the invalid. Instruction is given in the best practical methods of supplying fresh air, and of warming and ventilating the sick room. In order to remain through the two years' course and obtain a diploma, still more is required, viz: Exemplary deportment, patience, industry, and obedience. The first year's experience was far from satisfactory. Among seventy-three applicants, hailing from the various States, only twenty-nine were found that gave promise of ability to fill the conditions. Of these, ten were dismissed for various causes before the expiration of the first nine months.

The "Nurses' Home," the headquarters of the school, is No. 426 East Twenty-sixth street, a large and handsome building, erected for the purpose and given to the school by Mrs. W. H. Osborn. From the outside of this building the tastefully arranged curtains and polished panes of its several chambers present a striking contrast to the somber, frowning walls of the great charity hospital opposite. Besides studying from text-books, and attending a systematic course of lectures, the pupils are occupied by the care of the patients in the hospital, and in the general management of the wards. The nurses are taught how to make accurate observations and reports of symptoms for the physicians' use, such as state of pulse, temperature, appetite, intelligence, delirium or stupor, breathing, sleep, condition of wounds, effect of diet, medicine, or stimulant. The nurses are furnished with diplomas, signed by the managers and the examining board of the hospital, when they begin their several careers. Some are called to superintend State and city hospitals, a continually increasing num.

ber seek private practice, or rather are sought by it, while not a few devote themselves to the sick among

the poor.

The value of the service performed by these noble women can not be adequately estimated without visiting the tenement-house district wherein it is performed. They lodge in a house provided for the purpose by the Woman's Branch of the City Missions, by which they are supported, and are to New York what the "District Nurses" are to London. From early morning until evening they endure fatigue, heat, cold, and storm, in their efforts to relieve the distressed. Neither the gruff responses, nor the ingratitude of those for whom they toil, have, in a single known instance, forced them to cease their work. An equally zealous person, without the advantages of a nurse's training, would fail signally where she would succeed. For the mere attendance on the invalid is not the whole of the service performed by the visiting nurse. She sweeps and cleans the rooms, cooks the food, does the washing, if necessary, goes upon errands-in short, takes the place of the mother, if she be ill. All this has been learned at the training school. Neither illness nor death itself can appall her: she has served a long novitiate in nursing the one, and the other has long since lost its terrors.

In addition to this field in New York City and vicinity, there is an increasing demand throughout the country for experienced nurses to take charge of hospitals and schools. Graduates of the Bellevue school have been called to be superintendents of the nursing departments of the following institutions: Massachusetts Gen

eral Hospital; Boston City Hospital; New Haven City Hospital; New York Hospital; Mt. Sinai Hospital, New York City; Brooklyn City Hospital; Cook County Hospital, Chicago; St. Luke's Hospital, Denver; Charity Hospital, New Orleans, and the Minneapolis (Minn.) Hospital

During the nine years of the Bellevue Training School for Nurses existence, one hundred and forty-nine pupils have received diplomas, seventy-eight of whom are now practicing in New York City.

While Miss Nightingale's theories are the basis of the Training School, its managers have found it necessary to depart from the English system in some important particulars. For instance, Miss Nightingale regards it as indispensable that the superintendent and the nurses should live within the hospital. "Our experience is the reverse of this," say the committee. "American women, being of a sensitive, nervous organization, are at first depressed by the painful aspects of hospital life, and, when they become interested in the work, take it greatly to heart. Hence it is of importance to have a cheerful, comfortable home where they can each day throw off the cares of their profession." To the restfulness of the Home is attributed the exceptional health of the nurses, among whom but one death and very few dangerous illnesses have occurred since the opening of the school, almost ten years ago. Another necessity in an American training school is the abolition of caste. In England the "ward sister" (who has received thorough training) is expected to be a lady, superior in social position and intelligence to the nurses, who are drawn from the class of domestic servants. At

Bellevue, the preliminary examination, and the high standard subsequently exacted, exclude, and are meant to exclude them. But among those who enter there is no distinction. All submit to the same discipline and perform the same duties, none of which, being connected with the sick, is considered menial.

The above article has been carefully condensed from an exhaustive account of the system as practiced at Bellevue, which was published by the Century Magazine last year. Any one who has had experience with the despotic nurse of the past, the stupid, ignorant and opiniated woman who, in her superannuated days, goes out nursing, will bless the present innovation whereby a young, strong, educated woman is placed in charge of the sick patient. The new professional nurse is the doctor's second, and can determine in his absence what to do to save the life of a patient, and will not predict the death of a sick person if a dog chances to howl in the neighborhood. There could be no better profession for the development of all the finest and most womanly qualities, or one in which the laborer is more worthy of her hire.

CHAPTER XVIII.

Gardening.

T is a matter of surprise that so few American women attempt to earn a living in this way, and that a work that is both pleasant and profitable should be left almost entirely to

the foreign born population. Every housewife requires the change of occupation which a few hours of gardening every day in the summer would give her, and if she has no desire to make her work remunerative, she can add a greater beauty and sweetness to her own life and that of her family, by furnishing them with flowers which she raised with her own hands, or increase the attractions of her table by a variety of good, seasonable vegetables during the year. She will also improve her health by the amount of out-door air and exercise the work will require. Gardening is a delightful womanly occupation, cleanly and health-giving. In this country the soil is easily tilled, especially in prairie sections, where stones are so rare that a traveler, in recording their scarcity, said that when his dog saw one he stopped and barked at it. There are many