Page:The Girl Who Earns Her Own Living (1909).djvu/68

This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.

ing the meals, and guarding the health of the older children. In such instances there is generally an under-maid who performs the menial nursery duties. The semi-trained nurse wears a uniform and is a sort of upper servant in the household. Her salary varies from twenty to thirty dollars a month, together with board, lodging and laundry, according to her duties and training. Such training is secured in charity hospitals for babies, and the course runs from six to nine months. The responsibilities, however, are very great, as the woman who employs a semi-trained nurse generally has many outside interests and throws all responsibilities upon her employee.

An expert masseuse can build up a good business in this day of nervous womanhood, of high-strung society women and overworked professional and business women. Hither the Swedish system of massage or the Weir Mitchell system, physicians say, should be mastered by the masseuse who expects to succeed. Both require many months of study, superb strength and that peculiar quality of personal magnetism which makes the exhausted patient respond to the efforts of her masseuse. A masseuse is paid by the hour or by the treatment, and secures work through physicians, registries for nurses, sanitariums, Turkish baths and beauty