Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1880-12-02
A AMutualBenefit.

A young girl, thrown on the world p'
her own living to make and no recogni-
zed qualifications for such duty! What
was to be done?
Ella Vincent sent asking herself,
What shall 1 do?" 1t is question
which so many gills in and just beyond
their teens have been obliged to ask
themselves during the last seven lean
yeaIs,-"What shall do for living?"
"Bess, I've made up my mind" Ella
Vincent said one morning to her mar
ried sister. I'm not going to wait here
for any lover, possible or impossible, to
propose to me. 1 have a growing con-
viction that for woman to marry for
the mere sake of getting home, is do
ing wrong. She is SHINING against God
and her own soul, doing herself the
greatest wrong that can possibly be
done to her. 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 their homes. No, 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.
Il am going out to service"
Her sister looked up incrdulously.
You surely do not mean it, Ella?'
81 do mean it, Bess."
ITO service, o Ella, not that"
"Yes. just that, land nothing else! Why
not that, pray? Shall l set up as a
seamstress at fifty cents day, idle half
the time at that, and board bill COM
ing in every unengaged day like mali
cious fate? Besides, could not sit still
all day, day after day. Itwould kill me.
I've counted the seamstresses and dress
makers in this village of fifteen hundred
souls. There are twenty-three dress
makers and twenty-six seamstresses of
whom l know. Then the teachers, if
both sexes are included.are more numer
Gus 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 l have no
passion for the work, to 60 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 a hum
dred dollars year not enough to pay
my board. If did not sponge on my
friends during vacation, where would
my clothing come from? Then [ should
have my own clothes to wash and iron,
and, as mother used to say, it is as easy
washing, ironing and cooking for three
or four as it is for one"
Another milliner's store is needed
here" pursued Mrs. Bess with trou
bled brow. IF you only had the funds
you might do well at that"
"If Yes. Well, haven't the funds
and cannot whistle them here. If
had three to five hundred at my dispo-
sal, / doubt if l should care to run the
risks of new establishment. There
would be rents, credit, ETC., and L should
be as worn and worried as you are in
two or three years-and then the board
bill, tool That is such giant in the
way of poor girls. If boarded myself
1 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 heavy living as a parlor servant
Il would get from $3.50 to $3.50 a
a week and my board, and home week
in and week out; no cankering cares;
considerable time to myself. and work
at which | would feel at home"
"But think how it would sound, Ella"
al cannot help the sound. cannot
afford to struggle for years through some
foreign element for the sake of a sound.
What will anybody care whether 1 am
respectable or not? So long as they
haven't the thing to do, 1t won't hurt
their feelings a particle. They will
rather enjoy my having to do it; so
then, Sis, both myself and everybody
else will be suited by my going out to
service"
81 shall not be suited at all by it." said
Mrs. Bess.
(Which is betterp to have a good,
healthy, happy sister at service, and in
dependent of all the world, except one
family, and that family dependent q