Atlanta Georgian. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1912-1939, 1913-01-17
Atlanta Is Dream Ideal of Poor Country Girl
SEES BIG WAGES IN CITY

pay. And harder still it is to live on
that amount.
Few make good and many of them,
! completely disillusioned and tired, go
home soon Mrs. Payne said. Some do
not.
They are mostly girls who somehow,
| somewhere in their beings, instinctivey
yearn after romance-although, coming
| from generations Of unlettered stock.
| they don't know it-girls who really
| have ambition, but who. like Holmes
| 'Voiceless," must bear the cross with
| out the crown of glory" because they
are dull, too dull to respond to the whip
of ambition too much lacking in adapt
| ability and in intellectual effort-girls
who are orphans. or younger sisters,
and who are urged by friends or par
ents to come to the city, making it
easier on the farm.
Picture Shows Only Pleasure.
And there are some girls, a minority.
who leave their simple homes because
Of pettish, bored distaste for its sim
plicity and its drudgery, and who think
that Atlanta has something of pleasure
for them.
Pleasure for them must be only the
picture shows, and the companionship
Of the picture shows.
The missionary workers at the sta
tons take them all under their protec-
ton, send them to boarding places, and
usually place them at work of some
kind. Atlanta is large enough and re-
sourceful enough, fortunately, to care
for such young fortune hunters who
trust themselves blindly to its care.
The matrons meet the girls in vari-
GUS ways Sometimes they see a shah
by, forlorn, solitary figure Of a girl,
sitting in the waiting room, bulging
telescope bag at her feet Solitary girls
in the station are legitimate subjects
for questioning and usually in the case
of the simple fortune hunter from the
country the story is learned at once
Sometimes the girl wandering about
the station helplessly, asking questions
OF whom she dares, unconsciously
plumbers upon her best friend, the ma
iron. The story pours out, now that a
Police Find Many of Them.
More often the girl goes to the first
| policeman she meets and states her
plight, and the policeman. experienced,
| pilots her to the matron
A girl came into the Terminal sta
ton Monday, She was from Maysvtlle,
and she had only 25 cents.
M,
Mrs. Payne.
II don't know. They told me at home
to see the town marshal when I got
here and tell him I wanted to work"
The policeman is the embodiment of
material power for most Of the girls
who come to Atlanta from the farms
and villages. The governor Of Georgia
| could be no more 80.
OF the 200 girls and more who come
thus to Atlanta each year, much less
than half remain. The others find that
the farm. after all. is not place to be
| sCorned.
Others remain, to work on, drawing
poor wages, now and then to better
themselves. Others marry men of their
own type and traditions, boys who came
like them from the country, seeking
they knew not what. And a few inevi-
tably are submerged.
The percentage Of successes out of
the number of these country girls is
small, the~fnatrons say.
1t is impossible TO keep record of all
the girls after they are placed in posi-
tons, but the matrons who meet them
when they arrive somehow know how
some of them are doing. They know
| enough to offer the advice to other
girls of the same sphere to stay at home
or to come to the city only with tan
gible prospects of satisfactory employ
ment and only with SUBSTANTIAL emer-
gency fund.
The same advice applies to the boys
OF the farm, too, Mrs. Payne says, with
whom she has associations just as with
the girls The number of boys who
come to Atlanta with the blind idea of
getting Jobs" is greater perhaps than
that Of the girls. But the cases of the
boys do not come under the notice of
the matrons to such an extent.
The boys hold aloof from feminine
aid and instruction, unless they are
really up against 1t hard, or unless they
ATE more than usually bewildered and
helpless. Perhaps ii would be better
for them If they more readily accepted
the willing assistance of these guardian
angels of Atlantas gates.
The positions of matrons at the rail-
road stations are maintained by the
Woman's Missionary association in CO.
operation with the railroads. The mis-
sionary association is an organization
composed of missionary workers of all
Protestant churches of the city. Mrs.
]. II. Lumpkin is president and Mrs. w.
II. Harris is chairman of the board of
directors.