The daily morning journal and courier., 1905-04-08
COLLEGE WOMEN IN BUSINESS.


 Greater Freedom Than Teaching
 Affords Possibilities for Service.
 College Women in the Business World an article contributed by an alumna to current magazine in one Of the large colleges for women, contains much sound sense. For the college graduate who does not want to teach or do library work, or be a missionary. or even an author, for the graduate who has energy and enthusiasm, com mon sense and ambition, there is a chance with the people who manu- facture, and buy, and sell. But let her be willing to live far from the land of dreams, for here she will have to face squarely the solid. unromantic facts of life" is the writer's preface.
 In nearly every establishment there are places which are filled more efficiently by women than by men, comments this college graduate of ex- perience, because women in general are less restless than men, more pain stalking and accurate, willing to be burdened with details, and more con- scientious. College training emphasizes these traits in a woman, and in addi- ton, renders her more capable and de- pendable than her untrained sister, while her mental f1exibility and willing ness responsibility are particularly valuable to her employer.
 Business positions for women nVari- ably mean office work In accepting such place, therefore, it is we'll to re- member that the sphere of ones actiy- lty is very definitely limited. the same four walls, the same desk, the same people around you day after day; long hours, from s:30 or g in the morning to 5 or 6 at night, perhaps no free Satur- day afternoons, few holidays and short vacations, Afternoon teas, receptions and daytime abilities are impossible. Calls must be in the evening or not at all. Tramps into the country are left to the precarious weather Of a sunday afternoon. Time is marked out with a stern definiteness.1 ... ..~ ,sgs..
 But there Is a compensation; this daytime slavery means liberty at night
 When you close your desk at o'clock and hurry off to dinner, business is De- hind you till the next morning. You may fill your evenings with parties anu theatres, with reading or studying' with Settlement clubs, mission school, or prayer meetings; but these are elective and not required, A business position, with it's freedom from nlgnt work, should enable a woman 10 grow strong physically. More than one slrl leaves college with little reserve strength, and many serious break down might be avoided if college grad uates would choose work which could be done in the daytime,
 There is a great deal of clerical and routine work connected with every slt. uation, but no ambitious woman will be content to be a mere machine. Orig inality commands good price in these days, and were it not true that there is room for development and expres- sion of personality in business, men and women With souls would better keep out of it. Business positions need women of efl. ergy, foresight and ability to grasp a situation quickly and respond wisely Tact in meeting people is worth a great deal; grace to live with people is just as essential To work day after day with men and women of training and tastes quite different from your own, but natures just as human, and to have the machinery running pleas- antly and smoothly, requires more than than superficial courtesy; it re- quires a fine fellow.feeling, a hearty comradeship which forbids familiarity and yet ofttimes makes one's fellow workers the truest friends
 The possible loss of social prestige may be an obstacle in the minds of some would'be candidates for business positions Teaching school Is such nice work, could even q better sala. ry compensate for the possibility of | losing caste because you earn your liv' ing behind brick walls, with q giided sign over the door and plateglass win dows on the street floor? It is true that you are pretty sure to find a few people who have no use for you be cause you are a business woman. But |. . it depends on the woman, not on her calling, whether or not she finds a place with the people really worth knowing. The careless rating of super ficial people is of small consequence to the woman who estimates life at its real worth, and the few closed doors but shut one out into a finer, larger world. ,.,... .. ,-.. There are thousands and thousands of women and girls who work in facto; ries, stores and offices. To be work Ing woman in something of the same way with hours approximating theirs, to know more intimately their difficl ties and problems and pleasures, give one an influence with working women which means large possibilities for ser vice. When ones life is brought close to other lives in the bond of a common work or a mutual purpose, it may be true, after all, that not far from the solid, unromantic facts of real life lies tho land of droo ,,,c . yd idaots