The courier., 1901-11-09

Working girls clubs have becom
established members of the club famil
and like other similar organization
they have their degrees of efficiency.
The working girl of this countr.
varies with different localities. In ;
town where most of the girls employed
in factories. stores and offices live a
home the type is radically differen
from that in a community where sucl
girls are herded together in cheaI
boarding houses. Both need club worl
as a factor in their development
though such club work may differ ir
form as much as the type of clut
members.
Boarding speaking, factory girls may
be divided into three classes; two OF
these classes small, the other very
large There is the little clique OF
girls who have certain advantages OF
home training and of education, and
who, being out of sympathy with slang
and rough ways, keep to themselves.
Such girls appreciate the class work
in clubs; they desire to improve them
selves in every possible way, and are
willing to practice self-denial to ac-
complish this object. Another class
happily small-comprises the tough
girls; those who are really bad. whose
manners and language are objection
able and whose character is equally so.
The clubs fight shy of them, and justly.
Clubs are not reformatories, and good
and respectable girls do not wish to
be associated with the class just men
toned. Between these TWO small
classes is a great body of girls who
may be described as simply ''highty."
They are not bad, and have no desire
to be. Yet they are often rough in
their ways, slangy and coarse in
their speech and devoid of good taste
in dress. They have a limited educa-
tion, often through their own perverse
refusal to attend school and their de-
sire to earn money for dress and pleas
ure. Often their parents, though will
ling to keep them in school, realize
as little the value of an education as
the girls themselves; and so long as
their daughters are of respectable
character, trouble themselves little
about the refinements of life.
1t is this class of girls who are most
in need of refining influences, and for
whom club work is the most of a
need, as one woman has expressed it,
''mothering." They cannot be lectured
on proper conduct, for they know
themselves to be good girls, and feel
insulted by an insinuation that they
are not. They do not care for solid
reading or for study. They do like a
good time, and their idea of a good
time is dancing, singing or chatting
with other young people. They do not
see why certain colors, fabrics and
styles are unsuitable for the girl whose
wardrobe is limited in extent, and are
apt to resent advice on this subject if
directly given. They see no harm in
slang, and even expressions which are
so close to profanity or vulgarity as to
offend the sensitive ear, do not trouble
them. But they are jolly, good-natured
kind-hearted, always ready to help a
friend in trouble, free ehearted and gen.
erous to a fault. They can be reached
and refined if handled rightly.
Occasionally a woman is born with
one of those rare souls which enables
her to do this kind of work success
fully. Strong, refined. pure-hearted,
she is, nevertheless, able to put herself
in the place of the girl. She can shut
her eyes ard ears when it is necessary,
and reserve her comments on the things
of which she disapproves until the sub
ject can be discussed in an impersonal