Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1903-05-29
THE CHOICE OF WORK.
O'ff'eu'ty of Choosing Right Employ
ment for a Girl.

"SHt TOR a 1ITi'
Many years ago when l was feel
ing about vaguely for something to do.
picked up a little handbook to girls
enpioyments, which had for its gen.
eral text the lines:
what Is there that I may turn to,
hsntlhs upon days like these!
mat little book, from which L drew
at the time much suggestion and en-
eourasement, is long since out OF print.
But had IL been brought up to date, L
can imagine that the writer would nave
ASKED nat is there that L may MT
turn 10 and found the question IN
that form a good deal more in keeping
with days like these"
Inc number of employments between
"hlch a girl or woman may choose IS
practlcally unlimited; neither encyclo-
paedla nor dictionary can attempt to
deal adequately with them all. And
there Is nothing wrong with the days"
which are, indeed, on the whole, re-
markably propitious.
Nevertheless, there are difficulties in
the way of choosing the right employ
ment for girl. But these difficulties
|
than to the general circumstances. In
the girl of fifteen our insight may be
too weak to show us what the young
woman of twenty-five will be like.
| The slight indications she gives of a
certain kind of talent may mean moth
| ing. AT fifteen she may be just like
other girls and yet few years later
she may develop power of an unmis-,
taxable sort; or in her early teens
she may be described as very pecu-
liar, not easy to MANAGE IAN un-
comfortable girl" and all these eccen-
tricities, which it is hoped are the
symptoms OF genius, may only take the
form OF queer health in adult life. At
this stage when nothing can be proph-
esled with certainty, the only safe
course to pursue is to give the girl the
best possible education and to do ev-
erything possible to equip her with
reserve fund of physical health-for
the more one sees of woman's work
and efforts to work the more convic-
ton grows that steady physical energy
is needed before all other qualifications
to make women permanently success
full in what they undertake.
In the matter of education, the pre-
scription | would order is one not easy
to make up-it is that the parents
should be highly educated themselves.
l know that We're l offered the choice
of receiving the best-known school
education. or being the daughter of
highly educated parents, 1 would
choose the latter without an instant's
hesitation. What one gains even from
| tho hest of ORR lie, Gil
| fined and limited; but beyond the scope
| of estimate is that enrichment of the
mind, that strengthening of the powers
of judgment, that addition to the very
materials of thought which are the por-
ton of children whose parents are the
readers and possesSorS of many books
and whose conversation is frightened
with recollections and ideas. But by all
means let a good school education be
provided, whether the girl has culti-
waited parents or no. The one step
which may be safely taken is to send
the girl to a good day school from the
age of thirteen or fourteen to seven
teen or eighteen. At seventeen or
eighteen comes the time when the
choice of employment must be made
and the course of preparation be decid-
ed on. At this point, when doubts and
perpl2xities fill the mind, l would sug-
gest that parents and guardians
should ask themselves a few general
Questions of the following nature. With
regard to the girl, let them ask them
selves: % What is her character? Has
she a kind of logged energy, and will
she consequently go on with work that
| cha raaI1Ir lilynSp Ic chn Sririta1
clined to strike out new ideas, fond of
new experiences? Or, again, is she just
a very good, obedient, docle girl, who
will do exactly what people direct, and
be most reluctant to decide matters for
herself? (2) OF what nature are her
talents? Is she artistic? Or does she
generally do a little bit of business
Wcll' Can she make other people at
tend to her? Is she clever with her
hands? Or does she talk we'll and seem
to be keenly Interested in ideas and
movements? 80 What amount of
money could be spent upon her further
education or training?
| Such are the questions to be answered
in regard to the girl. Next, parents
should think of the public-which they
very rarely do. They should ask
themselves (regarding themselves for
one moment IS mere atoms of the pub
lic) what do We want? The truthful
answering of this question would sup
ply capital data for deciding what
kind of services girl should supply. l
know that people hate thinking of
themselves as the public. They like to
view the public as a contemplate mass
of common humanity, which ought to
feel itself immensely honored by the
offer of their daughters services in
any unwonted capacity. Consequently,
persons who have Eever felt the small
est impulse to buy made-up fancy
work or to take lady companion into
| their household think that the public
should be only too pleased to buy their
daughters hand-painted doileys (Which
won't wash and to engage their girls
as companions with nothing to do and
plenty of money to spend. Sell to
others what you would be glad they
should sell to you" is a version of the
golden rule which might be considered
in the labor market
| Let us conclude that some such ques-