The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1886-11-29
WOMAN AND HOME.
THE NOTWITHSTANDING SYSTEM
OF TEACHING IN OUR SCHOOLS.

Vt ENOTItNS I'm OOh SCHOOESs
Boarding Houses for Working Women.
Novel EmpIoyment-wakefuI Babies.
Old and Young-German GIrIs-Amuse-
ments-Vagaries Of Fashion.
An anxious mother writes TO know what
course she shall pursue with her 0-year-Old
daughter who viii do nothing but read and
study, and whose health is suffering in conse-
quence. The best thing is to send her off into
the country, where she can get very little TO
read. If she studies too much, keep her out
of school for a year or two. The whole
system Of teaching in our public schools Is
notwithstanding. Mind and body both
suffer No girl should be graduated before
she is 20 at least, and during that time she
should not be allowed to enter society. As
rule girls begin to go into society at - and 10,
and if not married at % or y are looked upon
as old. and they are more or less satiated
with everything.
Girls should be kept in school much longer
than they usually are. Teachers, from well
meant, perhaps, but none the less unwise
motives, endeavor to arouse ambition by
holding constantly before scholars the dis
grace of failing behind In their studies. Bet
ter do that, and it is by no means disgrace
ful, than TO sacrifice health. People urge in
favor Of the public schools, that they send
out boys and girls better prepared for col
lege5 than any other schools. 1t may be
true, but those who wish to study will do so
with a little encouragement, anywhere. In
many ways the public school system is adj
mirable, but in the matter of health it Is
ruinous.
A well-known Cleveland physician said,
not long since, that public school education
had done more to cause disease of the brain,
!. spine and eyes than any other one thing, and
mis- opinion is but the opinion of many emf
nent physicians and surgeons. We could not
do without our schools, but we could do with
less elaboration in the courses, and we should
insist on fewer studies and slower and more
thorough work. From what Anxious
Mother says, her daughter, loving books
naturally, has been made more ambitious by
the thoughtless words and taunts of her
teachers, than the young brain and delicate
body will stand, and the only remedy is COM
plete rest, which can be bad by taking the
child from school for several years, and by
change of scenery or by plentiful light and
pleasant entertainment, thereby causing
healthful reaction. Cleveland Leader.
Boarding Houses for Working Women.
The increasing number of women who live
by the higher emplOyments in this city has led
to the establishment Of several large boarding
houses on somewhat the same plan, though
a more modest scale, than the luckleSs con-
Germ of A. T. Stewart, which is now the Park
Avenue hotel At these places you will find (
teachers, Geographic operators and type
writers, artists with the brush and the
needle, literary women and others who de-
pend rather on their talents and accomplish
ments than on mere manual labor for sup
port, congregated in curious little communi-
ties, presided over by a boarding mistress
who has the air of a matrOn in a public insti-
tuition rather than a private person. The
houses are governed by certain fixed rules,
none of which seem to be at all oppressive,
and have very hOmelil1e and pleasant air.
The rates of board are moderate, and the
character of the inmates lends their home an
air Of great refinement and pleasant dOmes-
ITCHY.
The first of these places that I remember in
New York was in Mulberry or Mott street,
and is, / think, now known as the Big Flats.
It was intended as hotel for working girls,
but the rules were so exacting and their adj
ministration so rigid that even it, economy
and comfort failed to render it popular, and
it was abandoned and the house handed over
for tenement uses. For women above the
condition of unskilled workers do not be-
lieve any provision existed until the present
special boarding house system came into
being. They were commonly herded to
gether in gangs in the cheaper boarding
houses. where they packed the rooms that
better-to-do boardeTs scorned, forced to
live in lodgings and feed at restaurants,
always at greater cost than should have
been necessary, A decent woman without
money to waste used to have a hard time of
it looking for quarters il New York, and
Win ali the provisions, intelligent private en-
terprise and larger public philanthropy have
made for her she is still far worse off thar.
any man. One of the good works of the
Young Women's Christian association has
been to encourage the creation of boarding
houses for single women, a register of which
is kept by the association for the direction of !
applicants.-Alfred Trumble in New York |
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