Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1914-07-21

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
rious other branches and clnging religiously to
the gayly Powered skirts, tight at the hips flow
Ing away to voluminoUs 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 ungracefu fashion, always suggesting hump
shoulders.
To make beautiful laces and fine embroderies
seems to be an almost natural art with the Fill
pno girls, an inherent aptness resulting undoubt.
eddy from the uncounted generations of lace max
ers before them. The strong, supple and deli
cately slender brown fingers are steady as iron
The clear dark eyes not tired by the intri-
cate, tedious patterns which would mean wreck
of nerves and vision of women less patient and
tranquil minded
Lace making and embroidery we're not intro
duced by American teachers bat were brought
to the islands centuries ago by the Spaniards
According to Medinas history, needlecraft was
taught III the convent schools as early as 1890
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, 1t was an opportu.
nifty quickly seized by the American teachers.
and while the instruction under convent teaching
necessarily restricted to a comparatively
small number, 1t is the hope of the instructors
of these days that needecraft speedily shall be-
come of universal knowledge among Filipino
women. Also 1t is hoped chat through their apt
ness for embroidery and lace making there NAV
be opened up for them a steadily remunerative
occupation.
In the nurses training work also the idea has
been to provide the young women with remunera-
tive rnrlyI txf %Ino x,s~--z
the face OF stubborn prejudice and opposition
The natives were extremely suspicious of doctors
and hospitals and 1t was quite beyond compre-
hension that any young woman of modesty and
good taste should be willing to undergo nurses
experience.
campaign of enlightenment had to be car.
ried on before it was possible to establish mrs
ing classes But the readily adaptable Filipino.
once convinced that the finest of young women
became nurses among more advanced and en-
Hghtened people, speedily abandoned her pref
udfce 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
than the capacity of the training school,
In basketry and rug weaving another profitable
line has been opened for women and by rare
good fortune it happens that the islands produce
In lavish quantities all of the required materials
which with their commercial values unknown
hitherto permitted 70 rot In the jungles
Still another line Of income is from the presery-
ing and canning of fruits for commerce. a line
which at once makes income bearing previously
wasted human energy well as 6 vast fortune In
unused fruits
So summed up the training of the young FIJI
pino means that when the Americans
came to teach them the desire for better meth
cd of living the and strangely benevolent
conqueror showed them ct the same time how
the desire might be gratiied.