TOO MUCH EDUCATION.

Press, Volume LIV, Issue 9814, 25 August 1897, Page 5

TOO MUCH EDUCATION.

French publicists are beginning to question the wisdom of drawing some thousands of youug females every year from rural and other industries, and qualifying them at a heavy cost to tho State to become teachers »nd governesses, and thus compete in a prop fession that is already overstocked, for a stipend very much below that which is paid toitgenoral servant. M. Maurice Talmeyr puts tlie matter very plainly in the Revue rf« deux Sondes, whore he asks, "Is it right to make teachers of tho women who are being bo prepared ? " Too often, he toys, a girl imagines that when onco she has succeeded in obtaining a diploma all her trembles are over ; but they are only just beginning. She has risen into a higher social grade, as she imagines, but very soon finds herself competing with hundreds for employment, so badly required that she , has to choose between a life of privation [ -"d a career of infamy. On a recent occasion, M. Talmeyr says, he was visiting a night refuge for women, in Paris, *hen he observed an applicant for admisnon, who asked to be allowed to sleep there l lor tin indefinite period, instead of the regiiUtion three nights. Home enquiries elicited the information that she was a governess, holding a diploma, and receiving » salary of £1 per month, which barely juniced to provide her with scanty food and ncr necessary clothing. The Director of the Reuigo ascertained that she was speaking the truth, and she found shelter there, *hich included a bed and a basin of soup •very night for six weeks. At the end of Uiat time a situation was found for her at *2 a month, together with board and •wljjiiig, and the poor creature wept for joy »t beiug able to earn almost as much by her "cqiiirciuents and special training as an ordinary housemaid does.

A MAC4NIIFICENT BOUQUET. Orchid lovers will be interested in the «et_ils of a marvellous bouquet presented to N>e Queen by permission at Buckingham ™l»ee at tlie dinner above referred to. fti rw\ et * ilB are 8- veu *-y the Globe. Over «J.OOO orchids were grouped together in its, some of the spikes being almost priceless, as the names, did our space per* ■"••of enumerating them, would convince ">e reader. The pure white spikes of the rnncess of Wales Odontoglossum were Prominent, and also the yellow and maroon wooma o. Lord Dalhousi'e's Dendrobe. And, «>«iow from what far away lands this S*M.y company of exquisite orchids were •n {.I 01 x' we n,av -nention the sprays from If-Jlointoiii, called " Flower of the •V *» ''tenoglottis from South Africa, the «oui ; nowered Dendrobe from Australasia *"fl * m Guinea, as well as specimens from w>e fcagt Indies and Guiana. These were "•oat gracefully arranged by the florists in *,8 Htw -cW-work basket in trefoil shapeX in» f Drancne « oi the handles form-' th! , a "°"-c with the Royal crown on "« top Beneath this the letters V.R.I. bE writ -en -n hundreds of the Mm-"? 8 °* tlle oran g e orchids, which were I-'" 8 . 1 . 88 . favourite. This unique and adbouquet stood eight feet high, and ■"Muted six feet in diameter.