Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1910-08-19

less marriage to escape poverty. She uses
! her social connections and her quick wit
to establish heI self i'm a business which
will pay her TO wait until the right man
and love come along. hand in hand.
a few years ago there were just one
or two professions open to women, and We
hesitated long before we dove into them
remember when l left school | thought
a girl who went into business must b.
very poor, very needy. But I know now
that / was all wrong. I've met the finest
types of glls in business-hner than
ever met in my social life. And loo,i
what women are uEdertaking-for what
they are drawing salaries!
Women are going into philanthropic
work and reforming institutional life.
Women. whose grandmothers used to
crochet and embroider. are now handling
the saw, the hammer and the plane.
Women are designing and building
skycrapers. Women are fighting graft
and municipal wrongs m one state and
tuberculosis In another.
And why are they doing all these
things? To make a living primarily and
because the world needs them.
But the stenographer, the filing clerk.
the girl who stands behind the counter
and sells you a yard of ribbon, the school
teachers. the bookkeeper-they are all
just as important. The business world
needs them all.
But each and every girl in this great
mill OF life has a problem.
Here. then, is a very common prob
lem-that after proving your worth you
fee; you are not appreciated. And a lot
Of us are not appreciated That is one
thing sure.
The proud girl has an awful problem
before her. She doesn't want TO work.
and she goes into 1t in a half-hearted
way and everything she is called upon
to do is against the best-or what she
thinks is the best-in her.
And very closely related to her is the
self-conscious girl. have really known
girls TO suffer intensely from this feel
ing OF self-consciousness. II is, of course,
largely an imaginary disease Some
cynics have said it was merely another
name for conceit, and il is quite true
that the world at large pays very little
attention to the individual. The general
public cares little about how you walk
across the room. yet / have known
grl to hesitate a long time before she
would pass in front OF a lot Of busy men
and women. because she thought they all
stopped and looked at her. This is not a
small problem by any means.
Then there is the girl who simply can
not adapt herself to her circumstances
it is pretty hard. You are often thrust
in with girls who you feel are far be-
meath youth more ways than one. And
certainly II is a problem how to make
the best of these conditions-how OF force
yourself to smile and be friendly with
them, when in your heart you would like
do almost anything but smile at
them!
Perhaps next in line would come the
girl who is afraid to say her soul is her
own. If she only could ask for a raise
in wages-if she only could get chance
to show what she could GO-if-if-etern-
ally II. Some people would class that girl
with the cowardly type of business girl.
l don't know. What do you girls think
about it,
"You know the brave girl is not always
the girl who has no fear. that often
deteriorates into fOolishness. More often
the brave girl is the one who has fears
grave ones-and rises above them There
are all sorts OF towards in the world
the girl is a coward who submits to a lot
of wrong things for the sake of what she
calls peace. She knows things are all
going wrong in the office. but she is
afraid to speak the word that will set
them right. She doesn't want to start a
row. Then there is another reason why
such a girl hesitates to speak-she might
lose some of her popularity.
E" AS against that girl, however-and
the girl who speaks at the right time
abort the right thing is one Of the most
valuable girls the business world has
ever discovered-we have ever with us
like the poor-the girl who talks toe
much.
The girl at your elbow who talks too
much may be your worst problem. Is
she7 She does not always stop at tell.
ing what she knows about her employer.
She's deeper than that. She makes stock
with him by telling him, 'confidentl-
ally" all things that you have done
that you ought not to have done-and
the other way round.
AT best business life is hard enough.
Earning your living is work girls, and II