A German Institution for Young Women

Charles Dudley Warner, writing from Germany, tells an interesting story of the Die Vereins, a large establishment for young women, where they can board at low rates, or do work, while pursuing studies in art, etc. There is a bazaar attached, which is extensively patronized, where not only the productions of the young women are sold, but ladies, let us say, who have known better days and now execute needlework for bread which they once did for pledge, can send their articles there to be sold without publicity to themselves, and at much better pay than they would receive from the city shops.

In the kitchen department, the chief labor is done by persons who came up there to learn how to perform its duties. They usually pay a fee for tuition. Not only are meals served for the girls who lodge in the house, but any lady may go there and have breakfast, dinner or supper. One gets a very good dinner there, surprisingly cheap. Girls come to the kitchen to learn cooking as they go upstairs to learn dress-making and geography.

When we went into the kitchen, Charley [...] there were two or three pretty girls of the middle class, all betrothed, and expecting soon to enter into that holy state, the happiness of which is so often ruined by bad cooking. This is said to be the best institution of the kind in Germany; it is very successful and satisfactory in its results, but of course it is not entirely self-supporting.