204 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



birds, are provided with an oily gland; with this, 

 their scales are anointed with a substance which 

 protects them from the relaxing effects of the wa- 

 ter. But what is most surprising is, that this 

 gland is placed on the head, in such a manner that 

 the simple act of swimming causes the oil to slide 

 over their bodies, and covers them completely. 

 Without this admirable position, this gland would 

 have been useless, as fishes have neither hands nor 

 feet to anoint themselves with this foil. — English 

 paper. 



SCHOOL OF DESIGN FOR WOMEN. 



He is but a poor observer of New England soci- 

 ety, who has not become satisfied that the true 

 idea of Republicanism is yet but half wrought 

 out among us. Man has gained by putting off the 

 empty forms of monarchy and aristocracy — gained 

 in strength and manliness by the adoption of a 

 form of government, which makes possible for him 

 the highest places of honor and authority in the 

 State — gained by fleeing from the odious and unjust 

 preferences of the laws of entails and primogeni- 

 ture. He has in the pursuits of politics, in the 

 constant changes and easy acquisition of property, 

 in the primeval forests of the West, in the mines 

 of California, incitements to vigorous life, both 

 mental and physical, never known to men of the 

 old world. He is a freer, more fully developed, 

 and should be, a better and happier man. But 

 what has loonian gained, by exchanging the old 

 for the new world 1 In the mother country, a 

 woman maybe, and now is a queen, and many wo 

 men hold rank and title in their own right. In Amer- 

 ica, royalty and rank and title do not exist. What 

 has she gained? A better husband, it may be, 

 and as a wife, in consequence, a better home and 

 a higher and happier life. This might be, and 

 would seem to follow, almost of course, did we 

 not, every day, see how the very principles of 

 equalit} 7 , improving our general style of living, and 

 increasing the labors of our households, at the 

 same time are doing away servitude and servants, 

 and bringing upon the wives and daughters, even 

 of men of competent estate, additional burdens. 



But of this we intend not now to speak. There 

 are, and always must be, among us, Avomen for 

 whom no adequate support is provided by others; 

 maidens young, and more advanced, who are look- 

 ing fearfully into the future, or at the present, for 

 an honorable means of an independent subsistence ; 

 wives who would gladly relieve their husbands, 

 struggling with ill health or misfortune, of their 

 support; widows with no help this side Heaven, 

 dependent on their own efforts for bread for them- 

 selves and their little ones. Indeed, in the pecu- 

 liar vicissitudes of American life, no woman can 

 feel sure that she may not, at some time, be 

 thrown upon her own resources for support, and 

 no father can look upon the innocent face of his 

 ittle daughter at his knee, without a shudder at 



the dreadful alternatives presented to helpless wo- 

 man, exposed at once to want and temptation. 



A few positions, it is true, are already open, by 

 which women may gain for themselves a support, 

 but these are entirely inadequate to furnish re- 

 spectable employment even to the few who are fit- 

 ted to occupy them. In this view alone, had it no 

 other aim or effect, we should regard an institution 

 of the character named at the head of this article 

 as a noble and benevolent scheme. Such an insti- 

 tution is now open in Boston, in Thorndike's Build- 

 ings, in Summer Street. It is known as "The New 

 England School of Design for Women." Its ob- 

 jects are stated to be, "1. To educate a body of 

 professed designers, capable of furnishing original 

 designs for manufactures and other purposes,where 

 ornamental designs are required. 2. To teach 

 the various processes of Engraving, Lithography, 

 and other methods of transferring and multiplying 

 designs. 3. To educate a class of teachers in 

 drawing and design." 



We have recently had the pleasure of a visit to 

 the school, which has now been in operation 

 about six months. We found a pleasant, and ap- 

 parently happy assemblage of about eighty pupils , 

 none of whom are allowed to be under fifteen years 

 of age, or compelled to be of any particular age 

 above that, no outside limit being fixed by their 

 regulations. Specimens of their drawings, which 

 we were allowed to examine, indicated so remark- 

 able a proficiency for the time during which the 

 school has been taught, that we could not help 

 suspecting, that the fair hands of the artists had 

 been somewhat used to the pencil at an earlier 

 date. 



The "designs for manufactures" referred to 

 above, will include designs for paper-hangings, 

 carpets, calicos, and the like. The combination of 

 colors, as well as forms, is to make part of the 

 more advanced course. 



Most of the designs for all our fabrics of the de- 

 scriptions named are now furnished from Europe, 

 and from the uncouth, unintelligible figures which 

 haunt our vision on the walls and floors of our 

 dwellings, as well as on the shawls and dresses 

 of the ladies, one would infer that the aristoc- 

 racy of taste had not been selected in the old 

 country to preside over the labors of the designers. 

 It frequently requires a violent exercise of the 

 Avits of a paper-hanger to discern ichich side up a 

 figure looks best, and carpet-makers often are ex- 

 ceeding puzzled to ascertain what part of a breadth 

 of carpeting matches its neighbor breadth. Many 

 a nervous invalid has had his illness protracted for 

 weeks by the agony he has endured in endeavor- 

 ing to comprehend the meaning of the vague, 

 wandering forms Avhich adorn the (papered) walls 

 of his chamber. Many a child has doubtless been 

 frightened out of half his Avits by the accidental 

 diabolic faces which peer out from the paper-hang- 



