us system as in mature age comes from the sudden stroke of a
great affliction or terror. A bad nurse may affect nerves predisposed
to weakness in a manner they never will recover from. I solemnly
believe that the constitutions of more women are broken up by bad
nursing in their first confinement than by any other cause whatever.
And yet there are at the same time hundreds and thousands of women,
wanting the means of support, whose presence in a sick-room would be a
benediction. I do trust that Miss Blackwell's band of educated nurses
will not be long in coming, and that the number of such may increase
till they effect a complete revolution in this vocation. A class of
cultivated, well-trained, intelligent nurses would soon elevate the
employment of attending on the sick into the noble calling it ought to
be, and secure for it its appropriate rewards."

"There is another opening for woman," said I,--"in the world of
business. The system of commercial colleges now spreading over our
land is a new and most important development of our times. There that
large class of young men who have either no time or no inclination for
an extended classical education can learn what will fit them for that
active material life which in our broad country needs so many workers.
But the most pleasing feature of these institutions is, that the
complete course is open to women no less than to men, and women there
may acquire that knowledge of bookkeeping and accounts, and of the
forms and principles of business transactions, which will qualify them
for some of the lucrative situations hitherto monopolized by the other
sex. And the expenses of the course of instruction are so arranged as
to come within the scope of very moderate means. A fee of fifty
dollars entitles a woman to the benefit of the whole course, and she
has the privilege of attending at any hours that may suit her own
engagements and convenience."

"Then, again," said my wife, "there are the departments of millinery
and dressmaking, and the various branches of needlework, which afford
employment to thousands of women; there is typesetting, by which many
are beginning to get a living; there are the manufactures of cotton,
woolen, silk, and the numberless useful articles which employ female
hands in their fabrication,--all of them opening avenues by which,
with more or less success, a subsistence can be gained."

"Well, really," said Bob, "it would appear, after all, that there a