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common-sense.

DISTRESSED GENTLEWOMEN.

up ignorant of that tonic element in all education- |
self-denial. The present hour was, in many cases,
solely regarded, and that wise provision for the future,
which is a different thing from anxious care and divid-
ing of the heart concerning it, has been disregarded.
From the class of the artisan upward, we find this
Whatever the in-
improvidence almost universal.
come, men live up to it; often, a little beyond it.
And frequently the chief fault in this lies with the
wife and daughters. A certain fidgety sensitiveness
about the world's verdict overrides prudence and
Mrs. Look-about must have this and
that luxury which she detects in the establishment of
Mrs. Well-to-do. Mrs. Nicely-off must keep pace,
in dress, in company, in equipments of table and
household, with Mrs. Heavy-balance. The husband,
grumbling at first, and "not seeing the necessity,"
acquiesces at last, and, by degrees, gets sucked into
the current. The condition of things becomes that
in which expenses gradually a little overlap means;
on a sudden the bread-winner dies-and behold, the
plunge has to be taken by the daughters of the
house into the ranks of "distressed gentlewomen,"
seeking, in an already overstocked market, for em-
ployment that may sustain themselves, and, perhaps,
the mother in her small home; feeling, all the more
keenly for their indulged bringing-up, the cold
plunge into the winter-mercies of a self-absorbed
world.

Acknowledging a grave fault as being in some degree at the root of this over-supply of the class of gentlewomen in search of maintenance, we will say, however, that the fault is one which lies at the doors of those who should have exercised self-denial in order to provide for their children, and have educated their children in habits of frugality rather than of indulgence; and that the poor girls themselves, so suddenly thrown upon the cold mercies of the world, are often more sinned against than sinning.

How nurture, that, in their position in life, they may be "respected like the lave." How can he store? can he put by some £60 per annum in insurance, to obtain, after all, but a poor £100 a year, among all, As a first conif he dies? He does die; let us take that case. sequence, his daughters are homeless. The Rectory, which has been "Home" to them for many years, must pass away to strangers now. Very soon, the bitterness has to be tasted, of strange faces passing At last the question as to from room to room of the Rectory, of a strange clergyman surveying the Church. the successor is settled; and soon the time comes for that sad sitting, clad in black, in one of the hollowsounding, empty, carpetless rooms,-the last evening at the old Home. I have in my mind's eye a picture, at a recent Royal Academy Exhibition, representing this sad episode. Wistfully the clustered mourners, in sombre garb, watch from the window the sun set behind the dear old church-spire; sadly do they pace once more the old garden walks and the smooth familiar lawn; next morning with heavy hearts they leave the old Home, that seems, as it never had seemed before, a little Paradise; and set out,whither?

"The world is all before them, where to choose." Yes, and meanwhile they will find an asylum with an aunt, or with a married sister, unable to support them, but able for a while to give them shelter, while they--what else to do?-advertise for a situation as governess. Oh, forlorn advertising, forlorn answering of advertisements; oh, tears at parting, as they are scattered hither and thither; oh, heavy forebodings as to the experiences of governess-life; oh, chill smiting to the heart as the timid spirit, inexperienced and dismayed at life, meets with-not to "Miss Prim" feel her position, speak now of a coarse, vulgar, shoppy treatment, and a delight in making "Miss Prim though these things are-meets, at any rate, with a And how hard is often their case! So inex-matter-of-fact treatment, an unsympathetic taking perienced, so delicately reared, so petted and made much of at home; poor little birds turned out of the warm aviary, to huddle upon winter branches! It is not, let me say here, an ideal case that I am contemplating, but a real, and, oh, such a common, Not always had it been possible for the poor hardworking parent-bird to make a provision for the future for the little nestful that at least knew no want, when there was the warm home-nest for them, and the father busy and able to find food day by day.

case.

Take the case-a very common one-of the Rector of a parish such as many parishes are in England. He has from his Rectory some £200 a year and his house; from all sources, it may be (for we will not take an extreme case), £300 or £400 a year. Year after year brings its expenses in early married life; he willingly sets by a portion of his his position as income for the demands made upon rector, and those, still more numerous, made upon his benevolence as, passing from house to house, he comes constantly face to face with want and sorrow unknown and unsuspected by those who do but reside in the parish, and have only to deal with their own circle of dependents, and with reported want; whereas all in the parish who need are, in a measure, his family, and their want a thing beheld by his own eyes. Later on, his boys have, at a hard pinch, to be educated; his girls must have a governess, and he must do what he can to give them gentle

as a matter of course the new position at which the young sensitive heart is so much perturbed. Oh, tears on the pillow at night; oh, unregarded, often unsuspected, aching at heart! Oh, anomalous position, a lady, once as an equal, but now on sufferance, among other ladies in the drawing-room in the evenings; lonely among a merry home-party; yet not feeling at liberty to shrink quite into herself, and remain in the schoolroom alone with old memories and with letter-writing which must not selfishly express the blankness of her life to the home ones. Home ones! Where is her home? Alas! she has c home!

And, as it has been hinted, there are harder cases than such as this. The refined and educated girl in the family of the coarse and vulgar employer; treated with effrontery and made to endure many a sharp pang from the unkindness and insolence of children who take their cue from the behaviour of the parent; how the heart aches and throbs,-sometimes rebels. Yet it is her bread, and she dare not quarrel with it. I have in my memory a picture painted, I think, by Miss Osborn,-a young girl in black for her recent loss; an unruly boy flung down in tears on his mother's lap; two girls loud-voiced in accusation of "governess," well-prompted to their part by the the coarse upbraiding of the vulgar fat citizen's wife, who takes pleasure in showing the quiet sorrowful "lady" her place. Hardly an exaggeration for too many cases.

But did those who felt an indignation at seeing this picture, or who have read with deep interest the stories, with the favourite heroine of an ill-used governess-did they take home to their own hearts a lesson which might have been suitable for their own case?

"Evil is wrought by want of thought

As well as want of heart."

And, without overstepping a necessary restraint, are you, in whose family a lady has been received, and trusted (think!) with the education of your children, are you treating her with that consideration, showing to her that sympathy, which you would desire that, were you snatched away from your post of protector of your own dear maidens, they should receive from those upon whose kindliness they were

cast?

In many cases thoughtlessness, rather than intentional unkindness or real meanness, is the worm at the root of this treatment of those ladies whose position should surely demand our earnest sympathy, whose labour should receive our gratitude.

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I spoke of meanness. I was thinking of a letter which, some time ago, appeared in the "Times," with the title "Distressed Gentlewomen." It pointed out some cases of this kind. The writer points out a hardship which presses upon governesses, but which no one would dare to impose upon a servant. After speaking of the difficulty of finding situations at all in a labour-market which is overstocked, and of the miserable pittances offered (as £14 to a lady who would take entire charge of and educate three children), he goes on to say:

"If a governess is able to save a few pounds, how often is the slender store diminished by the necessity of maintaining herself during the holidays!" To her "the announcement of six weeks' holiday often means so much loss of maintenance, and consequent care and anxiety. Servants are put on board wages as a matter of course while the family are out of town, but the governess is turned adrift without any inquiry as to her means of support. Would not," asks the writer, "an additional ten shillings per week be a mere trifle in the holiday expenses of many a family?" But it is no trifle to the governess with her small pittance, out of which economists also expect her to save for her old age or for possible collapse of health.

delicate nicety about the adjustment of these relations, which two ladies will easily hit. But you have not always two ladies to adjust this. Mutual consideration, however, and kindly feeling will do much. And we are writing now more that kindly hearts may feel, than even that shabby hearts may be ashamed. There is too much to say upon the whole subject of the employment of distressed gentlewomen in a short essay. We can only touch lightly on the important question, "Is it true that the work of governess, or companion, is the only profession. open to a lady'?"

Has, for instance, emigration been enough considered? There are many openings there; and our halfmillion of surplus women (if I may say such a thing, ignoring politeness for statistics) are sorely needed there, if for nothing else, as presidents of many a homestead which needs the gentle control of woman to become a "Home."

But a suggestion worth careful attention was put forth by a lady school manager in the columns of the "Times." It was this-whether ladies might not consider seriously if there be not an opening, in many eligible ways for them, in the always large demand for elementary schoolmistresses in national schools. I know that, at first sight (and in some measure really), this does involve a descent in position. Still a lady born and bred is a lady in whatsoever position, and by those worth regard would be recognised as such. And the clergyman of the parish, if he had secured the great advantage of a lady's superintendence over the education of the parish, easily could, and generally would, secure a proper position in it for a lady.

She could not expect, nor probably wish, to be received into society upon a footing of familiar equality; but then, no more is the governess thus admitted. And certain great advantages are pointed out over the condition of the ordinary governess. The lady manager states, and it is a fact, that schoolmistresses usually marry, governesses seldom; and this inducement may weigh, very properly, with some. Then in this branch of work the supply seems to be below the demand; hence it is to the interest of school managers to make the post attractive. As for salary, cases of £120 per annum being offered in vain for a mistress are brought forward, and commonly from £80 to £100, perhaps, might be had; out of this, however, we must remember, board has to be provided. Then there are certain definite holidays which may be counted upon; and for two very important items of advantage, the hours of work, and the independence, I cannot do better than quote the lady manager's own words:

What we want is, I repeat, more thoughtfulness in this matter. It cannot be right to judge this matter by the rigorous law of supply and demand, rather than by the grave and responsible duties which we ask a lady to undertake, and so to offer to an educated and refined girl less remuneration than is common for a skilled cook or lady's maid. Chris-tage over all other professions-the Saturday halftianity has a standard of the just and right, which is quite independent of that which is the rule of traffic and trade.

Kindliness, sympathy, not obtruded, but felt-these are wanted. A certain barrier there had better be, where one has to direct and the other to obey; a sort of instinct on either side. For it would be a mistake to establish relations which would ronder direction, and even reproof, we must say (for not all governesses are perfect, and sometimes the treatment of which we complain is in great measure the result of their own fault, want of delicacy and of tact, etc.)— to establish, I say, relations rendering these very difficult and almost impossible. There is, in short, a

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"Hours of Work.-There is one obvious advan

holiday. Elementary school teaching is the only employment where six days' pay is given for five days' work. School hours are from nine to twelve, and from two to half-past four, except in mid-winter, when school closes at four. The afternoon work is easy, for it is chiefly needlework, and the teacher sits down quietly, fixing and arranging it. From twelve till one she teaches the two pupil-teachers, but this is merely like a quiet private lesson. This is all, except that for a week before the inspector's annual visit she has extra work in the evening, making up the school registers, etc., and that occasionally for a few weeks before his arrival she gives an additional half hour in the afternoon to the girls of the fifth and

sixth standards in the extra subjects, history and geography.

"Independence.-I have placed this last, because here lies the greatest advantage over a governess's life. As long as a teacher conducts herself quietly and properly she is completely her own mistress, no managers ever interfere, nor indeed inquire, as to how she spends her time after school hours are over. Contrast this freedom with the position of a private governess, whose pupils sometimes scarcely leave her day or night, and who is under somebody's orders all day and every day of the week. Our schoolmistress has many friends in the neighbourhood, and often goes out on a visit after Friday's school, returning before nine on Monday morning. She has no Sunday work whatever.

"Should any young lady who reads this think seriously of entering this profession, she must remember that the work, though humble, is thorough. She must know perfectly all she professes to teach, and good training for a few months at a normal college is indispensable in order to obtain a certificate. But the training is short and exceedingly inexpensive. Any energetic young woman with even moderate abilities would soon fit herself for the post."

There is yet one word to be said, and a most important word, concerning the case of "daily, necessitous, and unemployed governesses." Few care to inquire into the suffering-leading, in some cases, to ruin— endured by these, especially by the poor girl unaccustomed to battle for herself with the hard and crafty world, unable, it may be, for a long time to obtain employment, and thrown merely upon her own resources-poor child!

For such the "Home for Daily, Necessitous, and Unemployed Governesses" provides "a free residence

for one month (the time to be prolonged at the discretion of the superintendent) to ladies who, through continued want of employment, or sickness, are literally-(think of it!)—without means and without a home."

There is much kindliness and philanthropy in our day; but, after all, can all that is done be considered, if we take England as a whole, much more than the crumbs shaken from the table of its luxury and wealth and self-indulgence? Again and again be it urged that systematic, not spasmodic, giving is needed to stem the tide effectually of woe and of crime which flows on, flows ever, with gathering volume under the surface of society. Selfishness is, in truth, creeping like a blight more and more over the Christianity of our mercantile and prosperous land. Selfishness must lead to heartlessness by degrees: we shut our eyes and walk on, or turn the head as we cross to the other side, leaving many a neighbour lying half-dead with wounds of sorrow and of sin. And many are careless, and need the revelations which, in Hood's poem, so shocked the dreaming lady:

:

"From grief exempt, I never had dreamt Of such a world of Woe!

Of the hearts that daily break,

Of the tears that hourly fall,
Of the many, many troubles of life,
That grieve this earthly ball.
"The wounds I might have healed!

The human sorrow and smart!
And yet it never was in my soul
To play so ill a part;

But evil is wrought by want of thought As well as want of heart!"

LUTHER AS HYMNWRITER AND MUSICAL COMPOSER.

BY THE REV. DR. EDERSHEIM.

IT T was Christmas in the year 1530, and the crowded little University town of Wittemberg presented a more than usually gay appearance. The great and dreaded danger had passed away, and the cause of Protestantism, though formally condemned by the Emperor, had in reality made considerable advance. In spring and early summer the Imperial Diet had been held in the city of Augsburg. There the Protestants had presented their Confession. Politicians had apprehended the consequences to princes and states, which the temper of the Emperor and his close alliance with the Pope seemed to render only too imminent. Luther, whom his sovereign had left behind in the castle at Coburg, had feared the intrigues of the P'apists and the too yielding disposition of Melanchthon. But it had all passed away like a thunderstorm, which leaves the air the more fresh and pure. What mattered it that Emperor and Diet condemned the Protestant doctrines in words? They had nevertheless prevailed in deed. Their Confession, for the first time freely and fully spoken, was now published over the length and breadth of the empire, and translated into all languages. It had, indeed, proved unanswerable; and even the most bigoted Roman Catholic saw and admitted the need of some reformation. Best of all, the glorious

And so

doctrine of the free forgiveness of sins, as based on the Word of God, had been put in the foreground, and that in the face of all the world. Luther and his fellow-workers thanked God and took courage.

Christmas was always a gladsome season to Luther. To his childlike faith this child-doctrine of the Son of God, born a helpless babe and laid in the manger of Bethlehem, was subject of the most intense joy and thanksgiving. And now at this Christmas, 1530, he had gathered around him not only his own family and the students who always dined at his table, but other friends also, and most notable among them Walther, the chapel-master of his sovereign, who, a few years before, had assisted him in the musical arrangement of the Church-service, henceforth to be celebrated not in Latin but in German-the so-called "German Mass." At that time Walther had lived for several weeks in Luther's house. How he had learned to love and honour him appears from a letter, written nearly forty years. later, in which he speaks of "that holy man of God, the prophet and apostle of the German nation,' who so loved "the noble art of music," "with whom I have sung many a precious hour, and often saw how the singing made the dear man so happy and

joyous in spirit, that he could not weary, nor, indeed, | splendour, and the gifts to young and old had been ave enough of it, and knew to speak so nobly about distributed, when the best of them was at last music." This musician, as enthusiastic as himself, brought out. Dr. Martin Luther retired to his

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language can scarcely be translated, though most readers may know it in the version of Miss Winkworth, which we slightly alter:-"

From heaven high to earth I come,
Glad tidings bear to every home;
Great store of joyous news I bring,

Of these I now will speak and sing.

The choir was all ready, for, as one of those young men who always dined at Luther's table writes, after supper it was their wont to have music, sometimes secular, but in general religious, and especially "on Christmas Eve Luther was very joyous, and all his speech, his singing, and his thoughts were of the Incarnation of Christ, our Saviour." So the score was easily arranged among the different voices, and Germany's Christmas Hymn was for the first time sung around Luther's table. But Walther had also prepared a gift and surprise of his own. He now produced a book, splendidly bound for those times, on which were emblazoned the portraits of Luther and Melanchthon. It contained a beautiful copy not only of Luther's own hymns and compositions, but of all those which they two had in conimon hitherto prepared and sanctioned for use in the German churches. Among others it also had the words and music of that greatest of all uninspired compositions, if, indeed, we may so call what is only a New Testament paraphrase of Ps. xlvi.-" Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott."

A sure stronghold our God is He,
A trusty shield and weapon;
Our help He'll be and set us free

From every ill can happen."

And now in the year 1870 has been brought to light again this identical Christmas gift of Walther to Luther, bearing this inscription in Luther's own handwriting:

"Presented to me by my good friend
Mr. Johann Walther,
Composer of Music

at Torgau, 1580,

To whom God grant grace.

Martinus Luther."

It consists of a Ms. volume in 271 pages square octavo (one page being wanting), and contains 146 tunes, of which several are adapted to the same hymns. The composers are, besides Luther and Walther, those best known at the period, especially L. Senf, whose music Luther liked so much. The score is in various handwritings, chiefly that of Walther himself. By a clerical error the little word "nicht" (not) is left out in line 3 of stanza 3 of the "Ein feste Burg." The book is in excellent preservation, though bearing marks of frequent use, and the portraits of Luther and Melanchthon on the cover are still quite distinct. The story of the MS. is curious. Till the year 1830 it continued in the possession of Luther's family, whence it passed into

*This is not the place to criticise a book so well known and valued as the " Lyra Germanica," though alike its diction and at times its rendering are open to improvement. In the present instance Miss Winkworth wrongly dates the Christmas Hymn 1540 instead of 1530. actually appeared in print in the hymn-book of 1535.

It

+ From its terse fulness this hymn is perhaps one of the most difficult to translate Still, Miss Winkworth's rendering leaves a good deal to be desired,

that of a student of theology at Leipzig, from whose heirs it was bought for publication by the firm of Klemm at Dresden. Its authenticity and genuineness are universally admitted. The most interesting relic in it is that grandest of all Luther's hymns, Ein feste Burg, of which we have reproduced on the preceding page a facsimile in Walther's handwriting, and with Luther's own signature.

on the

This hymn, it is well known, has been the great watchword and battle-song of persecuted Protestantism ever since its composition. A hundred years later, when on that grey, misty November morning the lionhearted Gustavus Adolphus marshalled his soldiers against Wallenstein bloody, decisive battle-field of Lützen, which he was presently to water with his own life, the trumpeters blew this Luther-hymn as their battle-song, ere the Protestants advanced to the watchword, "God with us!" Yet a strange uncertainty hangs over the exact date of its composition. Some ascribe it to as early a time as 1518. The question is deeply interesting, not so much from an antiquarian point of view, but because it gives an insight into the history of all these compositions. For just as the Psalms of David were mostly the expression of his own experience, so the hymns of Luther generally mark each a distinct period in his spiritual history. Assuredly, Luther, as every true man of God and every true poet, sang because he could not help it, only that in his case it was not merely joy, but chiefly sorrow, want, and care, or rather the triumph of faith over these, which tuned his song. To use his own expression, it was "to spite the devil" that he often struck up a psalm, for "our singing angers the devil and hurts him very sore," wherefore "bad and sad thoughts suits nothing better than a good and joyous song." To begin with, this Ein feste Burg, then, must date from some critical epoch in his life, when the word of God was specially threatened. The lines,

"And were the world with devils fill'd

All eager to devour us,

Our souls to fear should little yield,
They cannot overpower us,"

remind us so strongly of the fearless determination of Luther on first going to bear testimony before Diet and Emperor though every slate on the roofs of Worms were a devil, that popular opinion has put down the Diet of Worms, or the year 1521, as the time of its composition. But this is most unlikely, from its non-appearance in the hymn-book of 1524. It cannot date from the Diet of Augsburg in 1530, because it is found in the hymn-book of 1529. The only other two events with which we can connect it are the Diet of Spires in 1829, where the Protestants obtained their peculiar name from the protest they handed in, or else the martyrdom of L. Kaiser in 1527. The arguments for the latter date are of overwhelming force. Kaiser was one of the canonvicars near Ulm in Bavaria, and a dear friend of Luther's. Persecution had resulted at first in his partial recantation. After that he had gone to Wittemberg, whence he returned to his home to attend the dying bed of his father. No sooner was his bishop informed of it than he imprisoned him, and Kaiser was publicly burnt on the 16th August, 1527. The event made the very deepest impression on Luther. He had written to comfort and strengthen him in his prison, and, through his sovereign, done all

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