OUR GIRLS.

Globe, Volume XXII, Issue 1939, 12 May 1880, Page 4

OUR GIRLS.

It seems to me in these days of “hard times ” and much learning that there is very little done by the latter to improve the former state of things, especially in the way our girls are being brought up. No doubt the educational privileges now accorded to girls will produce in time a decided change in our womankind ; but it is not to discuss the higher education of woman that I am writing this papsr, but simply to point out in how many essential points required to make a good wife and an economical housekeeper, the education of our _ daughters is neglected. Let no one imagine I despise or object to much learning; but while we attend to great matters let us not neglect what ’appear to ho the smaller ones. Our girls are, and will bo throughout their womanhood, the mainstay of our homes ; and how are they being fitted for such an important position ? I fear whilo higher education, QirtonHall, and competitive examinations are doing much to improve our future governesses and teachers, they are doing much to weaken the talents required of those who are to become the mistresses of homes, the purse bearers, and the managers, as daughters or wives, in homes where saving and economy are essential. How few of our much-taught girls are desirable wives! With all their learning, are they educated? No doubt deeper subjects are dipped into, more books and languages read and acquired, than our grandmothers ever dreamt of as belonging to the sphere of woman; butintbefiner.moredelicate,branches of education girls fail. Few, while proficient in the literature of other countries, can speak their own language correctly ; few can write a familiar note without mistakes in English, spelling, or punctuation ; and in the homely arts of needlework and domesticity how small a number of the present day girls excel! To my old-fashioned ideas, it is the humble talents which make no stir in society, but on which depend the comforts of home, that are the moat essential. Needlework ranks first amongst these talents. I do not mean high art nedlework (so called, but often in girls’ hands very low art indeed), but in plain needlework, cutting out. They profess to teach this real art in boarding schools ; but how ? Girls must mend their own stockings, the schoolmistress says ; but to avoid this evil—this waste of time, some mothers call it—they are allowed to take new stockings with them each quarter,and, so long as they aro repaired, the fact is accomplished, never mind in what style. They must sew, and a piece of calico is given, and vhey must stitch the seam until it is finished ; but this is not what I mean when I say needle work is an essential in a woman’s education. Girls, to be good needlewomen, must be able to make a new garment out of which which an inexperienced hand and head would pronounce worn out; and, indeed, it reads like an enigma, but it is to many talented fingers an easy task. To be able to plan, cut out, and contrive, would prove a far more useful talent in a poor home than to be able to work out Euclid’s most difficult problem. Many say that the study of Euclid will simplify what lam now writing about. Possibly that may be; but do girls often bring their deeper studies to bear upon their simple ones? I fear not. Dressmaking and millinery, if done at home, can be done at half the expense of dresses and bonnets bought at shops. Patterns for dresses, it?., are now so easily to be acquired, at a very trifling cost, that half the difficulties are eased ; and dresses are so generously exhibited in shop windows that surely if you would not buy, you are at liberty to take ideas from these. And if as many girls say they could not make a dress, then they would save much money in the future by the expenditure of a little in the present, and take lessons in dressmaking, which are easily obtained, and learn the subjeot thoroughly. Millinery requires perhaps more artistic taste than dressmaking, but if the eyes were educated to observe and remark, this difficulty might be soon got over, for most people can copy if they cannot originate a trimming, and surely this art would piove a more satisfactory one than that so much in vogue just now among young girls—viz., spoiling nice clean white plates and cups, &c., by daubing on them unearthly flowers in unnatural colours, and thereby wasting their time and their money. If they have the needful talent for this elegant accomplishment, then by all means let them persevere ; but, when they have not a tithe of artistic taste, the pity of it that they should throw away their time and their means on what can give others no pleasure, and bring themselves no profit.

Nimble fingers and patioat application can do much in a home and save a pound, and girls should be taught that in saving money they make it or reserve it for other purposes. Many a frayed shirt collar or ouff is condemned as worn out, when a good housewife would boil it until the starch left it; and then, by deftly turning in the edges, and restitching it in her machine would convert the old article into a very wearable one —so wearable that husband or father would never know of the expenditure, but only rejoice that the articles wove so well. Knitting, too, is a very essential branch of needlework, for much time can be saved over our knitting needles which otherwise would be wasted and unemployed ; and many a pair of stockings, too much worn to bo redamed, can have new heels, or toes, or feet put to them, and make buying new ones needless. Also, let all girls learn knitting while young, as a reserve and a comfort to them when they are old or ill. But lam not writing a dissertation on needlework, so I must pass os to other subjects, and hasten to end my remarks. To know thoroughly the duties of servants, and to be able to keep the expenses of housekeeping low, and yet to have good wholesome meals put upon the table, are gifts not given to all, nor are they to be acquired by instinct. The higher education teaches girls none of these things. It is well for girls to go to the School of Cookery, and learn there the art of cooking, for it is an experience that may be useful to them ; but it is the theory which, I hold, in this case is of far more value than the practice. Few ladies can take possession of their kitchen habitually, and do their own cooking, for few cooks would remain in such a situation; but every lady can and should be the mistress of her cook, and yet I fear more cooks than ladies have the upper hand in the management of the menage.

A very little teaching would show a girl the necessary proportion of things used in kitchens; and, this thoroughly learned, how much waste would be saved, how much extravagance checked in the cooks! The cook may be honest, but people in her class have very little power of brain, and eggs are broken, and bones thrown away, and butter used with a reckless hand, not always from wantonness, but from want of thought No oo«k ought to be allowed any authority of her own ; she should act entirely under her mistress’orders; and to insure this, it is well that the lady should enter in a book daily what may be required for the house, and weekly bills from tradesmen being insisted upon, the lady should carefully look over every item inserted in them with her book, and she will thus keep a check upon the cook and know her own expenses. As a beginner, it is a good fashion for a housekeeper to go herself to shops for the day’s necessaries. Much economy and useful knowledge is acquired by seeing the meat cut, and it is a good way of learning the quantities of meat required for the table. Girls have no idea of weight, though they may be able to choose a suitable joint by its size, and by seeing it weighed they will bo able at another time to give an order for “ so much ” with some idea of what they will see when the joint 5s served to them ; in other provision shops, too, they may pick up very useful information. But time and space require that I should conclude this article ; but before I do so lot me say one word to mothers : You all want your girls to be good wives, but do you consider how much their future happiness depends upon the education you give them previously ? If so, then show your girls how you manage your house ; let them see the inner economies; let them see the patience nd the good temper with which you order your servants. Teach them true tidiness, industry, and frugality ; let them see money spent cheerfully, but carefully ; teach them to entertain their and your friends according to your own means, not according to the means of your friends, and I feel sure “ our girls ” so trained will become fit for what is tbeir proper sphere—good, lovable, and beloved wives.—“ Queen.”