TRAVEL NOTES.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 2622, 2 October 1909, Page 4 (Supplement)

TRAVEL NOTES.

In a letter from London, Mrs Ebene. zer Vickery, who lias been travelling through Europe and the East, writes l to the Sydney “Morning Herald” : While travelling in the East I was struck with the fact that the women seemed to have more liberty. The veils, while still worn, have in many cases become so thin that they scarcely hide the face. In Damascus we saw many ladies in the bazaars who wore beautifully-cut silk dresses and fairly thin veilsj and when visiting the house of a wealthy Turkish merchant his principal wife stood at the window in the story above tlie courtyard, bowing and smiling, while the gentlemen • raised their flats to her._ , On reaching Europe I stayed at Grasse, in Provence, to study perfume making. As you know, I thought we might make it an industry for our women. I was provided with an introduction to Mr Bruno Court, the leading perfume manufacturer, by the British Consul at Cannes. I was shown much courtesy. A guide was given to me and all the operations were explained. I thin3s we in’,gilt employ our women i'll cultivating the essence by means of grease, but wo could not accomnlish the finishing processes. There are too many chemicals employed, and machinery is required, ibis perfumer grease is packed in casks of different sizes, and sent all over the world. When it reaches its destination the perfume i s extracted by means of alcohol, and the grease converted into soap. On reaching London I at once got into touch with the National Council of Women, the L.C.C. Board of Education, and the Government Board of Education. In each case I was shown much courtesy. The Board of the L.C.C. gave me one of its best lady inspectors as a guide to the different centres of domestic training, and I most thoroughly enjoyed the mornings spent with thi s Cleveland interesting companion. The London County Council has SO,OOO girls, between the ages of 11 and 14, under instruction in 400 centres lor domestic training, that is 57 per cent, of the girls who are recommended by the teachers as suitable for training. The Education Board is at present discussing the question of establishing 200 more centres, in order to include the remainder of the girls. Each centre is furnished with a laundry and a cooking school, also a school where cleaning, sewing, etc., can be taught. In addition to this the council is gradually acquiring a workman’s house near each centre, where the knowledge gained can be aj>plied. Paddington Technical School, where girls who have got scholarships in domestic science in the primary schools are trained, has in connection with it an excellent dressmaking school and a fiat, inhabited by teachers, to which the girls are sent for training in practical housework. The laundries are furnished with a washing and wringing machine in one, which costs £2 10s. "The wringing machine serves as a inangle. The girls bring the soiled clothes from their own homes, and one had only to look at this linen in order to see how poor the homes must be from which it had been brought. Here, as in the cooking schools, economy of time and money was carefully instilled. The menu for the day at the cooking schoolstelepends entirely on the description of the neighborhood in which the centre is situated. In every case a dinner for not less than six persons was cooked, and these dinner s were bought and eaten at the school by the teachers or pupils of the centre itself, or of the State school beside it. If it were a very poor neighborhood the dinner for six persons would average from Sd to Is for the whole meal. The girls are taken to the market and taught how to buy the provisions in the best and most economical way, and they learn to keep their accounts. When the dinner is cooked they dish it, and they take it in turns to wait at table and to learn a parlor-maid’s work. They are taught to thoroughly clean all the utensils, and to set the table and clean all the articles used for the dinner. Each girl is provided with an exercise book in which to record her efforts to cook dishes in her own home. In one column is the name of the meat or pudding cooked; in a second are notes on the dish, and criticisms by her father and mother.

Passing from the cooking and laundry schools in each centre, we proceed to" the workman’s house. Miss Jones herself consults with the girls, shows them how to choose wallpapers and chintzes, and they are taught at the centre to make curtains and covers, and to mend the wallpaper when it is torn, and in some case s to paper the walls.

The paint throughout is white, to provide plenty of work, and the floors are stained and polished by the girls themselves. The strictest economy, with taste, cleanliness, and neatness, is inculcated. No gimcrack furniture is allowed; everything is plain and solid, and nicely stained. The washstand- especially attracted my attention. Made of solid wood, stained oak, gracefully shaped, and in the back ana on the table where the basin _ stands; was a square of very good dark green linoleum, let into the wood, and surrounded by a band of wood. These little homes boro evidence of artistic taste, and a gentlewoman could make her home in any one of them without finding anything to jar upon her sensibilities. The one drawback to this very excellent work is that it is not possible to give sufficient time to it. One halfday each week is not enough to create regular habits, nor is it sufficient to give a knowledge which would make a girl a really efficient housewife. But I am sure we all wish the London County Council God speed in their good work.