>QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS.
Mother’s Help.—“I am twenty-six, and for the last six years have occupied, at a very small salary, a situation—or rather three situations—as mother’s help. I am heartily tired of being neither one thing nor another, and wish I knew some way of qualifying myself for some less wearing and more remunerative work. I have thought of entering the Norland Institute to be trained for a children’s nurse, but I fear I am not well enough educated. Typewriting I have also considered, as that would leave me the evenings free for study. I should be willing to spend a little time and money on some sort of training.—Perplexed.”
Our correspondent has come to a most sensible decision, and we wish that some of our readers could profit by her experience that such positions as those of mother’s help, useful companion, etc., are “neither one thing nor another.” “Perplexed” tells us in her letter, which we have not published in its entirety, that she understands the management of children, and can make their clothes well. Under these circumstances it seems to us that she hardly needs to undergo a full course of training to become a children’s nurse. But what she lacks at present is some knowledge of the treatment a baby requires, and some general experience of infantile ailments and their cure. As “Perplexed” lives in Scotland we would suggest that she should try to obtain by payment some short course of training in a hospital of a special character. The Glasgow Maternity Hospital, 37, North Portland Street, Glasgow, offers an arrangement which might suit the case. Pupils are received for a course of sixteen weeks for £13 13s. 6d. This pays all expenses except laundry and uniform. Possessed of such experience as this, and having been in attendance on children before, “Perplexed” ought to obtain some fairly well paid situation as children’s nurse to begin with, and could then avoid the disagreeableness of having to commence life again as an under-nurse. If Edinburgh suited “Perplexed” better, the Royal Maternity Hospital, 79, Lauriston Place, might advisably be selected. Here a course of three months’ training at a cost of £11 10s. may be entered upon on the first day of February, May, August or November in each year. Pupils have the advantage of attending lectures. Training in a children’s hospital would no doubt be preferable, because the patients would be children of all ages, but “Perplexed” could hardly enter any such institution for less than three years, and the number of applicants at these favourite hospitals is always very great. Typewriting we do not advise to “Perplexed” as it seems to us that she has many practical accomplishments which are in constant request among employers. She would therefore do better as a nurse or in some other capacity in a private household.
Photography.—1. “Do any well-known West End photographers take girls as articled pupils? About what premium do they require? I know very little about it, but I have had a camera for a year. I suppose it is a profession for girls which is not at present overcrowded.—2.Would it be wise for me to take a diploma at one of the Schools of Cookery? Would cookery or photography be the more expensive to learn, and which would pay best in the end? I like both photography and cooking, but prefer the former.—A would-be Photographer.”
1. Several firms, and notably those conducted by ladies, take girls as apprentices. A premium of not less than £30 is usually asked, and sometimes no payment is given for two years. In other cases, part of the premium is returnable in salary at an earlier date. Girls are usually employed as “spotters and finishers” of the prints, and earn in this manner from 10s. to £1 a week. An ambitious clever girl ought not, however, to be content to do this kind of work always, but should try to do the retouching of negatives, a business by which from £100 to £300 a year may be earned. We have found that there is a considerable demand also for girls who can paint magic lantern slides; and altogether there are many ways by which a girl who understands photography can earn a sufficient livelihood.
2. To take a diploma at a school of cookery would not occupy so long as learning photography nor would it be so expensive. The length of the course at the principal schools varies from six to fifteen months, ten months or a year being usual. The cost ranges from nine guineas, charged at Leicester, to thirty guineas, the full cost of the course at the National Training School of Cookery in London. The Liverpool and Manchester schools—both of which are excellent—charge twelve guineas for courses of nine and eight months respectively. Cookery teacherships are pretty well paid, the salaries varying from £50 to £80 per annum, but they are not easy to obtain. As daily cooks or cooks in private households, where ladies are employed, a woman with a knowledge of cookery can always do well. But to compare photography with cookery is almost impossible, and the desirability of one occupation or the other can best be determined by a girl’s own aptitude.