een sheltered and taught
during the years it has been open. They readily secure situations, over
two thousand applications being annually received for the servants of
the Marthashof. They remain in friendly relation to the home, receive
good counsel and advice, and are encouraged to spend their free Sundays
there.

The Marthashof has had a beneficent influence over the moral and
spiritual welfare of servants throughout Germany. In nearly all the
cities similar homes are now established, while in the larger cities
Sunday associations are formed to provide suitable places of meeting for
the entertainment and instruction of those who are free Sunday
afternoons and evenings. So far as I am aware, no similar work has been
attempted for servant-girls in the United States. It is true that
training-schools exist, but not with religious supervision, and with the
moral and religious instruction of the inmates made a prominent feature.
The Marthashof offers us a lesson well worth our learning.

The deaconess house, "Bethanien," in Berlin, was founded by King
Frederick William IV., who as the Crown Prince took a warm interest in
Fliedner's undertakings.[44] It still remains under the protection of
the emperor, and is one of the most important mother-houses. Over three
thousand patients are annually admitted to the hospital connected with
the house, and five hundred children are treated at a dispensary devoted
solely to cases of diphtheria. Outside of the city it has thirty-three
stations. There are also the Lazarus Hospital and Deaconess Home, the
Paul Gerhardt Deaconess Home, provided for parish deaconesses, and the
Elizabeth Hospital and Home, which started independently but is now
allied to Kaiserswerth.

The deaconess house in Neudettelsau stands in closest union with the
Lutheran Church. The sisters are mostly from the higher ranks of
society, and intellectual training is made prominent. Certain liturgical
forms are used, and in the main deaconesses are employed in preparing
ecclesiastical vestments and embroideries for church adornment.

In marked contrast to Dettelsau is the deaconess house at Berne. It is
almost a private institution, having only slight connection with the
State Church. It owes its origin to Sophie Wurdemberger, a member of one
of the old patrician families of Berne. A visit to England made her
acquainted with Elizabeth Fry, with the usual beneficent result of
increased interest and activity in good wor