The Somerset herald. [volume] (Somerset, Pa.) 1870-1936, 1874-09-02

the good OF the public, and to reap
the benefit. Instead OF haunting the
congressman of their district for a
clerkship at Washington, or piling
vile manuscripts on tie hands of a
patient editor, without a thought
even of giving readings to the public,
which the world very well knows
any graduate of a grammar school is
competent to do, at $50 dollars a night
for FIVE nights in O week, these Ia
dies in question, whose abilities in
other and more eligible directions
were well proved, in the quietest
way opened a training school, for
girls who wanted work in good fami-
lies.
When it started q year and a half
ago, it was only to teach sowing in
the incest way, and occupied rooms
over a Wheeler & Wilson's Sewing
Machine depot. In accordance with
the original idea, the scheme was ex-
tended, and last spring the school was
removed to a large house in Tenth
street, were various departments are
now in full operation. There is
nothing about the place but the
brightly lettered signs to distinguish
it from the old residences in Brevoort
Place, as the dwellers like to call the
long block from University Place to
Broadway. The hall door stands
open into a suite of large parlors
scrupulously kept, where a smiling
lady at a light desk receives lady
visitors looking for help and appli-
cants for training, as well as orders
for work in various branches filed. by
the house. Instead of wearing the
air of an intelligence Office, it is a
place acceptable for ladies to enter.
A large piano, pictures, and a we'll
filed bookcase are its resources for
evening when it is open as a free
reading-room for women, so that
working girls of any class may feel
that they have a place to spend their
evenings with as good right as men
have in club-rooms or saloons.
The basement has the large gilt
sign, "Woman's Tea Room, " and the
well-kept entrance, the cool, spotless,
shady interior, the polished plate win
dows carefully screened with muslin
shades, the excellent order of the
bronze burners and globes in the win
dows, give it precisely the inviting
air of the best private restaurants.
Here the visitor finds a snowy table,
with clear glasses, an accurately
cooked chop, and cups Of faultless
coffee or charming tea. Here, every
morning from halfpast six to half
past seven, working girls find a gen.
erous cup of coffee and bread enough
for their breakfast at o charge of five
cents. This food, Of nice quality, is
a very greatful provision for a class
of shop girls who find lodgings in ten
ement honses at the rate Of fifteen
cents per night, and have no other
way of finding meals, unless they
poison themselves with the nauseous
compounds of low eating saloons,
where the influences are of the worst
description. With the building is
connected a laundry, where nice
work is done at the lowest prices in
the city. This is made a success by
the very reasonable step Of charging
according to the work done, at the
rate of fifty cents a dozen for small
pieces and q dollar for large n The
establishment is well patronized, and
both laundry and restaurant are de-
signed from the start to be self-sup-
porting. There is no reason why a
business plan so much needed should
not be successful, and | have mention
ed this somewhat in details, as SINH
lar establishments are sure to be
opened in all towns of any size. The
free reading-room receives the sup
port of a dozen or more wealthy and
benevolent women, among whom
Mrs. Sheridan Shocks name is prom
inent, as it is sure to be in such kind
" enterprises. A concert is to be
given at Long Branch tomorrow,
under the patronage of distinguished
ladies, in aid of this institution. The
intention is, by fall, to add a depart
ment for training cooks, under the
charge Of a French chef, where not
only servants can be fitted for the
entire range of a cooks duties, but
where housekeepers who want to
know how to make a mayonnaise, or
to dress mushrooms, or to prepare a
Bavarian Cream, can, by paying a
small sum, learn what they want
without taking a whole course. Very
quietly this training school is taking
its place among the valued institu-
tons of New York, and viii solve
the servant girl question by putting
q class of intelligent and respectful
attendants in the market, when the
~disorderly ones will find themselves
no longer in demand, and have to
submit to decent regulations,
PIETRo.