Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-02-13
BY WILLIAM E. CURTIS.
Special Correspondence of The Star and the Chicago
| Record Herald.

class is between the ages Of fourteen and
seventeen. At fourteen, the maximum OF
compulsory education. she usually leaves
the public schools and looks for employ
ment in the shops and stores and factories,
where tens Of thousands Of girls of that age
go every year and are paid wages Of from
s. to S. a week. which Is not sufficient to
clothe and feed them. 1t is not necessary
to continue the story. Everybody who has
had anything to do with the wage-earning
class of young girls In large cities knows
the temptati tons they are subject to, the
sufferings they have to endure and the
treatment they usually experience. Few Of
them rise in the scale, usually because they
cannot earn any more than the wages that
are paid them. They don't know how. and
they have no chance to learn. The compul-
sorry education law keeps them in school
until they are fourteen. but 1t does not
qualify them to earn living wages. and en-
ployers Of that class Of labor will tell you
that few girls are of much value until they
are sixteen.
Aim Of the School.
The Manhattan Training School for Girls
was founded four years ago on 18th street,
where 1t could accommodate one hundred
girls from fourteen to twenty years old and
teach them useful trades and arts, SO that
they can command twelve, fifteen and even
twenty dollars week in wages. And as
soon as the manufacturers of novelties and
knickknacks learned about the school they
IL,
there is an unsupplied demand for skilled
fingers and cultivated taste. and that de-
mand Is increasing very rapidly. 1t is al
most impossible for such manufacturers to
find competent working girls. and many Of
those who have been trained at the Manhat-
tan School are now acting as forewomen
and teaching others what they learned at
the school. Several manufacturers have
been SO eager to advance their own inter-
ests that they have set up their own pat
ented machinery In the school free of
charge, in order that the pupils might be
trained to operate 1t at the expense Of the
future employers.
This may seem like selfshness, like tax
Ing an unfair advantage of a benevolence
but it's good thing for the girls. for they
wages when they are compelled to seek en-
ployment.
Growth Of the Institution.
This interest in the institution. be it self
ish. if you please, made it necessary for the
managers to move to larger quarters, and
they now have room for 500 girls, with
ninety different machines, run by two cleo
trio motors, and have the privilege of call
ing in temporary instructors from several
OF the largest and most progressive manu-
factories in New York. One teacher can
look after twenty girls as easily as she
can look after five, and, as q consequence
the average cost Of educating a girl to a
trade has been reduced in the new quarters
from $16S to $50 year. The pupils work
five hours day, and spend three hours
in the study of books, in listening to lee
lures, and in acquiring knowledge which
will enable them to make the best use Of
their wages, their strength and their talent
They are taught domestic economy, for
example-how to carry on light kousekeep-
ing, SO as to qualify them to board them
selves economically and to be competent
wives and mothers They are trained in
nj " IN hro fho hn,r
walk, how to develop their muscle, how to
sleep and how best to apply their strength
They are trained In hygiene; what to eat
how to cook it, what to avoid in eating,
food. the advantages of bathing and cleanli-
ness, first remedies in case of Illness how
to cure toothache and bad cold. how to
dress bruise a cut or any other wounds
to which working girls are subject in hand
ling m; chinery. They are taught how to
live at the lowest cost and make their
wages go as far as possible; what mate
rails wear the best and look the neatest
They are given courses of reading and
lectures to cultivate their taste. to show
them the proper use and combination Of
colors and other simple rules Of art; to
train the eye and the mind to artistic
methods.
The trustees of the school hope to have
a gymnasium and roof garden before the
at which girls who do not live with their
families may obtain meals at reasonable
prices.
What the Girls Are Taught.
When a new student enters she begins
with plain, common work, to teach her how
to handle materials without soiling or muss-
ing them and to be accurate In measure
ments. Then, as she improves, she is pro-
NOTED to better classes of work and to
handle finer materials. When a girl enters
an ordinary dressmaker's shop she is kept
vr,o xipcr bot md dnin Lott
until there is vacancy among those OF
greater experience. She is useful to the
dressmaker, but is not doing anything for
herself. In the dressmaking department of
the Manhattan School a pupil Is advanced
as fast as she is qualified. until she is able
to do the finest embroidery and designing.
If she does not show an aptitude for dress
making after few months she is put on
something else-the box-making department,
perhaps, which is one of the most important
and profitable. A beginner in that depart
ment makes ordinary paper boxes with a
machine. Then as she Improves she is
advanced to the jewelry box department.
and Is trained to make the fancy boxes
that are used by florists, confectioners.
perfumers and stationers.
There Is special trade for making novel;
ties in decorations; lamp shades. book COW
ers, calendars, toys. toilet bags, sponge
bags, shopping bags and the thousand and
one useful and useless fancy articles that
you see in the department stores. The de-
partment of toilet accessories is q very
large and profitable one and offers a field
for the display OF ingenuity. taste and skill
in an infinite variety of articles which peo-
pie are familiar with by seeing them in the
shop windows and on the counters of de-
partment stores. and often wonder where
they come from
What Girls Can Earn.
An intelligent girl with cultivated taste
and deft fingers can earn from so to 800
q month making these knick- knaeks both
by hand and by machinery, and IL she has
the inventive faculty and 10 capable OF