occupations are being suggested as suitable for women, and these will all help us in our difficulty, in time; but some are so novel that the public mind will not soon or quickly recognise them; and meanwhile more and more poor needlewomen will be starving.
On all sides there is a cry for "employment for women." The old and very comfortable and convenient doctrine that they are, and must be, and ought to be, supported by some male relative, is, or I should hope will be soon, exploded, because it is a wrong, cruel, and utterly false statement. Those who make it must be aware that there are thousands amongst the half million of women said to be in excess of the male population of England, who cannot, and never will, be supported by relations of any kind, and who have no earthly support to look to but that of their own clever brains, or stout and willing hands. I say it is a cruel statement for any one to make; cruel when said by men, who must wilfully shut their eyes and ears to the common facts of daily life around them, though they may be able of their abundant means of remunerative work or business to provide for those who make their homes blest and happy; still more cruel when asserted by women, who thus sheltered and caressed, with every luxury brought to their homes without thought or care on their part, express so selfish and thoughtless a theory about their less favoured sisters.
Now there is one calling and profession that is far from being over-stocked. It is a noble, honourable, and remunerative one,—one essentially belonging to women, and yet I believe it is little known or thought of by the class of persons who might fill it so advantageously. Nurses, good nurses, are wanted everywhere, in private families, in hospitals and institutions without number; everywhere physicians are saying, "Send us good nurses, instead of the drunken women who take the wine and nourishment we order for our patients;" but they are not to be had.
