Freeman Clarke, whose name I use here in compliance with her own expressed desire, was a wonderful illustration of what common sense and determination will accomplish. The petted darling of a wealthy family, Madame Clarke found herself summoned, by her husband's illness and early death, to retrieve, almost unaided, the fortunes of six children. The first money which she could lay aside, at the head of a boarding-house, paid interest on a mortgage upon a small property which she knew she was to inherit, and which she felt sure would increase in value. For

this property she ultimately received her own price, being, to the great amazement of applicant, her own "man of business" in all negotiations. The small sum it yielded she put out at interest in new States, where money was scarce, and multiplied it tenfold before she died, not by careless speculation, but by investing it wisely in the heart of the great cities of Chicago and Milwaukee, by buying what she saw with her own eyes to be valuable. "I want women to know how to manage their own concerns, as I did," she would say. "It only takes a little common sense. Women ought not to give up their property to men, or even ask their advice about it. The best men will prop up their shaky plans with a woman's money; but women should watch men, see where shrewd men put their money, and do as they do, not as they say.'

Another encouraging instance of the success of a female capitalist has been revealed by the death of Mrs. Elizabeth Heard, bookseller, printer, and publisher of the West Briton newspaper, in England, who died last month at her residence in Truro. A correspondent of the London Bookseller says of her:

"I know of no woman connected with the book and newspaper trade who was better known and more respected than Mrs. Heard. She had carried on business in Boscawen

Street, Truro, for close upon sixty years, and I will venture to state that no commercial

gentleman who ever called upon her but would be struck with her great judgment, her courtesy, and the desire which she ever evinced to do unto others as she would be done unto.

Mrs. Heard was the widow of Mr. John Heard, the founder of the business, and lost her husband about forty-five years ago. She was left with a youthful family entirely dependent on her exertions. She was born in London in the year 1787, her father, Mr. Goodridge, being a successful tradesman. Her Those who mother was from Edinburgh.

remember the perilous days a journalist had to pass through from the year 1815-the time of the peace-to the time of the repeal of the Corn Laws, are aware that it was no easy matter to conduct the business affairs of a

leading newspaper like the West Briton and

Cornwall Advertiser; but Mrs. Heard was a woman of great industry and integrity, and in the conduct of a large miscellaneous business for a long series of years she won golden opinions from every one.”

Thirdly, the classes who will neither combine nor save must be assisted by capitalists. Women who are well paid, must be supposed to have as fair a chance in the world as men, but they are very few, and meanwhile what is to become of those who are ill-paid at the present prices of board and lodging? Clearly, until science adjusts the main springs and cog wheels of society suitably, philanthropy must come to the rescue; yet, only so far as to make cleanliness and economy possible. Very recently, a generous Boston merchant, enabled Dr. Peabody to try at Cambridge a successful experiment in regard to the food of students. When I remembered how much better they could meet their necessary expenses, than the

young women of whom we speak, I longed for such help for the latter. It was not long in coming from the same kind hands.

Mr. Thayer and two ladies have lately attempted, in Boston, at No. 28, Ash Street, a small experiment in the way of a lodging-house for girls. This was first suggested to the ladies, by the misfortunes of a young woman who came under their notice. They tried to hire a house, but found it

rent.

She had no middle-men. The experiment was wholly successful, and paid at once five per cent. Mr. Ruskin's lodging houses, as they are called, are the best that have ever been established in London. They furnish the cheapest and cleanest lodgings for the poor, yet pay a good dividend. They are entirely in the hands of Miss Hill, as Mr. Ruskin himself is more skilful to remedy any social excrescence than patient to bear with it. He forgets, I think, what he once wrote concerning the soul that denies itself an encounter with pain. There is certainly no reason, why capitalists should offer assistance of this kind to working men of prosperous condition, and deny it to working women. We all know how successful have been the movements initiated abroad to supply cheap food and lodging.

A very interesting account has lately been furnished to the "Boston Daily Advertiser" of W. Corbet's dining rooms at Glasgow. In that city alone, there are now twenty-six establishments, and they have the advantage not only of providing a sufficient meal for 4d, but of employing a large number of women. W. Hinton says:

"About three fifths of the customers take dinners. Of the rest, more than half take breakfast, and the remainder supper. It is the rule of all these depots to sell after 5 P. M. all soup and other articles, which otherwise Large must be thrown away, at half price. quantities are thus carried away, as well as consumed on the premises. Of course, meat, vegetables, bread, etc., are entirely available, and are used for soup, etc In another establishment I visited, I also dined. It is situated in Mitchell Lane, but a step off Buchanan Street, the Regent Street of this city, and is frequented by the clerks and shop-women who are employed near by, as well as by many of a superior class. ware in use is of a neat pattern, and not coarse or common looking. My dinner consisted of a basin of good and most nutritious soup, very palatable, with a small roll and bun of light and digestible bread; a large plate of good roast beef, with an abundant supply of potatoes, bread, butter, a cup of fair coffee, and a large piece of excellent apple pie, in which the fruit was made more palatable by rich milk.

The

The

pastry was good, the bread was excellent, the beef tender and well cooked. The soup alone, with bread, would have made a capital luncheon, and when the meat was added the meal was far more than sufficient. As I said, the cost was a shilling-soup, bread, butter, potatoes, coffee one penny each; pie two pence, and the beef three pence, I believe. There was some little addition which I have forgot

ten, amounting to two pence more. I could

have obtained a good dinner for an English sixpence, or about seventeen cents. Sufficient to sustain nature could be got for little more than half that, while the matron informed me that it was very seldom that the female customers averaged more than two pence half penny per head, about seven cents at present rates of exchange. Glasgow imports a large quantity of food from the United States; yet is enabled to feed her poor at a price infinitely below what is charged there for much inferior articles, abominably cooked, and served in a manner that may be termed slatternly by the side of the excellent system which Mr Corbet introduced and has so successfully carried forward to its present great proportions."

It may be interesting to know that a company of clerks has just been formed in London with a view to establish a dining-room for the use of men in that occupation, at which the prices shall be low and the provisions supplied of the best kind. At the meeting, which we find reported in the London News, Mr. Alderman Cotton presided.

One of the speakers thought that a luncheon might be given for not more than a sixpence, and a dinner for ninepence or a shilling, giving a considerably larger amount of solid food than could now be got for fifteen or eighteen pence. Finally it was decided that the capital of the association should be £25,000, in shares of one pound each, five shillings to be paid on application, five shillings on allotment, and the remainder in calls of two shillings and sixpence each, at intervals of not less than a month. Committees were then appointed to carry out the plan.

In defence of those who keep lodgers of this class, it should further be said that their temptations are almost insurmountable. They are mostly poor women-or middle men

-who lose a great deal by sick, incompetent, or bankrupt hands every year. It almost necessarily becomes their policy to make the healthy and steady laborers share their loss by this class. They have no security in cases of long sickness or death.

For my own part, I stand astonished at the strength of human virtue, when I remember how often I have seen homeless girls, just ailing for a little, turned out of lodgings, when there seemed no resource save a house of ill-fame on one side, or the open grave on the other. In nine cases out of ten it is the open grave, thank God, which is chosen. But may not good Christian hearts seek to substitute for this happy and useful life. In closing, I once more entreat that no false issues may be raised in the efforts to meet this crying need. Let the girls honestly have what they are able to earn, but force them so far as you may to a life commensurate with their means. Do not throw a false light upon an humble path. Private kindness must necessarily do this often, but the public effort should be to nourish a healthy tone of mind, and to diminish temptation and supply needful comforts, at the same moment that it checks foolish ambition in dress or living, and does its utmost to show these women what their proper station is, what their natural relation to society, and what they are permanently to expect when the spasmodic action of outraged Christian feeling naturally subsides.

Being quite convinced that, in addition to the attempt to secure lodging houses for women, it is also necessary to encourage and protect those who, in consequence of exposure, have already taken the first step astray, I took advantage of an accident last spring to inaugurate such a movement. The development of the project having brought to me letters which bear upon the subject of lodging houses, I must beg to detain you for their consideration a few moments.

A clergyman, who had preached in the Chicago theatre last winter, received a touching letter from a woman, signed Magdalena. He read it at one of the anniversary meetings in May, and I took advantage of the interest it excited to make my first appeal, of which I will read you a few sen

tences:

Those who are familiar with my books will remember how I once desired that in every church some woman, tender; experienced and willing, should be set apart as the counsellor of the young and friendless. It can hardly be expected, however, that any church, or any single woman should be willing to move alone.

Now, my two months in the West convince me that it is too late to chain the demon which has begun to walk up and down the earth. We must meet it in fair fight. What I believe in is prevention, employment and sympathy. Refuges may be multiplied forever without touching the evil.

Is it not clear that female preachers are needed to speak to women on such matters; and should not all wise men bestir themselves to deepen womanly consciousness and promulgate just ideas of marriage, as Robert Collyer-may God forever bless him-is continually doing?

We have been accustomed to despise the fallen, and to think it hardly worth while to raise the foundlings of the State. Why should they not die?" said some one at the State House the other day when the terrible mortality at Bridgewater was under consideration. No one values a pure descent more than I. In every fibre of my being I attest the force of blood; but God demands the recognition on our part of something purer than blood. We are children of the Spirit, every one of us. Legitimate or illegitimate, we are heirs of the Most High, and more than once in history He has taken the despised and rejected, the man who never knew his own father, to be his "prophet,

cheaper to buy; Mr. Thayer being responsible for half the expense, and each of the ladies for one-quarter. The house was furnished at the cost of friends. It has gas and water in nearly every room, and shelters twentynine girls. They pay for light, rent, lodging, and fire, repairs and service, $1.50 per week, and $1.25. There are two single beds in most of the rooms. The matron keeps an exact account of her expenditure; and each week the stores are weighed by one of the ladies, the waste being charged, as well as the marketing, to the girls. The board, so managed, costs each girl $1.75 a week. Some of the girls wash for themselves in the evening, and a woman is hired for the house once a week. They take care of their own rooms. The matron employs a cook. There are only two rules, that every girl shall be in at 10 P. M., and that a week's notice shall be given when any inmate desires to leave. No supervision is exercised except of the stores and the matron's accounts. The house was opened Dec. 15, 1866, and is a success according to its plan. Grateful as I am to see this attempt made, I cannot feel that this plan should be followed for the future. Girls do not wish to receive charity, nor can any experiment be thoroughly successful, which does not pay, in the long-run, a fair percentage on the cost of house and furniture. Now, $4.00 a week is, in my estimation, only the fair cost price of the style of board and living which these girls receive; and it could not be kept at that under average management.

I do not know the cost of the house, but it would certainly rent for $600. The taxes upon it would be, at least, $120.

Now let us suppose that thirty girls occupy it, each paying the highest rent of $1.50 a week, which is $180 a month $2,340 a year,—a which must cover house rent and taxes, water tax, lights, lodging, fire, repairs and service, and which in

sum

If girls want car

ordinary cases must cover also the cost of furnishing and replenishing. I am sure my estimate of the rent and taxes is beneath the real value of both; and it is evident, that no efforts to benefit this class on a larger scale, will succeed, unless made to pay better: companies will undertake only profitable work.* I want to see girls unite to furnish themselves in a still more modest way, with what they need; and I wish to see a system of cookinghouses established which shall simplify the whole matter. pets, gas, fires, as provided in this house, they should pay their proper, not as heretofore their exorbitant cost; but they should be so placed as to have clean and healthy rooms, if they choose without either. A Young Women's Christian Association was organized in Boston in May, 1866, under the auspices of Mrs. Henry F. Durant. Furnished rooms have been provided at 27 Chauncy Street, where young women can obtain information in regard to employment, boardinghouses and so on. The applications average one hundred a month; and the association seeks to establish a home, where there will be a restaurant for furnishing meals, at cost, to young women only, also a free reading room and library, evening schools, rooms for social purposes, and temporary lodging-rooms. This is a most desirable thing to do; but it will not be of permanent benefit, if it puts into a false position any girls capable of selfsupport. The funds of wise and kind people must start all such movements; but, to be useful, they must be, not only in appearance, but in reality, self-supporting.

* The best proof that my calculation was right, is to be found in the fact, that since these words were written the rates have been

raised so that it takes $4 00 to cover rent and board, but this does not include washing. Facilities are furnished, so that the girls may do this for themselves. In the N. Y. institution $3.25 is required to cover rent, board and washing.

This association seems to me, to have wise and efficient officers. They have obtained money enough to buy two houses in Beach Street, which they hope to open in January. These will accomodate eighty girls, at a price of board sufficient to defray current expenses.

In New York, a Working-women's Home has been established, the plan of which was long since submitted to the public. A building has been purchased on Elizabeth Street, which will afford accomodations for five hundred persons. For this, $100,000 has been paid, and $25,000 more has been expended in fitting it up. Half the amount has already been raised; and the managers are making strong efforts to collect the remainder. Of its objects, the "Evening Post" says,

"In this Home will be found clean, wellventilated rooms, wholesome food, and facilities for education and self-improvement. Girls exposed to the temptations of a city life will be surrounded by both moral and Christian influences.

"The institution is intended to benefit a class of women who now find it impossible, with their slender means, to procure comfortable homes, and are forced to live where moral purity, as well as health, is endangered.

"It is well known that families and boarding-house keepers almost always object to female boarders, and that many thousands of sewing-women find it difficult to obtain quarters. Artificial flower-makers, book-folders, hoop-skirt manufacturers, packers of confectionery, etc., are compelled, if deprived of parental shelter, to accept such homes and accommodations as their very limited resources will command.

"It is not intended to make this a charitable institution; but the prices will be made so moderate as to be within the means of those who are to be benefited by it. while, at the same time, the establishment will be selfsustaining."

Mr. Halliday says of it,

"The whole expense of first purchase, alterations, and furniture, will be about $140,000. Messrs. Peter Cooper, James Lenox, James Brown, Stewart Brown, William H. Aspinwall, E. J. Woolsey, and Mrs C L. Spencer have, unsolicited, each contributed one thousand dollars. Twenty thousand dollars has been appropriated on condition that we ob tained a like amount in donations. We expect to have accommodations for nearly five

hundred, and the charge for board and washing will be from three dollars and a quarter

per

week.

to three and a half "There will be parlors, reading room and free library, and ample bathing rooms. None of good reputation will be refused admission; no others can become members of the family."

This institution was opened about the first of October. I came hither two days before these sessions opened expressly to investigate the prospects of this House. I find the same difficulty, that I complain of in Boston exaggerated here. Board and washing is offered for $3.25 a week, a price at which it cannot be sustained. The food seems abundant and wholesome, the parlors are carpeted and well lighted, and have a piano and books, but when I went into the chambers I found six beds in one room, with no dividing screens, with only three washstands to the six, and no bureaus or closets for clothes. 'The floors were of rough boards with wide cracks. There should never be more than two girls in one room, and privacy should be possible to each. Can six strangers thrown together without refined habits, grow more refined in such contact? Let us give up carpets and pianos, and seek rather this first essential of a home. This home was designed for girls receiving $5.00 a week, but this class do not like the name of Working Women's Home. Art students at the Cooper Institute, and girls earning $7-8, are those you really find there, and so far there are only eighty. What I saw here convinces me, that a restaurant for women should be connected with these houses, and that outside custom should help defray the expenses, and permit lodgers to economise, if they choose, in their daily fare.

During the summer of 1866, Octavia Hill, of London, a grand-daughter of the celebrated Dr. Southwood Smith, reports that, after conferring with John Ruskin, she had hired houses for poor tenants. She put them into good order, and kept them in it. She would allow, in her tenants, neither overcrowding nor arrears of