SERVING ONE ANOTHER.
By MRS. ASHLEY CARUS-WILSON NEE MARY L. G. PETRIE, B. A.
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| MRS. ASHLEY CARUS-WILSON. |
The reports that it has been possible to collect for the Chicago Exhibition under the heading of "Philanthropic Education" seemed at first sight, when I was asked to make them the basis of a Congress paper, as fortuitous a concourse of atoms as ever gravitated to a center. Seeking for common characteristics, I observed:
First. That all described schemes whereby, in the battle of life, the rich may help the poor. I use the old-fashioned expression deliberately as more applicable to the present conditions than the ancient phrase "gentle and simple," and truer to the facts of life than the arrogant modern division of mankind into "upper and lower classes." We speak here of rich and poor, not only in money and what money can buy, but in skill and knowledge, in leisure and friends, in mental and moral power.
Secondly. I observed that the various devices described, by which the one may aid the other, are all of them new, and many of them very new. Our fathers lived happy and creditable lives before the mania for shaping and joining societies, associations. guilds, unions and leagues for the amelioration of society arose. Are they, therefore, mere fads and superfluities of an age of peace and luxury? Nay. Three features in the life of today seem abundantly to justify their existence. First. The rising standard of comfort. As we move either geographically or chronologically from a lower to a higher civilization, we observe that a larger and larger number of men are dissatisfied with themselves and their surroundings. Indeed, the motive power of all civilization has been well defined as "progressive desire." A need felt for the first time is not, therefore, an unreal one, and today we need many things that our fathers neither had nor missed.
Secondly. The increasing division of labor. Here we speak not of satisfying a new craving, but of replacing something of value that would otherwise be altogether lost. The application of machinery to almost every department of labor tends to divide it more and more, and consequently to reduce the laborer more and more to a machine. The artisan of the past, who brought the bit of work he had begun to the highest perfection that he knew, found an interest and an education in doing it, which his descendant does not find in the monotonous repetition of a single act. The agricultural laborer of the past, who depended on his own eye and hand for the unswerving furrow or the neatly felled sheaf, developed aptitudes which his successor who rides a machine is without. A multitude of unremembered artists made our ancient cathedrals glorious with lavish carving. Nowadays even our æsthetic needs are to a large extent gratified by wholly mechanical processes. It is good that the humblest cottages should be hung with chromo-lithographed copies of good pictures, but the production of these copies draws out no artistic faculties in their producers. Thanks, however, to the good artificial light which modern inventions supply, the plowman or factory "hand" has an evening that his ancestor had not, in which the day's dull toil may be supplemented by the carving class or instructive lecture, calling out powers that would otherwise remain undeveloped.
Thirdly, the growing tendency toward separation of class from class. "Our greatest industrial danger," said the Bishop of Durham lately, "lies in the want of mutual confidence between employers and employed. Confidence is of slow growth. It comes most surely through equal intercourse." The descendant of the apprentice who lived under his master's roof now receives his wages from an employer who does not know his name. In many of our great towns rich and poor do not even meet on Sundays before their common Maker. The employers dwell in a handsome new suburb, and swell the well-dressed congregation of a new church. The employed herd in the older part of the city, and form parishes where, as an East End London vicar lately expressed it, "Every lady cleans her own doorstep." No wonder, therefore, that in our days social questions are in the forefront, and "the human heart by which we live" demands new means of bringing together those who would otherwise be utterly separated in all relations outside of business to their great mutual loss. We need (I again quote Dr. Westcott) "to hallow large means by the sense of large responsibility; to provide that labor in every form may be made the discipline of noble character."
It is the public-house that fills the workhouse and the prison; and the public-house is too often filled by the mismanaged home, the badly chosen and the worst cooked meal. When, therefore, a girl acquires practical skill in cookery, she not only fits herself for the comfortable and well-paid calling of a first-class domestic servant instead of the comfortless and ill-paid calling of an unskilled factory hand, but she diminishes her risk of becoming the hapless wife of a drunkard. Board schools had, however, been in existence more than ten years before the government recognized that cookery should be regularly taught in them. Private enterprise preceded government action in training teachers for this subject and in forming schools of cookery in London, Leeds, Edinburgh and Glasgow. To Miss Fanny Calder's initiative is owing the Liverpool Training Schools of Cookery and the Northern Union Schools of Cookery, and government recognition both of cookery and laundry work is due to her vigorous struggle with the Education Department. Private enterprise must supplement government action also in continuing the training when school is over, or giving it then to those who have attended schools for which teachers of cookery could not be provided.
Classes for cookery and domestic economy in Wiltshire and Dorsetshire were founded by Mrs. Bell in 1889. The Bishop of Salisbury suggested this scheme, which works through the organization of the Girls' Friendly Society. It began with a grant of ten pounds, and gave during the next two years between fifty and sixty courses of lessons in cookery and laundry work to girls fresh from school. Eventually it was affiliated to the Northern Union Schools of Cookery.
In days of old every woman, as the term "spinster" still indicates, "sought wool and flax and worked willingly with her hands," and no part of the world produced more characteristic and interesting fabrics than the Scottish Highlands. But when the machine-made goods of our great centers of industry were distributed to the remotest corners of the kingdom, native homespun was in danger of being altogether discarded for cheaper but less durable and becoming raiment. The insight to recog- nize the value of these native industries, the sympathy to understand their usefulness and profitableness to the peasants, and the skill and patience to initiate and perpetuate a scheme for their resuscitation ere it was too late, were found in three successive duchesses of Sutherland. Forty-four years ago Harriet, Duchess of Sutherland, the beautiful daughter of the Earl of Carlisle, and Queen Victoria's chosen friend, organized an Industrial Society at Golspie, a little town on the southeast coast of Sutherlandshire, close to her Highland home, Dunrobin Castle. Four hundred people attended its first exhibition in September, 1850, and prizes to the value of ten pounds were awarded to the fancy tartans, tweeds, plaids, blankets and hose exhibited. For several years a similar annual exhibition was held in a pavilion erected for the purpose, until it was no longer in the Duchess' power to give such active evidence of her regard for the welfare of the highlands. But the Scottish wife of her eldest son—who was Countess of Cromartie in her own right—became the patron of a second series of exhibitions, of which the first was held in August, 1886. The sales realized over two hundred pounds, and thirty pounds were given in prizes. The present Duke of Sutherland, then Marquis of Stafford, had recently married Lady Millicent St. Clair Erskine, daughter of the Earl of Rosslyn, and she, supported by many other ladies well-known in Scotland, and aided by Miss Joass, the indefatigable secretary of the Highland Home Industries, has from the first thrown her whole heart into this work. In 1887 the exhibition at Golspie represented the whole of Sutherland, and men's carvings were added to the women's spinnings, sales and prizes bringing the exhibitors over three hundred and seventy-seven pounds. In 1888 it was transferred to the Town Hall of Inverness, and not only the number and variety, but the quality of the articles exhibited, indicated the progress made. The exhibitors gained about four hundred pounds, and received orders enough to keep them busy throughout the following winter. Two months later, on November 25, Anne, Duchess of Sutherland, to whose patriotic zeal and untiring effort this success was largely due, entered into rest. In 1889 the exhibition was held in the Earl of Dudley's London house, opened by Princess Louise, Marchioness of Lorne, and presided over by the Countess of Roseberry. Over six hundred pounds were realized, the exhibits coming from many parts of Scotland, and equally successful sales were held at Inverness and London in 1890 and 1891. Out of this pioneer scheme in Sutherlandshire other schemes have grown. such as those at Beaufort and Gairloch, and Lady Dunmore's work in Harris. The time-honored distaff and spinning-wheel reject altogether the inferior materials which undiscriminating machines turn into shoddy, and amply vindicate both the artistic and the useful qualities of hand-work.
That civilization means more, even for the poorest, than mere "creature comfort" was the thought that led a woman to organize, in 1885, the Home Arts and Industries Association. Its fourfold aim is to train eye and hand, and thus fit for many callings; to fill the idle hours of working people happily; to foster sympathetic intercourse between rich and poor, and to revive good old handicrafts. Its classes, to the number of between four and five hundred, are held all over the country for girls and lads and men, chiefly by lady volunteers; and the London central office, which is managed by a female staff, supplies these classes with suitable designs and organizes instruction for their teachers. Their pupils are drawn from the ranks of unskilled as well as of skilled labor, and are always forthcoming in large numbers. The street arab who came at first "just for a lark," comes again and yet again for the growing interest of the work, and it has its own quiet influence in civilizing him. Moreover, this unostentatious work must develop some of the latent artistic talent that here, as elsewhere, only waits to be called out and do something to remove the reproach that in matters artistic we are an uneducated nation—a reproach justified not only by the vulgar delights of "the masses," but by the prevalent drawing-room "art criticism" of `the classes.
A wood-carving class for working lads in Ratcliff, one of the poorest parts of East London, was organized in 1884 by the Hon. Beatrice de Grey, and is now carried on by the Hon. Odeyne de Grey, her sister, and Miss Gertrude D. Pennant. The class meets for two hours one evening a week, from November or December till July every year. Four out of the six lads who originally formed it are now working in it as men.
From eleven to seventeen men have availed themselves of a class which Lady Grisell Baillie Hamilton and her sister have, during three years, held in Scotland for two hours twice a week throughout the four winter months. They pay a small fee to cover expense of warming and lighting the barn in which they meet, and gladly buy their own tools. The picture frames, hanging cupboards, bookcases, etc., which they make they prefer to keep rather than to sell. Apart from the technical skill gained they benefit by the awakening of interest and effort in connection with something quite outside the ordinary routine of their lines.
In 1889 Miss A. E. Maude formed a class for the villagers of Drayton, Somerset, in order to provide them with profitable occupation when the weather forbids outdoor work. Observing that most of the other Home Arts and Industries classes chose wood carving, she was enterprising enough to take up iron work instead. The zest with which the men and boys, whom she teaches every Wednesday evening during the winter, handle the pliers, and labor at the forge and the anvil, and the ready sale found for the lamps, kettles, screens, brackets and candlesticks produced have amply justified her choice. Gifts from the Baroness Burdett-Coutts, the Somerset County Council, and the Ironmongers Company enabled them to furnish their workshop in the first instance, and it is now open every evening all the year round. Over four hundred articles made by her pupils have been sold since the class was formed, and they have won the bronze medal of the Recreative Evening Schools Association, and the "Gold Star" of the Home Arts and Industries Exhibition in London.
The Working Lads' institute at Torquay, Devonshire, founded about 1886, offers to lads between twelve and eighteen years of age recreation and education, brightens their lives by human kindness, and brings them under moral and religious influence. Its bent iron and repoussé classes are self-supporting. Their products are sold at industrial exhibitions and privately; half the profits pay all expenses, the other half is a welcome addition to the lads' earnings, and Miss G. Phillpotts states that the classes also form a training school of good manners.
In 1890 a class for brass repoussé work was formed at Bournemouth by Miss Edith H. G. Wingfield Digby. A higher motive than either love of art or love of gain led eight men there, chiefly artisans, to give some ten hours a week to brass-work. Missionary zeal had been kindled at the Bible class they attended, and the proceeds of their work, whose high artistic merit may be judged from the specimens sent to Chicago, redeemed a little Chinese girl from slavery, and afterward helped to pay for her maintenance and Christian education in the Jubilee School of the Church Missionary Society at Hong Kong. Certificates of merit have been awarded to three members of Miss Wingfield Digby's class by the Home Arts and Industries Associations.
We turn to three schemes which combine cookery with the work of the loom and the needle, and the carving-tool, hitherto dealt with separately, and four others nearly as comprehensive.
That it was founded by the Princess of Wales is not our only reason for naming the Technical School at Sandringham first. Her Royal Highness' desire to train the sons and daughters of the Sandringham laborers bore fruit some years before technical education had gained its present hold upon the public mind. The school began in an old schoolroom, with evening classes instructed by an artisan from a neighboring town. The interest aroused was so great that the princess determined to make the whole scheme larger and more lasting. She sent Fraulein Nädel, formerly German governess to the young princesses, to study the subject in London and the great Continental centers of technical education, and then appointed her lady superintendent of the school. In the enlarged schoolroom men and lads meet to learn carpentry, joinery, wood-carving, brass and copper repoussé, and bent iron work. Meanwhile, the girls of the village are taught cooking, sewing, dressmaking, the making of baby clothes, and general domestic management from 10 A. M. to 6 P. M. every Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. The Norfolk County Council inspected arid highly commended the school, but the Princess of Wales declined their offer to undertake its supervision and cost, preferring to maintain it at her own expense and keep it under her personal control. Her medical attendant, Doctor Manby, lately gave the elder girls a course of lectures for the Saint John's Ambulance Association, and all who attended gained certificates. The school has gained many prizes at exhibitions held in London and different provincial centers, and the sale of the articles produced increases steadily.
In 1629 Baptist, Viscount Campden, bequeathed two hundred pounds, and in 1643 his widow likewise bequeathed two hundred pounds, "to be yearly employed for the good and benefit of the poor of Kensington forever." Two acres abutting on the High street of Notting Hill, London, are reputed to have been given for a similar purpose by Oliver Cromwell. The money was invested in land, and, thanks to "unearned increment," this modest capital of four hundred pounds and two acres now yields an annual increase of almost forty-four hundred pounds. Of this sum, thirteen hundred pounds is annually expended in pensions to the aged and deserving, and nearly nine hundred pounds more goes to hospitals, provident clubs and special relief of special cases of need. With this aid to the aged, sick and distressed, we are not here concerned. The remaining sum of about eighteen hundred pounds is laid out for the young of Kensington in apprenticeships, premiums, exhibitions and scholarships for the pupils of public elementary schools, and finally in providing the Campden trust lectures and evening classes formed in 1888, whereby they may continue their education on leaving school. The classes during last session were attended by one hundred and ninety-six boys who learned carpentry, wood-carving, and mechanical drawing, and by one hundred and forty-eight girls who learned cookery, dressmaking and drawing. Their success is, in no small degree, due to the untiring energy of the honorary secretary, Miss Catherine Hamilton. Out of four hundred and eighty-four pounds spent on these classes twenty-two pounds and nine shillings was contributed by pupils' fees. The recent founding of the Kensington Polytechnic by the Marquis of Lorne and others, promises to extend and develop the scheme still further, as this building has been assigned to the Campden trustees, of whom the vicar of Kensington is chairman.
The Recreative Evening School's Association, of which H. R. H. Princess Louise, Marchioness of Lorne, is an active president, is little more than seven years old. Its object is to provide further instruction and healthful occupation for girls and boys who have left our elementary day schools. Careful inquiry showed that not more than four per cent of these continued their education in any systematic way; while it was obvious that they were sent forth into the work of life unfitted for its duties, and exposed, at the most critical age, to the perils of the streets at all hours. The secret of the great success of the association lies in the fact that the evening classes have been made bright and attractive. Instead of the dreary book-lessons in the three R's and English, which were formerly almost the only attraction for evening scholars, they introduced lantern illustrations of geography and travel, history and simple science. Among other subjects taught were bookkeeping, shorthand, musical drill, gymnastics, clay modeling, metal-work, wood-carving, dress-cutting, and cookery, which no government grants were then available. Ladies and gentlemen of culture and leisure were secured as voluntary teachers, and as managers of savings banks for the scholars, whom they also took for Saturday rambles and visits to public buildings and places of interest. The association soon worked wonders. New pupils flocked into schools which had been almost empty. In London the centers aided increased from twenty-nine in 1886 to two hundred and thirty-two in 1892, while the estimated average attendance grew from four thousand three hundred and fifty in 1887 to twelve thousand five hundred in 1892.
The Broomloan Halls Classes for Cookery and Sewing were founded at Govan, Glasgow, by Mrs. John Elder, in 1885. They form a technical school for the wives and daughters of artisans, and are in the midst of a large ship-building population. All their incidental expenses are paid by the generous founder. The cookery demonstration class, attended by some two hundred women and girls, is the most popular. It is supplemented by the cookery practice class, at which their clever teacher, Miss Gordon, shows her pupils how to turn out the best possible Sunday dinner from the materials they bring on Saturday night. Eighty to a hundred women attend the Monday evening sewing and mending class; a large number also appreciate that the starching and ironing class will fit them for a useful calling; and lastly, forty-two girls are carefully trained to be kitchenmaids, and never fail to find good places. During the summer months housewives who choose to enter their names on a list, are visited by intelligent and specially trained women of their own class, and shown how to cook and clean and arrange their houses. This kind of help is most eagerly sought.
The Little Servants' Home, in connection with Brownshill High School, Stroud, was founded by Miss Winscombe. This attempt to prepare young girls for domestic service by training them under upper servants, might be imitated in other large households, for every effort that tends to raise the status of domestic servants, and the standard of qualification for domestic service, is a real benefit to girls in humble homes.
For the third time a village in Scotland claims our attention. The Misses Fergusson, with the occasional help of their own servants, have, since 1881, organized and carried on most successful evening classes for joinery, basket-work, fret-work, carving and drawing among the men; and for knitting, crochet, embroidery, etc., among the women of West Linton, Prebleshire. Their last sale realized about one hundred and five pounds, all profit to the workers.
In Cumberland, the loveliest district in England, under the fostering care of Mrs. Hardwicke Rawnsley, wife of the vicar of Crosthwaite (that picturesque vale, or thwaite, where St. Kentigern reared the cross in the earliest age of England's religious history), has grown up, since 1883, the Keswick Industrial School of Art, and a Linen Industry, which has Mr. Ruskin's leave to bear his name. Both are endeavors to reduce to practice his characteristic teaching, that a love of the beautiful lies hidden in every human soul, and that things made by hand, and bearing the impress of human individuality, are incomparably more beautiful than those which can be turned out by machinery. There is something quite mediæval about the whole undertaking, so little trace can be found in it of the modern commercial spirit, and so lovingly do these northern peasants linger over the details of their work. From seventy to eighty men now belong to the carving and brass-work classes. The linen industry was started by Miss Twelves; the spinning is all done with the old-fashioned wheels, and the weaving is all done by hand. These earnest and artistic workers in the land of two nineteenth century laureates, lately had the satisfaction of doing honor to a third, by weaving a pall of wondrous beauty for Lord Tennyson's coffin.
We turn now to schemes that aim at imparting knowledge, at informing the head, and according to our threefold being of body, soul and spirit, take these as they successively deal with the physical, mental and moral welfare of mankind.
Canon Kingsley, Bishop Wilberforce and others, have taught our generation the whole meaning of the old phrase, mens sana in corpore sano. Two societies, both dwelling in Berners street, London, and both owing their existence to the insight and energy of women, are waging successful war, not with flourish of trumpets, but by quiet persistent work, against the arch-enemy ignorance, and teaching rich and poor that the essentials of wholesome life are pure water, nourishing food, daily bathing and daily exercise; that our homes must stand on high ground and dry soil, give abundant entrance to light and air, and be thoroughly cleansed, not only above but below ground. The Ladies' Sanitary Association, founded in 1857, grew, so Lady Knightley, of Fawsley, tells us, out of a suggestion made by Dr. Roth, and has now about four hundred members. Countless lectures have been given through it to all sorts and conditions of women; it has organized loan libraries of books on health, and distributed over a million and a half of tracts on hygiene for the people. Much of the technical teaching of which we have already spoken may be traced to its influence, as well as dinners for destitute children, nurseries for motherless babies, and many coal and clothing clubs and temperance associations. From its "park parties" have sprung the Children's Country Holidays schemes for city boys and girls, to whom an uncaged singing-bird, a growing wild flower, an expanse of blue sky, a field of scented hay or waving corn, or the rippling of water or whispering of leaves in the wood, are things as new and wonderful as they are joy inspiring. Its secretary is Miss Rose Adams.
The National Health Society, founded in 1873, began with a modest scheme of lectures by ladies at men's clubs and mothers' meetings. It now has three princesses of Great Britain for patronesses, the Duke of Westminster for president, and over four hundred and fifty members. Its aims are well summed up in its motto: Prevention is better than cure. Free lectures are given throughout the country to the poor, subsidized now in many places by the county councils; while distinguished medical men and eminent lady nurses instruct drawing-room audiences, who need teaching scarcely less in the laws of health. A diploma of honor was awarded to its literature by the Council of the international Health Exhibition, and among the varied matters that claim its aid and interest arc hygienic dress, smoke abatement, open spaces, and boarding-out of children. Its secretary is Miss Ray Lankester.
The Ladies' Association of Useful Work at Birmingham, which was founded in 1874, is a local association, rather younger than these two national societies. It was originally as comprehensive as its title; but since Mason College w as opened it no longer labors for higher education, but is chiefly active in giving eight or nine courses of lectures on hygiene to working women, keeping up a recreation-room for business girls, and organizing country holidays for children. Its useful work is almost wholly carried on by voluntary helpers.
Education, in the narrower popular sense, next concerns us. This is not the place for speaking generally of the system that has supplemented girls' schools by women's colleges, and thrown open to the women of this generation a wide culture that is making women's lives richer and happier than they ever were before. Some women, like some men, go to the university in order to take up teaching or another profession that their attainments will render honorable. But some women, like some men, seek a liberal education for its own sake, and for its usefulness to others, rather than its gainfulness to themselves; and a new need of the help that they can give has grown up with their new power to give it.
The College for Working Women in Fitzroy street, London, was founded in 1874 in memory of the Rev. Frederick Denison Maurice, originator of Queen's College, Harley street, the earliest of all women's colleges which now play so large a part in our intellectual life, it seeks to provide women in business and in domestic service with three things—teaching, amusement, and opportunity of friendly intercourse. When it began three-fourths of the two hundred women on its books were learning to read, write and spell in elementary classes. Now, thanks to the pror of popular education, there is but one elementary class with twenty pupils, though the members are between three and four hundred in number. The council seeks a teacher for any subject desired by not less than six students. Some subjects, such as French, attract from their usefulness for daily work; others, as in the case of a girl who lately took up Greek, because of their remoteness from the daily toil. There is a Bible class on Sundays, and lectures on first aid and sick nursing have been given in connection with St. John's Ambulance Association. The classes are supplemented by a library of some two thousand volumes, all gifts. Members who have worked for four terms in a class may use the college as a club only, and the social side of its work grows more important as time goes on. Take, for instance, the Holiday Guild inaugurated by Lady Stranford. The four Saturday evenings in the month are devoted to a dance exclusively for students, presided over by young ladies; an ambulance practice; a work- party for the Institution for Promoting the General Welfare of the Blind; a concert or lecture often given by some eminent person. About a quarter of the working expenses is met by students' fees, the rest by gifts from friends and from the city companies. Miss Frances Martin is the honorary secretary. The College for Men and Women in Queen Square, London, founded in 1864, carries on a similar work.
The College by Post, founded in 1881 sprang out of an effort which I made in my own early days at college to help, by correspondence, other girls whose opportunities were fewer than my own. University College, London; Westfield College, Hampstead; Griton and Newnham Colleges, Cambridge, and Lady Margaret and Somerville Halls, Oxford; the Ladies' College, Cheltenham, and kindred institutions for higher education, have contributed to a staff on which between two and three hundred teachers have now been enrolled. From all parts of the United Kingdom, from the continent and the colonies, students representing many different conditions of life and degrees of education have joined to the number of between three and four thousand. Competition with professional teachers is carefully avoided, and no "coaching" for examinations, other than our own, is undertaken. Giving half an hour daily to Bible study in one of our seventy Scripture classes is the condition of receiving gratuitous instruction in other subjects. The scheme of historical Scripture study, which I have elaborated for our students, has now been published in a volume called "Clews to Holy Writ," which went into its third thousand within a few weeks of its publication. About twenty subjects are taught in our secular classes. The hygiene class; which is conducted by a medalist of the National Health Society, is one of the most popular of these. The wise and kindly influence of teacher upon taught, and the friendships, helpful to both, which grow up through their work together, are, perhaps, the most valuable and the least describable part of the scheme. Through the writing mission, suggested by Lady Wright, some hundreds of our students are also in friendly correspondence with factory girls.
So we pass from the intellectual to the moral sphere, and to organizations that aim at enabling people to be, rather than to know, taking first those that aim at fitting special classes for special duties. The Home and Colonial School Society, established in 1836, is for the Christian training of women teachers, and sends forth annually some seventy-five to elementary schools, and some fifty to family teaching and secondary schools. Little can be done by the best of schools for those whose home influences are adverse, and this was never truer than it is today, when the day-school system prevails widely for every class of the community. Hence the importance of insisting upon the sacred responsibilities of parents, often so lightly undertaken and so thoughtlessly delegated to others. At the request of some Bradford mothers, Miss Charlotte M. Mason, in 1888, drew up a scheme for assisting parents of all classes to study the laws of education as they bear upon the bodily development, moral training, intellectual work and religious bringing up of children. The Bishop of Ripon's wife was the first president of the Parents' National Educational Union, and the Earl and Countess of Aberdeen are the present presidents. Among those who warmly took up the scheme were Dr. Lightfoot, Bishop of Durham, the Bishop of London, Miss Beale of Cheltenham College, Miss Clough of Newnham College, and Miss Buss of the North London Collegiate School. Its organ is the "Parents' Review," an admirable monthly. The House of Education offers definite training to those who hope to become mothers or governesses. "I was deeply impressed," said Her Majesty's Inspector of Schools, in November, 1892, "with the earnest and business-like way in which the students addressed themselves to their work, and I do not doubt that they will devote themselves to the care of children with exceptional zeal and knowledge."
Throughout we have to recognize a duty not only to the destitute and degraded, but to those who ask not alms but help of human fellowship, and appeal less to our pity than to our sympathy. It is through the co-operation, and not through the conflict of classes, that progress will be made, and the amount of this co-operation will depend upon the degree in which each class realizes what are its special responsibilities and what are the true interests and the highest aims of the human race.
"We must be here to work
And men who work can only work for men,
And not to work in vain, must comprehend
Humanity, and so work humanly,
And raise men's bodies still by raising souls,
As God did first."
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Mrs. Ashley Carus-Wilson (Mary L. G Petrie. B. A.) is of Scotch descent. She was born at York Town, Surrey, England. Her father was Col. Martin Petrie, of the British Army. Her mother was of the Macdowall family, of Scotland. She was educated at University College, London, and took the B. A. degree of the University of London with First Class Honors in 1883. In 1893 she married Mr. Ashley Carus-Wilson, M. A., Professor of electrical engineering at McGill University, Montreal. Her special work has been in the interest of The College by Post, of which she is founder and president. Its aim is to encourage systematic study of the Holy Scriptures; to aid in secular study those who cannot avail themselves of professional tuition. The teaching is all given by correspondence and is wholly gratuitous. Address inquiries to the Secretary, Hanover Lodge, Kensington Park, London, England. Her principal literary work is "Clews to Holy Writ." She is a member of the Church of England, and is well known as a lecturer, especially upon Foreign Missions, History and Literature, Bible Study, etc. Her postoffice address is No. 66 McTavish Street, Montreal, Canada.