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    Oct. 19, 1850.] H£f)t fLl&ftin 711

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    ASSOCIATED HOMES FOR POOR LADIES. Oct. 1...

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    A REPLY TO ATTICUS. Math, October 1G, lf...

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    Morals Of The Public Schools. Oct. 15, 1...

    Are the authorities aware how things are ? I am asked . Many of them I know are so ; and most deeply deplore their own inability to do anything to mend them . Some few there may be who forget their own school-days , and believe in the absolute virtue of existing institutions in their existing form ; but the wiser know better than that , and if they saw any possible remedy would not be slow to avail themselves of it . Only the evil has so permeated the entire system that their hearts sink under its magnitude , and they escape from their distress into the idea that it is inevitable . Boys will be boys they say . You can ' t help it . They sow their wild oats ; they will learn better by-and-bye : it is so ; it was so ; it always will be so .

    Perhaps they are right . I do not say that they are not ; but , at any rate , if public schools must have such a character , let us look it in the face . Do not whitewash them over . If they are full of evil , do not let us go on lying to one another and canting about the religious education which is given in our venerable institutions . The plunge in the river Styx may do for an

    Achilles ; but it is not all of us who would risk our children into it if we knew it to be a veritable Styx , and not a river of Elysium . At any rate , I say , let us see clearly which it is . There is no knowing ; air and sunshine are wonderful things ; and a remedy may not be so impossible if once we can get the daylight in upon the system as it is working now . The long-threatened Communism will reach the schools at last . Let it so far follow the authorities of

    Carshalton as to examine boys and masters upon oath on the habits' of the school—only not visiting on their heads the faults for which the institution and not they are responsible ; let us have the results to judge for ourselves . J . A . Froude .

    Oct. 19, 1850.] H£F)T Fll&Ftin 711

    Oct . 19 , 1850 . ] H £ f ) t fLl & ftin 711

    Associated Homes For Poor Ladies. Oct. 1...

    ASSOCIATED HOMES FOR POOR LADIES . Oct . 12 , 1850 . Sir , —It appears to me that there is no class in more pressing need of the benefits of the Associative principle than that of poor ladies . Destitute ladies , till lately too few in our country to be called a class , are beginning to be cared for . The intolerable woes of unemployed and superannuated governesses are now becoming known ; and , if charity could do anything to redeem their condition , the redemption must have begun . But there is a class of sufferers which cannot be spoken of in connection with charity , and

    which must be relieved by self help , if at all—the gentlewomen with extremely small incomes , who are scattered through London to the number of very many hundreds , living a comfortless and listless life on means which might secure for them a much brighter existence , if they would but unite their small funds , and avail themselves of the ceconomy of Association . I do not forget what Southey wrote in behalf of such ; nor Lady Isabella King ' s institution at Bath ; nor some recent efforts to induce women so circumstanced to become Sisters of Charity . It is , no doubt , true that we much want improved nurses

    for the sick , and yet more for the insane , and that the best- nurses are likely to be yielded by the class I speak of . But what I am thinking of now is the welfare of the ladies themselves , —of a larger number than are likely to have youth , and nerve , and power of mind to undertake any professional employment , or pledge themselves to any enterprize under the command of others . What I am thinking of now is merely the easy method by which the chill of poverty and isolation may be turned into the warm glow of comfort and companionship , and some enjoyment be given to a life of hitherto mere endurance .

    A woman may live on £ 50 a-year . She may obtain respectable board and lodging for £ 30 ; and , by close management , she may make the other £ 20 serve for dress , washing , postage , and stationery ;—though hardly for medical attendance , and certainly not tor any sort of travelling , or other recreation that costs money . I should like to know how many gentlewomen are now living alone in London on £ 50 or £ G 0 a-year ? I say alone , though many are living

    at boarding-schools , or in strange families , where no inclination , but only necessary thrift , leads them to take up their abode , and where they feel more cruelly alone than in a solitary lodging . Those may be culled happier who have strength of nerve to live in a solitary lodging . But , what is such a life to a woman who had a home in her youth , and has now a cultivated mind , whose tastes cannot be gratified on account of poverty ?

    Her health is almost certain to fail . She cannot afford to cat meat more than three times a-week ; and when people live alone , without servants , they are apt to become careless of their food . She takes a scrap of something cold , —whatever coats least in money and trouble . And if her daily dinner were ever so good , it would fail to nourish her duly , for want of the convivial element which has so much to do with healthy digestion . She is obliged to stint herself in fuel . She lets the fire go out on any pretence , and cannot at the same timo have a glowing fire and a perfectly easy mind . She takes less and less exercise . It is so much of an effort for a solitary woman to take a walk in London , without a particular

    object , that any rain or fog or summer glare serves as an excuse to keep her at home . And she can never get into the country . Even if she could afford trips to where trees grow and daisies may be seen , she could not face the necessary condition of going by herself in an omnibus or a cheap steam-boat . If it is said that this is very weak , and that people who are so poor should not have fancies , the painful answer is , that women who seldom speak or are spoken to are weak and the prey of fancies . She would like to do some good in the world ; but she cannot go alone

    among the poor ; and , without anything to give , she cannot see how to make a beginning . An American lady in London told me in breathless amazement , that she had been talking with a lady who said she had never in her life spoken with a poor person . I do not know what she would have thought if she could have known how many kind-hearted , unselfish women there are in London who never in their lives spoke with a poor person . The single ladies , living on £ 50 a-year , are as little likely as any to have the opportunity . The poor lady ' s morning hours are occupied with making and mending her own clothes ;

    turning and turning about every article , to make it last as long as possible . Perhaps there is a flower girl in the street , but she cannot afford a bunch of violets . No newspaper comes in . She never sees one , except , perhaps , as the wrapper of a parcel now and then . She has read her own few books till she knows every mark on every page ; but she sees no others . She cannot subscribe to a library . The evenings are , for half the year , very long—spent between the low fire and the single candle . She has only her needle again and the old books to amuse herself with ; and the sight grows dim and dizzy when the heart is dreary . She loves music , and

    could once play well ; and a thirst for a piano comes over her now and then ; but it is years since she touched one , except in the house of some acquaintance , when she found she was grown too shy to play in any body ' s presence . A fine Sunday is her most cheerful day ; though she is then haunted by some fear that , in the careless habits , the unavoidable indifference to dress which have grown upon her , she may have lost the art of dressing as she was always wont to do for church and the Sunday streets . And on rainy Sundays , she must either get wet and see her best clothes spoiled , or stay at home ; for she cannot afford coach hire . While the world is

    pushing on , with its new knowledge and its fresh devices , and multiplying amusements , she is consciously falling back . Except from the handbills on the walls arid walking placards , she knows nothing of these things . She can go to no lectures ; and may no more dream of entering a theatre than of going to Court . If such is her life at best , what is it in sickness ? The picture is hardly to be borne . The less said the better ; and it cannot be necessary to say anything .

    It may be true that strength of mind might break through much of this restriction and misery . One lady in a hundred so circumstanced would take a vigorous daily walk in the parks , and go about in omnibuses , and make her way , by some means , to a newspaper and a piano , and become a sister of charity in her neighbourhood . It is delightful that one in a hundred can do this ; but if the other ninety nine cannot help themselves in her way , is there no other ? I think there is .

    How vast would be the oeconomy if twelve or twenty of these ladies should club their little incomes ! I cannot but think that women sensible enough to try , avoiding the dangers which have been fatal in the few cases of female association , might make out a life of a far higher order than is otherwise likely to be ever within their reach . They must avoid class distinctions , like those which broke up Lady Isabella King ' s institution . They must avoid all approach to conventional rules ; all rules , indeed , but the very simplest which are necessary to the plan ; such as the hours of meals , and of closing the house . They must be above the objection to avow , themselves single women for life ; an objection which whether founded in reason or not , I suppose to be

    the chief cause of the experiment of association not having been tried ere this by those who need it so much . They must prepare themselves for a life of domestic obligation , for a life of home duty and charity , rendered sometimes hard by the absence of natural home affections , but , surely , less hard than a life devoid of such duties and charities . The question is , not whether the life is that which a woman would like best , but whether it is not the best which , at the moment , she can command . If her reason and feelings tell her that it is so , I cannot but think that her spirits may rise in the prospect of it .

    The money dribbled away in providing twenty lodging-house lives will provide each inmate with a room , and the whole household with a large and cheerful sitting-room . Their few books put together might make a library . Among so many , a piano would not be out of the question ; nor a subscription to a library , and to lectures here and there . There would bo a daily newspaper , and perhaps an evening party weekly , if they had the courage to offer their friends their own plain fare , and nothing more dainty . And how luxurious would that plain fare now seem

    how strengthening and convivial ! The warm soups which solitary people can never have at home , and which are such good ceconomy in a large household ; the hot joint every day ; the variety which would present itself , without thoug ht or care about ordering ! By a very little activity on the part of all , a great deal of servants' work might be saved , and the ladies' health and spirits would be all the better . There must be notable housekeepers amongst so many , who would know how to keep an airy house , and good fires , and a good table . How easy would the daily walk become when no one need go alone , and objects would

    be constantly arising to tempt walkers in this direction and in that ! On a rainy Sunday four might take a hackney coach to church , though one could not ; and they might often , in little parties , stretch out into the country—the terrors of omnibuses and cheap steamboats vanishing before the talisman of association . These things are pleasant to think of ; and the rousing winter fire , so much cheaper than , twenty little heaps of faint embers ; and the cheerful winter lamp , so much cheaper than twenty single candles burning in as many scattered rooms . It is pleasanter still to think of the nursing and solace in

    illness which would thus come of course ; the prompt medical care ; the better chances for health and life ; and the soothing in sickness and in death . But there would be something even better still—the natural exercise and gratification of mind and heart , in comparison , I mean , with the life of isolated poverty . Each should have full liberty of solitude in her own room ; but there would be some social natures among so many . How much , amidst their diversity of talents and attainments , must they learn from each other ; and how much , by uniting their gifts , might they teach ! Such a household would be an the edu

    admirable school for teaching that in which - cation of girls is now most defective—domestic management . School-girls never learn it at all , and it is an art which ought to be acquired early . How many parents might be glad to have their daughters instructed in needlework , in shopping , in ordering a table and a whole house , in a family like this ! And , again , many a lady who could teach one language or accomplishment well , but was too modest to offer it because she could undertake nothing else , would here find opportunity of using her gift—of tendering her little word of wisdom , her single

    contribution of knowledge or of art , where it would be eagerly received . Something , whether little or much , might thus be added to the income of the household . And there would be , again , something better than this . What heart-cheering little charities would now become possible ! How the associates , in pairs or in trios , might penetrate the dark places in their neighbourhoods , going among the sick , and the vicious , and the ignorant ! Health of spirit would visit the most depressed when she found her fingers working , and her lips speaking , and her hours flying iast away in the deur old work of minis ~ tering . Here , again , there can be no need to say

    more . For fifteen years that I have been talking of such a scheme of life as worthy of trial , listeners have shaken their heads , and said the ladies would quarrel ; that they would not have courage so to pronounce upon themselves as single women or widows ; and that a life of privacy will always be preferred by ladies . Denying none of these objections , I still wish- —and more and more earnestly—to see the experiment tried . The ladies might quarrel : and if they did , the discontented could go back to their solitude . But it seems to me that the irritations of solitary poverty must be worse for the temper than ^ he collisions of a household . Whatever care was used in .

    the first selection ( and great care should be used ) , there would no doubt be faulty tempers and uncongenial ways among persons eo brought together . The question is , whether there would be forbearance , justice , and benevolence to deal with the evil here as in other human associations . As for the second objection , women who could sacrifice so much to it must take care of themselves as they best can . They are not subjects for the experiment . As for the third objection , it is probable that every woman of the

    twenty would prefer some mode of life which she cannot obtain to that which association offers , as a young shopman might like to bo a college student , or an invalid to be running about in rude health . The question is , whether , their desire being impracticable , the new mode of life is worth trying as an improvement upon the x > resent one . It seems to mo that few could prefer the sort of privacy I have described to the associative life , which would still afford

    to those who wished it more privacy than ninety members of society in a hundred can command . But what I think about this is of no consequence . I want to know what others think , and especially those who might be the subjects of such an experiment . If any such have anything to say , let us hope they will speak . IIawuet Maiitineau .

    A Reply To Atticus. Math, October 1g, Lf...

    A REPLY TO ATTICUS . Math , October 1 G , lfW ) . Sin , —Perhaps your correspondent , Atticus , who writes against Qnitarianism , is not much a reader of

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Oct. 19, 1850, page 15, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_19101850/page/15/