Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1902-11-29

field, that success BUTT on any but solid
foundations is no SUCCESS at all. and that
truth must prevail n. this as in every
other purpose of life
The Bachelor Girls Homes.
The home question the bachelor girl dis
poses of at first by settling in boarding
house, a life that Is. drearier than any
other in a city She moves in an atmos-
phere of art that gives her certain
glamour to others as well as herself. If it
were all joke, the girl who could afford
1t would find plenty of real enjoyment out
Of this debut in professional life.
In short time the boarding house proves
uncongenial, and the girl bachelor fees to
the studio building which is not always as
comfortable as the hall bed room that she
leaves But there Is freedom in the new
plan, and sometimes a restaurant in the
building does away with the necessity for
cooking meals.
tractive in their unconventional furnishing.
Life In this fashion is picturesque, but it is
an odd Bohemian existence that the bust
ness girl gives up for small apartment as
soon as she feels that she can afford the
dignity of real home
But before she reaches this point she has
serious work before her, filled with dis
couragements and disappointments under
which none but sturdy spirit can endure.
It is unfair to paint rose-colored pictures of
the struggle that women find in their first
attempts to gain footing in the profess
sfons. Nothing worth while is gained with
out EFFORT, and the spurious successes of the
stage, OF literature and other walks, where
results are obtained by certain forms of
booming, fall to the earth like punctured
balloons when their brief authority is over.
Masculine characteristics Demanded.
The fact that such successes are manu-
featured and maintained with apparent Sc
curity is one of the severest trials that the
girl working legitimately, will have to
contend with. People talk and write of
the temptations of dramatic life, but the
fact Is that the stage is no more filled
with such opportunities than other voca-
lions. The right-minded girl will learn
to value success properly as she advances,
and while her progress may seem slow it
will be the surer.
So it is not the difficulty in obtaining
employment the poor rate of wages or the
drudgery Of toll that prove the real obsta-
cles in the path of the strenuous girl. The
chief trouble will be the constant demands
upon her for qualities of character that
are rare in women-the same qualities
which make the successful man. Women
are not physically fitted for the work-a-day
world, but for the home life, and the most
eminent Of women lawyers, doctors and
actors are always women whose health
has enabled them to stand the strain.
The Girl With the Hardest Row.
Perhaps the girl with the hardest row
to hoe is the young woman with voice.
She gains some fame and reputation at
home in a church choir, perhaps, and,
spurred on by stories of sudden fame, she
comes to town with the notion that she will
become a Calve, a Melba, or Patti. She
may have a good but not powerful voice,
and she begins her task of finding a hear
ing. The singing girl has always pecu-
liar mental caliber and big IDEAS. She ends
by taking a place In a choir or else she joins
the chorus.
The girl reporter who begins at the foot
of the ladder has to work right we'll in or
der to make a living. She must work in all
weathers, must sleep and eat lrregularly
and lose much of her sensitive refinement
in the inevitable contacbwith all sorts and
conditions of men. ~
The girl typewriter, the young woman
who decorates china, and she who makes
cotillion favors, all shave their own
troubles, great and small Some lines of
work are more sheltered than others, and
these are by far the most desirable.
There is no high road to success, and,
often as this is written it cannot be re-
peated too often. When you hear a woman
state that she has never experienced any
of the hardships and dlsAlusions Of life in
her work. whatever 1t may be, you may be
sure that she is uttering a falsehood
Some women make a practice of writing
and speaking In this strain. They insist
that a woman can go into any business
field and maintain all tler beliefs, her faith
in humanity and her femininity as Sc
curely as in her home life, but this is the
exception rather than the rule.
The Best Art of All.
1t is better that girls should understand
the dangers before embarking such a
sea. If a girl can act, sing, paint write
with any skill she will do it. If she is re-
quired to work for money she will utilize
her talent; but it is a mistaken idea that
the woman who turns into a happy domes-
tic harbor and makes wifehood and moth
erhood her profession abandons her art"
There is very fine art in the making of a
home.
OF the host of girls who come on from
the south or west how many survive?
And the few who gain a place are always
anxious and ready to drop the parchment
of the lawyer the crown of the stage
queen or the pen of the poet to sing the
cradle song of some happy fireside.
1t is as it should be. The woman first
and last. Nothing can change it, and the
girl who realizes this and keeps that star
in view seeks the best career. The women
who achieve are the first to admit this
truth. The girl feverishly striving to leave
her home and it's environments to pursue
a wilI-o' the wisp that in reality she knows
nothing of will always seem like butter
fly beating out it's life against wheel.