Page:The Girl Who Earns Her Own Living (1909).djvu/231

 wages in the publishing house where she is employed to-day. She soon realized that if she specialized in some way she would command a larger salary. She took a course in German, then one in French, and now she can read proof in either of these two languages. She says she means to take up Latin and Greek next—and this is a woman who started on a district-school education!

I asked her whether she thought proof-reading was really worth the consideration of women workers. She answered:

"Unless you take joy in wresting hard-earned success from what seems like a barren field, no. But if you want a career which will forever broaden and lead you into new avenues of thought and study, yes. With most women, unfortunately, proof-reading is purely mechanical, and becomes trying on the nerves, almost maddening in its monotony. It is only when you study with an aim of increasing your value to your firm that you are happy in your work."

Another successful woman in this line of work never set type, but started in a clerical position. She had a letter of introduction to the foreman of a large printing and binding establishment. He said there was no opening for her as a copy-holder, the position at which she wished to start. The girl asked desperately if there was not something she could do, no matter how small.