Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1904-11-05
Clever Girls Who Have Made
the Most of Small Talents.
NOVEL BUSINESS PLANS
THE METEORIC RISE OF A REAL
ESTATE CLERK.
A New Idea for Those Who Have Taste
in Millinery or a knowledge
of Languages
Written for The Evening Star.

The business world Oh tOday OHerS great
opportunities to the quick-witted girl who
knows how to make the most Of her gifts
ard carve a commercial niche Of her own.
The present-day extravaganza offers a
great field for the young woman who can
evolve new ideas.
young woman who found herself face
to face with the problem of earning live
1ihood for herself and her mother, had
nothing to start on save a good family
name and an acquaintance with wealthy
people. She was about to study stenog-
raphy and try for an office position, when
4 successful business woman asked her If
she had no special bent. The girl reptile
laughingly. that the only thing she had
ever been good for was to dress dolls. The
experienced business woman saw POSSIBLE
tiles in this one gift. and advised her 10
start doll hospital in her mothers pretty
parlor. Today not only is the girl an adept
at mending dolls. repainting their features
and restoring them generally, but she
makes elaborate trousseaux for Christmas
dolls furnishes doll houses complete, and
IS now gradually working into the more
serious occupation of providing layettes for
babies. for whose lips there awaits a golden
spoon. She simply had gift for making
small things daintily and effectively.
Had Good Idea.
A bright girl who had grown weary Of
her duties as stenographer in a real estate
office. suddenly decided to try hunting flats
for wOuld-be tenants. The idea came to
her during a conversation with a worried
husband whose wife was confined to her
bed, Just when moving day doomed up in
the near future. The girl found out what
he wanted in the way of an apartment
what he could afford to pay. and on the
next Saturday she spent her half holiday
hunting for the fiat. The man paid her 30
for her trouble. She promptly added this
to the money already deposited in a saw
ings bank and resigned her position as
stenographer. Then she secured the daily
papers. When advertisers wanted a house
or fiat she called to see them and offered
to find the desired abode. When she hal
found just what she thought the adver-
tiser needed. she advised him of the fact,
took him to see the premises. suggested the
papering and the repairs needed and ar
re nged everything up to the signing of the
lease. Her first trade naturally came from
men whose wives or sisters or mothers were
unable to go house hunting, and who alb
hored the task themselves. Later, women
tired mothers and invalid wiyes-hunted
her up, and today she has an established
trade. She takes fee only from the renter
and accepts no gratuities from real estate
firms. though she could double her income
If she would throw her influence with GER
Went to Fountain Head.
Another girl who found herself face to
face with the problem of self-support util-
lied her good taste in millinery. She could
not face hat with velvet or silk, but she
could fit it to a face, which is, after ALL the
true art Of the mflliper. n
When she decided to take up the work
she went directly to the man tailor who
had made her gowns in more prosper Gus
days. when he made a street gown would
he permit her to suggest a suitable hat to
be worn with it?''
The man saw the possibilities of the
scheme and gave her a chance. Many a
time and oft he had seen one of his choice
corrections ruined by an incongruous hat.
The girls idea was to study the gown and
the customer and then take a commission
to provide hat to suit both.
She would gain some idea of the Gus
TONER'S wishes, whether the hat should be
large and picturesque in effect, smartly
tailored or in the form of subdued toque.
Then, armed with samples of the gown and
its trimming, she would visit shop after
right combinations in colors, when she
would place the order and deliver the hat
in person to the customer.
She Had the Talent.
Occasionally changes would have to be
taste, and so pronounced her faculty for
fitting the shape of the hat to the Gus
toner's face, that few complaints were re-
ceived. She charges So for her trouble and
talent.
Naturally she caters only to high-priced
trade, and the women with whom she deals
are only too glad to be relieved of the task
of matching gown and hat This year the
young woman has practically created fad
in New York. She has had toqueS, bonnets
and hats built from the cloth used in the
gown as a foundation, and has secured
some effects so artistic that she has dou-
bled her income. Her position with the
tailor is so secure that he would pay her a
salary rather than have her connect herself
with any other establishment.
A girl in a small inland city found her.
self forced to earn a living without eX-
perience in any direction. She was not
fond of children, and realized that she
would not make a successful teacher. She
had no time to take up the study of stenog-
raphy, and the necessity of immediate in
come was urgent.
Just Hit It.
She applied to the largest store in town
for position, and was told that there was
no opening for inexperienced clerks, and
the waiting list was already very long. AS
she was leaving the store she heard Ger
man woman trying to explain her wishes
to a clerk who did not know the customer s
language
The would-be business woman could
speak German, and she stopped to help The
bewildered customer. In the end the lat
ter bought large bill of goods, and Incl
dentally furnished the girl with an inspira-
ton.
The farming district adjoining this city
has large German population. The girl
went back to the man who had just refused
her place in the store, and offered to sell
goods on commission to German customers.
The shopkeeper argued that there was
something to make and nothing to lose on
such proposition. He had the largest
stock in town, but somehow he had never
been able to hold the important German
trade.
At first the girls commissions were dis
couragingly small. She had no particular
counter, but desk in the general office.
and was sent for as an interpreter, but in
time her fame spread through the German
colony. Where men had come to town
armed with list which they filed at the
cheaper general stores where German was
spoken, women now came to town to deal
with the young interpreter.
Acquired Spanish.
She soon drew commissions so heavy that
the shopkeeper would have been only too
glad to place her on the less extravagant
salary list, but the girl had other plans in
view. She had been studying nights with
teacher of Spanish.
1t was just after the Spanish-American