where, as you will observe, a forced emphasis on “un” must be used to make the line scan. But for this error, we should say that verse—the second—was the best. Perhaps the first now deserves most praise.—2. We can hardly encourage you to persevere in writing “realistic fiction” without seeing a specimen of your work, but from your poem, and your pleasant letter, we should judge you had some talent.
Georgina.—We presume that yours are the poems signed “M. D. A.” In the great accumulation of MSS., it is a help to us if the same name or pseudonym marks both letter and manuscript. There is much that is defective in the form of these two poems; but the idea embodied in both is striking. We should advise you to study the laws of poetic form, and then perhaps try to express these ideas in a more finished way.
Fidelia.—We are much interested by your letter, and applaud your desire for self-improvement. We think the series of articles now appearing in the Girl’s Own Paper by Mrs. Watson on “Self-Culture for Girls” may help you. You are wise in supposing that if you indulge in desultory reading alone, it will spoil your taste for solid reading, and interfere with your power of concentration. At the same time you must remember the old proverb about “all work and no play.” We should recommend you to begin by reading one of Scott’s historical novels, e.g., Ivanhoe; or The Cloister and the Hearth, by Charles Reade; or, better still, Kingsley’s Heroes, and then follow on the line of study suggested if it appeals to your taste. But we think you are under a misapprehension as to the expense involved in joining the National Home Reading Union. Apply, at any rate, for full particulars to the Secretary, Miss Mondy, Surrey House, Victoria Embankment, London.—2. Your letter is well composed, and your writing is decidedly good.
GIRLS’ EMPLOYMENTS.
Samaritan (Art and Designing).—To pursue any branch of artistic design successfully, you would need to give all your time to it. And we are obliged to admit that, outside the chief centres of artistic production, it is not easy for a draughtsman or woman to find employment. Perhaps in your own town there may be some firm of lithographic printers. In that case, it would be well to inquire what kind of work the firm could use, and then try to supply the class of design needed. Some artists in London (including one or two ladies of talent) combine such work as the designing of book-covers, illustrations, head and tailpieces, initial letters, etc., with the drawing of picture-posters. Nor is this work confined to the Metropolis. A gifted artist in Liverpool has designed beautiful wall-posters for the announcement of picture exhibitions, and he has not even scorned other kinds of decorative advertising. Does not this give you an idea? Might not you at least endeavour to do something of this sort in your own part of England? Find out who are the colour printers who produce the large fashion-plate figures which probably cover the hoardings in your own locality in order to announce the attractions of the leading draper. See whether you cannot do something that is prettier and equally effective, and then submit your specimen to these printers. But do not forget that you must draw and paint in a very broad style, and use the fewest possible colours. Content yourself with red, black, and a neutral or flesh tint, or some such combination. If you prefer to attempt drawings on a smaller scale, you could design Christmas cards, menus, almanacks, and the like. Messrs. Raphael Tuck and Sons, 72, Coleman Street, London, E.C., are among the largest manufacturers of things of this kind. Ideas, however, rather than coloured pictures are what they require.
Would-be Traveller (Nursing in India or Egypt).—There is no “hospital in London or Dublin where probationers are trained for nursing in Egypt or India.” The best course for a nurse to pursue who wishes eventually to obtain an engagement for foreign service is to enter one of the large London hospitals as a probationer, and afterwards apply to enter the Army Nursing Service, and spend a year or two at Netley. The rules of the India Office, however, only stipulate that a nurse must have had at least three years’ preliminary training and service combined in a hospital in which adult male patients receive medical and surgical treatment, and in which a staff of nursing sisters is maintained. Your best plan at the present time would be to seek admission as a probationer to the London Hospital, St. Thomas’s, or St. Bartholomew’s.
Louise (General Hospital for Training).—The London, St. Thomas’s, Guy’s, St. Bartholomew’s, and King’s College Hospitals are among the best hospitals in the Metropolis for a nurse to enter who desires general training. Regular probationers (that is to say, those who do not pay for training) must be between 25 and 35 years of age, and are trained for two years on the agreement that they remain in the service of the hospital for a third year. They receive a salary of £12 for the first year, and £20 for the second. Paying probationers pay a guinea a week for training, and should be between 22 and 40 years of age. The rules in the other hospitals mentioned differ in detail, but resemble these in general principle. Most of the good London hospitals, however, are so besieged with would-be probationers that we often think a girl is wise who enters a first-rate infirmary by preference. The Birmingham Infirmary and the Brownlow Hill Infirmary, Liverpool, are both most excellent, and several London Infirmaries, notably those in Chelsea and St. Marylebone, are much to be recommended.
A Constant Reader (Domestic Help).—This is a matter concerning which you would need the assistance of some good registry office. It is outside the scope of our correspondence columns.
Stenographer.—We fear you may have a struggle to support your husband and son in this country by your own unaided exertions as shorthand writer and typist. Still, we believe it might be done if you are very efficient and ready to undertake work at all times and seasons, and to do it often under conditions of great pressure. If at first you could manage to join a lady who already has an office, and act as her chief assistant, we think that might be wisest, as we assume that you have no means of setting up an office of your own. You ought to stipulate for a fixed salary and a certain percentage on the business done by the office. If you simply went out to work on your own account, you might look to receive a guinea a day for first-rate verbatim reporting of meetings, etc.—but orders of this kind are only occasional—or from £1 10s. to £2 a week if you were competent to take an important secretarial post to a society. Merely as a stenographer and typist you would probably not receive so much. Altogether we fear you will have a hard struggle to make a living for three persons.