ung
beside the sugar and spice table; and beside it was a glass cupboard,
containing phials showing the analysis of every article of food. One
small table was devoted to good and bad samples of household food
supplies, the samples being in cubical boxes about an inch and a half
each way, set into a large box with compartments, the whole so
arranged as to show easily the qualities to be desired and those not
to be desired by the purchaser. The book-keeper had her desk and
account-books, where the amount of every article purchased and its
cost were duly entered.
The superintendent of the kitchen, with fine and ladylike courtesy,
showed us her book of written questions, which those under her charge
were required to be able to answer both from a scientific and a
practical standpoint.
One department of this domestic school is the supervision of a
milk-route. The children of Berlin, like those of all large cities,
especially among the poor, suffer for want of milk, or of that which
is good. Here the milk of two or three large dairies in the country is
bought by the Kindergarten committee. It costs them, by wholesale,
much less than people in the city pay for poor milk. This good milk
is supplied at a low price by an attendant, who is directed to carry
the milk into the dwelling, instead of requiring the poor mother to
leave her children and go to the wagon for it, as is the general
custom.
In the sewing-room mending and darning alternate, on certain days,
with the cutting and making of plain garments. This department
supplements the teaching of sewing in the public schools by
instruction in only the higher kinds of plain sewing, and the surgery
required to make "old clothes almost as good as new."
Every part of the duty and work of an ordinary nurse is taught, like
all the other departments, with the utmost faithfulness and
excellence; and this department was supported by the Crown Princess.
As we passed from the bathing-department, we met a sweet-faced nurse
going out, who immediately returned with us, throwing off her alpaca
duster, and showing, unasked, her private rooms to the unexpected
American visitors with the greatest cordiality and the most ladylike
grace. Refinement and perfect order characterized the rooms. There
were closets with shelves filled with bed-linen and undergarments for
the sick in every size. This bedding and clothing is loaned to the
sick poor without charge, on the sole condition that they
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