The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-08-20

ioS or needle work, elther VIII ooB, II we conquer our laziness . ~
 As for other manual training, you girls should learn to handle tools. A we'll equipped tool chest is as valuable a possession to 0 girl as to boy. As things now are, thousands of young women after they grow up will have homes of their own. in which they will live and reign in quite contented spinsterhood. Perhaps you will be stenographers, artist or newspaper women by and by, living in pleasant companionship with other women like yourselves, without even a brother or cousin to help you along. There are times when a man in the house is a Cl eat comfort but If there should not be a convient masculine relatitiVe within call a girl who can use ham, mer, a saw, screw driver, who can open boxes that come by express, and nail boxes up. who can mend something that is broken and do her own household tinkering without out side aid, will be a very Independent girl.
 The manual training class is sup ICsed not so much to enable you do mar yolous things in school as to fit you for taking good care of yourself in practical ways later on in life. nm disposed to include under the heaa of manual training some things that most girls find very pleasant. why should not a schoolgirl be taught to drive, to ride, to row and to reef a sail' All the outdoor life in which the hands play a part Is better carried on by a young woman whose hands have been trained, than by one who has given exclusive attention to her mind and very little to her body.
 
 If were you would care a good deal about the beauty of the hands They should be well kept but not so well kept that their owners do no use full work For instance, there Is wash ing the dishes-a homely task which is seldom properly done except by lady. Of course, you and l take pride in the possession of beautltul emma. In a New England farmhouse that know, there are intact, not piece bro- ken, a cup ntcked, a platter clipped, or any damage done anywhere, two sets of ancestral china. The china was brought from England In the early days of the Massachusetts colony and it has been handed down from mother to daughter in an unbroken line ever since.
 How have you managed to keep your dishes from wreckage? once
 These dishes" I was told, have never been trusted to anyone out Of the family. They have been uniformly taken care of by gentlewomen.'
 I am not sure that dishwashing ought not to be set in the place of hon. or in the manual training of girls. Rightly regarded 1t is feminine work of the finest description. One may per form a great deal Of housework and still keep her hands soft and white, if she will be careful not to plunge them into hot water when she may as we'll use a mop, and if she will protect taem ty rubber gloves when doing tasks which would make them red and rough.
 One word more, a beautiful hand is not improved hy an excessive number of rings. Schoolgirls do not wear much iewelry, nor should they. But as you grow older and leave the schoolroom behind, there may come the desire and perhaps the temptation to wear a good deal of ornament. Do not spoil prct- ty hand by too many gems. The taste is barbaric. Take pains with the nails, which are the finishing touches of the fingers, and whatever else you forget never omit that language of the cordial which signifies sincerity and a true heart.