Show I I TUE SCUOLA PROFESSIONALS How Italian Girls Become SellSupport ing Avocations Taught QopyrIght 1 ROME Dec 22Quit in the heart of Borne lies the Piazza Montecitorio one of I the busiest squares in the whole Eternal city for two of its bides are bounded by I home and foreign newspaper offices a I third by the Corso and the fourth by Parliament I Par-liament House I From early dawn until late at night this square is thronged by the people every I nation under the sun but between 8 and j I 9 oclock in the morning and 3 and 4 oclock in the afternoon one notices most i the hundreds of young girls some attended I at-tended by maids others alone or in I jnerrj orderly groups all entering or issuing i i is-suing from a great dark stone building > directly opposite Parliament House and on a corner of the Via Missione so called from the whiterobed order r of missionary monks who once in < habutd the wry building that i I 7j 4 thA14f1 lTk 1qi1 2Jq LlffifiV t L f 4 i4S i F jf1L 7 J 7 KAKIXG ARTIFICIAL FLOWERS I is now a great school for girlsthe scuola professional that the municipality and the government and the queen countenance counte-nance and aid and recognize as perhaps the most useful institution in Rome The story of its beginning is very interesting in-teresting Just twenty years ago there was a teacher in the public schools at Rome a highly cultured thoughtful woman and a born humanitarian This teacher spent a great deal of time among the parents of her pupils learning how they lived and pondering the prospects of the children In some of the families there were many daughters and while the sons could always find employment the girls lived at home in idleness absolute abso-lute drags and weights and hindrances This Roman teacher Signora Amalia PrandiRibighini had always had her opinions as to the status of her countrywomen country-women She saw no reason excepting that they lacked education and training why Italian women should not be employed em-ployed all the arts and manufacturers and business of the kingdom I SIGNGUA RIBIGHINT Bhe finally resolved to begin to instill new ideas into the minds of the fresh young generation of girlsin short to onen a training school 1 She gave up her position in the public schools and tnen announced her plan Signora Ribighini is highly connects socially and has always had a reputation I for intelligence and good sense Her friends listened to her with respect and admiration but none of them offered her j any funds for the training school They I said however that it was a beautiful j plan I I planAt a normal rent the signora secured a I room or two on a retired street and with little more than a half a dozen girlsI think the exact number was eight began be-gan the school In only the simplest manner and with the simpliest implements imple-ments needed for professional work could she start at first but she could teach herself the textbok grounding in spine of the trades and mathematics ami penmanship and bookkeeping dnvwing and the languages needed in commercial business She threw herself > body and soul into thatcJuld bedone and the enthusiasm of the eight awakened awak-ened girls was so highly contagious that = at the end of that same firstyear the number num-ber of pupils had increased to 350 Her circle and the Roman public were convinced it became a school of the jnunicipalty With patrons and patron J 0 i > I 1 h tJ i II11t < Ji 4 esses among the highest Roman families Its work was closely watcned by public men Queen Mar herlta visited it approved ap-proved it blessed its originator ann gave it her sanction and personal patronage Department after department was opened all on the lines of its originators plan there was cne move and then another and finally the school its annual membership mem-bership increased to 800 was installed as I have said in the spacious former home I at the missionary fathers on Via Missioni I where it occupies fiftyseven rooms with I an equal number instructoresses The municipality pays a good share of the 515000 needed for its annual support but the pupils in order that they need not feel themselves objects of charity are allowed al-lowed to pay a very small sumI believe it is from 20 to CO cents monthly Still those girls who have not the means to pay may attend free In their longsleeved highnecked white aprons belted and reaching to the hem of the dress it is impossible im-possible to tell the daughter of a thrifty farmer or prosperous merchant from the child of a peasant or huckster The regular patrons of the school are the queen and a commission of two gentlemen and twelve ladiesamong them an American Ameri-can the Princess PoggioSuara elected annually by the common council These patrons bestow the prizes at examinations usually postoffice tank books with sums from CO to 100 lire and they charge themselves them-selves with procuring work for the graduates gradu-ates in families shops and business establishments es-tablishments They also keep themselves posted on the condition of domestic art throughout Italy in order to counsel with Sifnora Ribighmi wuo is sole directress The course in artific al flowermaking is complete in lour years that in gold F silver and silk embroidery and its designs in five years slockingmakinjr in one year cooking in two years mending and ironing in two years The students en tering upon these arts must be at least I I fourteen years of age Girls that take the mending course must also takeayear of geometry in order to understand the designs on fabrics a knowledge of geometry is also imperative i in embroidery In short the curriculum I of tha school includessewing by hand and I by machine on shirts and underclothing making undervests of silk and wool I dressmaking mending of all fabrics lace making for use in repairing laces hand embroidery in gold silver and silk machine ma-chine embroidery stocking weaving artificial ar-tificial flowermaKing washing ironing and cooking There is a course in moral and civil Jaw in the Italian language also in domestic and commercial mathematics I and business formsthIs is very thorough and includes instruction in modern languages lan-guages there is also a course in geometry geom-etry applied to ornamental designing But this list gives you no idea at all of what Signora Ribighmi requires from her girls I In both hand and machine sewing absolute ab-solute perfection of all stitches is demanded and accomplished When I tell you that in the dressmaking classes gowns and costumes are made for the queen and the ladies of her court you will have some idea how complete the instruction I in-struction in this department is The pupils in white embroidery must i work on the finest lawn as well as on linen The making of Point Venise Gothic I point and all varities of bobbin lace is mastered so that fine costly laces may be repairedso perfectly that the repaired I 1 jIILII1II p j BANREPAIRIKG places cannot be detected At the school 1 nave seen an Indian cashmere shawl in which lortyseven holes had been so perfectly I per-fectly mended by these girls the colors matched and all that you would scarce believe there had been a single worn place in it I I The course in artificial flowermaking begins with drawing and copying from I nature The girls make exquisite ferns fine white lilacs heliotropes and that tiniestof all flowers commonly known as infants breath all as perfectly as those made in Paris I J found the laundry class room inter v J tk r ti iA i esting It sends out every day to its Roman patrons scores of shirts beautifully polished shaped and folded also skirts and dresses and under garments elaborately elabo-rately trimmed with all the fluting and puffing and crimping done perfectly Every graduate from this room goes outfitted out-fitted to open a laundry of her ownan exacting and critical business but always profitable Near the laundry class room there is the kitchen class room with its scales and explanatory ex-planatory diagrams of the nutritive powers I pow-ers of meats grains fruits and vegetables its ranges its rows of shining copper and tin pans and dishes its carefully graduated gradu-ated measuring and weighing utensils its long polished tables of wood glass and I marble its napery and glass and china This class room does a good business in sending out daintily prepared breakfasts luncheons and dinners in compact ovens or cylinders of block tin kept hot with boiling water The patrons are for the I i i most part families or companies of tran I I sient visitors The classes also cook deli I cacies for invalids and prepared diets ordered 1 or-dered by physicians < In some of the drawing classes one sees I very interesting work going on reproductions repro-ductions of old designs from priceless bits of fabrics and laces and vestments and I parchments that are centuries old and of which there are quite enough in the school to form a valuable little museum Several Sev-eral class rooms are devoted to the study and practice oi uressmaKincf each room a different grade and under its own special teacher the first for example is for the simplest work on plain material and the last is for the completion of rich garments gar-ments In the centre of each of these rooms I saw a working convenience I have never seen elsewhere I hardly know what to call These admirable arrangements unless I speak of them as huge baskets They are oi wood and shaped like peach baskets bas-kets sloping from ifap rim down to the bottomthe floor mikes the bottom They are about tour yards in diameter at the top They are double down about afoot a-foot all the way around where the two walls meet on the outside the cuter rim standing away a foot from the inner rim I This compartment is divided into boxes about eighteen inches long These boxes hold the sewing and measuring implements I imple-ments of the pupils Below the boxes footrests are joined to the baskets perhaps per-haps ten or twelve inches from the floor Around the basket are placed rushseated chairs one to each box and footrest Here the girls sit the garments they are at work upon resting in the basket which is lined floor and all with glossy brown linen neatly buttoned on The basket footrest implement box and sewing chair are all exactly the right height for comfort speed and conven lone while the dainty and costly fabrics are safe from soiling and needless rumpling In the embroidery class room I awa nbw their supply of the subtlest tints is almost unlimited In the patching darning and mending classroom 1 found diagonally torn cashmere cash-mere frayed silk worn table linen and fabrics covered with intricate designs so perfectly mended that it was difficult to determine where This is owing largely to the young menders knowledge of geometric geo-metric lines and requirements How Clara Barton Taught Morals In the winter holidays of 1862 Clara Barton was organizing hospitals and diet kitchens near Fredericksburg just after the great battle there The winter was bitter and most pitiless for our armies The ground was everywhere every-where frozen and much of the time the country covered with snow Her train encamped around the big hospital tent and the smaller ones were used for cooking cook-ing and living But these were crowded With dying soldiers and all except delicacies delica-cies were prepared in the open air By flag of truce the wounded from the rebel batteries were brought to her at I night frozen famished and dying She crowded her own soldiers into small space I and took them in The suffering was intense in-tense She had the snow cleared away I huge fires built and the men wrapped in I blankets She had an old chimney torn I down and bricks by the hundreds thrown I into the fires heated and put around tne I freezing wounded men union and confederate I con-federate Just at dark of the third day when the wind was blowing overpowering overpower-ing around the tents and the soldiers were straggling to keep the big campfires camp-fires alive and the blankets wrapped closely about the dying a half dozen bluecoated boys came to Miss Bartons tent lugging and tugging with short breath and excited words some great bundle Down it rolled ather feet i There Miss Barton we havent made I L A1P y i t c I asfiiny I iii3ia A DRESSMAKING LASS BOOM rich creamy square of satin wrought with countless threads of gold silver bronze and silk to show the schools different dif-ferent tints of metallic and silken threads and its variety of stitches This square has been framed for a gift to the Empress of Japan who is greatly interested in the Scuola Professionale rhe room was fulL of enriched garments and superbly wrought church vestments the work of the pupils I stood a long time by the great frame where the girls were working a table cover of rich mahoganytinted silken material ma-terial in a hundred dinerent shapings and combinations of gold and silver by order of Queen Margherita the Columbian exposition I In the next class room I saw two girls absorbed over their work on some frail old beautifullytinted but delapidated fans Ones was unravelling the intricate design of a torn silken mountand seeking to match the subtle colors The secrets of the many ancient tints I and colors have by long and patient experiments ex-periments been discovered at this school I Every hue in an India shawl every shade in an elaborate ancient fabric can be reproduced by these girls themselves in the great airy dyeing room up another flight The old exquisite dyes are he I stowed on silk wool and linen threads I aud these are carefully spooled so that < l1 it I K such a haul for a month You can take that as a New Years present Well boysand what is this Its to spread on the tent floor to keep your feet warm they triumphantly and eagerly like boys r They unrolled large elegant Costly carpet i Stop boys wnere did this come from asked Miss i Barton aghast Miss Bart Ijnsisted the boys its for you YouveSaved our lives and are killing yourself for > the other boys pointing inside the tent we went out on purpose and tried to get the best we could tine in all Fredericksburgh They kept Unrolling and looking at Miss Barton then at the Handsome carpet car-pet and talking You bee itll help you along this cold stormy weather See how thick and warm And they tramped it down like soldiers on the march Boys stop1 said i Miss Barton in her low sWeet way > bu > her voice trembling too You must tell me hoW you came by this j Yard after yard of the gay colored velve carpet lay stretched on the snow but Miss Barton looked at it with a sort of horror in her eyes r One of the soldiers spokeup We just confiscated itht lssBartom We took our pick out of dozen fine houses This was the best A i Well my jaoys said4the nurse that wi 11 nerajs do Only governments confiscate So7dierswhen they take such things from pebjples homes steal I am afraid you will haye to take it back tothe very house from which you took it J l l I1 si WELL BOYS WHAT IS THIS I j cant use a stolen carpet no matter how we may need one The soldIers clamored But it is I ours oursNo my boys it is not yours nor mine You cant afford to steal even in the goodness of your hearts for me Take it back Into the town into the house 1 where it belongs j Crestfallen disgusted they rolled and I I again tugged the heavy carpet on their shoulders back to the handsome house in Fredericksburg As they warmed their army boots by the campfire late that night those men expressed themselves sharply and definitely defi-nitely on the differenca between confiscation confisca-tion and stealing and with good reason there Is no doubt I I MARGARET SPENCER I I Babys Cold Weather Helmet t I I My rule was to take baby out every day I that she was well unless the weather was too inclement for safety Clear cold weather was nor ranked as inclement however when the thermometer thermome-ter went down to thirty degrees below zero and I saw sturdy boys and rugged men defending their ears > and noses I began to fear for baby dear little pug I and her apple cheeks and for some days a I b i I r c i7t i she took short outings theporch in her cartMeanwhile Meanwhile the mother instincts were busy contriving a good defence against the perilous cold that stiffened her cheeks When it was shaped in my thoughts it soon materializedfor I was an oldfash ioned knitterinto a helmet let me call itfor want of a better name With white double zephyrand theknit ting needles I began the development Casting on thirtysix stitches hI knit back and forth in the garterstitch as it is called until I had a length of three inches This was the throat flap Two other needles were then nut in requisition requisi-tion there being cast fiftyfour stitches on each 144 in all joined in a round as in a stocking Then I began ribbing by knitting two stitches plain and seaming or purling two This was continued until the round web was in length one inch and a half Then the mouth slit was made directly above thejcenter of the throat apronthe I part first knit This mouth slit or breathing aperture was made by binding bind-ing off J ten stitches a like number was cast on at the return round to form the upper lip of the mouth Any knitter will understand all about this Afterknitting a length of some two and a half inches more the eye slits were made by binding > ff eight stitches knittingsix to span the vidge of the nose then binding off eight I more these two eights being again restored at the return round to form the upper eyelid The web was continued some three or four inches longer or until the forehead covering was made Then the ribbing rIi I BABYS COLD WEATHER HELMEV was changed to plain knitting and the narrowing began to shape the head Ten stitches were knit then two knit together ten more and two together and so on around the entire web Then there were knit nine plain rounds without narrowing rowing them when it was again in order to narrow at the following rate Nine plain stitches were knit and then two together to-gether so continuing around the web Next there were eight rounds knit plain followed by narrowing alter every seventh plain interval of stitches Then there came seven rounds of plain knitting and the round of narrowing after every sixth plain stitch This rule of decrease was continued until the helmet was closed at the crown of the head I have since knit cold weather helmets without the throat curtain the whole number of stitches being cast on at the start stocking like and the ribbing at once begun In such a case I have knit the helmet long to fit down around the neck under the cloak so that no gap should be left for the drifting in of snow or sleet How much more manageable is such a cover than the veil It fits close over the face and head and is a matter of great comfort to the tender little wearer Over it may bo worn a hood Tam OShanter cap hat bonnet and underneath the little one is snug and grateful can look orth and breathe with case Instead of zephyr worsted any yarn may be used The Angora is more expensive than zephyr but itIS more downlike and is warmer It is not hurt by waahinsr on the contrary it is improved MARY MAXWELL Axiom in CnkeOJalcliis Successful cakemaking depends upon about twenty things Proper materials A correct recipe Following directions explicitly Accurate weights and measurements Compounding the ingredients in their proper order I Having everything in readiness before commencing to mix the ingredients Regulating the temperature of the oven according to the kind of cake made Having all the ingredients at the right temperature Not suspending the operation of mixing until the cake 10 ready lor tie oven Beating much or little according to the kind of cake and always in one direction Whipping the whites of eggs to a coarse moderately stiff froth rather than a fine stiff one Sifting the baking powder and flour together to-gether two or thrre times Folding the flour in carefully instead of taking strong circular strokes Placing in the oven as soon as the baking bak-ing powder is added Greasing the tin with sweet lard rather than butter and sifting a little dry flour over Opening and shutting the oven door very gently during the process of baking Not turning while in the oven if it can be avoided Keeping fruit over night in a warm room dredging it thoroughly with flour and stirring it in lightly the last thing Lining tins for loafcake with oiled paper or better yet with pastry made of flour and water and rolled thin Making the paper or paste lining of a tin for fruit cake or a large loafcake an inch higher at the sides to support a paper cover and prevent its baking too hard KATHERINE B JOHNSON I |