law enforcing on girls
attendance at the State continuation schools. The society was founded
to remedy some crying abuses amongst women employed in shops and
offices, a working day of seventeen hours, for instance, dismissal
without notice, no rest on Sundays, no summer holiday, and not only a
want of seats but an actual prohibition to sit down even when
unemployed. All these matters the society, which has become a powerful
one, has gradually set right. A ten-hours' day for grown-up women,
and eight hours for those under age, the provision of seats, an 8
o'clock closing rule, a month's notice on either side, some hours of
rest on Sunday, and a summer holiday are all secured to members of the
organisation. The system of "living in" does not obtain in Germany.
Shops may only open for five hours on Sundays now, and large numbers
do not open at all. They may only keep open after ten on twenty days
in the year. Other reforms the society hopes to bring about in time;
and meanwhile it occupies itself both in finding work for members who
are out of place, and in protecting those who are sick and destitute.

The ladies of Germany have taken to philanthropic work with
characteristic energy and thoroughness. There is one society in Berlin
that has 700 members, some of whom devote their whole time to their
poor neighbours. I am not going to give the name of the society; so I
may describe one of its secretaries, who personified the best modern
type of German woman. She was about 27, a dark-haired, slim,
serious-looking person with delicate Jewish features and beautiful
grey eyes; a girl belonging to the wealthy classes, and able if she
had chosen to lead a life of frivolity and pleasure. But she had
chosen instead to give herself to the sick, the afflicted, the needy,
and even to the sinning; for she was a moving spirit of the
organisation that dives down into the depths of the great city, and
rescues those who have gone under. Her society also does a great deal
for the children of the very poor, not only for babies in creches, but
for those who go to school. The members help these older ones with
their school work, and when the children are free teach them to wash,
cook, and sew, and to play open-air games. They teach the blind, they
look after the deserted families of men in prison, and the older
members act as guardians to illegitimate children; for in Germany
every illegitimate child must have a guardian, and women are now
all