Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1914-07-17

dress they herald the new day The picturesque
and fantastic costumes have been discarded for
simple checked Bingham frocks under all envelop-
Ing white linen aprons
In sharp contrast to these cooking school girls
are the young women who are studying in va
Z rlous other branches and clinging reigiousy to
the gayly Powered skirts, tight at the hips, fow-
ing away to volumnous breadth and great trains
at the feet and surmounted by the queer little
crisp cotton Jackets, for all the world like badly
cut k1monos and punching up about the neck in
an ungraceful fashion, always suggesting hump
shoulders
To make beautiful laces and fine embroideries
seems to be an almost natural art with the Fill
pino girls, Inherent aptness resulting undoubt.
edly from the uncounted generations of lace max
ers before them. The strong supple and deli
catey slender brown fingers are steady as iron
The clear dark eyes are not tired by the intri-
cate tedious patterns which would mean wreck
or nerves and vision Of women less patient and
tranquil minded
Lace making and embroidery were not intro
duced by American teachers, but were brought
TO the Islands centuries ago by the Spaniards
According to Medina's history needlecraft was
taught IN the convent schools as early as 1880
and Retana in the early eighteenth century wrote
that the girls easily initiate the laces and en-
broidery of Europe and that they perform "such
work fairly well in little time"
The foundation being laid it was an opportu-
nifty quickly seized by the American teachers
and while the instruction under convent teaching
necessarily was restricted to comparativelv
small number it is the hope of the instructors
OF these days that needlecraft speedily shall be-
come OF universal knowledge among Filipino
women Also 1t is hoped that through their apt
ness for embroidery and lace making there NAV
De opened up for them steadily remuneratiye
occupation.
In the nurses training work also the idea has
been to provide the young women with remunera
hut he hoUir ni,r A.
the face OF stubborn prejudice and opposition
The natives were extremely suspicious of doctors
and hospitals and it quite beyond compre-
henslon that any young woman of modesty and
good taste should be willing to undergo a nurses
experience.
campaign of enlightenment had to he car.
RED on before it was possible to establish mrs
ing classes. But the readily adaptable Filinino
once convinced that the finest of young women
became nurses among more advanced and on
hghtened people, speedily abandoned her nrei
udlce The set of the wind is now as STRONGLY in
the opposite direction and the vocation Of
trained nurse has so caught popular fancy that
the number of applicants each year is far greater
<tnan the capacity of the training school
In basketry and rug weaving another profitable
me mas Deen opened for women, and by rare
good fortune it happens that the islands nrodnce
IN lavish quantities all of the required materials
winch with their commercial values unknown
hitherto we're permitted to rot in the iunolos
Still another line of income is from the nresarv
ing and canning of fruits for commerce a line
which at once makes income bearing previouslv
wasted human energy well as vast fortune in
unused fruits,
So summed up the training of the younp Fili.
pino women means that when the Americans
came to teach them the desire for a better meth
od OF living the new and strangely benevolent
conqueror showed them at the same limo how
the desire might be gratiied