Page:The Girl Who Earns Her Own Living (1909).djvu/314

 depot staff wil be able to guide the stranger to a "home" or temporary shelter.

The "home" or temporary shelter for working-girls has its disadvantages, I admit. Very often the girls living in such places complain that they feel like inmates of an institution. This is due to the attitude of the matron or superintendent, who is not always a tactful person. But the stranger in a big city will make no mistake in seeking such a refuge. Not only will the low board help her to stretch her small savings to the limit, but she will meet at these "homes" practical working-girls whose knowledge of city life and methods of securing positions will be worth more to her than columns of advertising for work. The proprietor of a second or third-grade boarding-house knows little or nothing of industrial conditions or of openings in the mercantile field. Other boarders at such establishments are either undesirable acquaintances without influence, or they are absorbed in their own affairs. But the bond of fellowship between self-supporting girls at "homes" is strong and vital.

For instance, I know of a college girl from Maine who for weeks tried unavailingly to secure a position in a publishing house. As her means dwindled and her pride rebelled against returning to her native town, she sought refuge in a "home," where she met a little woman who