Kingsbury County independent. (DeSmet, Kingsbury County, S.D.) 1894-1929, 1906-06-08
1906 by the McClure-Phillip

BY SALLY CHAMBERLAIN.

life is How much money can / earn?"
She may be dependent on her daily eff
fort for her livelihood, she may need
only to make her own pin money, or
she may be working merely to Kill the
monotony of an idle existence. Still
the query remains the same and the
| size of the weekly salary Is h most
emphatic IL not the most important
phase of her presence in the
grind Of the money making world.
To know o much money she can
| earn a girl must first know what her
earning capacity is. This In nine cases
out of ten controls the amount of her
salary and until she knows just where
she stands in this regard, she will never
be sure of the size OF her income I'm
Outstanding the extent OF her earning
capacity, however, 1t Is undoubtedly
true that she will be able to turn her
energies in one of at least three or four
| different directions and still procure the
same remuneration for her work.
Three things determine a girls abil-
ity to make money. The first II foun-
dation of the three is health. The Sec
ond is training, which is positively es-
sential to obtaining any kind of a sal
airy in the modern bushes world, and
the third is spirit-the interest feigned
or genuine which a girl instills into her
work.
Health lies at the bottom Of all three
and the amount of money which a girl
can earn will always be dependent up
on her physical strength. The girl who
is always sitting down to rest cannot
hold her position very long as sales
m in a store. The girl who is
continually having headaches will not
be retained many months as typewriter
or bookkeeper, and that girl has a
small chance of earning any kind Of
a salary who spends a month or two
of every year in a sick bed. The same
holds true also of work in the field
of art, where vitality and strength are
indispensable to the girl from whom
originality is constantly demanded.
So whatever it may be at the begin
ming, the question of salary resolves
itself finally and often very quickly into
a question of red ~corpuscles. A girl
may have an ambition which leads her
into the highest field of active life, she
may have a mind capable Of the most
clever inventions or she may have a
talent which falls barely short of gen
JUS, and if she had not the red blood
corpuscles and endurance to withstand
the round of daily difficulties and reg
ular day-in and day-out work. all her
other qualifications will count for
nothing and she will have to drop out
of the race entirely or content herself
with a bare living wage.
Given good health, however, and a
girl is always assured of her living eX-
penses. though the amount of her in
come will depend very largely Upon the
second gauge of her earning capacity,
her business training.
Only the girl who has tried to earn
a living without a training in some reg
ular line of work can realize the diff
culties of finding an opening In the up
to-date business world when she has
not q knowledge of some particular
trade or profession at her finger tips.
The girl. laden with letters of introduc-
ton n the girl starting out single
handed and alone both meet with the
same c~atechising, What do you know
how to do?" and the know" implies
that she must not think" she knows,
she must be sure of 1t.
What shall I train myself in?" is
the cry of he girl who is to venture
into the money-making world.
Her question is invariably answered
! by the query, "How much money do
you a or need to earn?'' And it is
a fair reply to the girls question, for,
lofty as may be her ambitions, she is
obliged TO take the work which is open
to her, and this is seldom the work
which she most wants to do. For there
are but comparatively few fields Of en-
ployment which assure certain salaries.
n these in min hundred and ninety
nine out of every thousand cases, have
10 DF uSeO DIS stones 10 reallZ-
ing more exalted ambitions.
Among these assured salaries are
that of the stenographer and book
keeper who need never earn less than
Sc to SIS a week n with a fair
amount of experience she is sure of
from $40 to SIS. The clerk behind the
counter can depend o earning Sc to
$40 a week. The telephone girl is sure
OF from Sc to $12, and so on through
the ranks of seamstress, milliner,
proofreader, nurse and teacher.
And what is the training which as
sures these average salaries? 1t is six
to ten months hard study for the
~stenographer and bookkeeper, an ap-
premiership Of at least three months
and perhaps several years for the girl
behind the counter, M from ten TO
twelve months of night duty for the
girl who answers the telephone.
With the larger salaries the training
Is longer n harder, and the seam
stress and milliner have to plod along
a year, and perhaps two, turning out
plain sewing or doing the drudgery
part of hat trimming before they can
expect the assured returns. The COM
Portable SIT a week salary Of the
proofreader is allowed by the union
only after a girl has worked as COPY
holder not less thar two years, while
the teacher n nurse both earn their
salary of $40 or s25 a week only after
three years of the hardest kind of
schooling.
Beside the technical training and ex-
perience, the assured salaries are also
dependent upon two important traits
OF character, promptness and accuracy.
A girl must be pu%nctual, she must be
exact In her work and she must finish
her tasks in an allotted space of time.
Every successful business office today
demands these three things OF every
employe. n the girl who would COM
pete with the great mass Of business
women Is obliged to make them an in
tegral part of her business training.
Third and lastly, a girls personality
Is a strong factor in determining the
mount OF money she is able to earn
She must keep her good natured side
foremost. she must always be tidy
In her appearance, and she must CEN
ter all her interests in business hours
to further her employers ends.
As to her capacity for good nature
the smile of the girl on the stage
should be the smile OF every girl who
Is making her way in the business
world. Perhaps II lis a look of bright
ness rather thar a smile. but no matter
what blue days a girl may have with
in herself. she has always TO remem-
Der that those working beside her, and
especially her employer, must be shown
no sign of the inward turmoil. In the
same way do petty grievances, jeal-
ousies n a-nnoyances nave TO be COW
cred by an attitude of good cheer. A
girls happiest self must be held In the
foreground when she Is earning a SAL