becomes dissolved into simple gases. The agents that
-bring about the dissolution of the body are various. The chief agents
-which cause the decomposition of organic matter are microbes. The
-majority of these do not produce diseases in man, but some of them do,
-and some of these you might find on that pheasant pie if you could see
-it through a microscope.
-
-Similarly offensive, but to a less degree, is the practice of putting
-pigeons’ feet sticking outside a steak pie to suggest that the
-remainder of the birds is inside, and putting feathers into the tails
-of roast pheasants.
-
-One of the chief values of cooking is to sterilise food, so why foul
-the food you have so carefully sterilised by sticking decaying matter
-into it?
-
-The first item of the luncheon consists of oysters, and we notice that
-only three out of the company of twelve partake of them. As nearly
-everybody who can afford them likes oysters, there is probably some
-special reason why nine out of twelve persons refuse them. Doubtless it
-is the typhoid scare, and we are much pleased to see that some persons,
-at all events, do occasionally give a side thought to preventive
-medicine.
-
-The question of the causation of typhoid fever by oysters is one
-of great importance, and one that should be clearly understood by
-everyone. That oysters are one of the means by which some recent
-epidemics of typhoid fever have been spread is undoubted, but the exact
-part that they have played is not so easy to understand, for the latest
-commission upon the question found that the typhoid bacillus is killed
-by immersion in sea-water, that it did not occur in any oysters that
-they opened, and when it was injected into the oyster, it was promptly
-killed.
-
-This seems to say emphatically that oysters cannot harbour the typhoid
-bacillus, and therefore cannot produce typhoid fever. But medicine is
-not as easy as that. That the oysters they examined could not produce
-typhoid fever is certain, but their remarks do not by any means prove
-that typhoid is not spread by any oysters.
-
-At one time there was very great excitement about this question, and a
-tremendous lot of nonsense was talked about it. Some persons maintained
-the typhoid bacillus only occurred in bad oysters. We suppose a bad
-oyster is eaten occasionally, but Lord X.’s guests are not likely to be
-troubled with bad oysters.
-
-Oysters cannot cause typhoid fever unless they contain this bacillus,
-and they only obtain it from sewers opening into the sea. Therefore it
-is only those oysters which have come from places where sewers open
-into the sea that can cause typhoid fever.
-
-Of course, as soon as the oyster scare was started, everybody who
-caught typhoid fever attributed it to oysters she had eaten the day,
-the week, month, or year before. But the incubation period of typhoid
-fever is from one to three weeks; that means that when the bacilli get
-into the body they do not produce the disease till from one to three
-weeks after infection. Therefore it is only oysters eaten from one to
-three weeks before the onset of the fever that could possibly have
-caused the disease. As a matter of fact, oysters are a real, but not
-very common, method by which typhoid is spread.
-
-We notice that one of the three guests who have taken oysters discards
-one because it is green. He is quite right to do so, for though it
-may be quite wholesome, it may be coloured with copper. Doubtless it
-would do no harm, but he is quite right not to risk the possibility of
-sickness for an oyster!
-
-Amongst the other items of the luncheon we notice cold beef and salad.
-These will furnish us with material for discussion, for there are
-several very important medical points in connection with both.
-
-Cold meat is a very good food in its way, but like all meat it is a
-strong food, that is, it is readily digested and furnishes a very large
-amount of nourishment. If you make a meal entirely of beef, you will
-not suffer from indigestion, because beef is very digestible, but you
-will eat too much, you will throw too much nourishment into the blood,
-and you will give your organs, especially the liver and kidneys, great
-trouble to dispose of the superfluous nourishment.
-
-Although a cold joint of beef seems so much less rich and strong than
-the same joint hot, it is really very much the same in the amount of
-nourishment that it contains. People very rarely serve hot meat without
-vegetables and surroundings, but it is the fashion to serve cold meat
-by itself, with nothing but bread, and most persons eat very little
-bread indeed with their meals.
-
-Meat should never be served alone. Vegetables of some sort must be
-served with both hot and cold meat, and far more vegetable and less
-meat than is usually served should be your aim.
-
-Salad is of course a vegetable or vegetables, and if properly prepared
-and selected, it is not at all a bad form of food.
-
-We do not suppose many of you know much of the mysteries of
-agriculture, for if you did, such a thing as an unwashed salad would
-never appear upon your tables. Salads are not washed half enough, and
-an unwashed salad is a most dangerous article of food. All vegetables
-are best when rapidly grown, and to grow vegetables rapidly it is
-necessary to supply them with strong manures.
-
-You must thoroughly wash and dry any vegetables that you eat raw, for,
-excluding such harmless creatures as slugs and caterpillars, they may
-contain germs of disease. Typhoid fever is frequently caused by eating
-unwashed salads, especially watercress. This is a far more common
-method of getting typhoid than is eating infected oysters. Another
-disease almost invariably due to eating infected vegetables is hydatid
-disease, a somewhat uncommon affection in England, but one of the most
-formidable plagues in Iceland and Australia.
-
-There are few salads which are not difficult to digest. Corn salad,
-French lettuce, endive, beetroot, and watercresses, are the least
-indigestible, then come in order, Cos lettuce, chicory, mustard and
-cress, cucumber, and radishes. Spring onions usually agree with most
-persons, but some people cannot stand onions in any form. Onions always
-produce the peculiar and decidedly unpleasant odour of the breath, and
-not, as is usually supposed, only in those who cannot digest them. For
-the smell is due to the excretion of the volatile oil of onions by the
-breath.
-
-Two excellent salads are potato salad and cold vegetable salad. This
-morning we read a recipe for the latter in one of the back numbers
-of this paper, and it struck us as being a particularly inviting and
-desirable addition to a dinner of cold meat.
-
-The lunch is finished off with a savoury of herrings’ roes on toast.
-These were probably tinned roes, or we will presume they were, so as to
-introduce the discussion of the values and dangers of tinned meat.
-
-The dangers of eating tinned meats have been grossly exaggerated, and
-if you pay a reasonable price for tinned provisions, it is extremely
-unlikely that they will do you any harm. Unfortunately, many thousands
-of “blown” tins of putrid provisions are still sold in London yearly
-in spite of the care and close scrutiny of the law. But if you pay
-a reasonable sum for your tinned provisions, you will not get these
-bad tins. Of course, if you pay fourpence a dozen for tins of milk or
-sardines, you cannot expect to get good stuff, and you should always
-avoid tins reduced in price, for it usually means that they are very
-stale.
-
-There are two ways in which tinned things may become poisonous, either
-the contents may become contaminated with the metal of the cans, or the
-meats themselves may undergo alkaloidal degeneration. The former, the
-lesser evil, can only occur in tinned meats. The latter, by far the
-greater evil, may occur in any preserved provisions, and is perhaps
-more common in stores preserved in skins or glasses than in those in
-tins.
-
-Nowadays meats do not often become poisoned by the tins in which they
-have been kept. It used to be not uncommon for the solder of the tin
-to be dissolved by acid juices in the contents. This was especially
-frequent with tinned Morella cherries and other acid tart-fruits. But
-now acid fruits are nearly always sold in bottles, and only fruits
-which are sweet and not acid are sold in tins.
-
-The tinned fruits that we get from California are most excellent, and
-we have never heard of ill-effects of any kind following their use. The
-canning is carried on entirely by girls on the Californian ranches. The
-tins are rather dear, but they are much the best things of the kind
-that have come beneath our notice.
-
-The second method by which tinned meats may become poisoned is a
-degeneration, or decomposition if you like, by which the wholesome
-albumen of the contents is changed into intensely poisonous animal
-alkaloids. Alkaloids are very powerful bodies, and the vegetable
-alkaloids, such as strychnine, quinine, and morphine, are much used in
-medicine.
-
-But these animal alkaloids are far more powerful for harm than even
-the most deadly of the vegetable poisons. So powerful are they that a
-quantity of one of them found in canned fish, which killed two adults
-who had partaken of it, was insufficient to demonstrate by our most
-delicate chemical tests. If these drugs are so powerful for harm, is
-it not possible that they may be equally powerful for good, when their
-actions and doses are worked out?
-
-What causes this curious decomposition of preserved provisions is
-not known. In tinned meats, at all events, it cannot be ordinary
-putrefaction, for this cannot occur without air, and the tins are
-air-tight. It is probably due to organisms, but this is uncertain.
-
-This form of decomposition of meat cannot be told by the flavour of the
-provisions; and its deleterious effects cannot be destroyed by boiling.
-There is no way to prevent it save by buying preserved provisions which
-have not been kept for long.
-
-
-
-
-AN AFTERNOON “BOOK PARTY.”
-
-
-Though book parties are not very new, they are not, I think, so general
-but that the idea may be a new one to some readers of THE GIRL’S OWN
-PAPER, and if they have not yet been at one, they may be glad to
-have some suggestions on the subject. I think these book afternoons
-certainly give a good deal of amusement to the participants without
-trouble or appreciable expense to the giver. For the benefit of such as
-may feel inclined to entertain their friends in this way, here is the
-account of an afternoon party to which I was invited a few weeks back.
-These gatherings are, I might say, most suitable for young people; but
-though it is a long time since I could class myself amongst the young,
-I really enjoyed the merry afternoon we had. Our invitations were for
-afternoon tea at 4.30, but in the corner was written, “Book Party.” By
-this it was understood that every guest should symbolise some book, not
-necessarily by dress, but by wearing some emblem or motto that would
-give the name of the book selected.
-
-The hostess provided as many cards and pencils as there were guests.
-These were plain correspondence cards which had been decorated with
-pretty or comic designs at the top by the daughter of the house. Each
-visitor had a card with pencil given to him or to her on arrival which
-was to have the titles and names of the other “books” present written
-on it. It need hardly be said that many mistakes are always made,
-while in some cases the emblems chosen are so remote that it is hardly
-possible to divine the meaning.
-
-A few of the books represented, and the symbols used, will best explain
-this, and may also help any girls who are inclined to inaugurate an
-entertainment of this kind.
-
-On the occasion of which I am writing the host and hostess said they,
-together, named a book, though they wore no badge or mark. Of course,
-nearly all guessed that they were Wilkie Collins’s _Man and Wife_. A
-young lady came in white to represent _The Woman in White_, while a
-lady in a silk dress and hat was meant for Black’s _In Silk Attire_.
-Then a gentleman wore the hostess’s visiting-card for _Our Mutual
-Friend_. A lady wore the sign “Gemini” in her hat for Sarah Grand’s
-_Heavenly Twins_. A lucky penny fastened on the shoulder showing the
-head with “I win” below it, and a second penny showing the reverse
-side, and under that “you lose,” stood for _Bound to Win_. Then
-1 o 0 n 0 e 0, written on a card, and worn in a hat, was to be read
-_One in a Thousand_, while some coins on a string signified _Hard
-Cash_. A bow of orange and green ribbon gave Henty’s book _Orange and
-Green_. A neat-looking girl wore a cravat with a piece of the lace
-hanging from it for _Never too Late to Mend_, while another young
-girl had the word “stood” stuck in her hat for _Misunderstood_. Some
-large white wings in a hat gave Black’s novel of that name. A little
-sketch of a child with eyes shut and mouth wide open was for _Great
-Expectations_. A lad with N & S on the side of his jacket meant to
-represent _A Tale of Two Cities_. The word wedding, written in red
-ink, was for Jephson’s _Pink Wedding_, and the musical notation of a
-chime stood for _The Lay of the Bell_. The queen of hearts out of a
-pack of cards was worn by a gentleman to represent Wilkie Collins’s
-novel of that name, while “no credit,” stuck in a hat, was meant for
-James Payn’s _For Cash Only_. A girl wore her mother’s photograph for
-Grace Aguilar’s _Home Influence_. Heartsease, yellow aster, and other
-flowers that name books, also small pictures of “Pair of Blue Eyes,”
-“Windsor Castle,” “Old St. Paul’s,” and others. There were also some
-books of more serious character, such as the _Times Encyclopædia_; the
-twenty-five volumes were marked on a belt. Sir J. Lubbock’s _Ants,
-Bees, and Wasps_ also found a representative. It is easy to find an
-endless variety of book names that one can symbolise in one way or
-another, but works of fiction lend themselves the most easily.
-
-On the particular afternoon of which I am writing we were all
-occupied with our cards while tea was being handed. When all seemed
-to have finished writing, the hostess took all the cards, and amidst
-much laughter the names of the books were read out from each card,
-and a prize awarded to the owner of the card with the most correct
-guesses on it, and a second prize was given to the one who was least
-successful—the “duffer’s prize” it was called. This was a wooden spoon,
-which, however, was received with great good humour, the recipient
-declaring he had never in his life guessed anything!
-
-The first prize was a box of sweets, which the winner handed round to
-the unsuccessful competitors.
-
-
-
-
-TO NIGHT.
-
-
-    Come, solemn Night, and spread thy pall
-      Wide o’er the slumbering shore and sea,
-    And hang along thy vaulted hall
-      The star-lights of eternity;
-    Thy beacons, beautiful and bright—
-      Isles in the ocean of the blest—
-    That guide the parted spirit’s flight
-      Unto the land of rest.
-
-    Come—for the evening glories fade,
-      Quenched in the ocean’s depths profound;
-    Come with thy solitude and shade,
-      Thy silence and thy sound;
-    Awake the deep and lonely lay
-      From wood and stream, of saddening tone;
-    The harmonies unheard by day,
-      The music all thine own!
-
-    And with thy starry eyes that weep
-      Their silent dews on flower and tree,
-    My heart shall solemn vigils keep—
-      My thoughts converse with thee;
-    Upon whose glowing page expand
-      The revelations of the sky;
-    Which knowledge teach to every land,
-      Of man’s high destiny.
-
-    For while the mighty orbs of fire
-      (So “wildly bright” they seem to live)
-    Feel not the beauty they inspire,
-      Nor see the light they give;
-    Even I, an atom of the earth—
-      Itself an atom ’midst the frame
-    Of nature—can inquire their birth,
-      And ask them whence they came.
-
-
-
-
-OUR LILY GARDEN.
-
-PRACTICAL AIDS TO THE CULTURE OF LILIES.
-
-BY CHARLES PETERS.
-
-
-There are but few lilies left for us to describe, and these are of very
-little importance to the flower-grower.
-
-[Illustration: _Lilium Auratum._]
-
-_Lilium Concolor_ and _Lilium Davidii_ are usually considered under the
-Isolirion group, but they present such numerous deviations from that
-group of lilies that we have decided to make a group of them alone.
-
-_Lilium Concolor_ is a pretty, little, very variable lily. It is more
-suitable for a button-hole decoration than for anything else, but it
-has a pleasing effect when grown in great masses. This species has
-a very small bulb with few, acute, oblong scales. The plant grows to
-about a foot high, and bears from one to three flowers about an inch
-and a half across, and of a deep crimson colour spotted with black. The
-flowers open very wide, and the filaments are shorter than in any other
-lily. Of the great number of varieties of this lily we will describe
-two. The first, named _Buschianum_, or _Sinicum_, grows taller, has
-larger leaves, and larger and more numerous blossoms, which are of a
-fine crimson.
-
-The second variety, _Coridion_, is by far the handsomest of the group,
-bearing large flowers of a bright yellow spotted with brown. _Concolor_
-is a native of Western Asia. Its culture is very simple, and it is
-perfectly hardy.
-
-Of _Lilium Davidii_, we only know that it was discovered by David in
-Thibet; that it grows about two feet high, and bears bright yellow
-flowers spotted with brown. We also know that there is a plate of this
-species in Elwes’s Monograph. The plant is practically unknown to
-everybody.
-
-The last group of lilies, Notholirion, contains two or, as we
-have it, three species which are not very well known, and it is a
-little doubtful whether they are lilies at all. Formerly they were
-considered to be fritillaries, and certainly they bear more superficial
-resemblance to those plants than they do to the lilies.
-
-Most authors include _Lilium Oxypetalum_ among the Archelirions,
-because its flowers are widely expanded. But as in every other
-particular it differs completely from that group of lilies, we have
-separated it from _L. Auratum_ and _L. Speciosum_, and placed it among
-the Notholirions, to which it bears considerable resemblance.
-
-This little-known lily was formerly called Fritillaria oxypetala, and
-bears more resemblance to the fritillaries than it does to the lilies.
-The bulb is oblong, with but few lance-shaped scales. The stem grows to
-the height of about fifteen inches, and bears about twenty or thirty
-leaves, resembling those of our native snake’s-head fritillary in
-every particular. One or two blossoms are borne on each stem. They
-are pale lilac, star-like blossoms, with numerous little hairs on the
-bases of the segments. The petals are acutely pointed. The anthers are
-scarlet.
-
-This plant is a native of the Western Himalayas. It is very uncommon in
-gardens. We have never possessed it, and know nothing of its culture.
-
-The two lilies _Lilium Roseum_ and _Lilium Hookeri_ are now included in
-this genus, but they have been referred first to the lilies, then to
-the fritillaries, then back again to the lilies, and so on. And it is
-very doubtful if they are even now in their last resting-place.
-
-The bulbs of these lilies are invested in dense membranous tunics like
-those of the daffodil. _Lilium Roseum_ grows to about two feet high;
-_L. Hookeri_ rarely reaches half this height. The leaves are said to
-bear bulblets in their axils. Six to thirty little nodding bell-like
-blossoms of a deep lilac colour are produced by _L. Roseum_, but _L.
-Hookeri_ rarely produces more than eight blossoms. But little is known
-of these lilies. They are both natives of the Himalayas, and are said
-to be somewhat tender. They may be grown in a mixture of rubble, old
-bricks, sand, and leaf mould.
-
-We have never grown them ourselves, as it is practically impossible
-to obtain bulbs. We have seen _L. Roseum_ in blossom, and were not
-particularly impressed by it.
-
-Had we been describing roses, chrysanthemums, hyacinths, or any other
-flowers which are highly cultivated, we would have dismissed the
-natural species with a very brief description, and turned our chief
-attention to the artificial varieties and hybrids.
-
-But with lilies it is different. As we have seen, there are very many
-natural species. Indeed, the species almost outnumber the varieties,
-and these latter are rarely very different from the parent species. As
-regards double-flowered varieties, we have seen that only four lilies
-bear them, whereas nine-tenths of the cultivated varieties of roses and
-chrysanthemums are double.
-
-[Illustration: NIGHT.
-
-(_From the painting by Gabriel Max._)
-
-    [_Photo by F. Hanfstaengl._]
-
-And when we pass on to consider the hybrid lilies, we are likewise
-astonished at their paucity. Why are hybrid lilies so uncommon? Let us
-see if we can fathom the mystery.
-
-One reason is that the majority of lilies never bear seed in England.
-Many, even in their native climes, bear seed but rarely, the natural
-method of increase being by bulblets. Another reason with us is the
-exceeding difficulty of raising lily-seed. They take so long to
-germinate that most seeds are destroyed before they show any sign of
-life.
-
-Still, we believe that there is a great future for the hybridisation
-on lilies. Perhaps you would like to try it yourself. Then proceed as
-follows.
-
-Let us cross _Lilium Auratum_ with _Lilium Speciosum_. Choose
-well-grown specimens of each lily. Let the buds develop till they begin
-to change colour. Then remove every bud except one—the best—from each
-plant. The remaining bud of the _L. Auratum_ must then be slipped open,
-and the anthers removed. It may then be allowed to open naturally, but
-it must be carefully protected from insects of any kind, lest one of
-these should bring to it a pollen grain from another blossom of its own
-species. When the _L. Speciosum_ has matured its pollen, cut off the
-anthers, and rub the pollen upon the style of the _L. Auratum_.
-
-Three things may now happen. The first, the most likely, is that the
-flower will die, and will not produce seed. The second is that the
-plant will produce seed, but these, when they have been grown into
-flowering bulbs, will reproduce unaltered _L. Auratum_. The third—last
-and least likely possibility—is that the plant will produce seed which,
-when grown and flowered, will produce blossoms which partake of the
-characters of its two parents. In other words, these last are genuine
-hybrids.
-
-It is extremely unlikely that more than one per cent. of the seeds will
-produce a blossom which bears the marks of both parents. The majority
-will either die, or else be simple _L. Auratum_, without anything to
-show that they are hybrids.
-
-Even with those rare plants which definitely show their hybrid origin,
-a great diversity of colouring may be observed. But the colour of the
-parents is very variable, and after a few years the hybrid lily looses
-the characteristics of the _L. Speciosum_ and becomes merely a reddish
-variety of _L. Auratum_.
-
-But there are two hybrid lilies which are quite constant, and as they
-are two of the finest of the whole group, they are well worth growing.
-
-_Lilium Alexandræ_, the Japanese “Uki Ure” or “Hill Lily,” is in all
-probability a hybrid between _Lilium Auratum_ and _Lilium Longiflorum_.
-We say “in all probability,” for we are not quite certain that it is
-not a true species.
-
-There are some persons who think that one white lily is much like
-another. But put side by side _L. Alexandræ_, _L. Longiflorum_, and _L.
-Candidum_. Are they alike? Could anyone mistake one for another? Surely
-not! They differ in every detail—even in colour. The long trumpet of
-_L. Longiflorum_ is delicate greenish-white. The Madonna lily is like
-porcelain; and the hill lily possesses a rich milky hue, somewhat
-resembling the colour of _L. Brownii_, which we so much admired.
-
-And in shape how different they are. One is a long and regular trumpet,
-another is a shallow cup, and the lily we are specially considering
-is widely opened with its segments slightly curved, the whole blossom
-resembling a gigantic white star.
-
-_Lilium Alexandræ_ is not a big lily. It grows about two feet high and
-bears from one to four blossoms. These blossoms are very large, of a
-rich milky white, resembling in shape those of _L. Auratum_. The pollen
-is chocolate colour. The fragrance of this lily is very great. On the
-evening of a hot day in the middle of August last year we could detect
-the scent of a bed of these lilies, then in full bloom, at the distance
-of over one hundred yards. Its scent is rich and full, something
-between that of jasmine and vanilla.
-
-The culture of this hybrid is not difficult. It is best grown in pots,
-for it is very sensitive to rain at its flowering period. In rigorous
-districts this lily should be grown in a cool greenhouse, but in the
-south of England it will grow to perfection out of doors. The soil
-should consist of equal parts of peat, very finely broken, leaf-mould,
-and sharp sand. It wants a very large quantity of water.
-
-Few lilies have given us greater pleasure than _L. Alexandræ_. It is
-one of those plants which are so striking that it is impossible to
-forget them when you have once seen them. It is so very delicate, so
-pure and so fragrant.
-
-Doubtless most of our readers are acquainted with the old Nankeen lily.
-This is a very old favourite, and is usually thought to be a true
-species, but for all that it is almost for certain a hybrid between _L.
-Candidum_ and _L. Chalcedoniam_. This plant rejoices in a goodly number
-of names, of which _L. Testaceum_, _L. Isabellinum_, and _L. Excelsum_
-are the commonest.
-
-This lily is unknown in the wild state, and its origin is very obscure.
-It is an English garden hybrid, but who first raised it or possessed it
-is unknown.
-
-Yet it is a very striking lily, growing to the height of four or five
-feet and producing a great cluster of buff-coloured blossoms. In
-general features it resembles its parent _L. Candidum_, but the flower
-shows a distinct connection with the Martagons. Its colour certainly
-is not derived from either of its parents. A mixture of scarlet and
-pure white should give pink; but _L. Testaceum_ is of a yellowish-buff
-colour. The lily which it most nearly resembles is _L. Monodelphum_;
-but though very fine, it is nothing like so splendid as that queen of
-the Martagons.
-
-This lily is distinctly a cottage-garden flower. Except in that
-situation it is never seen. Yet it is common enough in old
-cottage-gardens, and a more befitting flower can scarcely be imagined.
-It looks old—in keeping with the place which it enhances by its
-presence.
-
-The cultivation of this lily is the same as that of _L. Candidum_. It
-does not do well until it is well established, and it has a particular
-objection to growing in modern gardens.
-
-_Lilium Parkmanni_ is the hybrid between _L. Auratum_ and _L.
-Speciosum_. Genuine specimens bear blossoms somewhat intermediate
-between the parent species.
-
-There is also a hybrid between _L. Hansoni_ and _L. Martagon
-Dalmaticum_, called _Lilium Dalhansoni_.
-
-These four hybrids are the only ones which deserve to be mentioned, and
-of these only the first two are worth a place in the flower-garden.
-
-(_To be concluded._)
-
-
-
-
-CHOCOLATE DATES.
-
-
-Have you ever tasted chocolate dates? If so, these directions will be
-almost needless to you, for I fancy that you will not have stopped at
-a taste, but will have tried and found out a way to manufacture them
-for yourself. But so far as I know, these dates are, as yet, quite a
-home-made sweet, and they are so delicious and so wholesome that they
-ought to be more widely known. Here then is the recipe. Any sort of
-dates and any sort of chocolate may be used, but the best results are
-got from the best materials in confectionary even more than in other
-work. Take then a pound of Tunis dates, either bought in the familiar
-oblong boxes or by the pound. Leave out any which are not perfectly
-ripe; the soapy taste of one of these paler, firmer dates is enough to
-disgust anyone with dates for ever. Wipe the others very gently with a
-damp cloth (dates are not gathered by the Dutch!), slit them lengthwise
-with a silver knife, but only so far as to enable you to extract the
-kernel without bruising the fruit. Then prepare the chocolate. Grate a
-quarter of a pound of best French chocolate, add an equal weight of
-fresh icing sugar, two tablespoonfuls of boiling water, and mix in a
-small brass or earthenware saucepan over the fire until quite smooth,
-only it must _not_ boil; last of all add a few drops of vanilla.
-
-Then put your small saucepan inside a larger one half filled with
-boiling water, just to keep the chocolate fluid until all the dates
-are filled. Take up a little of the mixture in a teaspoon, press open
-the date, and pour it neatly in. There must be no smears or threads of
-chocolate if your confectionary is to look dainty. When about a dozen
-are filled, gently press the sides together, and the chocolate should
-just show a shiny brown ridge in the middle of the date. Place on a
-board in a cool place to harden; they may be packed up next day.
-
-Almost as nice as chocolate dates are nougat dates. The foundation
-for the nougat is the same as for American candies: the white of one
-egg and an equal quantity of cold water to half a pound of sifted
-icing sugar, all mixed perfectly smoothly together. Then chop equal
-quantities of blanched walnuts, almonds, Brazils, and hazel nuts
-together, mix with the sugar in the proportion of two thirds of nut to
-one of the sugar mixture, and leave until next day in the cellar. By
-that time the nougat will be firm enough to form into kernels by gently
-rolling between the hands; if it sticks, your hands are too warm. It is
-best to do this part of the work in the cellar. Having stoned and first
-wiped your dates, put in the nougat kernels, gently pressing the sides
-together; they will harden in a short time, and very pretty they look
-packed alternately with the chocolate dates in fancy boxes. Tunis dates
-do not keep good much longer than two months, the grocer tells me; we
-have never been able to keep them half that time to try! Of course, you
-can use the commoner dates, which are very good to eat, but hardly so
-nice to look at as the others, because on account of their more sugary
-consistency it is impossible to fill them so neatly as the moister
-Tunis dates. Tafilat dates are somehow too dry and solid to combine
-well either with nuts or chocolate.
-
-
-
-
-HOW WE MANAGED WITHOUT SERVANTS.
-
-BY MRS. FRANK W. W. TOPHAM, Author of “The Alibi,” “The Fateful
-Number,” etc.
-
-
-CHAPTER III.
-
-The hot July days brought us such good news from Cannes that our hearts
-were all light with the hope of soon welcoming our parents back, and
-Cecilly was especially happy at being promised several more pupils
-after the summer holidays were over. Mrs. Moore, the old lady to whom I
-read, had hinted that she might require more of my time in the autumn,
-so we had every reason to be light-hearted and to forget the hardness
-of our work with so much to be thankful for. Only poor old Jack looked
-graver as the days went by, and my heart ached for him with his secret
-trouble.
-
-It was nearly the end of July that one morning Cynthia came tapping at
-the kitchen door, where I was surrounded with materials for dinner.
-
-“Where is Cecilly?” she asked, and on my telling her Cecilly was out,
-giving music lessons, she told me she had tickets for a concert that
-afternoon, and she knew how much she would like to go.
-
-I knew so too, and at once said I would leave my cooking till the
-afternoon and finish a smart blouse Cecilly had been making for herself.
-
-“Do let me do the cooking while you sew,” Cynthia asked, but I said she
-had better not as the dinner was to be what the boys called a triumph
-of “mind over matter,” meaning a dinner was to be made out of scraps,
-which was always tiring work. But Cynthia insisted on being cook.
-
-I had already sent Beatrice Ethel, the little boot-girl, out for a
-quart of skimmed or separated milk which Cecilly made into _Sago Soup_:
-Take three or four onions and boil them in the milk till soft enough to
-run through a sieve. Boil six large potatoes and rub through sieve. Put
-all back into milk with pepper and salt. Add a teacup of sago, tapioca,
-rice, or some macaroni. But sago is best. Send up fried bread with this.
-
-Our meat course was to be breakfast pies, and as there were some
-scraps over, Cynthia made a mulligatawny pâté, which would come in for
-breakfast.
-
-Our pudding was a _German Pudding_: 1 lb. flour, 1 teaspoonful of
-carbonate of soda rubbed into the flour, 6 oz. of scraped fat, ½ lb.
-treacle melted in milk. To be boiled for three hours. This would have
-been sufficient for our dinner, but Cynthia begged to make a few jam
-tarts, as she “loved making pastry.” Whey they were finished, she had
-a piece of pastry over, which she turned into _Cheese Puffs_. She
-rolled out her paste, sprinkled it thickly with cheese and “Paisley
-Flour,” repeating the process several times. She brushed them over with
-a little egg, and baked them at once. I suggested, as we were well
-off for milk, she might make a custard to eat with our pudding, with
-“Bird’s Custard Powder,” but only on condition that she asked leave to
-come back with Cecilly to help us eat such a grand dinner. Lately I had
-noticed that she had been allowed to accept our invitations for the
-evening, and although it seemed a mistake for Jack to be in her company
-too often, it was such a delight for him to find her with us when he
-returned home, I could not resist asking her.
-
-Cecilly had of course accepted Cynthia’s invitation to the concert with
-much delight, and I, having locked up the house, had spent a pleasant
-afternoon with dear Aunt Jane, who had given me a great bunch of
-beautiful white lilies, and a basket of gooseberries for the boys.
-
-I was only just back when I heard Cecilly’s knock, and finding her
-alone I asked if Cynthia were not coming to dinner.
-
-“Yes, indeed she is,” answered Cecilly, “and what do you think? Mr.
-Marriott has invited himself also!”
-
-“Oh, Cecilly,” I cried. “You must go at once and get some fish and some
-fruit,” but Cecilly interrupted me, saying—
-
-“No, he stipulates that we make no change. He is coming to eat
-Cynthia’s cooking, and I promised him we would have nothing extra,
-except some coffee.”
-
-Of course I brought out our best table linen and china, rubbed up
-our silver and glass, and with Aunt Jane’s lilies for decoration our
-dinner-table looked as nice as possible. Cecilly ran up the road to
-meet Jack to tell him the news as soon as she saw him, and we had to be
-quite determined not to be over-ruled, so anxious was he for various
-additions to our meal.
-
-“Could you not run to Aunt Jane and ask her to lend us her maid,” he
-asked, but I insisted on no change being made.
-
-“Mr. Marriott is coming to see how clever Cynthia is, and not to
-quiz us,” I replied, so Jack had to be content. The soup was a great
-success. We turned the Mulligatawny pie into an _entrée_, and added the
-jam tarts to the pudding course. Cecilly and Bob fetched and carried
-the dishes, though I slipped out during the cheese course to make the
-coffee for dessert.
-
-We were a very merry party at dinner, and Cynthia had many
-congratulations from us all. Jack and Mr. Marriott were a long time
-before they joined us in the drawing-room, but when they came the
-evening was one of the pleasantest we had spent since dear father’s
-illness. Jack was so much more like his old self, and Mr. Marriott so
-positive of father’s recovery that every doubt and perplexity of life
-fled, and it seemed to me that all the pain of separation and the grave
-anxieties of the past were now fled for ever. Cecilly and the boys had
-gone up to bed while I waited for Jack to return from walking back with
-Cynthia and her father, and when he came in I saw at once he had good
-news for me.
-
-“Oh, Kitty,” he cried, in his old boyish manner, “you can never guess
-what Mr. Marriott has said to me this evening. He said he always knew
-a good son would make a good husband, but that he felt his little girl
-would never make a good wife for a poor man. But, Kitty Mavourneen,
-he says you and Cecilly have shown her the way, and if, when she is
-twenty-one, I like to ask her to be my wife, he won’t send me away.”
-
-I was obliged to run upstairs to call Cecilly to hear these good
-tidings, and Cecilly in her dressing-gown, with her hair streaming down
-her back, rushed down the stairs at a bound to hug Jack in a way she
-had not dared to do since he had grown “so cross and old.”
-
-It was but a few weeks afterwards that we were welcoming father and
-mother back once more—father, older-looking certainly than before his
-illness, but no longer an invalid, while mother looked stronger and
-rosier than any of us could remember her. They were both surprised to
-find how well we could manage the housework, though father insisted on
-our keeping Beatrice Ethel all day to do the heaviest work.
-
-“As soon as I am in work again,” he said, “we must find a strong
-servant once more,” and on our protesting he answered, “My darlings,
-you were perfectly right in doing without servants as you have done.
-Now there is really no necessity, and it is wiser for Cecilly to spend
-her time over her music, to enable her to teach others. You, dear
-Kitty, we will gladly spare to Mrs. Moore, knowing you can help her
-in her infirmity. This work you are both fitted to undertake, and you
-can then conscientiously leave the housework to those other girls,
-who, not having had the education God has permitted you to have, can
-only labour with their hands and hearts. Your experience will make you
-better mistresses, I am convinced. You will be more competent to teach
-and more sympathetic over failures and shortcomings, and will never in
-all your life regret that all these months you have managed without
-servants.”
-
-
-
-
-VARIETIES.
-
-
-SOME GAELIC PROVERBS.
-
-Most shallow—most noisy.
-
-The eye of a friend is an unerring mirror.
-
-Oft has the wise advice proceeded from the mouth of folly.
-
-As a man’s own life, so is his judgment of the lives of others.
-
-God cometh in the time of distress, and it is no longer distress when
-He comes.
-
-The fortunate man awaits and he shall arrive in peace; the unlucky
-hastens and evil shall be his fate.
-
-
-LIFE AND DEATH.
-
-    I live, and yet I know not why,
-    Unless it be I live to die:
-    I die—and dying live in vain,
-    Unless I die to live again.
-
-
-AN ABSOLUTE CERTAINTY.—Amid the mysteries which become the more
-mysterious the more they are thought about, there will remain the one
-absolute certainty that man is ever in presence of an Infinite and
-Eternal Energy from which all things proceed.
-
-
-PASSING AN EXAMINATION.
-
-Here is how Professor William James of Harvard, in his student days,
-passed an examination before the late Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes.
-
-The first question put to him was as to the nerves at the base of the
-brain. It so happened that Mr. James was well up in the subject, and he
-promptly gave an exhaustive reply.
-
-“Oh, well, if you know that you know everything,” said Dr. Holmes
-cheerfully. “Let’s talk about something else. How are all your people
-at home?”
-
-
-
-
-SHEILA’S COUSIN EFFIE.
-
-A STORY FOR GIRLS.
-
-BY EVELYN EVERETT-GREEN, Author of “Greyfriars,” “Half-a-dozen
-Sisters,” etc.
-
-
-CHAPTER XX.
-
-THE STORM BREAKS.
-
-“It is simply disgraceful. You have made yourself the talk of the
-hotel. I am ashamed that you belong to my party; and you shall go home
-on Monday in the mail. I will not have the responsibility any longer of
-a girl who has no sense of obedience or of the fitness of things. Back
-you shall go at once. Your uncle will telegraph, and somebody shall
-meet you at the other end. But stay here any longer to behave in this
-way you most certainly shall not!”
-
-Sheila stood white-faced and almost terrified before her aunt. She was
-still in her riding-habit. She had come in so happily from her scramble
-with Ronald down by the shore; and with never a misgiving had run
-upstairs and entered the sitting-room before going to dress for dinner.
-
-There she found her aunt alone, waiting for her as it now seemed; and
-without warning the tempest had broken over her head. She scarcely
-knew even now of what she stood accused. It seemed as though every sin
-of every sort had been laid at her door. She could at first scarcely
-get at the gist of what her angry aunt could mean; but as Mrs. Cossart
-proceeded it gradually dawned upon Sheila that she was being accused of
-having carried on a bare-faced flirtation with Ronald Dumaresq, and of
-having made herself the talk of the hotel in so doing.
-
-It was like a stinging blow in the face to the sensitive girl. She was
-almost stunned by the rush of feeling that came over her. A few weeks
-ago she could have borne it better—she would have been more angry, but
-less overwhelmed with pain and shame.
-
-The wakening womanhood within her made the accusation almost
-intolerable. The very looks and words which had passed between them
-that day seemed to rise up before her in a bewildering mist. Could
-it possibly be true what her aunt was saying? Had she been forward,
-unwomanly, fast? Had she made people remark upon her—got herself talked
-of as a flirt?—hateful title that Sheila recoiled from as from a
-blow. She had liked to be with Ronald, she had thought he liked being
-with her. But her aunt had said it was she who was always entrapping
-him—those were the very words. Oh, how cruel, how cruel and unjust! But
-it was not true, no, it was not! Only if such things were being said,
-she could never, never, never see Ronald again all her life!
-
-A wave of sudden desolation seemed to sweep over Sheila. A rush of hot
-tears flooded her eyes. She burst into sobs and flung herself down on
-the sofa, crying—
-
-“Oh, how can you say such cruel things? How can you?”
-
-“I say them for your good—because they are true,” answered Mrs.
-Cossart, her anger in no way appeased by the sight of Sheila’s grief;
-“and there is the less excuse for you, because you have always had
-Effie’s example before you. You will never find her lowering herself by
-running after young men as you have been doing; and I tell you, Sheila,
-that nothing so disgusts those very young men as seeing girls do this.
-They humour them at the time for their amusement, and because their
-vanity is flattered; but in the end they despise them. Mr. Dumaresq has
-been very kind to you, but he must know perfectly well that you are
-trying to get him for a husband.”
-
-Sheila suddenly started up, her face suddenly grown white.
-
-“Aunt Cossart, you shall not say that again! I will not bear it from
-you. Yes, I will go away. I would not stay after this. Where is my
-uncle? Let me talk to him, but please do not say another word. I cannot
-bear it!”
-
-There was something in the girl’s sudden change of manner that half
-frightened Mrs. Cossart. She did not particularly want Sheila and her
-uncle to meet just now.
-
-“Your uncle has gone downstairs,” she answered uneasily, “you can see
-him after dinner.”
-
-“I shall not go down to dinner,” said Sheila, putting up her hand to
-her head in a dazed way. “My head aches. I shall go to bed. If I am
-going away on Monday, I think I won’t come down to meals any more.”
-
-“Well, I think you had better go to bed,” said Mrs. Cossart. “You
-have had a tiring day, and you don’t look yourself. I don’t mean to
-be unkind, Sheila, but you have no mother, and it is my duty to speak
-plainly sometimes.”
-
-“Then I am sure you have done your duty, Aunt Cossart,” said Sheila,
-giving one direct look at her aunt, and then the wave of bitterness
-surged over her once more. The tears rushed to her eyes; she felt as
-though she were choking, and in a blind sort of way she darted from the
-room, dashed into the one she shared with Effie, and flinging herself
-upon her bed broke into wild weeping.
-
-Effie had just finished her toilet, her face was rather flushed, and
-she looked uncomfortable and displeased. The maid was putting the room
-to rights, and cast a compassionate glance at the prone figure on the
-bed. She had received orders to pack up Sheila’s things in readiness
-for the mail on Monday, and as this was Saturday evening and no word
-had been spoken previously of such a thing, she divined that there had
-been a “row.” Probably she had a shrewd guess as to the cause, but of
-course she made no remark, finished her task and went away.
-
-Effie came and stood by Sheila.
-
-“Don’t cry so,” she said. “It’s a pity it has happened, but nobody will
-remember anything about it when you are gone. The Barretts are going
-in the mail on Monday. They will take care of you, and be pleased to
-have you. You always get on with people. And it’s better to go than to
-have bothers all the time.”
-
-Effie was half glad, half sorry to be rid of Sheila. In a way she was
-fond of her cousin, but she had become rather jealous of her too. And
-then her foolish mother had fostered in her the belief that Ronald
-Dumaresq would certainly pay his addresses to her if only Sheila would
-let him alone, and not be perpetually attracting him off to herself.
-Effie had been taken by Ronald from the first, and was flattered at
-being told of his preference. She had begun to fancy herself more or
-less in love with him, as girls with nothing better to think about are
-rather disposed to do. She liked to picture herself the mistress of an
-establishment, with a handsome young husband to take her about. If it
-were true that Ronald admired her, it was a thousand pities he should
-not have a fair field. Effie did not pause to consider that he had an
-excellent opportunity as it was for prosecuting his wooing, and that if
-he let himself be turned from his purpose by Sheila’s “machinations”—as
-her mother called it—his love could not be very deep or true. She was
-accustomed to be led by her mother’s opinions; and she had become very
-jealous of the way in which people “took up” Sheila, and left her out
-in the cold.
-
-As Sheila made no answer, Effie moved away, and joining her mother in
-the next room remarked—
-
-“You have upset her very much, but I suppose she will get over it.
-I think she won’t come down to-night, her face will be all red and
-swollen. What shall we say to people? Shall you tell them she is going
-to be sent home?”
-
-Mrs. Cossart looked a little taken aback. She had overlooked the fact
-that some explanation would have to be given of this exceedingly sudden
-arrangement. She looked at her daughter, and then said slowly—
-
-“Well, we won’t say anything to-night, only that Sheila has a headache
-and cannot come down. You will have a chance of talking to Mr. Dumaresq
-at table now, Effie. I am quite tired of the sound of Sheila’s laugh,
-and her way of getting his notice all for herself.”
-
-But Effie found Ronald rather abstracted, and she did not make much way
-with him. After he heard that Sheila was not coming down he seemed to
-go off into a brown study; and it was only when Mr. Cossart suddenly
-seemed to drop a bomb in their midst that he took note of what was
-passing.
-
-“Yes, she is to go home on Monday, my wife has decided,” Mr. Cossart
-remarked to Miss Adene, all unconscious of his wife’s warning looks.
-“We brought her out for a little holiday and amusement; and now she
-will go back home to another uncle of hers. Oh, yes, we shall all miss
-her. She is a merry little puss. But we think she has been here long
-enough. Mrs. Barrett has kindly promised to take care of her on the
-voyage home.”
-
-Ronald’s eyes had fixed themselves upon Mr. Cossart’s face.
-
-“Are you speaking of Miss Cholmondeley? Surely it has been arranged
-rather suddenly?”
-
-“Well, we have talked of it often,” said Mrs. Cossart interposing.
-“Sheila only came out for a time, not for the whole season. It is the
-chance of sending her back with such a good escort that has settled the
-matter. She will be very happy with the Barretts. They have made such
-friends, she and the girls.”
-
-“It is strange she said nothing all day, when we were making all sorts
-of plans for the future,” said Ronald; and both Mr. and Mrs. Cossart
-looked so uncomfortable that Lady Dumaresq changed the subject.
-
-There was no walking up and down the corridor or verandah with Ronald
-that evening, for he followed his party direct into their private
-sitting-room at the end of the ground-floor passage, and appeared no
-more that night.
-
-“What does it mean?” he asked, with a note of indignation in his voice.
-
-Miss Adene and Lady Dumaresq exchanged glances. They had seen perfectly
-through the clumsy manœuvre. Their eyes had been observing the turn
-affairs were taking for some while. They were not altogether unprepared
-for some such development.
-
-“Now, Ronald,” said Lady Dumaresq quietly, “it is no use your putting
-yourself into a fume and fret about this. It is very evident that Mrs.
-Cossart is jealous of Sheila, because she so entirely eclipses Effie.
-It is not a very surprising thing that it should be so. We must allow
-for a mother’s weakness. Perhaps you have yourself helped to bring
-about the crisis by a rather too visible admiration for the little
-girl. You were not quite wise to-day, for instance; and she is too much
-the child to be on her guard; and if people do talk——”
-
-“Let them,” answered Ronald rather proudly. “I am not afraid of having
-my name coupled with that of the girl I intend to make my wife!”
-
-They all smiled at him. They were all in sympathy with his bold
-declaration. Lady Dumaresq held out her hand, and Sir Guy laid an
-affectionate arm over his shoulder.
-
-“So it has come to that, has it, Ronald? Well, I am glad to hear it.
-But a little patience will not hurt either of you; and you will know
-better after a separation whether she cares for you in the way you
-wish.”
-
-“After a separation!” repeated Ronald rather blankly. “But I mean to
-come to an understanding before they send her away. I may even be able
-to stop it if she is my——”
-
-But Lady Dumaresq laid a gentle hand upon his lips.
-
-“Ronald,” she said, “that would not be wise. Indeed it would scarcely
-be fair and right to her.”
-
-“What do you mean?” he questioned quickly.
-
-“I mean that the question you have to ask Sheila is too solemn and
-serious a one to be put when she is in a mist of bewilderment, sorrow,
-and indignation, which is sure to be the case. You would come to her
-then as a sort of champion and deliverer, and she would very likely
-accept you in that impulse of gratitude, whether or no her heart be
-deeply stirred. Do not win her in that impetuous way, Ronald. It will
-not hurt either of you to bear the yoke for awhile—to learn what
-patience has to teach. Her character will develop in the school of
-life’s discipline, as it has not done when all has been sunshine. Let
-her go now, Ronald. Prove your own heart first, then if you find it
-unchanged, seek her out later, and win her if you can. Believe me, it
-will be best so. I do not know what has passed between Sheila and her
-aunt, but whatever it is, I would not have you seek an interview now.”
-
-And indeed, had Ronald desired it, it is doubtful if he could have
-obtained sight of Sheila. She remained in bed most of Sunday with a
-violent headache. Miss Adene and Lady Dumaresq stole up to see her, to
-whisper a few kind words and then retire. And when Monday came she was
-nothing but a little white-faced, woe-begone creature, so unlike the
-Sheila of the past weeks that her friends would scarcely have known her.
-
-She would not say good-bye to anybody. She shrank from the thought of
-what they might have been told as to her sudden departure. Every nerve
-was tingling with pain, and shame, and misery.
-
-The boat was in early, and whilst the rest of the people were at
-lunch, Sheila got her uncle to take her down to the quay and see her on
-board, for she felt she would sink into the ground if Ronald were to
-come out and see her, and say good-bye before the rest of the people.
-
-“Well, I am thankful she went off so quietly,” said Mrs. Cossart, as
-they discussed the matter together before descending to dinner. “I was
-afraid there might be a scene, but there is no accounting for Sheila.
-She did not even want to say good-bye to the Dumaresq party, and if
-some of them hadn’t come up here, she would have gone off without even
-that. Girls are the queerest, most capricious creatures! Well, it’s all
-happily over; and, Effie, you will have Sheila’s place now at table,
-and nobody to interfere with you. Mr. Dumaresq——”
-
-But Effie tossed her head rather defiantly. She had not got much change
-out of Mr. Dumaresq these last few _table d’hôte_ meals.
-
-“I don’t care for Mr. Dumaresq so mighty much. I’m not going to put
-myself out of the way for him. I don’t think I care so particularly
-for fashionable young men. I don’t mind him, but I’m not going to
-put myself out of the way just to amuse him. I think he’s very dull
-sometimes. I don’t know what you all see in him to make such a fuss!”
-
-Mrs. Cossart rather felt as though she had taken an infinity of trouble
-for a chimera of her own brain, and when she reached the dining-room
-her jaw almost dropped. She had pictured the amalgamation which would
-take place between Effie and the Dumaresqs now that Sheila had gone;
-but what did she see?
-
-The whole Dumaresq party had moved bodily to the side table, hitherto
-occupied by the Barretts, who had left to-day. Some new arrivals from
-the Cape had been given the seats next to the Cossarts—loud-voiced
-colonials with rather bad manners, who talked amongst themselves and
-seemed not to desire the acquaintance of their neighbours.
-
-Mrs. Cossart sat in dismayed silence through the meal, and when she
-went into the drawing-room afterwards, she fancied that all the people
-looked coldly at her. Nobody spoke either to her or to Effie, and they
-soon retired to their own rooms.
-
-Was this a sample of what would result from her laborious attempt to
-promote her daughter’s popularity?
-
-(_To be continued._)
-
-[Illustration]
-
-
-
-
-THINGS IN SEASON, IN MARKET AND KITCHEN.
-
-BY LA MÉNAGERE.
-
-
-September, the hunter’s moon, brings us such an abundance in our
-markets that it is difficult to say just what is peculiar to the month.
-Undoubtedly the most prominent feature is moor game, and now is the
-time when even moderate purses may safely indulge in this. Hares,
-rabbits, grouse, partridges, and wild duck give an excellent choice,
-and poultry also is prime and not dear.
-
-Fresh-water fish come in this month, and are often most useful to
-country hostesses, as well as affording sport to her guests. The
-orchards are laden now with fast-ripening fruit, and if this harvest
-is a fairly plentiful one we may indeed be glad. Nuts will find an
-excuse for many delightful nutting parties among the children, and
-the storing of fruits and vegetables from the garden will keep the
-housekeeper busy. Damsons should be plentiful towards the end of this
-month, and will want making into jam and cheese, and we expect also to
-gather blackberries—another excuse for picnicking—nor must we leave
-mushrooms out of the list. Indeed, September is the harvest-month in
-many senses, for we have the wild crops ready for garnering, as well as
-the cultivated ones of garden and field.
-
-The poorest country-dweller may make a profit now who has the wit and
-the energy to seek for nature’s bounty, as these wild things invariably
-meet with a ready sale in towns.
-
-Besides these we have other things provided by a bountiful providence
-which we ought to appreciate better than we do. See the glorious
-colouring that the leaves of the hedgerow trees take on; note the
-rushes swaying in the brook, the berries of the mountain-ash, as well
-as of the dog-rose; all these are profitable to town florists, who will
-generally pay a fair price for such things. To the home decorator all
-these are very valuable—or will be in the days that will come all too
-soon, when no flowers are to be had for the table. If slightly dried
-and brushed over with a very weak solution of gum arabic, then dried
-again, these will keep for a long time without losing their colour.
-Some of the very prettiest table decorations ever seen have been made
-with coloured leaves and berries. For tall jars in the corners of
-rooms, purple thistles, white honesty, brown bulrushes, copper beech
-boughs, and scarlet ash-berries combined, make a truly lovely show.
-
-In the garden we have dahlias and sunflowers defying the wane that
-seems to make everything else look dreary, and by and by we shall
-have chrysanthemums in all their brave glory to brighten house and
-greenhouse. What a glory do these give to the last days of the dying
-year.
-
-But the year is far from ending in September; we have many things yet
-to enjoy, and possibly many guests to entertain, and always much to see
-to, as prudent housewives.
-
-A plentiful crop of wild mushrooms proves a great help to us now, and
-we are glad to remind ourselves of different ways of using them. For
-instance, with bacon or eggs at breakfast, _au gratin_ at dinner, on
-toast at all times, they are acceptable. With field mushrooms we have
-need to be very careful lest we inadvertently give ourselves some that
-are poisonous and unfit for food. Dr. Badham, author of the _Esculent
-Funguses of England_, enumerates no less than forty-eight species
-of edible fungi, all of which are good to eat. According to him the
-majority of fungi are harmless, but his account of the effects of the
-poisonous minority is enough to alarm the most trustful.
-
-The easiest way to detect whether fungi are wholesome or not is to
-insert a silver spoon into the stew in which they are present, and if
-poisonous it will quickly turn black; a peeled onion will also turn
-blue or bluish-black, and is an even easier test. If either of these on
-being withdrawn shows their own natural colour, the mushrooms may be
-regarded as harmless.
-
-Mushroom ketchup is regarded by all housewives as one of the treasures
-of the store-cupboard, and that which is home-made is generally better
-than any that can be bought.
-
-It is best when made of the large flap mushrooms, fresh, but fully
-ripe. They must be gathered during very dry weather, if the ketchup
-is to keep properly. Do not wash or peel them but wipe them clean,
-and remove all decayed pieces and part of the stalks. Put them into a
-gallon stone jar, and strew salt liberally over them. Let them remain
-a night, and the next day stir them up, and repeat this for two or
-three days. At the end of the third day put the jar into the oven and
-let them stew a short time, then gently pour off the liquid, but do
-not squeeze them at all. To every quart put an ounce of Jamaica and
-black peppercorns, two or three pieces of rase ginger, and a blade of
-mace. Boil again for perhaps half an hour, let it stand aside until
-cold, then put into dry bottles, and cork it up tightly. It is well to
-use small bottles, so that when one has been opened it may be used up
-before it has time to lose its virtues.
-
-
-MENU FOR SEPTEMBER.
-
-    Rabbit Pie.
-    Cold Roast Goose.
-    Salmi of Partridges (hot).
-    Fillets of Beef with Mushrooms (also hot).
-    Cold Pressed Beef.
-    Potato, Beetroot, Tomato and Endive Salads.
-    Hot Potatoes.
-    Quince Jelly. Damson Cheese.
-    Apple and Blackberry Tart. Cream.
-    Cheddar and Gorgonzola Cheese.
-    Oatcake and Butter.
-
-Our menu this month might be one suited for a luncheon party, where the
-chief dishes would be required cold, with two or three hot ones as a
-set-off, and all others placed on the table at the same time. Luncheon
-parties are generally very common during this month in the country, and
-the guests who come to partake of them are not noted for their small
-appetites.
-
-_Salmi of Partridges._—Put the birds into the oven as for roasting, and
-partially cook them. When about half done cut them into neat pieces,
-and remove the skin and sinews, and place them in a clean saucepan. In
-another pan put a quarter of a pound of uncooked ham minced finely,
-with a good piece of butter; add a dozen small mushrooms, three or four
-minced shallots, a grated carrot, a spoonful of chopped parsley, a few
-sprigs of savoury herbs and some pepper and salt. Cover closely and let
-them cook on the top of the stove, shaking the pan to prevent burning;
-when cooked dredge a little flour over them, let it brown a little,
-and pour in about a pint of good brown stock. Add also a glassful of
-sherry. Stir until the gravy has thickened nicely, then put in the
-pieces of the birds, and let them slowly simmer, but not boil, for at
-least half an hour. Dish the game in a pile on a hot dish, strain the
-sauce, and see that it is well seasoned and of a nice brown colour,
-then pour over all. Garnish with fried sippets of bread.
-
-_Fillets of Beef with Mushrooms._—These should be cut from the undercut
-or fillet of beef, and be neatly shaped. Fry them quickly on both
-sides, but only enough to slightly brown them, then place in a stewpan
-and cover with peeled mushrooms, one or two shallots, some pepper and
-a glassful of red wine with also a small lump of butter. Stew these
-for quite an hour in a rather slow oven, then lift out the meat and
-the mushrooms, and thicken the gravy with fécule, also add salt and a
-tablespoonful of sharp sauce, then pour boiling hot over the dish.
-
-_Quince Jelly_ and _Damson Cheese_ are both preserves that should be
-found in readiness in the store cupboard. For the first, take a quart
-of quince juice obtained by boiling the fruit with a very little water
-and then straining it through a bag; add a pound of lump sugar to every
-quart, and then an ounce of gum arabic previously soaked in water. Boil
-well for quite half an hour, then put into moulds.
-
-_Damson Cheese._—Put several pounds of freshly-gathered damsons into
-a stone jar with a very little water. Stand this on the top of the
-stove to stew gently for some hours, or until the fruit is perfectly
-soft. While still warm turn out the damsons into a wide-meshed sieve
-or colander, rub until nothing but skins and stones are left. Put half
-a pound of loaf sugar to every pound of pulp, and boil together into a
-stiff paste. Some of the stones should be cracked and the kernels taken
-out, as these give a very pleasant flavour to the cheese. Put into
-shallow dishes or moulds, and cover with brandied papers. This cheese
-is usually cut into fancy shapes and put into glass dishes to serve at
-dessert.
-
-
-
-
-ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS.
-
-
-STUDY AND STUDIO.
-
-IRENE FOY, 32, Osborne Terrace, Clapham Road, wishes to sell “ONYX” a
-Greek grammar, written by IRENE’S father in English and Greek. Will
-“ONYX” please write?
-
-LEM.—You will find the poem from which you quote an extract in _Ezekiel
-and Other Poems_, by B. M. (Nelson and Sons). It is there entitled “The
-Sea of Sorrow.”
-
-CONSTANCE.—1. “Auf Wiedersehn,” means “till we meet again,” like the
-French “Au revoir.”—2. We always recommend Dr. Lemmi’s Italian Grammar,
-published at 5s. by Messrs. Oliver & Boyd, Edinburgh; and Messrs.
-Simpkin, Marshall & Co., London. It is quite simple enough to be
-studied alone.
-
-SOROR.—We are sorry you have had to wait so long for a reply, but
-owing to the time at which we go to press, we cannot promise an answer
-speedily.
-
-NURSE PETRA.—_The Jugend-Gartenlaube_, 5s. a year, might suit you;
-but we advise you to write for a full list of German periodicals to
-Hachette & Co., 18, King William Street, Charing Cross, London.
-
-F. E. BARTRAM.—Books on entomology appear rather costly; but you might
-begin with _British Butterflies, Moths and Beetles_, by W. F. Kirby,
-published at 1s.; or Sir John Lubbock’s _Origin and Metamorphoses of
-Insects_, 3s. 6d. Order at any bookseller’s.
-
-NYDIA.—It is not wonderful that a “first attempt,” especially as you
-have “never learnt how to set down music,” and are only sixteen, should
-be full of mistakes, too many to specify. It is absolutely impossible
-for you to hope to succeed without seriously studying the rules of
-harmony. At the same time we should judge from your pleasant and modest
-letter that such study would be by no means thrown away.
-
-A correspondent directs our attention to the fact that “foolscap,”
-concerning which a question was lately answered in “Study and Studio,”
-is a corruption of the Italian _foglio-capo_, a folio-sized sheet. The
-error is an ancient one, for from the thirteenth to the seventeenth
-century the water mark of this size paper was a fool’s head with cap
-and bells.
-
-B. E. M.—1. We are constantly mentioning Reading Societies in this
-column. Try the National Home Reading Union, Surrey House, Victoria
-Embankment, London, or write to Mrs. Walker, Litlington Rectory,
-Berwick, Sussex.—2. Do not try or wish to “become pale.” Sufficient
-exercise, and strict attention to clothing and diet, are the best cure
-for a faulty circulation.
-
-A LINCOLNSHIRE GIRL.—1. The lines you quote,
-
-    “Howe’er it be, it seems to me
-      ’Tis only noble to be good,”
-
-are certainly by Tennyson, from the poem “Lady Clara Vere de Vere.”—2.
-The allusion,
-
-    “Her who clasped in her last trance
-      Her murdered father’s head,”
-
-is to Margaret Roper, the daughter of Sir Thomas More. This devoted
-daughter obtained possession of her father’s head after his execution,
-kept it in a leaden casket, and left directions that it should be
-buried with her. For the whole story, see THE GIRL’S OWN PAPER for
-February, 1898, where we answered the question at length.
-
-BLUEBOTTLE.—The reference you quote is probably Professor E. Curtius, a
-distinguished German authority on etymology.
-
-A. N. D.—1. The lines (which you misquote) are as follows—
-
-    “Oh, wad some power the giftie gie us
-    To see oursel’s as others see us!
-    It wad frae monie a blunder free us
-        And foolish notion.”
-
-They are by Robert Burns, and you will find them in any edition of his
-poems.—2. Write to the office of THE BOY’S OWN PAPER, in which magazine
-“The Bishop and the Caterpiller” first appeared.
-
-
-INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENCE.
-
-FLORENCE is very sorry, but circumstances have occurred which
-unfortunately prevent her from opening a correspondence with a little
-girl reader of the “G. O. P.” as she wished. Among the many readers of
-our paper, perhaps someone else will kindly volunteer.
-
-“MADGE,” who lives in the country, and works with her hands, would
-very much like to correspond with “NELLIE,” so would ROBINA J. GIBSON,
-Ferneycleuch, Lochmaben, Dumfriesshire (a farmer’s daughter), and
-B. E. M., The Rectory, Barnow, Co. Wexford.
-
-M. D. LEWIS, Sabia, near Smyrna, Asia Minor, would be very glad to
-write to any of our readers who would like to hear a little about
-the remote and uncivilised region where she lives, and the curious
-superstitions and customs that prevail. She adds, “If any of your
-readers wish to correspond with me in Greek, I shall be very much
-pleased.”
-
-MISS FRANCES WHITE, Yaverland Manor, Brading, Isle of Wight, would
-be pleased to exchange stamps with girls living abroad; she would
-send twenty British stamps in exchange for the same number of the
-nationality of her correspondent.
-
-MAUD M. BAUGHAN, Vernon Villa, James Street, Oxford, would like to
-correspond in English with MISS RUBY TIZAREL and MISS NELLY POLLAK. As
-MISS BAUGHAN is a teacher, she would also like to correspond with any
-teachers across the sea.
-
-MISS R. M. COOKE, Oxford Villa, Gordon Road, Southend-on-Sea, wishes to
-correspond with some girls of her own age (20) living abroad. She is an
-enthusiastic collector of view post-cards, and would like to exchange
-English cards for those of other countries.
-
-Will O MIMOSA SAN exchange illustrated post-cards with MADAME GASTON
-CANTIN, Rue de Saujon, La Tremblade, Charente Inférieure, France,
-whom we thank for her pleasant words, describing the delight of her
-correspondence with an English reader of the “G. O. P.”
-
-“BERTRAM,” a girl fond of out-door exercise, would like to correspond
-with a French girl about sixteen years of age.
-
-MISS SOFIE ABELSBERG, Budapesth, Hungary (11, Nagy János Street),
-wishes for a well-educated English or American girl correspondent of
-her own age (18) who would write in German or English, Miss Abelsberg
-in English.
-
-FLORIDA would like to correspond with a Spanish, Dutch, Norwegian,
-Swedish or Russian girl of good family about 20 years of age. She would
-help them in English if they would help her in their languages. Will
-any girls of these nationalities send addresses here?
-
-
-GIRLS’ EMPLOYMENTS.
-
-A FARMER’S DAUGHTER (_Choice of Employment_).—Are there not rather
-many kinds of work which you dislike? You “would not think of entering
-into domestic service at all.” You “would not care for shop business
-either.” You think, however, that you might like to act as a clerk, or
-a lady’s companion. Now, we are obliged to tell you that companions are
-very little wanted, and that clerks, if they are to receive moderately
-good salaries, must be well educated. You tell us, however, that
-your parents would not be disposed to spend anything further on your
-education or training. This makes the position somewhat difficult. It
-compels you to regard home as your school. But there are many useful
-things that a girl can learn on a farm. You might learn dairy-work
-thoroughly and earn something by the sale of butter. Later, if you
-could master the newest methods, from studying the appliances used
-by your most successful farming friends, you could seek a position
-as superintendent of some gentleman’s private dairy. People who can
-make butter and cheese well never go a-begging. Then you should also
-study the best and most remunerative methods of rearing poultry and of
-marketing eggs. Something, even, might be earned from your garden, if
-you have one, and the soil is favourable for bulbs—as in many parts of
-Ireland it is. The secret of comfort in farmers’ households is for the
-family to remain together, and for each member—father and mother, sons
-and daughters, to contribute their share of work. But where families
-break up, the trouble comes, for each person then wants a separate
-house, and consequently larger earnings.
-
-TWENTIETH VOLUME (_Art Teachership_).—Your friends have unfortunately
-been only too well acquainted with the facts, when they told you that
-it would be extremely difficult to obtain a situation as teacher of art
-in a school. Drawing is taught in a good many girls’ schools, but by
-no means in all. The head-mistresses of many High Schools are disposed
-to give most of the time allowed to general English subjects and
-languages, which count in examinations, and to leave girls of artistic
-tastes to study drawing later at a regular school of art. Evidently you
-draw well, or you could not have obtained so much success in the South
-Kensington examinations. But the question arises, can you not earn
-something by your own drawings? Could you not draw illustrations for
-stories, or make designs for some commercial or advertising purpose?
-In all directions of this kind there is much work to be done and money
-to be earned. Or have you thought of trying some handicraft such as
-lace-making, silk-weaving, or cane basket-making? Perhaps, as you live
-in the Midlands, you could some day visit the Birmingham Municipal
-School of Arts and Crafts and observe the many kinds of beautiful work
-done by girls there. Such a visit might give you useful ideas. In
-chromo-lithography, too, there is constantly a demand for good designs.
-There are some large chromo-lithographic firms in Birmingham. The other
-matter you speak of is not one in which we can help directly, but you
-might make the cottage known to the railway authorities so that they
-could include it in the lists of country lodgings which they publish.
-
-F. W. G. (_Hospital Nurse_).—You would not be required to know much
-arithmetic in order to be admitted to a hospital; but at the same time
-you ought to know something of the subject, otherwise your notions of
-the portions of drugs to administer, and other such matters in which
-an accurate mind is essential, will be very hazy. During the period
-which must yet elapse before your admission you had better be trying to
-improve your arithmetic. Your writing, about which you ask our opinion,
-is sufficiently legible and clear, but it would be improved with
-practice. There is a slight disposition to make the letters slope too
-much.
-
-INDEPENDENCE (_Nurse-Companion, etc._).—A nurse-companion is usually
-expected to have been trained at a hospital. The training need not have
-been sufficient to qualify a woman for regular hospital employment,
-but it ought to have covered a period of six months at all events. You
-do not mention that you have been in any hospital, and we therefore
-think you had better give up the idea of becoming a nurse-companion.
-Perhaps, as music appears to be your best accomplishment, you would
-do most wisely to seek employment as nursery governess. Your general
-education we judge by your letter to be fairly good. But try to improve
-yourself by every means within your power, as you cannot long remain a
-nursery governess; and you must either advance so as to become a fully
-qualified governess, when you are older, or devote your attention to
-the practical duties of looking after young children. In the latter
-case you would, of course, term yourself a children’s nurse. It is
-possible that you might be well advised to advertise yourself as
-a children’s nurse from the first, seeking a subordinate position
-to begin with, in order to gain experience. Your handwriting is
-satisfactory.
-
-A CLYDESDALE LASSIE (_Hospital Nursing_).—Paying probationers are
-received commonly for a period of three months at a time, for which
-thirteen guineas is paid in advance. You could not enter a general
-hospital on these terms just at present. Twenty-two is customarily the
-lowest age for admission.
-
-WEE WIFIE (_Fancy Work_).—It is almost impossible to obtain a sale for
-fancy articles which are only made at home and in small quantities.
-Little novelties which can be produced cheaply and in large numbers
-may often be sold direct to wholesale and retail dealers in bazaar and
-fancy articles. We should recommend a lady who must live at home either
-to do work on these lines and treat her home as a small manufactory,
-or else devote her time to the making of fine underclothing, which she
-could sell to the drapers and outfitters. Shops where embroidery is
-sold usually keep their own workers on the premises, for the simple
-reason that orders have to be executed promptly and in exact obedience
-to the demand of the moment. It is not possible for work of this kind
-to be sent to workers who can only be reached by correspondence.
-
-
-MISCELLANEOUS.
-
-FRUIT FARMER.—No, strawberries are not indigenous to England, according
-to Haydn, in his _Dictionary of Dates_, where he says that they were
-brought to this country from Flanders in 1530. Against this date, we
-refer to Shakespeare’s _Richard III._, in which we find them spoken of
-as growing in the Bishop of Ely’s garden in Holborn, which shows it
-was cultivated as early as the latter part of the fifteenth century. A
-hundred years subsequently four kinds of this fruit were cultivated in
-the garden of a barber-surgeon, Gerard by name, also in Holborn.
-
-DEAF.—Had you not better consult some missionary, or the friend whom
-you have out in China, so as to find out what the children in China
-may be likely to want? Have you seen the small scrap-books made of old
-post-cards, or of cards the same size, and tied together at the side,
-so as to form a small long book? Pictures are pasted on the back and
-front of each card. Perhaps you could make these; but we think you will
-do well to inquire about it.
-
-W. M. B. D., HEATHER, LAURIA, etc.—We have seen several copies of
-this snow-ball letter from New South Wales. The addresses in each
-are rather different, and we, like you, cannot imagine what the
-philanthropist wants with so many stamps, nor do we understand why the
-Government should give an endorsement. We should let it alone, and
-return the letters. The address seems insufficient, and we have failed
-to find any one of the places mentioned in the most recent Gazetteer.
-These philanthropic people who require a million of stamps are often
-difficult to find; and they might as well give the money at once.
-
-C. BROWN.—To fix prints upon wood, and remove the paper, care must be
-taken that the surface of the latter be perfectly smooth. Then moisten
-a piece of thick drawing-paper, and apply a layer of thin glue on its
-surface; leave it to dry; give it two or three more coats, leaving each
-to dry separately. Coat the paper then with several layers of spirit
-varnish, and prepare the wood in the same way; and then apply the
-print. We should have said that the wood must be previously prepared
-by a slight coat of glue, and when dry, rubbed with glass-paper, and
-a white alcoholic varnish applied. When dry, about five or six more
-coats of the same will be required. Cut the edge of the print closely
-round, lay it on a table face downwards, and moisten the back with a
-wet sponge, and then place between two leaves of blotting-paper. Apply
-another coat of varnish to the wood, and, before it is dry, lay the
-face of the print down upon it, wiping the back in such a way as to
-drive out the air so as to form no blisters. Lay a sheet of dry paper
-upon it, and pass a soft linen cloth over it to press it firmly down.
-Then leave it to dry, and when thoroughly so, moisten it with a sponge,
-and roll off the paper with your fingers. Great care must be taken
-in this process not to remove any part of the paper upon which the
-impression is taken. After this rubbing it must be left to dry. When
-dry, one more coat of varnish must be given over the delicate film of
-paper left, and it will be left perfectly transparent. When quite dry,
-polish with Dutch rushes, steeped for three or four days in olive oil,
-which latter must be removed with a fine linen cloth, and then sprinkle
-with starch or hair-powder. Rub this off with the hand, and apply three
-or four more coats of varnish, leaving each to dry as before, and in
-three or four days polish with a fine woollen cloth with whiting of the
-finest kind.
-
-MERCY B.—The names of the hospitals for which you ask are as
-follows:—Newcastle Hospital, Hull Royal Infirmary, Leeds General
-Infirmary, Leeds Fever Hospital, and Lincoln County Hospital. For the
-last-named, over four hundred applications are refused yearly, and
-about fourteen are accepted. Address the matron in all cases. We could
-not give any idea of the time you would have to wait, of course.
-
-UNHAPPY MAUDE.—We think you will be really unhappy if you do not take
-your father’s and brother’s advice, and give up a foolish attachment.
-Do you think that any man who drinks could love you dearly and
-devotedly? Would he not love drink far better? Gather all your strength
-together and go away for a change, and try to turn your thoughts to
-some other subject. If you managed to break off with your lover once,
-you can do so again, and at twenty-one you will soon forget.
-
-       *       *       *       *       *
-
-[Illustration: THE LAUNDRY, BATTERSEA POLYTECHNIC.]
-
-[Illustration: THE COOKERY SCHOOL, POLYTECHNIC. STUDENTS AT WORK.]
-
-       *       *       *       *       *
-
-[Transcriber’s Note—the following changes have been made to this text.
-
-Page 750: flower to flour—“dredge a little flour”.]
-
-
-
-
-
-End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Girl's Own Paper, Vol. XX, No.
-1025, August 19, 1899, by Various
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