Page:The Girl Who Earns Her Own Living (1909).djvu/100

 dip in the sea, her moonlight nights on the sand, her afternoon rest, when the machine no longer whirrs and the scissors lie as idle as their mistress. These privileges are hers, not because she knows a trade, for many of us have a trade and no privileges, but because she has found for herself a special service. She is doing something that few, if any, other women have deemed worthy their attention. She has made a niche for herself.

These instances of successful effort have not been recited for your amusement. I hope they have all gone to prove that it is not the trade, but the use to which you put it, that makes for contentment or big financial returns.

Perhaps you think from what I have written that training, or serving an apprenticeship, is not necessary, that somehow you can escape the monotony of preparation; but I did not wish to give you this impression. In each instance the girl served a hard apprenticeship either before or after entering business for herself. The maker of blouses served a long weary year in a waist factory. The builder of garments for children or of raiment for growing girls founded her individual success on a knowledge of cutting and sewing gained in the hard school of experience.

What I do want to set forth in this article is that the girl who thinks she has only to follow