The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1902-12-19
AN INVASION OF GIRLS
THEY FLOCK FROM EVERYWHERE
TO NEW YORK TO SEEK FORTUNES.
But They Find work Hard and Life
Lacking I'm Comfort and
Pleasure.
Washington Star.

washington 0ldT
New York is the home Of the bachelor
girl In no other city in the world does
girl dare to live alone and unchaperoned,
Inviting the criticism of friends and foes.
The large studio buildings are peopled
with these lone girl tenants, living singly
and in groups of two and three on the CO.
operative housekeeping plan, which means
something weird and terrible in these
Adamless Edens.
Besides these settlements of girl bach
elors hardly an apartment house in the
metropolis is without at least one Of these
women wage earners whose home is per-
haps the only joy of her lonely existence.
Not that the bachelor maid is an unsocial
creature. but because one Of the first les
sons that she learns I'm her city experience
is that she must be wary in the making of
close acqusintanceship. which, If she be in
earnest in her work. she will find more of
persistent deterrent than a help, unless
they are strictly OF the right sort.
The loneliness OF the girl bachelor is
stern discipline TO which she must learn to
submit. fact that is rarely considered by
ambition to succeed in profession. one
of the charms with which she invests her
life in the big city Is the congenial COM
panship, the host of clever friends with
whom she will be in touch. Invariably she
has come on from some distant city. South
or West. with the idea of pursuing her
safe environment of her home and friends
and ventures into a strange world that she
has pictured in her imagination as an en-
chanted land with genial and open-hearted
people But the reality is-loneliness.
The army OF girls that come to New York
each year, seeking employment which they
co!Ild frequently find at home, has never
been enumerated a .
task to attempt to estimate the thousands
that during year besiege the stage doors.
newspaper Offices and studios, for as a
rule. they select those professions that
Will best allow the putting forth of that
which they feel TO be within them.
THE AUTUMNAL INVASION
The spring sees goodly number of these
girl esnigrants. but the autumn witnesses
the strongest charge of the eternal girl on
the ramparts of fame and fortune as they
picture them With neat gowns and pretty
hats. often made by their own hands. these
girls throng into the avenues OF profess
sional life, eager-eyed, earnest and enthu-
siastic in the pursuit of the ideal that pos
sesses them
They are vastly interesting and pic
turesque, representing. as they do. an en-
strenuous. eager and anxious to compete
with her brothers in the strife for place
and pelf.
Twenty years ago school teaching and
drsssmaking offered the only two oppor-
tunities 10 girls DESTROYS of making a iv-
ing. To-day these two vocations are far In
the background from the modern girl's
view OF desirability. Even manicurins
stands ahead OF dressmaking I'm the favor
of girls anxious TO do things. Typewritine
and stenography have displaced school
teaching a choice with girls for IL takes
less time to MT them for the work while
returns are quicker and yield better results
The pretty typewriter at first taken as q
ioke I'm reality opened the door OF the
strenuous life for women.
But the tremendous rush OF girls for the
metropolis IN search of work has been very
much overdone. and besides the coming Of
girls themselves. bushels OF letters arrive
each day to editors and writer's, asking for
opportunities and chances in various fields
Girls entirely unequipped for the struggle
of work push on yaliantly to the citadel
and one out OF twenty survives.
Very few OF these girls are actually poor
and In need of work. They start out as q
general thing from comfortable homes with
the idea that they can study music, art and
literature better In the large city than In
their native town Usually these girls have
allowance. large or small. from their
portunities 10 make money and be self-sup-
porting. although half OF them return home
and many go on The stage as last resort
rather than as an ambition.
The girl who comes 10 the city 10 enter
which she may make money enough e
1--we Is more legitimate conner on the field
She IL at once put TO the test Of what Il In