GIRLS’ EMPLOYMENTS.
Wood Violet (Home Occupation).—As you wish to do something in your spare time at home and do not need to earn your living, perhaps it would be best to learn some handicraft. We would suggest lace-making, flax spinning, cane basket weaving, or repoussé metal work. By applying to the Secretary, Home Arts and Industries Association, Royal Albert Hall, Kensington Gore, W., you would probably hear of some classes that you might join.
A Reluctant Home-Bird.—It is natural and proper that you should wish to be fully employed now that you are young and vigorous. And it is manifestly not easy to find work enough for several daughters to do at home. At the same time you must remember that you have had one or two chances of outside occupation already. You have not cared for hospital nursing; but as you say you “love children,” how would it be to be trained either as a children’s nurse (at the Norland Institute), or as a kindergarten teacher? If you were interested in work among poor children, and did not require much salary, we would suggest that some of the London Boards of Guardians are inclined to appoint young ladies of about your own age as matrons of small cottage homes for pauper children. Much useful work might be done by ladies acting in this capacity. But we do not think this is quite the career for you. Travelling companionships are so scarce that we do not advise you to seek one. And it is difficult to know otherwise how you are to see the world as you desire. If money enough could be spared for you to live at some home for working ladies in London (e.g., the Beechwood Club, 6, Oakley Street, S.W.), it might be worth while for you to come up and to study shorthand and typewriting with a view to seeking work as a newspaper reporter. A secretaryship, we fear, would be put almost out of reach by the circumstance of your handwriting not being first rate. But you appear to have some natural aptitude for literary expression, and it is just possible—though we should not like to hold out any definite hope—that you could obtain a little journalistic work.
Rubes (Table Decoration).—This is a precarious employment, and naturally much affected by the London Season. We do not strongly advise any girl to adopt it who is in need of a regular income. Pupils are taken by the Women’s London Gardening Association, 62, Lower Sloane Street, S.W.
The Stewardess.—The principal steamship companies are those to which you should apply for a post as stewardess; but successful applicants are usually the widows or daughters of the companies’ officers.
Netta (Book-keeping).—At twenty-eight you are by no means too old to learn book-keeping. You might attend classes at the Birkbeck Institute, or at almost any polytechnic, and then present yourself for one of the Society of Arts’ examinations. Your handwriting is decidedly good, and would serve as a recommendation for secretarial work.
An Irish Girl (Gardening).—Lady gardeners are decidedly in request, and you would not do at all unwisely to study at the Horticultural College, Swanley, Kent. It is probably Kew Gardens in which your friends have told you that ladies were employed. To be trained at Swanley would cost about £70 a year for board, lodging, and tuition.