Ormond Street by a Lady Resident, who
ministers, we are quite sure, in no slight
degree to the happiness of those with whom
she lives, and whose domestic interests she
represents. Nothing is farther from the
thoughts of this lady and the originators of the
home than to assume any undue authority over
its inmates. They have proved their friendship
to the day-workers, and ask to be received as
friends. They place instruction in French
and other useful things within reach of those
members of the Ormond Street household
who care to have them, they bear the risk
of any money loss through incomplete fulfilment
of their good intentions. From the
Queen downwards we all need in some ways
and at some times help to the attainment of
our wants, and they who help us the most
kindly and most wisely, become reckoned
naturally as our friends, such friends as we
are proud to have and to acknowledge.

If anybody were to take a house in Portman
Square, furnish it luxuriously with
carpets, mirrors, couches, pictures, statues,
provide an array of cooks and footmen satisfied
beforehand on the score of wages, put in
the stables carriage-horses and a carriage,
order butcher, baker, poulterer, fishmonger,
fruiterer, &c., to leave at the door daily the
best provisions, with receipted bills, and
were to say that any milliner's day-worker
might have that house and its comforts, and
live in it as an independent lady, for the sole
consideration of a payment of two shillings
a week, where is the girl who would not
look upon this as the best lodging in the
market, and be anxious to strike the easy
bargain? If a tradesman really were to sell
his goods at one half the cost price, he might
be unwise in his way of selling, but it would
be simply natural in customers to buy. A
bargain is a bargain, they would say. If the
house in Great Ormond Street should not be
adequately filled the ladies who are responsible
for its rent will be losers of money, but
for such risk or loss the girls who have
occupied part of the house, and paid what
was asked of them, are the last persons to be
thought or to think themselves responsible.
They purchased wisely the best lodging that
was offered to them for the money they could
spare, paid what was asked, and had nothing
to forfeit in so doing. That is the worldly
way of looking at the matter.

Upon looking further at it, worldly interest
and honest feeling both give the same
counsel. If the contract by which we are
benefiting should continue to be burdensome
to one of the contracting parties, it is not
likely to last for ever. I wish it, says worldly
interest, to last for ever; so do I, adds good
feeling, and I do not wish it to be burdensome
to those who meant us friendship when
they became parties to the contract. Upon
our prompting, therefore, cry both interest
and feeling, let the girls say, " When enough
of us have come together, we can pay our
way and hold the ample roof above our
heads by the points of our own needles.
Together let us come then. The healthy
shoot having been planted and watered, let
it strike root and grow into a tree by its own
innate vigour."

There is left only one view of the case to
which we desire to direct attention. Except
in close and dingy places we do not know
where else than in Great Ormond Street a
house good enough at a price low enough for
the particular purpose we have been discussing
could be found. Great Ormond Street
is in a central position between the West End
of London and the City; it is within reach,
therefore, of girls attached to establishments
in either of those regions, but it forces upon
either the advantage of a slight walk to and
from business. As day-workers with the
pen we ourselves can in this respect have
perfect sympathy with those who sit all day
over the needle. An inevitable half-hour's
walk morning and evening, however irksome
it may now and then appear, is one of the
best means of preserving a fresh cheek and
healthy stomach.

It is worth adding that employers from
some of the best West End houses have already
learnt to apply at the home for any workers
who may happen to be disengaged, and have
had occasion to remark upon the more than
usually healthy look of those who live there.

PERFUMES.

HAVE any of the uninitiated ever had an
idea how perfumes were obtained from
flowers? It is to many a mystery, an occult
art, a pretty kind of alchemy, a mild
witchcraft. There is a rough notion of
machines, like miniature wine-presses, where the
flowers were squeezed, and bruised, and
mangled, and made to give up their perfumes
in a rude masterful manner; though it is
puzzling to think how mignonette, or sweet
pea, or any other flower which lost its odour
when crushed or dead, could be treated thus
to any advantage. The mystery, however,
is now cleared up. Mr. Septimus Piesse,
analytical chemist, has written a book treating
of perfumes, their modes of preparation
and their manner of combination; and
whoever reads it may emerge from ignorance
respecting perfumery. It is an old subject.
Apollonius, of Herophila, wrote a treatise
on perfume:— " The iris," he says, " is best
at Elis, and at Cyzicus; perfume from roses
is most excellent at Phasalis, Naples, and
Capua; that made from crocuses is in highest
perfection at Soli, in Cilicia, and at Rhodes;
the essence of spikenard is best at Tanius;
the extract of vine-leaves at Cyprus, and at
Adramyttium; the best perfume from
marjoram and from apples comes from Cos;
Egypt bears the palm for its essence of
Cypirus, and the next best is the Cyprian
and Phœnician, and after them, comes the