Part 5

"Well, well, I must leave you; I have an engagement."

On my rounds I kept thinking what a perfect couple Miss Dinsmore and Mr. Finlay would make! I determined, without saying a word to either, to give them an opportunity to see each other. Fortunately for my plan, Miss Dinsmore had just begun to make her rounds early in the morning, and on foot. I advised Mr. Finlay to take an early ride, and that he might have company, I invited him to go with me in my early morning round. I took him through Miss Dinsmore's parish, and, as I had calculated, we met her with a basket on her arm. I drew up to make some inquiries about several poor and sick ones, for whom we were both interested. Just before we started on, I said, "Mr. Finlay, this is my friend, Miss Dinsmore." Five mornings in succession we rode in the same direction, and every morning but one we met Miss Dinsmore. I was pleased to notice that, as we approached one particular neighborhood, my friend became a little wandering in his conversation, and used his eyes with a marked earnestness.

It struck me as very curious that, although Finlay protracted the conversation more and more each morning on meeting Miss Dinsmore, making many inquiries about her proteges, and showing a singular interest in her work, he did not allude to her during the subsequent part of the ride, nor at any other time.

After a week or so, he said, when I called for him, that he was getting so well, he thought it his duty to attend to business. The very next day, when calling upon the poor widow, to whom I had first sent Miss Dinsmore, she asked, as I was about to leave,--

"Doctor, who was that gentleman that came here with Miss Swan yesterday? He seemed a very nice man." (I will here state that, to save the feelings of her fashionable friends, Miss Dinsmore introduced herself as Miss Swan to all her beneficiaries.)

"What kind of a looking man was he?" I asked.

"A large, tall man, with a black beard, and he carried his right hand in a sling. He carried Miss Swan's basket in his other hand."

"Well," I said, "I suppose it's some friend of hers."

"Oh!" exclaimed the poor widow, "I trembled for fear that it might be some one who was going to marry her, and take her away from me. If that dear, blessed angel should be taken away from me, I am sure I should die."

"Never you fear; I think I know all about him."

So, so, Mr. Charles Finlay, Esq., you are knocking all my plans into "pi." I had got it fixed in my mind that I should invite you to spend an evening at my house, and then I would invite Miss Dinsmore to drop in on some pretence, and so on, and so on, and in less than half a year, I should have you head over ears in love, and then all your lives you would think of me as the occasion of all your happiness; and here you are, just off a sick bed, with only one hand, carrying round a big provision basket before breakfast, at Miss Dinsmore's very heels. So, so, Mr. Charles Finlay, Esq.

Little Charley Finlay, during an attack of scarlatina, had a convulsion. The fond parents urged me, as a special favor, to remain during the night with them. As there was nothing to do but to wait while the little one slept, we fell into a pleasant talk about old times; and then I told them the part which I had played in their first acquaintance, and the hearty laughs I had had over that tall, black-whiskered porter, with one arm in a sling, following a quiet lady, with a basket of provisions. And, although they had been so very quiet about it all, and, although said porter had followed said quiet lady about among the hovels every day for two or three months, and, although both lady and porter saw me frequently, and always kept profoundly mum about things, that I presumed I had heard all about their doings and sayings among their parishoners, almost every day, from the time I took the porter in my carriage down Marble Street, one fine morning, on purpose to get him a situation, up to the time when said black-whiskered porter came into my office one evening, and revealed unto me as follows--

"My friend, do you remember that Miss Dinsmore, to whom you introduced me one morning, down in the mud in Marble Street?"

"Let me see; was she a tall blonde?"

"Yes, that's the one."

"Oh, certainly, I remember her very well. Where is she now, I wonder? (I had had an interview with her that very afternoon.)

And then the tall porter told me, with glistening eyes, that I would receive, the very next day, an invitation card or cards inviting me to attend, etc., etc. He was delighted at my surprise and astonishment.

Notwithstanding the occasion of our long night-watch, the mother declared she would, as soon as Charley was well, box my ears, while she did not forget, the next time she had occasion to rise to attend to our little patient, to take a seat by the side of her noble husband, and assure him, by a fond pressure of the hand, that the memories were all very precious to her.

Moral. Young women who desire the company and assistance of black- whiskered porters, should go down Marble Street early in the morning, with a basket of provisions for the widow Ramsey.

EMPLOYMENTS FOR WOMEN.

In the "Cyclopaedia of Woman's Work,", by Virginia Penny, I find invaluable suggestions.

There are a great many occupations at present pursued exclusively by men, which offer no considerable difficulties to women. Miss Penny mentions more than five hundred employments in which there are no insurmountable difficulties to women, but which are pursued almost exclusively by men. I will mention some of these, without pursuing the order which Miss Penny has chosen, or using her language. But it must not be forgotten, that to this indefatigable woman I am indebted for many of the hints given under this head.

AMANUENSES.

The phonographic amanuensis has become an absolute necessity to literary men, and to business men of large correspondence. The art of phonography is not a difficult one to learn; a moderate degree of rapidity is easily acquired, and first-class rapidity is not beyond the reach of many persons. I have conversed with professional phonographers, and the general impression is, that women are particularly well adapted to the art of phonography. The compensation, turning, of course, upon the rapidity, would range from five hundred to ten hundred dollars a year. The hours would not be long. The occupation is, in many respect, a happy one for women.

BANK CLERKS.

The clerk services of a bank may be performed by women. Their writing is as neat, their reckoning as reliable, their devotion to business as certain, while they would not be tempted, by gambling, fast horses, and other expensive forms of dissipation, to steal. It is quite clear that vast sums of money would be saved to banks by the employment of women as clerks. Cases of defalcation would, under their hands, become exceedingly rare.

BROKERS.

Already we have firms of female brokers. This is wise and right. Broker's establishments, whether conducted by men or women, must have many clerks. What has been said about the employment of female clerks in banks, is applicable to the establishments of brokers.

COPYISTS.

Already thousands of women are employed as copyists. Several hundred find opportunity in Washington alone, and some of them receive twelve hundred dollars a year. A great many lawyers in our cities employ women as copyists. Indeed, in the thousand and one institutions and business houses, lawyer's offices, and so on, women are already employed as copyists. The occupation is a good one, well adapted to women, and will engage a constantly increasing number.

DENTISTS.

Nothing has surprised me more, than that women have not engaged in the profession of dentistry. Her gentle touch, the size and flexibility of her fingers, her quick sympathies, her instinctive sense of proportion and beauty, and her conscientiousness present, altogether, singular qualifications for the dental profession. Dentistry is a lucrative business, and the doors are wide open to women.

LAWYERS.

Theodore Parker said: "As yet, I believe, no woman acts as a lawyer but I see no reason why the profession of law might not be followed by women as well as men. He must be rather an uncommon lawyer who thinks that no feminine head could compete with him. Most lawyers that I have known are rather mechanics at law, than attorneys or scholars at law, and, in the mechanical part, woman could do as well as man,--could be as good a conveyancer, could follow precedents as carefully, and copy forms as nicely. I think her presence would mend the manners of the court, of the bench not less than of the bar."

Christina Pisani wrote a work, which was published in Paris in 1498. It gives an account of the learned and famous Novella, the daughter of a professor of law in the university of Bologna. She devoted herself to the same studies, and was distinguished for her scholarship. She conducted her father's cases, and, having as much beauty as learning, was wont to appear in court, veiled. At twenty six she took the degree of LL.D., and began publicly to expound the laws of Justinian. At thirty she was elevated to a professor's chair, and taught the law to a crowd of scholars from all nations. Others of her sex have since filled professor's chairs in Bologna.

I have seen a good deal of lawyers, and I am free to express the opinion that women would inevitably cleanse and elevate that profession. As a very large portion of legal business consists in writing out deeds, mortgages, wills, indentures, and other kindred documents, no one will doubt that, at least in these departments, women would prove successful. And after listening, from time to time, during the last twenty years, to female lecturers, especially in connection with the reforms in laws advocated by the "woman's rights" women, I cannot doubt that they would make successful advocates at the bar. I should not urge young women to prepare themselves for the legal profession, as I think it would be better to leave the question of propriety to their keen instincts; but if they decide to enter that profession, I shall, if possible, be there to hear their first speech at the bar.

LECTURERS.

It seems unnecessary to comment on the fitness of woman for the platform. She has exhibited a singular adaptation to this, the most public of all possible lives, and knowing, as I do, personally, most of the female lecturers in the country, I would add, that the platform has not demoralized them. The leading female lecturers in America are among the most womanly women whom I have the honor to know. The field is immense, and would welcome many additions.

Lectures upon health to women, by women, are very useful, and have almost uniformly proved a success, pecuniarily and otherwise. I should be rejoiced to see many hundreds added to the corps of woman lecturers upon woman's health. It is a profession for which there are now abundant opportunities to prepare.

LIBRARIANS.

A very large part of the work and remuneration incidental to the management of libraries is in the hands of women. But many places are still occupied by men, who might be spared for more muscular forms of labor.

PHYSICIANS.

If I had been writing this work twenty years ago, it would have been necessary to argue the fitness and propriety of women doctors. Happily, such an argument is now unnecessary. All but such as live in darkness welcome women to the medical profession. Already they have become professors in medical colleges in this country, as they were for many hundred years in Europe.

Whether a woman has nerve enough to perform a grave surgical operation, I do not care to inquire.

No thoughtful man who has watched her in the character of nurse, even when she is uneducated, will entertain a doubt about her happy qualifications for the management of the sick.

The most important responsibilities of a physician have reference to ventilation, cleanliness, bathing, feeding,--in brief, to nursing; and no one but a stupid, obstinate man would suggest her inferiority for such services.

I have no doubt that, finally, the medical profession will fall almost exclusively into the hands of women, as its most important part, nursing, already has.

A very large part of our medical business grows out of the diseases of women, as such, and I shall not insult my readers by gravely considering the question whether men or women should examine, manipulate, and treat such affections. When I hear men protesting that women cannot understand and manage these affections, I declare, some very ugly suspicions occur to me. Women and children are the sick ones. Very few men have occasion to seek the doctor.

If those who read these words understood as I do, how little brain is used in the selection of drugs, how simple a routine is followed by the doctor in selecting his medicines from day to day,--if those who read this, knew as I do, how infinitely more important and difficult are the duties devolving upon the nurse, who stands by, and watches day and night, from moment to moment, the changes in the condition of the patient, and who, without having been trained to the profession, is entrusted with the responsibility of determining, throughout all those trying hours, exactly what is to be done upon the occurrence of this or that change; if those who read this, understood, as I do, about these things, they would smile when asked to consider the propriety or possibility of educating women for the medical profession, so that, in addition to performing all the most important services, they should be entrusted with the selection of the drugs, if drugs must be given.

PREACHERS.

Female preachers have appeared among the most enlightened peoples, and have risen to distinction and influence. In America, among the Quakers, women have illustrated the finest pulpit oratory.

It has always seemed to me that women were especially adapted to the pulpit. Their natural eloquence, their sweet persuasive voices, their characteristic unselfishness, purity and piety constitute their unanswerable claim to a place in the pulpit.

It is strange, how rapidly the prejudices of men against women lecturers and women preachers have disappeared. These prejudices lie on the surface; they do not rest upon organic instinct. So completely has this prejudice disappeared from Boston, that a woman is heard by many because she is a woman. If to-day one of our churches should invite to its pulpit a woman of good capacity, of fine pulpit manners, of a noble, sweet spirit, and of fine personnel, its very aisles would be crowded. I should much prefer to go there.

A few hundred educated women would find employment, and good compensation, in New England pulpits.

PROOF-READING.

This has become a distinct profession, and employs a great number of persons. It is a profession to which women are perfectly adapted, and in which a very considerable number could at once find remunerative occupation.

PUBLISHERS.

I know of no good reason why women should not become publishers. Of course they can do the work of a publishing house,--I mean the correspondence, book-keeping, counting, making-up orders, and packing books. But I know of no good reason why they should not conduct the business, and receive the profits. Many authors, myself among the number, would be especially gratified to have our works placed before the public by women, because, when trained to business, they have shown a singular exactness and honor; and, secondly, because it would give assurance to the world that the new book was fit to be read.

TEACHERS.

It seems unnecessary even to allude to the propriety of teaching as a profession for women. It is, however, a modern notion.

At present, in New England, an immense majority of the teachers are women.

I have had a good deal to do with schools during the last twenty- five years. I was a member of the Boston School Board for some time, was at the head of the Seminary at Lexington during four years, an have always been interested in the question of woman as a teacher.

I have interrogated, perhaps a hundred school committee men, in different parts of the country. Their testimony, and my own, after all this observation, is, that woman is a better teacher than man. I think this is true even in the department of mathematics. I am sure it is true in all those studies, in the teaching of which, the social, moral or religious element is brought into play.

The proportion of female teachers in American schools is very rapidly increasing, and it is noteworthy that they are constantly rising into schools of a higher grade.

The state authorities in Massachusetts have recently placed a woman at the head of one of our principal Normal schools. It is safe to prophesy that, within fifty years, teaching, in the common schools, High schools, and in the Normal schools, will be almost exclusively in the hands of women. I think, within that time, a considerable proportion of the professors in our colleges will be women. Already several are doing themselves, and their sex, great honor, as professors in colleges.

The only dark spot in this bright picture is, that women are starved while performing this valuable labor.

I know a beautiful, bright young woman, in this city, who is regarded as one of the best teachers in the city, who presides in one of the most beautiful rooms in one of the grandest buildings in Boston, but who, when out of the school palace, is obliged to crawl away with her mother into a dingy, miserable garret, where they spend their time in contriving how to make their pennies last through the year.

The schools known as Kindergarten have already become quite numerous. They will rapidly multiply. Within a few years, children three years old will be sent to these beautiful Kindergarten schools, where, in each others society, and under the management of bright, cheery, loving teachers, they will engage in a great variety of pleasant games and infantile studies.

The physical exercises which constitute a prominent feature of these baby schools, are very fascinating and profitable to these little ones.

In these schools children of from three to five years of age will not only be brighter and happier, but they will be much healthier, than when left to the chances of the average home, without system, times or seasons.

It need hardly be said that such schools will fall into the hands of women, and will, within a quarter of a century, employ a great number of them. The hours will be short, the occupation perfectly adapted to the finest girls, and, as these little ones are objects of the tenderest love, the compensation for such persons as can successfully manage them, will always be large.

Lord Brougham gave it as his opinion, that a child learns more during the first eighteen months of its life, than at any other period, and that it settles, in fact, at this early age, its mental capacity, and future well-being.

TEACHERS OF GYMNASTICS AND DANCING.

Here is a field, at once healthful, respectable and immense. In this field women have already displayed a remarkable capacity, and I have no doubt, as in the progress of civilization special physical training and amusements come to occupy a larger place in our life, that women will find in this service employment for a large number of the intelligent and ambitious.

I have known young women, neither beautiful nor educated, but with devotion to their duties, to earn more than a thousand dollars a year, in teaching gymnastics. Instructions in dancing have long been given by ladies. So far as I have learned, they have been quite successful.

TEACHERS IN DRAWING AND PAINTING.

The instruction of girls in drawing and painting has now so generally fallen into the hands of female teachers that one need hardly speak of it further than to say that it is an employment entirely fit and proper for women, and one which usually affords a generous remuneration.

WATCHES.

Let us speak first of watch-cleaning. What are the qualifications of a good watch-cleaner? Nimble, sensitive fingers, neatness, and carefulness.

Now put your finger there, and let me show you a watch-cleaner. He works in a window only two squares from my Boston residence. He weighs about two hundred and twenty pounds, and has a fist big enough to knock down an ox. The whole thing looked so comical to me, I thought one day I would go in and plague him a little. So, after a little chat about watches in general, I said:--

"By the way, it has occurred to me that women might work at watch- cleaning.

"Women," said he, "why, they couldn't clean watches. They haven't the skill, they haven't the mechanical genius for it, sir. I don't go in for none of your 'woman's rights,' sir; I think women should attend to their own business."

"And, pray, what do you regard as their business?"

"Why, staying at home in their own sphere, and attending to their domestic concerns; taking care of their children, and keeping their husband's clothes mended."

I saw at once that the case was altogether too deep for me, and so I simply remarked:--

"Yes, to be sure, of course; and is it not strange, that they should not be willing to stay at home, and rock their babies, especially the seventy thousand in the state of Massachusetts who can never expect to have husbands?"

Cleaning watches is a business that should at once pass into the hands of women. The opinion that they have not the requisite mechanical capacity to take a watch to pieces and put it together again, is the opinion of a goose. They can do the work quicker and better than men. It is an employment that naturally belongs to them.

In the watch-making establishment at Waltham, several hundred bright, intelligent young women find employment and good pay.

"There is a manufactory in England, where five hundred women are employed in making the interior chains for chronometers. They are preferred to men on account of their being naturally more dexterous with their fingers, and, therefore, being found to require less training."

It may be said, in one word, that, taking the world together, there are many, many thousand women employed in manufacturing watches. They do every part of the work, except what is called finishing, or putting the pieces together, and in several establishments they do even this, and finish the very best class of chronometer watches.

The making of watch chains is a business adapted to the delicate fingers, and to the patience of women. Accordingly thousands are occupied in this specialty.

PENS.

The manufacturing of pens is an employment in which women can excel. It requires patience and quick movements of the fingers. A certain part of the manufacturing of gold pens, it has been objected, would be too dirty for women.

By the way, this very objection is made with reference to a great many employments. It is said, they are too dirty for women. Now, really, is not this a good joke? Why, there is not a dirty task in house-keeping,--and I certainly know of no occupation in which there are so many dirty tasks,--which is not done by women. If there is a dirty thing which men would not touch with the ends of their fingers, it is sure to be left to girls.

The making of gold and steel pens should fall into the hands of women. The making of gold pens is a profitable occupation, and, as at present tending, bids fair, when women are fairly introduced, to offer occupation for a great number of them.

AQUARIA MAKERS.