IDEAL WOMEN'S HOSTEL.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1102, 15 April 1911, Page 11

IDEAL WOMEN'S HOSTEL.

IN THE OLD HOMELAND. (Bγ "DoJIIN'ICA.") ' One of the things that interested me most in Birmingham, which is full of interest, was the university, which stands with one foot in tho heart of the town, where is has taken possession oi' the old Masons' College, and the other planted in the middle of wido green grounds about two miles away, its tall clock-tower a conspicuous object for miles around, writes "Dominica" from England. There arc eight hundred students at tho university, a largo number of them women, who arc very well cared for by the authorities. In tho town building they have club-rooms

for tho use of any. girl students attending lectures, most' 'comfortable ro'A'ms, with two sitting-rooms on cue floor, where the girls can read and write, and a large, dining-room downstairs, where a very nice lunch can be had for a few pence. I went there for lunch with one of the students, and from others I heard of the beautiful new hostel out by the newer university buildings, which they said was well worth a visit. And so it was. I went out next morning, and was shown all over the most beautjful, spacious, comfortable, and artistic home a girl student could possibly wish to have. It is a very largo brick building, standing at ouo sido of tho new buildings, with an outlook on

three sides over green fields and trees, and on the fourth over a factory district, which is not near enough to obtrudp itself. •

The kitchen is in itself worth a visit, so big and beautifully appointed is it. All the cooking is done by gas or steam, steam cauldrons for making soup, a steam arrangement which boils a great kettlo of water in twenty minutes, and a steam cabinet cooker, which divides the honours with the great gas ovens, but throws up the sponge, so to speak, when it comes to a question oi cookiiif; cabbage. None of your nowfnngled notions for cabbage. "It is a conservative of the conservatives, and insists on a good, old-fashioned saucepan and a stove.

The dining-room is a delightful place, with wood panelling and white walls, and polished wooden floors. The wooden floors hero are not tho floors wo know, but of a soft coarse-fibred . wood, pleasant to walk on. This dining-room was set with many small tables, each of them gay with spring flowers, and through the long curtained windows down one side one caught a glimpse of green grass and flowers. Folding doors, which can be thrown back when the hostel gives a dance, divide this from the pretty common-room, and beyond there is a beautiful library lined with bookshelves, where the books are still new and shining in their crimsons and blues. One wanted to say things about this room, so charming was it,' but a great "Silence" over the mantel-shelf checked even an involuntary sigh of delight.

The first and second floors arc mainly devoted to bed-sittiugrooms, though in the- very middle of the first floor, overlooking the university buildings, one finds the senior common-room, the little mother of the sitting-rooms which stretch away on either hand.

The fees are not high—£6o a year I was told for the larger sitting-rooms, and £'15 for the smaller ones, which are really quite as large as ono need wish. Tho hostel provides all tho necessary furniture, as is dono in Wellington Hostel, with screen, carpet, curtains, and the pretty cover that turns the bed by night into a day-time couch, and in choosing these care has been taken not to have them alike. Each room has its own individuality apart altogether from the pictures, cushions, and knickknacks which the students bring with them or rapidly acquire, and with which they make the very most of their lovely rooms. Each girl has a room to herself, some with two windows, some with only one, but in each case the picturesque shape of the window adds to the charm of the room, and each has a wide window-sill, where flowers blossom in the sunshine. Nearly all the rooms I saw wero fragrant with flowers — flowers above tho tiled fireplace, and hyacinths, pink and bluo and white, flowering in wide bluo bowls set in tho window. One came to think of it as a hyacinth hostel, and to wonder what happened to tho spirit of the place when hyacinths went out of bloom, as they surely must do some day. The girls at the university have plenty of social life, and, as one of them told me, in nearly all the university societies the women take their- part, sharing as far as possible in the interests of the men students. Miss Fry, the principal of the hostel, is said to be a most distinguished and interesting woman, finding time in addition to her care of thoso fifty _ girls to interest herself in the civio welfare of Birmingham, where among other things she is, I believe, orio of tho town councillors. Mistress—"And do you nesd to be called in the morning?" Bridget—"Oh, no, mum—not at all; unless you happen to want me, mum." "Oh, sho was a jewel of a wife!" says Pat, mourning over the loss of his better half. "She always struck me with tho soft end of the mop." BEST FOR CHILDREN. There is no narcotic or other harmful substance in Chamberlain's Cough Remedy. It can be given to a baby as confidently as to an adult. It is pleasant to take, and always cures and cures quickly. It is a favourite with mothers of small children. 3 X Bob—"If you do not marry me I shall take poison." Ethel —"Well, don't for.qet that papa keeps a chemist's shop, and his aim is to please." "I hear your sob is making money of his voice at the opera." "That's right." "Where did he learn singing?" "Oh, ho don't sing. Ho calls the carriages."