Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1904-07-02
VACAT|0 Ms
How Self Supporting College
Girls Manage.
ALL INDEPEN DEN T
NOT TOO PROUD FOR ANY HONEST
EMPLOYMENT.
Do Sewing and Fancy Work, Serve as
Companions and Wait at
&
ALL INDEPEN DEN ]
Written for The Evening Star.

Written for The Evening Star.
Vacation to the average college girl sug-
gests rosy visions. It means halcyon days
at home where she is really the guest OF
honor in her family circle. Little functions
are given in her honor. The home dress
maker Is busy planning her fall clothes;
there are trips to the shore and visits 10
friends, and the college girl feels that life
a whole Is certainly jolly.
But there exists another class of college
girls to whom the mellow summer days
represent anything but leisure and luxury.
These are the girls who make not hay, but
money, while the sun shines. To the girl
whose every want is provided by indulgent
parents summer means absolute relaxation,
but to the girl who is making her own way
through college. with perhaps a small al
lowance from some rich relative, summer
means merely change of work Like the
adaptive American girl that she is, how
ever, she finds that the change of work is
really a recreation, and she has real pleas
ure in the increase of her funds.
Methods of earning money vary at differ
ent colleges, and are governed generally by
the class of pupils who attend. For In
stance. at a womans college in New York
state, notorious for the wealth of its
alumni, several girls who are clever and
dainty with their needles are earning their
way by making exquisite lingerie and dress
accessories for fellow-pupils with liberal al
lowances. One of the girls thus explained
her work:
Work With Taste.
I'VE keep closely in touch with the new
est designs In lingerie, neckwear, fichus
and SO forth. Where our classmates run
into New York on Saturday for matinees
and concerts, we haunt the exclusive shops
ha inc fr, fari11 c h,,+
the newest ideas. During the past year
we have kept constantly on hand collar
and cuff sets made in Russian cross-stitch
Hardanger and broderie d'Anglaise. These
sell to the girls. not only for their own
use, but to send home as gifts. 1t is really
funny to hear girl gasp: oh. mothers
birthday is next week! What shall l send
herr And that is where make a sale
OF course we must make our things a 1T
tie more dainty than anything you could
buy at shop. They must not suggest ma
chine work
Such work means that we must give up
many of the little social pleasures and use
our eyes constantly, but we wear glasses
when doing the needle work. After ALL
sewing and studying do not wear on the
eyes in just the same way"
Sometimes there comes to this college
the daughter of a wealthy man who Is not
versed in modes and fashions, or does not
know how to buy or wear the little articles
of dress which mark the smart girl, and
training in the gentle art of dressing in
good taste. In other words, she not only
buys needle work from these college seam
stresses. but adds comfortable sum for
the information.
A Smith College girl, who is to be mar
ried in the fall, has placed her entire or
der for trousseau lingerie with two under
graduates, who will execute the order dur
ing the summer a their own homes.
She Wanted Boarders.
The number of domestic occupations
which girls seek as a means of making va
cation money should convince the veriest
pessinist that the higher education cannot
down the distinctive feminine instinct AS
an Illustration, a Wellesley girl, who had
been famous for the quality if not the guam
tity of her chatting dish at the spreads. an
nounced that she had taken a summer
camp in the Maine woods and wanted
boarders In a very short time she had
more applications than accommodahons.
The shacks. which the girls will occupy
with a chaperon. are primitive, and the life
will be entirely in the open. but the fare
will be wholesome and well served. The
college girl will do all of her own cooking
She expects not only TO pay for her own
vacation but to make a comfortable nest
egg for the next college term.
At one of the eastern colleges where
summer school is held. two pupils from the
winter term have remained to do dormitory
work Ten girls from New England col
Lege have gone to act as mattresses AT an
exclusive mountain resort. No other walt
resses will be employed. and the girls have
secured a few special privileges in the
matter of rooms. bathing. hours. &c. other
wise they will be treated exactly like the
rest of the help in the house.
At Bryn Mawr there Is regular society
for helping self-supporting girls to secure
summer work. Notices are sent to the old
alumni, asking for positions as secretaries,
companions, tutors. governesses and the
CoI1a eyiric in nd q
err esses or companions for young girls
whose parents are travelling or occupied
with social or business affairs. The girl
who Stands in with the faculty is sure
to get a place during the summer.
Goes Clerking.
A student who shows herself particularly
suited to clerical work is sometimes re-
tanned as secretary at the college during
the vacation. or is given employment IN
the college library. College offices must be
kept open during the summer, and 1t is
then that the clerical work is really the
heaviest Innumerable letters must be an
swered. prospective patrons must be re-
Ceved and shown over the college grounds,
and the great wheels of education must be
oiled and put in working order for the fall
term.
Summer tutoring is one of the most lucra-
tive methods of raising money during he
vacation Girls who have failed in their
examinations are more anxious 10 secure
the services of a classm ate who has passed
triumphantly through the ordeal than to
hire professor who is perhaps not posted
on the recent trial. The unsuccessful one,
by giving a few hours each day to this
work may pass in a second examination,
which is given before the fall term opens.
Two girls who are taking postgraduate
work at Pennsylvania college have open
ed boarding house in a pretty suburb
near Philadelphia. One of them looks after
the housekeeping and the other does the
tutoring, and they have all the pupil-board-
ers they can accommodate.
A Bryn Mawr girl has taken position
for the entire summer with q wealthy fam
lily who owns hunting lodge on the Cana
dian lakes The family consists of man,
wife and two sons. The men folk are de-