The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1900-04-14
THE MANICURE GIRL.

| w WANIED-MSSSIS. 6ldDK 0 20.
require the services of several young
ladies of good appearance to learn
manicuring.
That was an advertisement that ap-
peared in the papers the other Sum
day, and during the week big store
on Fulton street, Brooklyn, was be-
sieged by young women, good look
ing and otherwise, anxious to take up
the business. 1t is comparatively
new business for women, and one that
is satisfactory from several points of
view. 1t is easy to learn and it does
not require a special education. 1t is
necessary for the manicurist to be
person of reasonably good appearance,
for the young woman who sits at
the little white-covered table and poll
ishes and powders and pate is-tao,
near the person on the other sicr,
be agreeable if she be not neat ana
refined. 1t is an educating business,
and the young woman who has been
in it some time, if she has needed
mental polishing, is pretty sure to get
it and do we'll for herself.
1T is this way" says the surgeon
and professional caretaker of digital
and pedal extremities-the two pro-
fessions go hand in hand, so to speak
l-'you take a young woman of nat
ural refinement and let her take up
this business, and she is immediate
ly brought into contact with refined
people, and she can't help being ben
Gifted by it. Of course it is the most
cultivated people who are particular
about their appearance, and they are
the ones who have their nails mani
cured.
"The girls begin to feel the refn-
ing influence from the first. When
she is caring for the hands of other
people, she finds her own hands must
have the best kind of care and her
hands must be we'll kept. That is the
first step, and meeting the people she
does will do the rest. It is the pleas
antest kind of work a girl who has
no education can do. 1t is much
easier than most kinds of work she
would have to drudge at. I took one
girl to learn this business whose faith
er was the driver of coal cart. Not
very promising start for the girl you
would think, but she was pretty and
naturally refined, and after she had
been in the business two or three
years she married a diamond dealer,
and now has pleasant home and
three children.
"The three things that are requir-
ed in a girl for this business are neat
ness, accuracy and dispatch, and, in
cidentally she must be good con-
versationalist. She must have all ac-
curate eye to see that she does her
work as it should be done, and then,
while she does not have the appear
anee of haste, she must finish her
work quickly; people have not time
be 'ES good tStr talESdrs, f fofo tRa peShe must
come to have their nails mH1RIHilo
are usually in cheerful
They are going somewhere to ha7SN
pleasant time, and then women are
naturally vain, and they like to chat
about themselves. Of course, the
| girl must not have too much to say /;
to be a good talker is not to be- long
talker.
"It usually takes three months to
make girl an expert, but it varies
with the different girls. One girl /
had learned it in two weeks, but she
was natural born manicurist, and
every one is not that. Some learn in
four weeks and some in six. When
the girl first begins business she in
vites her friends to call upon her to
be practiced upon, and she works
under the eye of her superior. Her
| girl friends think it is great fun to
come and have their nails polished for
nothing, and if it is not done in a
really ship-shape way they don't
mind.
"Of the girls who apply to take up
the business of manicuring, there will
be ninety-fve out of hundred, per-
haps, who will have good nails, and
we do not have to give that much
thought. 1 don't know whether it is
because only those with respectable
looking hands apply. 1t is possible
that girl who did not have good
looking hands would look at them
and make up their minds that she
would never do for the work without
going to see.
"There has been a great increase
in the business within the last three
years. l don't believe that ten years
ago there were more than twenty
manicuring establishments in New
York and Brooklyn together, and
now there are not less than two hum
dred. When a woman of refinement
can have their hand manicured for
25 cents she is going to have it done
if she possibly can. 1t costs man
so cents for the same work, for he
has larger hands, larger nails, and it
takes twice as long to manicure them
as it does those of woman. People
ought to have their nails manicured.
They can't do it themselves satisfac-
torily if they know how, because it is
awkward to work on ones own hands.
Then people don't know how, and
they have not the right implements or
materials. To keep the nails in real
ly good condition they ought to be
treated once a week.