Third Prize (10s. 6d.).
Miss K. Beales, Blofield, Norwich.
Honourable Mention.
Ethel W. Cleveland, Bedford; Violet C. Todd, Cornhill-on-Tweed; Lucy K. Chapman, Weston-super-Mare; Alice Tanner, Henbury, Bristol; Lottie Comley, Bristol; Elizabeth Armstrong, Princes Park, Liverpool; Annie Moscrop, Thorganby, York; Jessie E. Jackson, Beverley; Bessie Hine, S. Tottenham; Maggie Bisset, Aberdeen; Rose E. Higgins, Gravesend; Mabel Moscrop, Saltburn-by-Sea; Eva Mary Allport, Barkston Gardens, S.W.; May Shawyer, Penrith; Gertrude Borrow, Goldhurst Terrace, N.W.; Sophie Gardner, Richmond Hill, S.W.; Amy Entwistle, Crigglestone, Yorks.; Mabel Gibson, Wandsworth Common; May Maile, Provost Road, N.W.
FIRST PRIZE ESSAY.
Up-to-Date Maidens.
Mary Fraser, the heroine of this story, and her sister Ethel are living in an unpretentious lodging situated near the Marble Arch. Their father having died a few years before this story opens, leaving his affairs in a very unsatisfactory state, Mary and Ethel found it necessary to add to the small allowance granted them by their mother, by work in black-and-white for a literary friend. They had joined the Far West Club, an institution for women of all classes, when they first installed themselves in London. This Club they found very useful to them in many ways. Now there had been an understanding between Mary Fraser and a certain John Thornton for some years, and although there was as yet no engagement, it was almost an established fact. John Thornton was a clever young barrister, and was fitted in every way for Mary, but he objected strongly to the Club, having somewhat old-fashioned ideas, and a misunderstanding sprang up between the two. Mary felt disinclined to give up her Club and its many benefits: and besides, there was really nothing to object to in its members, even if they did adopt masculine attire, or rather some of them, for they all did not do so, they were good at heart. And so Mary and John drifted apart. It was at the Club that Mary met Irene Thorpe, a girl from New Zealand, who was living with her brother in Oxford Street. A great friendship sprang up between Mary and Irene, and when Irene’s brother had to return to Auckland suddenly, in response to an urgent call from his father, it was arranged that Mary should remain with her as companion while she stayed in England. This plan was very agreeable to Mary, who did not care much for the sketching in black-and-white, and was not so clever at it as Ethel.
One day Irene went to see Annie Simpson, one of the poorer members of the Club, who was ill, and when she arrived at her mean abode, she found the poor girl starving. This completely sobered Irene, who was inclined to be flippant at times, and she did so much for the poor girl, paying for her rent and food, that she soon got well again. When Irene returned to Auckland, she took Annie with her as maid, and Mary, who had had a little money left her by Miss Mortimer, one of the older members of the Club, and with whom she was a great favourite, determined to join a Sister’s Staff in the East End, where there was a great strike going on, and these Sisters were able to greatly relieve the sufferings of the starving population. It was here that John Thornton found her again, and the misunderstanding being cleared up, they were married after Mary had remained about nine months longer in the Sisterhood in the East End.
Ethel Gertrude Goulden.