Snippets of Victorian advice from Young Woman magazine (#2)
Curiously addictive as well as a useful resource for researching Victorian life, these responses were given to girls who wrote in to Young Woman magazine in the 1890s. The original enquiry letters were not printed.
“BETWEEN OURSELVES.”
A FRIENDLY CHAT WITH THE GIRLS.
BY MRS. ESLER
LOVER OF GOOD BOOKS. – I am sorry the answers to your and other interesting letters have, owing to my absence from England, been so long delayed. This month I will consider the correspondence exclusively. Your case is a very hard one, and the conduct of your employers quite inexcusable.Is yours not a case where a strike would be wise and right? As long as “flesh and blood” remain so cheap, as long as the supply of workers exceeds the demand, I fear the law cannot keep a hard-hearted employer from “grinding the faces” of those who serve him. As you are such a good work-woman, your ultimate aim should be to establish a private connection of your own. For those who work well, and are willing to alter garments, – indeed, would confine themselves to alterations exclusively, – there is always abundant work available in private houses. In any populous are where middle-class people live, any seamstress able and willing to alter parental garments for the children, or to cut down the cloaks and jackets of the older girls and make them look smart and fashionable for the younger ones, would get abundant work all the year round. Is there no lady in your neighbourhood who would give you a start, and recommend you to her friends if she found your work satisfactory? I append a portion of your letter, which, I am sure, many will find interesting:
“My average earnings during the year, though I spend sixty hours a week in a close workroom, do not exceed £36. I am a mantle-maker. I am obliged to be in to my work by nine o’clock in the morning, though I, with many others, have to sit for hours waiting for the work to be given to us. All those hours are lost to us, as we are paid by the piece. We have, over and over again, thus wasted four or five hours in a day. If we complain, we are told we can leave if we do not like the work. I have many a time spent a whole week in a workroom, and on Saturday taken two or three days’ money. When I have a full day’s work, I can earn from three to four shillings a day. I am capable of any part of the work, or I should not get as much as I do.
There are hundreds of piece-workers in all women’s trades, and they are kept on similar starvation wages, and robbed of their time also. Do you know of any way to make this great wrong publicly known? What we want is, that employers and managers shall be compelled to tell us overnight if the work will not be ready for us early the next day, so that we need not appear in the workroom when there is nothing for us to do. I could get a good deal of work from friends if I had not to waste my time constantly in this way. We say employers have no right to time they do not pay for. If I only knew of anything we could do to get this terrible wrong redressed!”
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MAY. – There are some lady librarians employed in England. Appointments are made through the library committees, or by the votes of other persons in authority. Where a vacancy occurs, you would require to make application, stating your qualifications for the position. I am afraid the mere facts of your being twenty-two years of age, fond of reading, and desirous of earning your living, would scarcely qualify you for the office. Pay in America for all kinds of work is fully a third, sometimes two-thirds, more than with us.
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SOPHIA. – Where the husband is in receipt of a small salary, I think 14s. per week should suffice for all table expenses for two persons. It always seems to me a mistake when husband and wife are not perfectly confidential with each other on financial matters. Silence on the husband’s part regarding what he earns, silence on the wife’s part regarding the uses to which she puts her allowance, often introduce the thin end of a wedge of alienation that widens with the fleeting years. I subjoin an extract from the letter of another correspondent, as it may give you some useful suggestions:
“If it would be any assistance, I can give you a few details on how to exist on £36 a year. I am one of those women who have to depend on themselves and their own earnings for every necessity of life. My parents are dead, and my remaining relatives are far away from my place of business. I live in one room, for which I pay 3s 6d. per week, which amounts to £9, 2s. per annum. For food and oilshop goods, newspapers and books, I allow 1s. per day, which in 365 days becomes £18, 5s. The remaining £2, 13s. goes for laundry, and £6 for coals, dress, and other expenses.”
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CRISSIE Y. – It would be less expensive to learn sick-nursing than to take the other course you refer to. The article in the January number on “How to become a Nurse” should afford you the information you require. Every London and every provincial hospital is wlling to receive nursing probationers (as all accepted applicants who wish to learn nursing are called) when they have vacancies. Almost all hospitals pay a salary from the first, although a few ask a fee instead. Some hospitals, when they have not a vacancy, will admit paying probationers, who are then eligible for election to the first vacancy that occurs. If you wish to apply at any of the London hospitals (of which you will find a list in Whitaker’s Almanac, Dickens’s Dictionary of London, and similar compilations), a letter addressed to the matron of the hospital in view, London, will bring you all requisite information. Miss woods, 8 Oxford Circus Avenue, Oxford Street, is Secretary to the British Nurses’ Association, and could inform you where your application would most probably be successful. There is a Missionary Nurses’ Training Home at 8 Westercraigs, Denniston, Glasgow.
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NANCY LEE. – The nicest way of mounting photographs is in panel frames to hold four or six parallel photographs. These frames can be bought in wood ready for enamelling at most large fancy shops, but you can also make them of card or mill board… A pretty wall-pocket for cards can be made with two squares of thin pasteboard. Cover both pieces with silk or brocade. Join them together at two sides, turn down one of the free corners at an acute angle – that is, from one corner to within about three inches of the opposite corner – and fasten it down with a large fancy pin. Suspend by a ribbon to match the brocade. Add loops of ribbon at one corner if you think they would be an improvement. I have seen these pockets very effectively produced in stamped pasteboard, painted all over with the gold paint that is to be had so cheap, a gold-painted lead pencil taking the place of the fancy pin.
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CHARLOTTE. – I think you will find your first question on music fully answered in one of this month’s articles; if not, I shall be glad to hear from you again. As regards your dressmaking difficulty, your best plan would be to unpick a dress bodice that fits you well, and take a pattern from it on grey linen. With the aid of this, you could always adapt the regulation paper patterns to your own figure. I think you will find Miss Grand’homme’s book of service. I am gratified by your kind appreciation of THE YOUNG WOMAN.
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DELIGHTED SUBSCRIBER. – (1) You would require to take the prescribed course of study at one of the teaching centres, pass the examinations, and the apply to the Education Committee for an appointment as teacher, salaries vary from £70 to £135.
(2) Cosies with two sides or with four are the only available shapes. The former are more easily made. If you have not a cosy to take the size from, you can cut the outline in paper, paste the edges together, and fit over the teapot, allowing a little extra size for the wadding. As cosies are for utility, I always like best those that have not any great elaboration of needlework. A cosy made of velvet or velveteen, with a monogram on one side, and a puffing of soft silk of the same tone of colour goinground the outer edgesof the whole, makes as pretty and tasteful a cosy as any one could desire. The lining should be of silk, or wadded quilted satin, which can be had very cheap, and there should be some loops of ribbon at the top to lift the cosy by.
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J.H.I.R. – The line “He for God only, she for God in him,” occurs in Paradise Lost, Book iv.
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JOSEPHINE. – With the skin affection you complain of, you should always use rainwater for washing, and abstain from soap as much as possible. Pure olive oil rubbed into the skin, and rubbed off with a soft cottony towel, will be soothing and helpful.
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ELLA B. – To begin the study of French, you had better get the Juvenile French Grammar, sold at 2s. by Mr D. Nutt, 270 Strand, London. Later, you will require an easy reading-book and a dictionary. Make a list of all words as you encounter them for the first time, and commit them to memory subsequently. The more rapidly you acquire a vocabulary, especially of verbs and nouns, the more rapid will be your progress.
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MARIE. – The jelly served with cold brisket of beef is made from the liquor in which it has been cooked. Boiled brisket has usually been kept in pickle ten days. Get a neatly-cut square piece, put it into a pot, and cover with water. Let it come slowly to the boil, then simmer very gently till it is done, skimming frequently. Allow half an hour to each pound after it has come to the boil. One hour before the beef is done, cut a round of bread three-quarters of an inch thick, and put it into the liquor to boil. This is put in a dish by itself, with a teacupful of fat from the liquor poured over it, and some pepper sprinkled on it; it is served with the meat. When intended to be used cold, the liquor, just before it jellies, should be poutred over the meat, and the dish should be garnished with pieces of the jelly. Braising is done by very gentle heat, and with the smallest possible allowance of liquid.
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MINGDON. – To render the floor damp-proof you will require to board over the flags. Nothing else will make the apartment cosy as a sitting-room. A cocoa-nut matting would be durable, and these can now be had in various art colours; but I think you had better make the alteration permanently satisfactory, with a boarded floor, stained round the margin, and a square carpet.
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LADY ROWENA would be glad to know the authors and publishers of two poems entitled “Two Shadows” and “The Kitchen Clock.”
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SALLIE. – Square cushions trimmed with frills are still first favourites for sofas and armchairs. You can make the cushions yourself. Squares of calico, or that cottony cloth sometimes called swansdown, should be rubbed with beeswax on the inside, to prevent the feathers penetrating. (Bed-ticking should also be beeswaxed when feather-beds are filled at home.) Warm the beeswax, and rub it in straight lines, following each other over the surface, then fill with feathers and sew up. Covers can be made of silk, figured sateen, or cretonne. The frills are made first of double material, gathered or kilted; they are then introduced between the two sides of the cover, keeping the edges of all three to the outside; the frills will require an extra fullness at the corners. When three sides are sewn together, turn the cover inside out, put in the cushion, and close. For seat cushions, cretonne covers are most serviceable; for back cushions, silk or sateen is preferable. If your windows are pretty high, a bookcase would look well under one. Mr. W.S. Brown, 65 George Street, Edinburgh, sells a nice little folding bookcase, coloured oak or walnut, or enamelled, for 8s. 6d. It has four shelves, and each shelf is divided into two parts. It can be hung on the wall, placed above the mantelpiece, or set on the floor. It would hold about four dozen quarto or octavo volumes, or the second shelf could be utilised for ornaments or photographs if you had not books enough to fill it. As it folds small, this bookcase can be forwarded by parcel post.
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A. CRAIG. – Thanks for your letter. The commencement was quite correct. I will reserve your address, and if I hear of any young ladies who would wish to learn practical housekeeping in a quiet home I will not forget to mention you. Advertising, to be of much use, requires to be extensively done; a single timid advertisement is not likely to attract attention. In starting any new enterprise, it is necessary to “be bold, be bold, and evermore be bold,” and boldness in certain departments runs into a good deal of outlay. What the late Duchess of A – wrote you is quite true; strong ideas must be strongly carried out, and by the original projector; it is only when a plan is partly accomplished that outsiders can be expected to recognise it. Please write again, and say how many pupils you wish to receive.
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PUSSY. – You can save sugar in making your apple and other fruit tarts, if, to an ordinary-sized dish of fruit, you add, before cooking, as much carbonate of soda as you can pile on a shilling, or less if the fruit is not very sour. The soda neutralises the acid, so that much less sugar will suffice.
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M.G. – To remove the fruit or jam stains from your linen, rub the stained part on both sides with yellow soap, then tie up a piece of washing soda in the cloth and soak well in hot water; afterwards bleach in the sun and air. I am much gratified in the interest you express in this publication.
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HOUSEKEEPER. – If you will write to the Secretary of the Metropolitan Association for befriending Young Servants, 18 Buckingham Street, Strand, W.C., you may probably hear of such a girl as you require. This Association exists for the purpose of befriending orphan girls who, between the ages of thirteen and twenty, have been recommended to it by the guardians of the metropolitan unions after their removal from the district schools for domestic service; it also cares for orphan or friendless girls from other industrial or orphan schools not so recommended, and endeavours to place them in life. You might also hear of an orphan girl, requiring a good home and training, by applying at the Clapham Servants’ Training Institution, Manor House, 63 High Street, though I believe subscribers of £1, 1s. or upwards per annum have the preference when they apply for young servants there.
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M.B.M. – You will receive full particulars regarding the Guild’s examinations by applying to the Acting Secretary of the Institute for the Advancement of Plain Needlework, 36 Balcome Street, Dorset Square, London, N.W. Examinations are held in March, June, and October. Special teachers are provided when classes are formed, and lectures can be given whenever requested. When applying to the Secretary, enclose a stamped addressed envelope for the reply. Thanks for your kind opinion of THE YOUNG WOMAN.
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E.M. – I think there are many publishing houses that would be quite willing to employ capable female compositors. I will endeavour to supply you with definite information on the subject in next issue.
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L.E.C. – Many thanks for your kind appreciation of this publication. (1) It was quite correct to address your letter for the competition as you did.
(2) Your method with your Sunday school class is very good, but you should add to it a system of repeated questions on the instructions you impart. The attention of little children must be kept alert, or they cease to listen, and for this purpose there is nothing better than questioning them, now altogether, now individually – the one who is first ready to answer intimating that by holding up the hand.
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ETHEL. – Since writing the article you refer to, I have heard of two ladies who are willing to take pupils to train in housekeeping. The one lady charges twenty-five guineas per quarter of twelve weeks; the other charges £2, 2s. per week, and 10s. per week to girls of limited means, or working pupils. I can let you have the address of either on application.
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M.B. – There are numerous Homes for inebriates throughout the country, the charges ranging from 5s. per week to £5, 5s. Of course you are aware that an inebriate cannot be domiciled in a registered Home without his or her written consent, and in the most heartbreaking cases this is withheld. But sometimes a patient will consent in a reasonable moment, and then she can be kept under supervision until the cure is supposed to be complete.
