Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1880-09-20

SOUND PROGRESS.
Opening Up New AvOcations for
Women.

Philadelphia Ledger.
Miss Margaret Hicks, who recently
graduated in architecture from Cornell
University, is the first woman in a col
lege to undertake this profession. There
is plenty of room for the women-archi-
tect; although it may be said Of many
ladies interested in their own house
building that they can give and ought
TO give, and give sometimes, points and
hints To the man who draws up the
plans. 1t is rather a hopeful sign that
the graduating thesis OF this young lady
did not take for its subject the Queen
Anne cottage or the Gothic cathedral.
There are plenty OF men who under
stand all about these and can furnish for
either Il country church or a sea shore
summer house, any number OF quaint
and beautiful things to look at, il not al
ways SO convenient to live in or to hear
a ermo in. The theme selected by
this Young lady vas the tenement
house" AS this is a necessity or seems
to be, in the chief city OF the State,
whence Cornell University draws its
pupils, it is very well for a to
try to make plans in that direction, es-
pecially as most Of the drawings Tor
which premiums are offered in New
York, turn out to have forgotten light
and air. The art of saving steps ought
to be studied by the woman architect.
Nobody estimates how much is the wear
and tear in perhaps two steps either up
or down from the main kitchen into the
summer kitchen-taken as these have
to be fifty and a hundred times a day
by cook or housekeeper. The cellar
steps, too, the bins for vegetables, the
position Of the hanging shelves, for the
meats, and OF the refrigerators, all these
nav be made convenient or otherwise
by the person who knows that to go up
and down steps for what ought TO be on
one level, or to go down the long side OF
a room for a door that might as we'll be
put in the middle or at the upper end,
makes household work fatiguing. II
one has TO 20 out into the entry and
turn round to get at a door that might
as well open into a sleeping-room, there
is a waste OF time and movements. And
so with the positions OF closets.
China closets, linen-rooms, cedar clos
cts, store-rooms, all may be made a
vanity" or a pride. Bookcases are no
longer built as for the Cornish giants
use. The top shelf is not above the
reach of an upliited hand, but many
store closets are so planned asto involve
tall step-ladders from which the china
has to be brought down at the risk otits
| own handles and its owners neck. But
some builders leave d~ust.catchers in the
shape of odd corners or put the closets
for clothing and boots, or Tor trying
pans, in dark recesSes, where 1t takes a
candle to find what's wanted and where
It's neatness or tidiness cannot bethrown
| open TO the light OF day. Again some
builders will utilize a broad window
seat for a locker, in which may be stow
ed ali the household appliances neces'
sary to keep the room in order. III the
woman architect will devote herself
primarily TO kitchens and cellars, II
| closet rooms and servants sleeping
rooms, the world will be better lor her
appearance. The field therein is almost
| entirely her own, while she scarce
ly hope to improve on the admirablede-
signers for broad Widowed drawing
rooms and halls, half doors, wide CHM
ney seats and the other pretty and coy
| new-old adaptations that are keeping the
other designing folks busy Just at pres
ent.
Another new business in which some
women abroad are nOurishing, and one
or two here in Philadelphia, is that OF a
dentist. As Philadelphia has sent out
most of those ladies', il would seem that
others at home might be permitted 10
follow their success in staying at home,
Or il is true that the door, left inadver-
| tently open, by which 4 few girls have
been admitted to the knowledge OF the
| electric drill, and the rubber curtains,
| and fine art OF teeth.tilling generally, Is
now shut? American (women) dem
lists abroad, have a large practice, and
give, as Emerson says the rose does,
"their own excuse for being"-dentists
as well as m Mrs. Hershtield,
who was the first to 20 over, has now a
large practice among the best people OF
Berlin, and treats women n children
| ONLY. Miss Wilcke is praCtiCingln hon-
| igsberg, and ranks very high. She is
sustained by the faculty OF the univer-
sity. Miss Van Heydin, in Stettin, a
woman dentist in Frankfort, and n in
Hamburg, are all prosperous. There
really seems to be more OF slight OF
hand" than biceps required in the dem
lists business, as now practiced, when
more and more the business OF drawing
teeth is left to special operations with
the Cotton or other anaesthetic. There
is, at least, one woman dentist in Phila-
delphia, regularly graduated from the
Dental College here, who is highly sue.
cessiul in a practice among women and
children. And there seems to be room
for more if the dental colleges would let
them in.