Page:The Girl Who Earns Her Own Living (1909).djvu/311

 relatives, this is a social guarantee which always appeals to the city employer. Second, in the home of relatives the price paid for board includes privileges, such as doing one's own laundry work, pressing tailored suits, using a sewing machine, etc., which are often impracticable in a boarding-house or "home," or for which an extra charge is made.

Many girls deliberately avoid relatives on the plea that they prefer "to stand on their own feet." This independence is charming in theory, especially when enunciated in a quiet village, several hundred miles from the turmoil and loneliness of city life. But when the first wave of homesickness sweeps over the country girl in a dreary hall bedroom, she will wish that she had sought the shelter which the home of the despised relatives might have offered. We all know that relatives, on occasion, may be unnecessarily frank in their expression of advice and opinion, but to the girl who finds herself alone in the great city any sort of bloodties affords comforting protection.

The girl who has no relatives or friends in the city should secure all the information obtainable about boarding-places, "homes," etc., before leaving her home town. Such information can generally be secured through the Young Women's Christian Association. In Chicago, Philadelphia, Washington and Boston this as-