Rensselaer Union, Volume 7, Number 35, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 May 1875 — Work for Women. [ARTICLE]

Work for Women.

A writer in the Saturday Review says, in speaking of woman’s work: Nursing has long been talked of as a sphere of women’s work. The profession has not been at all developed in the way it might have been. It has infinite ramifications and new fields still to be conquered. Middle aged ladies might go out as monthly nurses, for which six months of proper training would fit them. Many ladies would prefer an attendant who could be an intellectual companion as well as a nurse. Dispensing medicine seems to have been tried with success, and there is no reason why women should not make good chemists. The Government telegraph offices and the Postoffice clerkships supply a good deal of work, but it is most suitable to the same class of young girls who w ould otherwise go behind tue counter. In America women are found very useful in banks, as they are invaluable detecters of forged notes'; their sense of touch and sight" seeming to be keener than that of the young men clerks. They have also been employed as Treasurj- clerks ever since the war. The profession of house decorating seems one likely to develop itself, and is apparently very well suited to ladies of taste and education. Here, however, an apprenticeship of several years is required, as a knowledge of architecture and drawing to scale is

absolutely indispensable. Good health, business faculties and energy would be necessary to insure success. With this occupation might be conibined art, needle-work and glass-painting. Chinapainting, too. comes under this head, as tiles and plaques are now so much used in house decoration. Of literature, the general refuge for the distressed, we need scarcely here speak, except to say that it might be made a remunerative profession even by women without the talent of a George Eliot, did they but learn to write their own language correctly, or were they willing to work up a subject in the way that an antiquary or historian is compelled to do. Nor is it necessary to speak of painting, wood-engraving, photography, printing, music-teaching or the other employments which are being resorted to with a fair measure of success; but a few modes of employment whose suitability has still to be tested by experiment are suggested in “ The Year-Book of Woman’s Work” which has been lately compiled by Miss Hubbard. Among other things, lady couriers are proposed. This seems sensible enough, as in an ordinary Continental tour the fine gentle-

man courier does nothing for the ladies whose pockets he bleeds so proAisely, in reward for his small attentions, which a lady could do quite as well, and more agreeably if she were well read and intelligent. She would Drobably travel in the same carriage with the people she was attending, and would be a pleasant and useful companion. Such companions would be invaluable to the rich young Americans who come to rush through Europe and cram all the inforunation they can in a hurried tour. It is 'also suggested that artificial-fly making and the preparation of microscopic objects is pleasant and remunerative work which can be done at home.