stack the filled saggers one on top of the other, until the kiln, which seems like a huge chimney, is filled. The door of the kiln is then bricked and cemented, and the fires started below. For about forty-eight hours the dishes in the kiln are subjected to a heat of approximately 2,500 degrees. The amount of gas required in firing each kiln once is from 250,000 to 350,000 cubic feet. By comparing this with the family gas bill, it is apparent that the amount of gas consumed in firing each kiln one time would be enough to heat the house and cook for an average family for the better part of a year. As each kiln is fired about once a week the amount of gas consumed in operating the potteries the potteries mounts up into the millions of cubic feet.*

When the kiln door is torn down and the saggers are cool enough, the work of "kiln drawing" begins. The women and girls are called into activity. They take the ware, now since its first firing, hard and white and porous, and brush it, sandpaper it,

*The size of potteries is estimated by the number of kilns they have. In East Liverpool and vicinity there are nineteen pottery firms, ranging in size from a five kiln factory to a seventy-six kiln plant, the largest in the world.

knock imperfections off, and turn it over to the "dippers."*

The "dippers" have great tubs of glaze made of flint, spar and white lead, milky in color and consistency. The porous or "bisque" ware after being dipped into this liquid is ready to go back into the kiln again. It must be packed very carefully in the saggers this time, as the coating, on being fired, will turn to glass, and any pieces touching will stick together. After being fired the second time and being drawn from the kiln, the dishes. are regular white ware.

The process of decorating is quite different from the former processes. Sometimes a decoration is painted on with a brush; oftener it is stamped on with an ordinary rubber stamp, in gold or colors, and sometimes it is put on just as we used to put transfer pictures on our spelling books at school. But no matter how the decorations

* Among pottery employees about twenty-eight per cent are women and girls. Their occupations are "brushing ware"; stamping the trade-mark on the bottom of articles by means of a rubber stamp; “taking off for the dipper," that is, arranging the ware to dry after it has been put in the glaze; "dressing the ware," or knocking imperfections off; and decorating. greatest number of girls are employed in the decorating shops.

The

STAMPING

are added, the dishes must go back to the kiln again for the color to be fired

in.

To me all these things are interesting enough; the fact that my cup is a composite of materials brought from far and near, that no less than twentyfive persons, at least, have helped in its making, that once it was in a state of liquid-these things are enough to make me think, as I use the finished cup. But more fascinating are the human interests which attach to it. When I know the loves and hates, the joys and disappointments, the ambitions and disillusionments that are within its making, I am more fascinated still. When I know that the incentive behind the labors of a certain jigger-man, Bill Darrow, for instance, was the love for a little child; when I know why Bill Darrow went back to work at his jigger, penitent and determined, after a drunken debauch. because he had picked up by chance a book which opened to "If God be for us, who can be against us," and opened there because the place was

marked by a curly lock of baby's hair; when I know something of the struggles and temptations, and on the other side the aspirations and ambitions, which have gone into the making of my ware how were it possible to have less than a compelling interest in this little cup in my hand!

But the plates we use, the cups and jugs, are of interest for more than this. They represent the closest parallel to human life that any industry provides. With the moulding and forming, sometimes with sharp instruments, again with lighter touch, with the hardening and making firm by fire, with the sand-papering and brushing to knock the imperfections off, with the beautifying with garlands of flowers and with gold, and yet again with fire, the parallel grows at every step more close to the moulding and shaping and the testing which it is ours to pass through.

"I took a piece of living clay
And gently formed it day by day;
And molded, with my power and art,
A young child's soft and yielding heart,
I came again when years were done.
It was a man I looked upon.
He still that early impress wore,
But I could change him never more."

T

HE program of the Stockholm Conference is now in the hands of all who hope to be present, as well as in those of the many who, though not with us, will be following the Conference in thought and prayer and will be eagerly looking forward to the results. "The unfolding of the true plan for woman in God's purpose for the world" is the subject of the Conference. The very fact that the little word "true" has been inserted invites us to hope that the Conference may lead us into new realms of thought on this apparently well-worn subject. Ever since the Christian era an ideal of woman, more or less unchanged, has been presented to the world, and the thought may possibly present itself to the minds of our readers that it would have been more profitable had a subject that could commend itself as a new one been chosen for the Conference. We believe not. Just beJust be cause the subject is an old one new thinking is necessary, and it is impossible not to feel that the Conference will be profitless unless we go prepared to see new light thrown on a subject that superficially appears to be already well understood and familiar.

"The Christian Ideal for Woman" is the subject of the opening address. To some the thought will immediately occur that the added words "for woman" are superfluous, for fundamentally the Christian ideal is one; it is for humanity as a whole, and finds its perfect expression for both man. and woman in our Lord Jesus Christ. It is not too much to say that, to some

* Reprinted by permission from The Woman's International Quarterly.

Miss Picton-Turbervill is a member of the World's Committee.

Few

extent, this fact has been lost sight of, and it is just here, perhaps, that rethinking is necessary. Many have been content to reiterate the thoughts and ideals of previous generations without any mental process of making them their own. It is fatally easy to slip unconsciously into the habit of repeating views which, though not always enlightened, meant much to those who first held them, but which have now lost their true meaning. are guiltless of this mental inactivity, yet it is deadening to the soul and to the fulness of truth, for it introduces slavery into the realm of thought and creative activity. creative activity. We in all things have to win our faith, it will then be real; our own ideas, and they become living. Quite frankly we do not wish to see the ideal woman as she has been seen by past generations; an ideal even more beautiful must be seen by those who believe that through faith in Christ we are on an upward path. Past ideals were for past conditions; we need to hear the voice of the Living God speaking to us as we are living now in the present. Quite reverently we do not wish even to see our Lord Jesus Christ as others have seen him in former times, but as he presents himself to ourselves to-day; for then only can his power be living within, then only will the study of life to which all are called be real instead of a stereotyped plan inherited from the past, and not made living to ourselves. The seeker after truth has no contempt for the past, for from it much that is precious is inherited; moreover, the Spirit that inspired the Christian saints and martyrs of other ages is the Spirit that must inspire those who would live for Christ today. Yet, as the horizon of truth is ever widening, the ideals of the past

are inadequate for the needs of today. On the very subject chosen for discussion at the Conference fuller and deeper truths are being apprehended by the present and rising generation; a fuller realization of the true place of woman is now a part of the developing consciousness of the world. It is fundamentally religious; it has economic, political, and humanistic aspects. With all these the Conference will deal, and deal with them, we believe, in a truthful spirit worthy of those who are confident that in all the perplexities and difficulties with which the subject is surrounded, God will lead us out by the right way. It is idle to pretend that difficulties are not with us, or to refuse to see that amongst the very young women for whom our Association exists there is unrest a deep stirring of the waters. We are in a transition stage, and a transition stage is seldom comfortable, seldom beautiful, and always dangerous. Yet the very unrest is a sign of vitality, not decadence; of higher, not lower, ideals. A nation without a vision perishes; a nation with a vision is restless. Those who have courage and faith see through the veil of the Woman's Movement a vision of great beauty coming. Upon such an Association as ours lies a heavy responsibility, an inspiring opportunity, for we are called to have some little share, by means of sympathetic handling and firm faith, in bringing forth a new order of girl-life, which will include all that is best of the past and present, and thus endow with ability to use new powers of the future.

Family as well as national life will be discussed; their interests are really one, and no division is needed. Amongst the many who will be present, of all nationalities, there will not be a mother, a sister who has not the desire that the family life of which she is a unit should be all that is beautiful and pure. Convictions on this subject, which formerly were held only by the few, are beginning to obtain widely. No true woman can any

longer be content to make sure merely that the four walls of her own home are beautiful and clean as long as it is possible for her sons and daughters to come in contact, very often literally within a hundred yards of her door, with that of which it is a shame to have to speak.

What is called the social evil has ever been with us, due very largely to economic conditions which are bound up with both family and national life. A woman, hard pressed by economic conditions, is brought face to face with that which is worse than death; this ought not to be, and the day is even now beginning to dawn when it shall not be. The realization of this day, we are well aware, is looked upon by many as merely a pious hope, a chimerical dream; yet there are some who look for, and believe that even now is coming, a new order of things, a new kingdom on earth. To cure has been the voice of the past, to prevent is the Divine whisper of to-day. A wider conception than has hitherto obtained of family life and of motherhood is before us. A striking article, entitled "Real Motherhood," has just appeared in the October number of Our Outlook, which will well repay the reading. Those who value beauty within their own doors will eagerly seek to have a share in making the street, the city in which they live, what they desire their homes to be. It is possible to weary of such phrases as the "Woman's Movement," the ewig weibliche; yet it is beginning to dawn upon an ever-increasing number of men and women that discussions on the subject will be less frequent and more fruitful when there has been, in all these matters which deeply touch the welfare of women and girls, some elimination of thought that is ewig männlich. Hitherto this is the thought that has largely and heavily preponderated, and too much of any

*Our Outlook is the official monthly organ of the British Young Women's Christian Association.