erth; each consecrated sister has a small apartment simply
furnished for her own use. The older probationers are divided two and
three in a room. Those who have recently entered are placed in two large
rooms, but here every one has her own four walls--even if they are only
made by linen curtains. When Elizabeth Fry first visited Kaiserswerth,
among the arrangements that she at once recognized and commended was
that by which each deaconess was given the privacy of her own apartment.
In the deaconess houses that are so rapidly springing up in different
parts of the United States this provision ought to be guarded with care,
for a life that is so constantly drawn out in ministrations to others
should have some moments of absolute privacy upon which no one can
intrude.

There are at present thirty-two deaconesses at the Philadelphia
Mother-house, twenty of whom are probationers. The house was admitted to
the Kaiserswerth Association, and will henceforth be represented at the
Conferences. The direction is vested in a rector and head deaconess,
neither of whom can be removed except on just cause of complaint. The
distinctive dress is black, with blue or white aprons, white caps and
collars. There is one addition to their garb which Fliedner would have
looked upon with disfavor, and that is a cross--worn by the sisters from
the time they are fully accepted as deaconesses.

The first consecration took place in the beautiful chapel of the Home,
January 13, 1889, when three deaconesses were accepted as members of the
order.

For those who desire to form a good conception of the deaconess
institutions as they are conducted in Germany, a visit to the
Philadelphia Mother-house of Deaconesses will be fruitful of valuable
suggestions.[79]

In July, 1887, a Swedish Lutheran pastor in Omaha sent a probationer to
Philadelphia to be trained as a sister for a deaconess house to be
established in that central city of the United States. In 1888 four
others joined her, and the building of a hospital and deaconess home is
now progressing by the generous support of all classes of
philanthropists in Omaha. A deaconess home has also recently been
founded by Norwegian Lutherans in South Brooklyn, L. I.

In the German Reformed Church a layman endeavored in 1866 to arouse
interest in the deaconess office. The Hon. J. Dixon Roman, of
Hagerstown, Md., at Christmas gave five thousand dollars to the
congregation, and with it sent a proposition to