The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1880-09-11
A MUTUAL BENEFIT;
Or, The Independent American Girl.

A MUTUAL BENEFIT;
Or, The Independent American Girl.
A YOUNG girl, 'thrown on the world =
her own living to make and no recog-
nized qualifications for such duty
What was to be done?
Ella Vincent sat asking herself: "What
shall l dop" 1t is question which SC
many girls in and just beyond theil
teens have been obliged to ask them
selves during the last seven lean years
ssWhat shall do for livingP''
"Bess, I've made up my mind" Ella
Vincent said one morning to her married
sister. 81 am not going to wait here
for any lover, possible or impossible, to
propose to me. have growing con-
viction that for woman to marry for
the mere purpose of getting home, is
doing wrong. Then there. are so many
who have married 'just for home,
who have no home after all except what
they themselves earn. A dear price
most of them pay for theifhomes! No,
l do not propose to sell myself so long
as have sound body, fair mind, two
hands, two feet, and five senses"
"Well, what do you propose doing?"
asked her sister.
81 am going out to service.''
Her sister looked up increduously.
e" You surely do not mean it, Ella"
al do mean it, Bess."
"To service! 0 Ella, not that
eyes, just that and nothing else /!
Why not that, prayP Shall 1 set up as
a seamstress at fifty cents day, idle
half the time at that, and board bill
coming in every unengaged day like a
malicious fatep Besides, | could not sit
still all day, day after day. 1t would
kill me. I've counted the seamstresses
and dressmakers in this village of fif-
teen hundred souls. There are twenty
three dressmakers and twenty-six seam
stresses of whom | know. Then the
teachers, if both sexes are included, are
more numerous still. There are from
two to five of them in every third or
fourth family. l am not qualified for a
teacher, and l don't think it worth while,
as have no passion for the work to go
through the struggle of the studies first
and the competition afterward.
"You might start select primary
SCHOOL, suggested her sister.
"Ten scholars on an average at five
dollars apiece. That would be hun
dred dollars a year-not enough to pay
my board. If l did sponge on my friends
during vacations, where would my cloth
ing come from? Then l should have
my own clothes to wash and iron, and,
as mother used to say, it is as easy
washing and ironing for three or four as
it is for one."
"Another milliner's store is needed
here" pursued Mrs. Bess, with a
troubled brow. IF you only had the
funds you might do well at that
eff! Yes. Well, / haven't the funds
and l can not whistle them here. If [
had three to five hundred at nv dis
posal, doubt if l should care to run
the risks of new establishment. There
would be rents, credit, ETC., and should
be as worn and worried as you are in two
or three years-and then the board. bill,
too! That is such giant in the way of
poor girls! If l boarded myself should
have hypo and dyspepsia both in little
while. Now, in some ones kitchen
yes, Bess in the kitchen. l have not
the assurance to believe I'd make a sue
cess as a parlor servant. l would get
in the kitchen from $3.50 to 50. so a
week and my board, and a shome'
week in and week out; no cankerine
cares; considerable time to myself, and
work at which | would feel at home"
"But think how it would sound.
Ella.''
&C l can not help the sound. can
not afford to struggle for years through
some foreign element for the sake of the
sound. What will any body care wheth-
er | am respectable or not, so long as
they haven't the thing to do, it won't
hurt their feelings particle. They will
rather enjoy my having to do it; so
then, Sis, both myself and everybody
will be suited bymy going out to serv-
ice.''
g will not be suited at all bv il. 81
said Mrs. Bess.
(which is betterP to have good,
healthy, happy sister at service and in
dependent of all the world, except one
family, and that family dependent a
good deal upon her, for mean to make
my mark in my line, Bess, or to have
that sister a miserable, half-famished.
discontented, round-shouldered seam.
stress or factory girl, or lace-worker.
who would have to depend on you OF
your husband for shelter half the time,
and whose board-bill you would have to
take out in work whether you could
afford to or notp'
The result of this sensible decision Of
Ella Vincent was an advertisement in
the local paper that week.
An American girl desires position
as kitchen servant. Is good cook and
understands all kinds Of homework
Apply, by letter, to the editor of thi;
paper"
To this, in less than week, Ella re,
ceived fifteen applications. She accept
ed the first offer, as it was from an en-.
tire stranger.
81 have lived here all my life," she
said to her sister, "and to go among
those who have always known me, viii
be more vexing than to be with perfect
strangers. Some of my old friends
would snub me, some would pity; 9th