The morning call., 1892-10-11
GIRLS WHO KNOW H0V.
Four Young Experts and
Their Work.
GENUS IN THE FACTORY.
Nimbls Fingers Coupled With Intelligence
Make These Proud Young Women
Independent.

Mollie Colpage of this city can make
1900 assorted buttonholes in a day.
Rose Riley can beat all other girls III
this city in canning fruit.
Mae Richards can rattle of 1S@ woras
a minute on the typewriter.
Susie Fisher leads a the other factory
girls at shoefitting.
OF all these lightning working gir's'
who are indeed wonders in their way san
francisco may well be proud.
Skill tells.
II is not money that makes the world go,
Ii is skill.
For money great crimes arc committed
and much drudgery done. But 1t is skill
that produces the great things OF the world.
mental and manual skill working hand in
hand.
From shooting horse TO chiSelng Venus
de Milo it is skill that tells.
Some philosopher has said there is no
such thing as genius, that il only each man
and woman doing what they can do best,
doing that and nothing else
Perhaps the philosopher was wrong-as
philosophers have been known to be-but
the fact remains that the great work Of
the world is all done now by specialists.
It's concrete world to most people.
Men and women become proficient in GER
tain branches Of industry whether it be
writing essays or stitching shirts-from
doing that particular thing and nothing
else.
They become skilled specialists in their
particular branches. Then 10 and behold ]
there rises some few in each branch more
skilful than all the rest.
These are the ones who have brought in
| telligence and brain power into their work
| the ones who have taken an interest and
! found pleasure in their occupations.
They are the ones always given the pref
| erence when there is not work enough 10 go
| all around. They are sought after and
| better paid by employers looking for compe-
tent and expert help.
Seldom are the ranks of these skilled few
swelled beyond the normal demand for
their services. On the contrary, they are
generally few ana far between, and en-
ployers knowing this, are apt to grant them
privileges and CO ncessions not accorded the
mere journeyw0Tker..
Then out of these few proficient there
arises the ore more skillful than all the
| others. 1t is invariably so.
! Some few mortals have gift, or a knack,
| or genius for doing some things. lack
ing which, 1t were useless for others to
| eBdeavOr TO excel them.
Aud this seems 10 prove the error OF the
philosopher previously quoted. Yes; there
| Is genius. And geIlus is found in the Ork-
shop as often as in the learned professions.
| Any employer will tell you that
| IL is these geniuses OF the workshop with
which The CALL has now TO do, and not
with the skilled men, but with the women
who excel in their particular lines.
Since before the flood civilized man has
worked in shops and factories, and has be.
come skilled in manual labor
| Woman, too, has dune heap of hard
hard work in this wOrkaday world, bui
until within recent years she has not en-.
tered the ranks OF skilled labor to any ma
terial extent.
But now. in America, at least, woman 4
mans equal wherever and whenever she
Wills TO be so. She is self-supporting in.
dependent creature. and as often as not she
| supports others besides herself by the toll OF
her hand ana brain.
Woman Is found in almost every depart
ment OF human industry, in both skilled and
unskilled occupations, where physica
strength and endurance is not the sole requ
| Site
1t would be interesting to know how
many women in San Francisco are seif-sup
porting and how many are supporting other:
besides themselves by honest, skilled toll
But no such figures have been compiled
and In their absence only estinp 80" can De
| According to these estimates, made by
men well Informed in Industrial affairs.
there are about 10000 skilled women work
| ers In this city.
Out OF this 10000 how many have risen to
the top notch OF their vocationsp And who
are they?
The CALL has hunted M a few OF them
and tells of them to-day in these columns.