aside. She lives from hand to mouth and becomes a creature of expedients, in nowise fitted for the wife of an American man of moderate means.
"Our girls have bank accounts, they live with their parents, not at 'homes,' and before they are twenty-five most of them marry, with habits of thrift instilled in them. No girl can be thrifty when she has no meal insured beyond what her current week's salary can pay for."
This interview is offered for the particular help of the girl who, having completed her elementary or grammar grades in the public schools, is hesitating between what is known as "business career," i.e., cheap office work or cheaper salesmanship, and entering a factory to learn some form of skilled labor. It is quite true that foreign girls have almost monopolized factory work, but this is because the American girl has permitted the condition to arise. It is also true that many of the surroundings of factory life are distasteful to the American girl; but what of impudent customers, overbearing, unjust floor-walkers in stores, and fault-finding superiors in big offices? For every factory that defies the laws of sanitation and decency, there is a department store which does the same thing. For every manufacturer who maintains a system of fines and unjust withholding of wages, there is a superintendent of employees
