Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1888-10-01
CITY SLAVE GIRLS.
THEY WANT NOT PITY NOR CHAR
iTY, BUT PRACTICAL TRAINING.

THEY WANT NOT PITY NOR CHAR
ITY, BUT PRACTICAL TRAINING.
The Stuflins of Our Public schools Does
Not Supply Their Real Needs-A Sug-
gestion as to What Might BE Done.
Good Words.
What the shop girl and factory girl needs
and must have if her welfare concerns So
ciety is ira ning-a training that the scholas-
tic stufilng of our public schools does not |
supply nor the Limitation of the Sabbath
schools permit. The pupil children of 10 and |
IL who at IA and Is swell the ranks of labor |
must be equipped for the battle of existence |
if paYper labor is to I've averted The girl |
must have a sutiiciency of physical culture |
not only TO enable her to protect and pre- |
serve her health, but to promote it and to
economic her strength for future genera
tion. She must be taught that the INJURY
done to her health must be atoned for by her
children, and that her wifehood and mother
hood is influenced and largely governed by
her girlhood and young womanhood She
must have her eyes and her fingers trained
even at the expense of mentality, and some
practiced science must be mastered before or
in connection with the apostles creed, the
rule for at least common multiples and the
population of the ten largest cities in the
world If manual schools cannot be opened
to girls why not provide vast kitchen gar
den where the bright motherly little maiden
can mind real live babies, cook real dinners,
knit real stockings and hoods, and hem nap
leo
ments that will be examined ard paid for if
satisfactory
Why cannot the school rooms be fitted up
with range or work basket, where ten
year-old girl could learn to make a loaf of
bread, or make herself a warm flannel petit
coati What is the reason the cunning little
| hand cannot be trained to draw or design,
not only prehistoric ducks and grand divi-
sions of the globe, but a pattern for wall
paper, an oil cloth, a bureau or dress waist
To be sure papas eyes beam with pleasure at
sight of Sherman's march to the sea, of Far
ragut's naval positions, geographically indi-
Gated with colored crayons but how would
it do to teach her how to draw pair of
sleeves or sketch collar to put on her frock
of the summer before lasti
Supposing the science of housewifery TO
be impractical, why can't the girl of IS be
taught addition and multiplication, so that
when she is forced to take 81 clerkship she
can find the value OF seven yards of mus
quito netting at 8 cents a yard in less than
half an hour! Why in tae name of common
sense does a girl 4 Il leave school, and, after
nine years in ne various grammar grades,
stumble in footing the column of figures in
the family grocery booki Instead of learn
ing TO add and multiply she has been finding
: the value of masonry at some unheard of
price per cubic, extracting the cube root of n
number covering three inches of paper or
ascerraining the number of ounces in a long
ton.
II, as a certain school superintendent says,
the school is not an apprentice Shop, where
boys can be taught trades and girls trained
in domestic art, help must come from the
men and women of the world. The women
must plan some scheme which the money, iu-
fuence and brains of Chicago men are GER
tain to indorse, provided the work gives
promise of being pertinent, In lien of the
Young Mems Christian association, where
thousands of boys are aided and encouraged
in self help, would suggest a somewhat sim
liar organization-a sort OF Peter Cooper in
stitute on an industrial, social, educationa
plan, where the young girls from the dowr
town shops and factories could go at noon Il
eat their lunch, look over the papers, fine
writing facilities and lavatory where rigid
economy would not be made of cold water
toilet soap and clean towels.
Your exquisite dame and dainty belle wht
60 to Kinsley's, the Grand Pacific or tht
Palmer house to get brushed, powdered ant
rested after shopping and before lunching
must go into a factory and work until tn
= lint chokes you and lodges in your hair anc
Dostrils; work till the dye from a cheap jerse,
: or cheaper jacket blackens your face an,
hands, work till the perspiration stains ever
garment that touches your tired body, to ap
preciate the luxurious environments Of
clean toilet room provided with chairs, fres
air, sunlight, towels and an abundance o
fresh water
In free girls club house a system of lee
lures could be given, and there are hundred
Of ladies' who could give these girls mines @
valuable information. Take, for instance
Mrs Locke at the training school for nurse
connected with St Luke's hospital, where fo
nine months of the year her weekly talk is c
this tenor: My dear girls, you must remeu
ber that on your influence and Your lives a
women depend the health and morals of tn
coming men and women. You can't affor
!. to be IDLE, to be vulgar, to be lax, to be III
tidy, unkind, or uneducated. You hav
work TO do; plenty of it; but all the tin
YOU must remember that unconsci0usly yo
are making indelible impressions on the PEI
pie about you" Then comes some who'll
some advice in great nuggets: Don't tai
I loud-a low tone will soften and sweeten
harsh voice Look to the care of you
, mouth; five cents worth Of orris powde
=" used occasionally when you brush yol
teeth, will sweeten a tainted breat
You may not have beautiful hal
but no need to have an uncles
head Don't neglect your hands. A woman
touch is delicate, soothing caress." Al
then follows practical lesson in chemistr
in which glycerine, rose water and fe
drops of carbolc acid are elements of a
cent compound. Such slight thing as ''no
promise silently that you will try to ke
your lips sealed" will be made most val
able sermon, md perhaps the next week tt
beautiful woman will spend a day makil
toast or a bed or a pillow slip.
. | would advocate just such help as wom
like Mrs. Locke can render for the amelior
70 ton of the ignorant little stitchers who q
being worked to death in our manufactori,
Nell Nelson in Chicago Times