Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1904-12-10
HOLIDAY PIN MONEY
HERE ARE SOME NEW WAYS TO
EARN IT.
One Girl Has Brought It Down to a
Fine Art Valuable
Suggestions.

other season or the year, a girl yearns for
pin money. Several years ago a bright
young woman in a large eastern city start
ed out to earn some pin money for Christ
mas gifts. and ended in establishing a
trade which lasts the year around, but is
especially heavy during the month of De-
cember.
She had dropped in to call on a friend
who was busy shipping Christmas remem-
ORANGES to the four corners of the CONT
nent. The young girl lacking both rela-
tves and the price wherewith to buy many
gifts, was willing to lend a helping hand,
and when her disturbed friend could not
decide whether to send a certain package
by express or mail she volunteered to look
the matter up at the nearest express office
and branch post office. She found that the
woman of means could save exactly As cents
by sending the parcel through the regis
tered mail. incidentally she brought home
some schedules of mailing and express
rates.
She helped to tie up the packages. and,
having deft fingers, her work was of con-
siderable importance to her hostess The
latter was so impressed by the assistance
rendered that she asked her young friend
to return the next day. That was the be-
ginning of her Christmas trade as wrap
per and shipper. Today she has greatly en-
larged her sphere of usefulness, as well as
her income, by doing shopping exclusively
for gifts. Her clientele is particularly
large among men, and she can buy any
thing from bouquet of flowers to be sent
to an invalid to wedding present worthy
the standing of a wealthy bachelor.
But it is during December that she Is
busiest. She lays in early large stock of
tissue paper, in white, scarlet and green.
She buys red and green ribbon by the bolt
Artificial holly and Christmas cards she
gets at wholesale and for the last Christ
mas gifts to be sent out she uses natural
holly.
Taste in Wrappings.
When she receives an order to do up
Christmas gifts for some one of her
wealthy friends she wraps them first in
fresh tissue paper, then in heavy white
paper, finishing them off with red and
green ribbon, a card bearing Christmas
greetings or a tiny spray of holly. Some
times she uses green paper tied with red
ribbon. and other times red paper tied with
green ribbon. In any event, she gives the
gift an air of Christmas festivty which
the maker Of many gifts may not have time
to secure.
For instance, amoong her patrons Is a
woman who is greatly interested in the
working girls movement, and she sends
out some fifty gifts to working girls alone.
the wrapping and directing of which she
intrusts to the holiday wrapper and shop
per.
Naturally this girl wants to start upon
wrapping as early as she can. and where
divides them into three or four shipments,
starting with those which go abroad, and
following with presents intended for the
Pacific coast She knows just the length of
time required for a parcel to be carrier
during the Christmas rush. She has mail
and express rates at her finger tips. She
knows how to do up parcels so that they
will carry with safety to themselves and
satisfaction to the men who handle them
route Strings never burst nor boxes
bulge when this young woman attends to
the shipping. If most of the packages are
to go by mail or express she calls for
them with hanson, and carries them in
person to the post office and the express
office, and for messenger delivery on Christ
mas eve or Christmas morning, she has a
regular staff of boys upon whom she can
depend for this work. Her charges vary,
of course. according to the amount of work
to be done. but it is not an unusual thing
for a woman of wealth to hand her d $40
gold piece when the task is completed.
The Business Has Grown.
Her business grew from a very small
start, simply because one rich woman told
another of her capabilities which were
superior in this particular direction to those
of the most accomplished maid or even an
ordinary good secretary. But the greatest
increase of her income arises from her
shopping for helpless men. bewildered hus-
bands. willing but terrified bachelor uncles,
and even young men who lack the assur-
ance to buy for their fancees. A man may
know exactly what he wants, he may be
the inspiration behind gift as well as its
financial hacker, but far be it from him to
trust to his somewhat limited knowledge of
stores and values.
The young woman makes her commission
from the store and not from the man who
gives her the order Occasionally she does
Christmas shopping for women. but she
says that this is not a profitable field,
largely because the average woman thinks
that she is herself exceptionally good
shopper. and is never entirely satisfied
when the work is done for her.
The girl who intends to take I'D this line
of work must be tactful. as well as skillful,
in wrapping and shopping. If ever there is
a time when femininity wakes hysterical 1t
is at Christmas time. If a woman is ut
terly impossible from a business point of
view-that is, IL she won't get her presents
ready to ship within a reasonable time
the wrapper and shopper should not under
take the work. There are some women
also who want a wrapper to come half a
dozen times, and this eats up all the profit
of the enterprise, but the average woman
of wealth is systematic about her Christ
mas giving as she is with her calling list