Ways of Living.

Alexandra Herald and Central Otago Gazette, Issue 382, 3 September 1903, Page 7

Ways of Living.

WOMAN'S PART IN THE COMMEKCIAL ARTS. one woman was employed i Q what is termed commercial aJMaMg art 10 years ago, a dozen women now have place. Sjme hare learned the lithographer's trade. Others are designers in the bi? grocery houses, getting up the labels and catchy home scenes that enliven pickle jars and preserve holders. A number are busy in the big factories that supply the novelties found at stationers' counters. A good proportion of the clever hits mcde in illustrating the virtues of soap and of various house cleaning powders are due to women. In New York, Cincinnati, Chicago and other centres where big advertising agencies flourish, woman workers supply the ideal faces and subjects that are used for trade illustration. Few busy lithographic houses will take girl apprentices, but girls who have learned the trade outside are welcome to employment. Most women in the business have been taught singly by lithographers interested in them. They are all good work women. Those who are able to design as well as lithograph are especially useful. ' One New York woman owns and manages in persona lithographing and job printing business. She was an apprentice of the house years ago and made her way up from the ranks, says the * New York Sun.' She attends to most of the details of the business. In her opinion there is much less risk in a woman's hiring a housekeeper to attend to her home affairs and her children's wants out of school hours, than in employing a manager to look after the business. A woman is at tnehesdof tho ait department of a big preserving and pickling house. She gets up the labels and coins the names for the various new brands. She also devises the pictures and announcement placards sent out * to advertise the firm's exhibits, and is responsible for the general plan of the exhibition stands and decorations that are set up in the varisus cities. The proprietors of mineral water rights employ women in the display department of their different branches throughout the country to think up original ways of presenting the goods in attractive order. Many of the artists, working often against time, get their designs from historical or dramatic subjects. If the designs are apt and taking they are not expected to be original. But they must not be hackneyed. A successful woman aitiat draws up the advertisements for a biscuit factory. A western house, noted for rare conserves and luncheon accompaniment?, employs a woman to ornament the stone jara for its goodies. A'Chicago lithographing house, which helps numbers of merchants and manufacturers to celebrate the merits of their goods, owes considerable of its wit and mirth to a woman partner. Two sisters in a western city have made a reputation of their novel application of photography to commerce. Wherever trade advertisements are known these women have pushed their work. And the only criticism heard is that the wot k is almost better than is needed, A Massachusetts woman, an artist of ability, who seme years ago could not have believed it poesibie that she had any business instincts, is now turning cut pictures appropriate for business calendars, which are snapped np readily as bids for trade. A woman lithographer, who is likewise a botanist, works in the art department of an American scientific institute. She draws on stone the structural forms of plants and growths that are needed to illiutrate the research work in a herbarium. There are other artists employed in registering impoitant groups and classifications, but this woman is especially valued on account of her trained discrimination and accuracy.—Bostoa Herald.

LIVING IN A FLIT. Something must be said as to fires and food ia a fiat. First of all,—fires. There is nothing more disagreeable, in a small way, than to return home after a long fatiguing day and to find one's fire ' black out.' Unfortunately, in a flat, this is a very frequent occurrence. The woman who comes in for a few hours in the morning lights the firp, and then departs. It barns up cheerfully, but as there hj no one to replenish it during the owner's absence, it dies cu fc , and nothing is left but white. ashes, always a depressing sight. Some people seem to be born with : a genius for lighting fires. Alas! lam not one of those favoured individuals. After a lavish expenditure of paper, wood, and matches, my fires invariably go out, leaving nothing but blackened embers. After enduring this misery for some time, I found that tbere was a remedy. *. Why not get a gas firep' was a suggestion that deserved attention. Still I hesitated, for I knew that it was not nearly so pleasant as a coal-fire, though for the dweller in flats it is certainly convenient and cleanly, At last, in Bheer desperation, I give the order to lay down the pip;s. It cost five and twenty shillings to have this done, and, on the whole, I have never regretted the expenditure, as my gas-fire is a great ccmfort to me. It requires no attention, it can be turned on and off at pleasure, there is no waste of fuel while the flat is unoccupied, and no unsightly ashes in the sit by, but when the tap is fully turned on the heat radiates better over the room than with a coal-fire. The cost is comparatively trifling. For three winter months my gas bill was only £1 43, including hire of a gas-stove-Gas-fires seem to bo very generally adopted by those who live in flats, and I know the reason why. At the same time, in the bed-rooms it ia better to keep to coal fires. One does not want to meet the game fate as poor Moaeieur Zola. Tbe oppressive feeling which sometimes results from a gas-fire" may be greatly leesened by putting a vase of cold water inside the grate; the water absorbs any noxious vapours. With regard to food, it is very undesirable to keep meat or anything perishable in a flat longer than a day or two. I ficd that milk taken in in the morning becomes quite sour in four and twenty hours. Why this should be I do not know, but the fact is certain. Small quantities of butter, fish, meat, etc., should be bought at a time. Large joints are quite out of the question. A chicken is a good investment, as, after it is used, the bones make excellent soup, stewed down in a pint of milk with the additiou of some celery and an onion. It sounds shocking to speak onions, and yet, boiled in milk, they are most nourishing, and leave no unpleasant reminiscences. We may remember the old saying, ' And every cook is of opinion, No dish complete without an onion'.'

Fruit of all kinds, and especially apples, are a necessity to the dweller in Sate. A plate of fruit Bhould always be at hand. No cooking is requisite, and nothing is so, refreshing, so reviving, as frtsa fruit, which can now be got at all seasons of the year. People are beginnißg to recognise the virtues of fruit, though they may not bo rigid vegetarians. .