skill apart
from the training in housekeeping which all girls received.

It is safe to say that of those seven occupations, six at least were not
overcrowded. The work of the world was done in the homes and housekeeping
was the occupation of women. There were few spinning-mills, but the
old-fashioned wheel was in every house. It was not kept in a drawing-room
alcove to prove its long ancestry, but steadily, busily hummed all day
long as the soft rolls of wool changed into skeins and balls of yarn or
thread.

After the work of the spinning-wheel came the loom and the
knitting-needles. Cloth and stockings, blankets, mittens, and mufflers
were fashioned by the hands of the housewife and her daughters.

There were no factories for canned fruits, pickles, or preserves. All
these had to be made and stored up for winter use.

Now the stores furnish everything from a handkerchief to a ball-gown, and
from bread to canned roast beef. The washing and ironing can go to the
laundry and the family supplies can be bought.

THE RUSH INTO BUSINESS LIFE.

Since women had been working since work began, they could not consent to
remain at home idle. The result is seen in the rush of the modern woman
into business life.

The last census shows that in the United States women are following every
trade and profession except the army and the navy. Even the army has a
woman physician, Dr. Anita McGee, who wears a uniform. In Europe, the
uniformed woman is by no means a rarity. Almost every royal woman wears
military honors.

It will be remembered that Queen Victoria was carried to her grave on a
gun-carriage like an officer, because as Queen of England and Empress of
India she was head of the British army and of the greatest navy in the
world.

To have an occupation is almost as natural to the American girl of to-day
as to her brother. For a woman to go into business used to be like
climbing a mountain; now it is almost like going down a toboggan slide.
When she leaves school she expects to work.

Sometimes she finishes her education in a public school and goes into a
shop, factory, or mill. She may become one of the 75,000 milliners, the
100,000 saleswomen, the 120,000 cotton workers, the 275,000 laundresses,
or the 340,000 dressmakers.

If she can stay longer in school, she may become one of the 320,000 school
teachers. Or she may go to a college, which sternly closed its doors in
the face of her grandmother, and carry off the