The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1891-12-11
In WOMAN'S BEHALF.
GIRLS WHO WANT WORK.
Things which Young Women Ought to
Know Before They Begin.

1
| Most earnest girls nowadays come in
to maturity with a real longing TO
work. They are reposeful middle-aget
people, to be sure, who firmly believ,
that this is mischievous and misplaced
activity and that it is going to work on
all kinds OF destruction if the race O
women take to other things thar
domestic and polite accomplishments
| Be that as it will, 1t doesn't pay Il
argue about what we shall never live
to prove. Here you are, hundreds o.
you, girls who honestly want to worl
and who are honestly averse to house
work. 1t also happens to be true thai
women, like men, work for wages, anC
that the wages a girl gets for house
work, even in her fathers house, are
not such as to encourage you to adopt
homework as profession. And SO il
happens that you are thinking to-day
about wage earning business outside
your home, more than you are thinking
about husband.
The first thing you've got to know is
what you can do best. To find that out
consult your taste. If you think il
would be beautiful to trim hats or
make gowns, say so and stick to it.
Then 60 to the best milliner or dress
maker in your town and ask her to let
! you come into her shop and learn. She
won't pay you at first, but your father
has fed you for several years, and can
probably discharge that paternal duty
few months longer If you are book
ish and the law or medicine attracts
you, go to the Office of your fathers
lawyer or physician and borrow his
simplest book and study it In any
case don't disdain the modest beginning
that lies nearest your hand; you are
not ready for wider fields yet. And
when you've settled upon a work, don't
play with 1t; learn to treat it just as
seriously as your big brother or your
father treats his his
And so as your diligence and knowl-
edge grow together, you will perhaps
come to a point where you must leave
your fathers roof in order to finish your
preparation for your work or to widen
your competence and SO increase your
wages You must leave your small
town for q city or the small city for a
larger one. Before this can be consid-
cred for a moment one of two things
is imperative: either you must have the
certainty-not the mere possibility-of
something to work at that will give you
a modest living, or else you must have
money enough in reserve TO pay your
way for a year ahead. There is no
compromising with this. Never leave
your fathers home on any other condi-
tons. The number of young women
who leave their homes each year and
come TO New York without definite
provision for work is simply appalling,
and out of this spring the awful TRACE
dies of want and encouragement that
drive women to death or worse.
With this provision made, go into
your work with the whole of you Take
care of your health, and, for the rest,
give your mind and body to your du-
ties You will get discouraged in every
fiber of your tired body, but it will on
" do you good The man or woman who
doesn't get discouraged often and often,
seeing his ultimate reach beyond his
daily grasp. doesn't see far enough
ahead ever to succeed So be sure that
you will get discouraged, and getting
discouraged, encourage yourself be-
cause of that very thing
You will probably be thrown much
among men. Learn not to expect par
lor etiquette in business places You
are not there to interpret the amenities
of life to lot of busy men, but to do
your work competently and go your
way sensibly. They may be as kindly
intentioned as your own brothers, but
they are too busy to assure you of their
distinguished consideration. If they
treat you brusquely, directly and frank
~, they're paying you the compliment
of treating you like sensible woman.
You will have to keep your tastes,
opinions and purposes thoroughly to
yourself. One young woman in news
paper work in New York had what she
called conscientious scruples" against
certain kinds OF newspaper necessities,
and she wanted to argue them out with
every editor she talked to. She failed
in her work, and it served her right;
not because she had conscientious
scruples," but because she aired them
where she had no business to- Neither
have your tastes any more place in
your work. You will have to learn to
do what you are told to do and reflect
that if you find the task insuperably
OBJECTIONABLE, you have the largest lib
erty to give some one else the opportu-
nifty of trying it.
A oil nj no
for things to hurt your feelings. They'll
come sometimes, and bruise you in ev-
cry fiber till you'll want to put your
head down in your mothers lap and
cry like a little girl But you must
learn to distinguish between wounded
feelings and wounded vanity. A wom-
an cries nine times out of ten of wound
ed vanity and once out OF the wounded
soul that calls for divinest soothing to
heal Let your vanity smart all it will;
it's good for most of US, for vanity is a
kind of proud flesh" of the soul that
has 10 be treated with caustic to keep
it from becoming an excrescence that
will disfgure.
Another thing you will have to learn
is to keep your word; to go where you
say you'll go, and come when you say
you'll come, and let the heavens drop
if they will But they won't-except
in blessings on your head A young
woman reporter on New York paper
was told by her physician to come to
him at a certain hour the next day. II
will come if l don't have an assign
ment," she said. There is no if
about it," said the great surgeon, as he
turned and looked at her. Doctor"
said the small autocrat defiantly, IF
nv own funeral was to be at 8 o'clock