St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1888-01-05
$15O.OuO
Total No. deeds 20 :.
THRIFTY MAIDS AT SCHOOL

THRIFTY MAIDS AT SCHOOL.
Poor College Girls Who Mend and
Darn to Help Pay Their Ex-
penses.
Enough money may be earned by a
college girl while at school to pay her
incidental expenses and part of her
board money, tOO,' said senior of
VaSSar college home for the holidays,
says the New York Morning Journal.
But how do they do it?'' asked her
companion.
"Well, in a dozen different ways;
chiefly by playing the part of maid to
girls of wealth. Some of the girls who
.babes. They are the daughters of
own hair or sewed button on
their boots in their lives. They are
only too glad to have some one do
those things for them, and that is
how the poorer girls. make pocket
, money. Last year pretty blue-eyed
girl came to college, and stated during
the first week that her tuition and board
were paid by kind relative, but every
penny for dress, car-fare, and the thou
sand and one little incidentals she must
earn herself. She was awfully clever,
and did not have an atom of false pride.
First she went to work and put little
sign on the door:
Gloves and shoes neatly mended for 10
cents each.
Breakfast brought up for 10 cents
Hair brushed each night for 25 cents a
week.
Beds made up at 10 cents week,
You think her terms eXtravagantly
low? Well, in college they were thought
rather high at first, but she soon had
plenty of customers, and when they
found how neatly she would brush hair
and curl it, too, on reception nights,
was Occupied
But did not the other girls look
down on her for doing such mental
wOrk?'' asked a lady who seemed deeply
interested.
s'No, indeedr' exclaimed the Vassar
girl. You would be surprised to see
how little Of that nonsense there is in
our college, or in any girl college in
this country, as far as | can find out.
Why, our most brilliant scholars are
often those who are obliged to pinch
and scrape to get through college.
Beauty and cleverneSs take with us, not
money. That little freshman made lust
$50 the first year, and that paid all of
her expenses and good part of her
tuition fees"
''Then," continued the Vassar girl,
''we had another girl who did almost as
we'll just dressmaking for the other
girls. She had knack at it, you know,
and she could take an old silk and fix it
up with tulle or lace, or something
like that, and make it look just too
sweet. All the girls were wild for her
just before every reception or dance.
She graduated last June and there is no
one yet to fill her place. If | could only
dresSmake / should like to fill it,
At Smith and Wesley colleges many
of the students make small sums of
money in similar ways,
1--WE have one GIRL" said Smith
senior, ''whO has reaped quite little
harvest since dress reeds came into
fashion. Any woman can tell you what
tiresOme articles they are to put in
Well, the girl puts three new ones in
for 80 cents, and if she has to make the
cases for them she charges extra. l
don't believe more than half of our
students sew in their own reeds, so YOU
can calculate how much she makes.
K'TutOring is one of the best ways of
earning money in Smith, although few
except seniors have it given them. This,
you know, is teaching backward pupils
during spare hours, and the pay is 40
cents an hour. If a girl has an hour
each day she can make 50 week, and
that will pay all incidental expenses,
home during vacations. Most Smith
/ girls pay 80 or 40 cents dozen for the
laundering of white clothes, and
dozen pieces week is the usual num-
ber."
/ Aren't you extravaganza"
! mo, not at all. The faculty doesn't
approve of it, ard even the wealthy
girls dress very plainly as rule. Two
school dresses term are Sufficient,and
three or four are considered widely eX-
travagant. Smith girls who live in the
college houses are expected to make up
their own beds, but many of them hate
the work and give it to some college
mate to do for 25 cents week. The
general charge for weekly mendlng is Is
cents and 10 cents extra for darning
stockings. One girl mends gloves beau
tifully and gets three cents finger.
She always has more work than she
can do. Tidying up bureaus on Satur-
days is fiOuriShing business, and not an
easy one. Some girls get their ribbons
and handkerchiefs, and gloves, and
such articles into dreadful whirl, you
know. Two girls who make exquisite
ldHCy WOIh nave COlueu QulU0 llCCle
sum the last two months making Christ
mas presents. The students supply the
material and they do the work for very
reasonable prices"
At Wellesley one of the students has
almost paid her way through college by
sewing Oh shoe buttons. Her charges
are 10 cents dozen and she supplies
the buttons and thread. She has almost
the entire trade of college and spends
two hours every daY at the work.