The citizen-Republican. (Scotland, Bon Homme County, S.D.) 1???-19??, 1906-06-07
Copyright, 1905 by the McClure-Phillip
Company
BY SALLY CHAMBERLAIN.

Inc nrSt anO last question WHICH
confronts q girl who enters business
life is How much none can I earn?'
She may be dependent on her daily eff
only to make her w 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 the most
emphatic If not the most important
phase of her presence in the strenuous
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
derstanding 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 and foun-
dalton 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 carr 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
woman 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
q salary who spends a month or w o
of every year in a sick bed. The same
holds rue 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
Ia AVE an ambition which leads her
into the highest field of active life, she
nay have q mind capable of the most
clever inventions or she may have a
talent which falls barely short Of gen.
ius, and if she had not the red blood
corpuscles and endurance to Withstand
the u of daily difficulties and reg
ular day-in n day-out work, all her
other qualifications will Dun 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 a knowledge Of some particular
trade or profession at her finger tips.
The girl laden with letters of introduce
ton n the girl starting out single
handed and alone both meet with the
how to do?" and the know" implies
that she must not think she knows,
she must be sure of it.
What shall I train myself in?" is
the cry Of the girl who is to venture
into the money-making world.
Her question is Invariably answered
by the query, How much money do
you want 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,
and these in nine hundred and ninety
nine out Of every thousand cases, have
to be used as stepping stones to realiz-
ing more exalted ambitions.
Among these assured salaries are
that Of the ste~nographer and book
keeper who need never earn less than
Sc to IS a week and with a fair
amount Of experience she is sure OF
from SO to SIS. The clerk behind the
counter can depend upon earning Sc tc
$40 a week. The telephone girl is sure
of from Sc to $12, and so on through
proofreader, nurse and teacher.
And hat 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 CIR
behind the counter, and from ten tt
twelve months Of night duty for the
girl who answers the telephone.
With the larger salaries the training
is longer and harder, and the seam.
stress and milliner have to plod along
a year., and perhaps two, turning GU
plain sewing or doing the d~rudgerJ
part of hat trimming before they cal
expect the assured returns. The com
Portable SIT a week salary Of tn.
proofreader is allowed by the unio1
only after a girl has worked as copy,
holder not less thar two years, Will,
the teacher and nurse both carr thei
salary Of $40 or s25 a week only afte
three years of the hardest inc O
schooling.
Beside the technical training and ex
perience, the assured salaries are ais,
dependent upon two important trait
Of character, promptness and accuracy
A girl must be p%unctua1, she must b.
exact In her work and she must fnisl
her tasks in an allotted space Of time
Every successful business office toda,
demands these three things Of ever;
employe, and the girl who would com
2 pete with the great mass Of bushes
women Is obliged to make them an IN
!, tegral part Of her business training.
!, Third and lastly, a girls %personalit,
Is a strong factor in determining tn
!. amount of money she is able to carr
!, She must keep her good natured sid
: foremost, she must always be It'd,
!, In her appearance, and she must cen
: ter all her interests in business hour
t to further her employers ends.
, AS to her capacity for good nature
!, the smile Of the girl on the stag
should be the smile of every girl VIII
: is making her way in the bushes
| world. Perhaps it Is a look of bright
! ness rather than a smile, but no matte
! what blue days a girl may have with