The National tribune., 1907-09-05

cheney was made recently by the prin-
cipal of an institution which trains
girls for typists and shorthand writers.
He estimated that not more than so
per cent were capable of becoming even
moderately good clerks. Girls. he said.
failed because they lacked perseverance
and seemed incapable of understanding
what thoroness meant After an I'M
mense deal of labor, girls acquired a
shorthand speed of 50 words minute,
and typed 25 words in the same time.
Then no amount of argument on the
part of the teacher could convince them
that they were not fully equipped for
any situation. They left off attending
classes and began replying TO adver-
clients are made, and the result Is a
great army of girls who are unemploy-
ed and unemployable.
This is a matter for the serious con-
sideration of girls and their parents. a
week ago there were 397 applicants for
one situation worth SO a week. few
years back a good typist, without any
knowledge of shorthand, could get Sl5
a week; now, TO command that sum q
girl must. in addition to typing, be an
expert shorthand writer. and have some
other special qualification.
But failures are often more to be
pitied than blamed. The little knowl-
edge that girls gain at school is so ter
ribly superficial that they are unable
limitations. Then, their parents en-
courage in them the idea that office
work is more genteel-horrid world
than shop life or domestic service. So
they flock to polytechnics, and waste
their time and money in trying to out
wit nature.
Everyone is not capable of learning
shorthand and a foreign language. They
need a great deal of sticking to, in ad-
dition to a very good memory. And
in how many girls do you find the chief
element that makes for success-the in
finite capacity for taking pains?
1t is no use evading the fact that the
majority of these failures are girls of
the lower middle class. Everyone has
a right to try to better her position, and
when the attempt is honestly made no
one has the right to scoff at it. But
the first members of a family who try
to earn their living by their brains in
stead of with their hands find it far
harder to acquire book learning than
do the daughters of parents who have
for generations lived by their mental
powers. But many mothers absolutely
refuse to believe this statement. They
will tell you that their girls are quite as
clever as anyone else's; they only want
a chance They do their best to give
them the chance; with fatal results
sometimes. Many girls, while training
for school teachers, have broken down
and died under the strain. All agree
that the body may be impaired by con-
tinued, unusual exertion, but few care
to remember that the brain can give
way from the same cause.
There would not be so many failures
if girls would not attempt work beyond
their powers. The great object Is to
make a comfortable living, and you are
far more likely to do this if you get rid
of the ''genteeF' idea. 1t matters not
what work you do, but how you do it.
intelIigently. You will gain more re-
specr and consideration for a we'll
cooked dinner than for an ill-spelt
typed letter, and the master OF house
will have a higher opinion of his chill
dren's trustworthy nurse than for his
not too reliable shorthand typist.
If girls about to leave school are wise
they will ask for training which will
enable them to enter the homes rather
than the office.
If people ate more fruit they would
take less medicine and have better
health. There is an old saying that
fruit is golden in the morning and lead
en- at night. AS matter of fact, it may
be golden at both times, but then il
should be eaten on an empty stomach
and not as a dessert, when the appetite
Is satisfied and digestion is already suf-
ficiently taxed. Fruit taken in the
morning before the fast of the night
has been broken is refreshing, and it
serves as a stimulus to the digestive
organs. A ripe apple or an orange may
r. .oI- tlaie txrif off
Fruit. to be really valuable as an arti-
Gle of diet, should be ripe, sound and
in every way Of good quality, and, if
possible, il should be eaten raw.
Instead of eating a great deal Of
meat for breakfast most people would
do far better if they took some grapes
pears or appleS-fresh fruit as long as
it is to be had, and after that they can
fall back on stewed prunes, figs, etc.
If only fruit of some. sort formed an
important item in their breakfast wo-
men would feel brighter and stronger,
and would have far better compilations
than is the rule at present.
There is no meal as difficult to pre-
pare as breakfast, since variety of
foods are not used, making it neces-
sary for one to improve on the usual
viands for that particular meal. Now
that cereals and fruit play so prominent
part in the first meal of the day,
there are countless ways of cooking
cereals, tho raw fruit is mostly served
whole or sliced. An Improvement for
sliced bananas is to cover the fruit with
finely chopped nuts and serve with va.
nilla-sugar and cream. Vanilla-sugar is
prepared by grating a vanilla bean into
a pound of pulverized sugar. 1t should
be kept in a sugar shaker for this pur-
pose.
Lemon juice has been found power
ful enough to kill typhoid fever germs,
and it is advised for use as a preven-
tive of the disease, which is always at
its worst during the Summer season.
Drink lemonade and eat lemons with
sugar if you can. Many persons use
lemon and salt, eating half lemon in
the morning or evening as a cure for
rheumatism. After prolonged illness
if great quantity of medicine was used
it is advisable to use lemons in abund-
ance, as they counteract any poison in
the body which resulted from power
full drugs.
An authority on household matters
says that if new tinware be rubbed over
with fresh lard and thoroly heated in
the oven before it is used. it will never
rust afterward, no matter how much it
is put in water. For stained tinware
borax produces the best results. If a
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