The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, May 8, 1898, Page 25

THE SAN FRANCISCO CALL, SUNDAY, MAY 8, 189 [RAINING LITTLE GIRLS TO Oakland Ladies Have Started a School Where Over Eighty Children Are Divided Into Prepare Themselves for Good Housekeepers. The School Is Already Such a Success That Its From a Photograph. N an unpretentious house between usually prominent in society, whom ilroad tracks in West Oa trained in her normal Ros hooni ataten it iy submitted to Severe writ- sppme gl e i s Lo fon and proved their fit- dom ave been making the last hundred to find just such , which lies at the and quickly & her a nor- fe s in-iin model class s and boardi than in service ave got and ady bread- s up of the ving bre to the the model class and in one instance at . sick, caring for the least the lessons bore immediate and the youns on her @bundant fruit. »f Northumberland, > of all between and . th cult of e acquainted an who nowa- e to support a family these un- he dis- ren born nviron- ed that y fitted for mi: among the ja stitutions. d women and became from something bet- irls th convinced t ignorance and ter to do t 1 om depr it how to help these stincts want of n whose aded or tion that ington of 1 , with her model class in kitchen garden. found there what she g forward to.. She gave work and began the formative. )sperous school in St. Paul with between two and three hun- dred pupils was the first resuit. The school once well started required her personal attendance no longer, so she determined to come West. At Den- ver in the new Woman's Club building a large portion of the building was de- (\i"!r’d to class rooms for kitchen gar- en. In Salt Lake City is another school. In all these schools the instruction in kitchen garden is given by the ladies HAMMERED LEATHER CLASS. tter & itler the pre- all being when M San neisco. Miss is to begin at the top of soci quite a: idea and will follow wherever leader goes. In the normal cla 1kland ¢ Goodall, Mis Lohman and The ix other young A new maid has just come to Mr: to hes singir ing and - showing the wi had been doing such work fi how to make the bed, tu clothes in so neatly that the mai watching with attenti Next the broom began and said . but it was a o I told g a good one. d had only two lessons 'n told that brooms should ain color all through, othe > likely to be of inferi 1 it back a The ¢ and had ment. play with ave tea par- f th i inct is the formation of t 3 It is quite d rten and star to the real housework school kindergarten does to the gra behind 1as chos: will be no v tion on the cc s in the pres nd Japanese ha ervant girl and working ten to n hours a day for t teen and eighte barest necessiti g schools have not be- but be- which a gentle woman m: and not lose caste and it is well She must, how T, submit herself to and discipline and -xaminations before diploma. begins ixactly what she is about and does it thoroughly and well. She wears proper clothing while at her work and respects herself and makes every one who comes in_conta up to her. Nursing is essentially woman's work, but how much more so is the work of making homes, her own first, if she have one; but some one’s else if she have not. This, too, will be the open- ing most appropriate for the hardest class of woman to find her level—the woman who has been carefully brought up in her own home never expecting to have to earn her living. If it becomes necessary she finds that she is not able to take her place and compete with the woman who has been in business from childhood. Her refinement, all her ideas are a bar to her advancement. She s not accustomed to the wear and tc;;]rt of business life, or to the publicity of it. Naturally she would prefer to re- signed to work in " Watt of Oakland had a 24 than at the bottom, for women much as men have the sheep the of the new school s W ladies. small daughters of friends formed to sweep, rning the little ““The m to take 25 BE GOOD HOUSEREEPERS. Classes, All Learning to Make Fires, Scrub Floors, Clean and Sweep, Set a Table and Generally Founders Cannot Accommodate All the Applicants. main in home wc ence of this one w ence is not imagina was a graduate of Vasss refined by travel and i the best society. Her husband died and at 26 she stood alone with nothing but jdeas She decided she would stick to what but the e n, whose cornmon AT, cultured and ntercourse with She she knew something about, “a lady could dignify v position, etc.” The first woman she applied to, in answer to an advertisement, told ‘her flatly, “Your application is very suspi- cious; something must be wrong.” At last she got a situation as nur- sery governess to two little girls, “You will, of course, not mind a cap and my second gl will be so much company for you,” said the lady of the house. Weil, she compromised by taking a position in a store and a good many of her ideas were turned topsy-turvy. I have asked many ladies employ- ing Chinese at wages ranging from $30 to $80 a month, whether they would not prefer a trained woman on the same footing as a tra‘ned nurse. In every case the answer has been that such a woman would be eagerly ac- cepted. One lady explained the situation in THE KiTCHEN GARDEN. From a Photograph. this wise: “There kitchen. ily, are gre. doings in my We are bniy two in the fam- a big fire all day. Lee 's very busy and quite un- ble to understand two words in Eng- lish when 1 go to the kitchen to make any suggestions, so I just keep out.” Lee does all the marketine, too, and any one can see that a competent wo- man could earn the same wages, do the work better and make a big saving in the monthly bill for food and fuel. Such a woman’'s work would not be one-half so hard, as a nurse’s, nor as heavy as shop 'work, and she would have a “home,” for a woman would be accepted at what she is. Being well paid and having her own hours off duty she would be no more in an inferior po« sition than the cgshier of a bank. In the West OaRland school there are now about eighty children with ten times as many eager to enter. In cl es of eleven they learn to make a fire, scrub a floor, clean and sweep, make beds, set a table and do every- thing up to the cooking stage of educa- tion. In the washing lesson the girls stand around a table, each with her little tub, washboard, bag of small clothes and even the tiny clothespins. The pupil sings her lesson, with pi- ano accompaniment, learns how to put the clothes to soak, to care for stains, how to rub and rinse and make starch. Besides these material directions, the ethical part of washing, rather a new idea, is given and the pupil is taught to respect her work and herself, be- cause it is work that is worth doing and she knows how to do it well and will do it conscientiously. Then in the lesson she learns the story of cloth; how it grows in the South and how beautiful the cotton fields are, and then, later, how the dar~ kies help pick it and carry it in baskets on_their heads. Then the story of the mills and shops and the story of the coal which makes her fire and the starch and the wool in the blankets and the hemp in the clothesline. It is a very intelligent lit- tle girl who hangs her clothes up to dry with her thoughts broadened to take in all her fellow workers who have helped to prepare what she uses: Then there is an active game with clotheslines, where they “hang them up high to dry the clothes” and, finally, “take them in at night.” In the bed-making lesson a small bed with dainty coverings is used, and the pupils learn as much of medical cleanliness as their small brains can grasp. There is a lesson in sweeping and a great deal about dust. Ruskin is called in constantly, and, sttange to say, the small pupils take in his ideas. In the dining-room work each child has her small table and everything to set it, even to a tiny napkin and ring, and she learns why everything is done as it is, and how to wash dishes by washing her own small set in a little dishpan. A lesson in clay modeling goes with the table lesson. It is keenly enjoyed by the children, who never knew how hard it was to make the dishes. After the modeling lesson they have much more respect for crockery and handle it just that much more carefully. In sewing the work is carefully and most ingeniously graded, from the be- ginners who “run” on Java canvas with bright yarns, and by following the course of the threads of the canvas learn to make a straight seam and small even stiches. The needle used is easy to thread and without a point to prick the small fingers, and uses a thimble. In the next grade the same stitches on samples Miss Emery bastes carefully, intending by her example to teach them how im- portant is good basting, and when the time comes they unconsciously follow, In the third grade cc s fellirg and backstitching, the samples without any knots showing and all the stitches per- fectly even. The fourth grade is hemming, and the pupil begins her own basting on a piece of cotton representing a sheet with its wide and narrow hem. After this is finished she hems a napkin, m ng the stitches invisible on the right side by having them set exactly with the threads of the cloth. In the next grade comes ruffling and putting on a band, which must all be done by the pupil without more than verbal assistance from her teacher. The work of every grade must be done perfectly before the pupil is ad- vanced, and I wish you could see that sewing class of children from six or seven to 13 years. They work as if life depended upon it. When Mrs.Watt went to the piano and said, “Now girls, it's time to put away that work,” there was a general “Oh,” although they had been sewing for an hour and a haif. While they were putting their work away Miss Emery said she would like to say just a word. Now, girls, you know last week we had only two teachers, and I asked you to put vour work away just as care- fully as when your teachers were here. Well, I want to tell you how proud I was of you when I wanted to show your work. It had never been put away quite so neatly before.” You may be sure that after those words the work was put away In neat- or piles than ever before. At first it tcok a good deal of pa- tience to get the children to under- stand why they were to make their work so perfect, but at last they caught the idea, and now they are anxious to learn to do each stitch per- fectly and are willing to take the work out over and over again. They are pre- paring for an exhibition soon to be held in connection with settlement work’and are most eager to have their work com- pare favorably with work from other classes. When they have learned to make all the stitches in plain sewing and can set on a band, baste hems wide or nar- row and make button holes, they are promoted to the Sewing Club, which meets in its own room. The club has a teacher who is competent to teach them to measure themselves, cut, fit, baste and make every garment a girl wears. If you could see that class of girls, nearly all under 14 years, at their cut- ting tables and sewing machines and the garments they have made them- selves you would require no further proof that the work is thoroughly prac- tical. Very few of the same girls could more than thread a needle when they began work about six months ago. I went to one home where the little housekeeper is 11 years old. Her people are very poor and the mother and father are both away all day. The girl DRESSMAKING CLASS. From & Photograph. thought her small brother of four quite too old to be wearing dresses and had made him a pair of trousers, pockets and all, and a little blouse out of some cast-off garments, 25 cents a month, I the children, as Miss V'S on is to teach them st of all self-dependence. She be- lieves that whatever is given without ion tends to pauperize. By ving of this fee th. children value much more their lessons and it i them a greater interest in the Inde children own the entire est: Mrs. Watt and, not learning to get some- thing for nothing. Miss Emery and all the teachers are rning, too, just as much as they teach—lessons in reali- ties—for they are going to school to a whose stern necessities cut off all shams. One of the teachers told me a les- son she had received in what it meant to help one another. A family who had been rather disagreeable to one of the memb of the Mothers’ Club moved away from the neighborhood. The father was out of work and money. One day a man came to look for him to give him a fairly good job. No one knew his exact address, so this mem- ber of the Mothers’ Club, who had all the work she could possibly handle. left her baby and two smaller children at the Settlement House and walked twelve blocks to find the man's fam- ily. The woman never thought of the man’s gruffness and disagreeableness; but he needed the work, so she did all she could to b him. I scarcely know which was prouder of the two, the smalil boy or his little mother. it is worth wh to give these children, to whom life begins its bur- dens so ea 1i of the play which children love, if it is only the play which teaches them how to do the work which do they must as best they can. Another child, a girl of 13 years, had only the earth for a floor at home, and no such thing as a scrubbing brush, bur she wanted to t scrubbing. Miss Emery told her e would hire her to do scrubbing if e could it nicely. The child had never had a brush in her to the school, all, and a hands before she went but she scrubbed out the big school room and Miss Emery was perfectly satisfled. No more can be said. In the cle )ms there are draw- ings of plumbing and traps and a good lesson ir it on and fresh air. Dr. Adeiaide Brown has given talks on health, plain and practical, to the children who live on the street, and they are taught what thelr bodies are and how to use them and care for them. There are mothers’ meetings, too, so that they shall keep in touch with the cildren. The Boys' Club meets in its own room, which is always open and fur- nished with books and games. The boys are regularly organized and have duly elected officers. The “ward poll- tics” methods, which the boys were well up in, made the election a very protracted sitting, but the boys haye grasped the idea of honest games and elections. The outer door is kept barricaded during club meetings, for there are other boys outside. When there is more room the club will be enlargea, but now the little house is crowded tilt it can hold no more. Cooking is to be one of the principad features with classes for those In homes where economy is the main point.. Later there will be more ad- vanced classes, where all the difficult courses will be taught and graded and the graduates will receive diplomas. In many colleges, Stanford included, a course in domestic science and cook- ing is included. While the West Oak- land school can never interfere with this study, it will always be carried after a more practical fashion in the Oakland institution. Let us hope it will soon be considered no more “infra dig” for a woman to personally attend to the work of her own home than it is for her husband to work all day in a business house. HELEN GREY. HT way to succeed in medicine is, briefly, to look u; on your pro- fession as the noblest in world, and to follow it as such with courage and enthusiasm. But let us begin at the beginning. Let us take the would-be medical stu- dent, standing on the threshold of his career. “How is this young man going to sue- ceed as .. practitioner of the science of medicine?” In the first place, your typical young man must consider. whether or not he is suited for the medical profession at all Does he experience a vocation, an abso- lute call toward the life of a physician? Does he look upon medicine as some- thing far more than a mere money- making pursuit? TIs he content to de. vote his whole mind to the study o medical science and its to study morning, noon and night, and to continue unnceasingly to study until death shall summon him to his reward? Unless your young iman can answer these questions in the affirmative he had better give up all thoughts of be- coming a doctor and look out for some more suitable walk in life. Supposing, however, that a strong natural inclination toward medicine ac- tuates him, and that he is ¢ .pable of grasping the true scope of that grand the The question you ask me is, | devolopments, | R T L L L L LR L LR LR PR L R L LR LA LR A HOW TO SUCCEED AS A PHYSICIAN. e 34 3 18 profession, your typical student will appreciate a frank talk on th: subject | of “getting on.” First of all, he must | not dream of beginning his medical studies until he has acquired a sound, classical (and, if possible, college) edu- cation. There is no such thing as in- piration in medicine. Hard work and nowledge, together with the inborn vo- ation hitherto dwelt upon. are the phy- sician's stock in trade. Therefore, to the would-be student, I say: “Go first to a college and build the foundation of your career. A college education, or at least an education under a first-class private tutor, is indispensable.” You may ask me: “If this be so, what is the poor boy to do? What is to become of America’s pride, the pro- verbial penniless lad who cannot af- ford college and yet wants to be a suc- cessful physician?” It may sound cruel, but my advice to that boy, if he wants_to_ be heppY, 8. to, Eive up_all | thoughts of medicine. Of course one | such lad in a thousand aas the real | grit in him, calculated to overcome all | obstacles. If he really wants to be a | doctor he will do it in the long run; but take my word for it, he will go | through college first, if he has to work { his way. Such a boy reminds one of Wendell Holmes’ set of the race; horse with the star on his forehead—he is going to pass the winning post first, in_the long run. ‘When your student has taken his de- gree in arts (and in science, too, of pos- sible), he is ready to take up medicine— but not before. No man who jumps out of a high school straight into a medical college can hope to amount to much. mit right here that some capital is umtfil':ar! to.study properly. . Medieine e mof simile of the horse | | with the star in his forehead. The other | horses make all the running at the out- | but look out for the | It is just as well to frankly ad- | [ By Dr. George F. Shrady of New York. izimnmasa:iszsmse&emsszssmmssssssusumwmsauafiamamssafiswaussusmssssmssssmsssmssssswsmwnufiuuuausssssauuusmx and no medical neophyte can afford to be hampered by pecuniary considera- tions. He should be able to remain in college until he is 20 or 21, and then to give his whole working time to his four or five years of medical preparation. Let him notthink of eking out hissub- sistence by writing or other forms of outside labor. Even should be obtain a degree under such conditions, he can- not be a competent doctor. Medicine is a jealous sweetheart—it allows of no rival. Here, then, we have Mr. Typical Young Man, bachelor of arts, well grounded in classics and science, con- versant with French and German (this is a great desideratum), and about to enter upon medicine proper. His first step must be to join a good medieal col- He can get as good an educg.fl‘on anywhere else in the world. The de- tails of the four years’ course may be picked up in any college catalogue; and such a. course, under the costly con- ditions now obtaining, will cost (ex- clustve of personal expenses) from $400 to $450 per year. The degree of M. D. thus fairly won, a year or more spent by way of post graduate course, and in the hospitals, must follow. Every conscientious physician procures a hospital diploma before going out into the world; and he learns more in that last year than he has done in all his previous term of study. The contaglous diseases hos- pitals, too, must be familiar ground to i m. Equipped thus thoroughly for a prac- tical start in life let Dr. Young Man lay not aside his books. Until death beck- ons him away, he must read and study. All the new books, all the medical pe- riodicals, all the latest instruments and rivances must be £ to _him, RRHURR RS e BRRVUUEINK He must keep fully abreast of the rapid tide of medical improvement, or else drop hopelessly and almost uselessly behind. From the day that I graduated 1 have never ceased to study, and I shall never cease to study until the end. If your young man does not like the prospect of lifelong labor, let him not hope to become a successful physician. The first question Dr. Young Man asks himself is very often this: “Shall I devote myself to general practice or start to win fame as a specialist?”’ By all means be a general practitioner, Dr. Young Man! You will never amount to much as a specialist unless you do. Go- ing out of college into a special branch of medicine is like beginning to build a pyramid at the apex. The doctor of the future is going to be an “all- around” physician; and you can take my word for it that the very best spe- cialists are those that are forced by cir- he has practiced as a general practi- tioner. Suppose a disease of the eye depends, as is frequently the case, upon another disease which has its seatin the kidneys. When your oculist, who is merely an oculist, is called in, how can he cure the disease without being fa< miliar with kidney troubles? Or, how can a surgeon operate on the stomach thoroughly unless he is conversant with the general laws of the stomach? It will be time enough for Dr. Young Man to think of becoming a specialist when he has built up a good general practice. Now, as to the field of labor to be chosen. Large cities are poor places to start in, unless the young doctor has sufficient funds to keep him going dur- ing the years of dreary waiting which’ must be his. Go to a country town or small city, Dr. Young Man—that is my honest advice. There you will have a chance of getting noticed. Emergency cases are possible there. In big cities the hospital ambulance takes such cases from you, while the huge army ot other practitioners prevent you from coming to the front. The life of a doctor in a country town is, to my mind, most enviable. He grows old with the old folk; he sees the young folk grow up around him. If he is the right sort of man everybody esteems and respects him. Of course, practice in a country town has its lim- itations, Fame does not ofien come cumstances into their particular line of | limi k. No surgeon can succeed unies the,country, doctor, ., in the country doctor’s way, nor does his yearly income rise beyond a certain But he is, or ought to be, very