Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-05-29

schools have the entree once a season to the
private collections, such as belong to Mrs.
William H. Vanderbilt, and during the
lives of their owners they were allowed to
visit the collections of Miss Catherine L.
Wolfe and o. Mrs. R. L. Stuart. All OF
the schools visit the exhibitions of the
Academy of Design, the Water Color So
cety and other producers of paintings.
Sometimes the managers give free tickets OF
admission, but ottener the regular prices
! are charged. These, together with the
ticket of the chaperon, are paid by the
girls. Frequently such artists as William
NJ. Chase, j. G. Brown, f. S. Church,
Homer Martin and John La Fargo throw
open their studios for the inspection of art
loving girls. OF course the Metropolitan
Museum of Art forms q central attraction
for the student of art, and frequent visits
are made to it.
The Cost OF Higher Art Work.
Advanced pupils who prove themselves
possessed of talent are sometimes accepted
as students by the great artists in their
studios. They pay from 81 to IS an hour for
instruction, depending upon the size of the
class. 1t costs nothing to study at the
Metropolitan Museum, but girl must show
talent and experience.
Courses bv lessons in the Art Students
League and in the National Academy of
Design cost from SS to SIS month, depend
ing upon the class the girl enters Lessons
in flower paIntiug and china decorating are
given in the schools by special arrangement
and cost from 81 to S. each, the pupil fur
nishing her own chinaware and paying the
cost of the subsequent firing and glazing,
which varies from 81 to S5, according to the
character of the work.
Athletic training never was so thorough
as it is now. All OF the schools have gym
nasiums of some descriptions, and one
school is building the finest private GYM
nasium in America Here not only is the
Swedish and Delsartean work taught, but
exercises in fencing, in gymnastics ma
chimes, similar to those devised by Prof.
Sargent, of Harvard University, and used
in the Berkeley Ladies Athletic club of
this city, in lawn tennis, archery and in
military drill are given.
This Delsarte work is interesting and
novel. Girls do not wear "bloomers," or
even short skirts, and the movements are
not the ordinary calisthenics. They wear
their ordinary school dress, save that they
discard corsets, and that their waists are
loose blouses. They sit down, stand up, go
up and down stairs, walk, turn around and
walk back, stand absolutely still and sit alb
solutely still. These are their movements,
and they are given to bring out grace and
repose. And they do it, too
Exercise in Everyday Costume.
The girl who is taught to be graceful in
the gymnasium when she is clad in short
skirts might appear very i'll at ease in an
evening costume in a drawing room, but the
pupil who learns to be graceful in common,
everyday posture, in her everyday dress, can
be graceful anywhere. These exercises are
part of the school curriculum and no extra
expense attaches to them.
There are active exercises, however, that
do cost money. There is a swimming
school for young women uptown where 81
is charged for a course of 10 lessons. Some
pupils avail themselves of this. Bicycle
riding is taught in any one of half dozen
bicycle schools at S5 course of five or more
lessons. Bicycles then can be hired to
practice at from IS cents to 81 so per hour.
Some girls try them.
Horseback riding is taught in the various
riding schools. The cost for class instruc-
tion is s. an hour. This includes the hire of
the horse. Horses can be hired for from 81
TO So an hour, and where class goes out
riding riding teacher accompanies them.
Girls are allowed to go shopping once or
twice week with a chaperon, whose ex-
penses they Jointly bear. Once aweek they
also are allowed to go to theaters or to the
opera. In all cases they share between
themselves the expenses of the teacher who
accompanies them. In most schools the
girls are required to keep cash book and
exhibit their accounts once week.
For clothes, amusements and other like
expenses, the freedom of the girl is directed
entirely by the liberality of her parents,
and as rule the principals seldom inter-
fere except to prevent wastefulness and ex-
travacance. Girls from 8 years of age and
upward are admitted. The school terms
generally begin October and end late in
May or early in June.
BENJAMIN NORTHRoP.