Page:The Girl Who Earns Her Own Living (1909).djvu/326

 one way each day, often both trips. Some laundry work she must have done, even if she is permitted to wash gauze underwear, stockings, handkerchiefs, neckwear and other small pieces at her boarding-place. Her shoes will wear out with painful celerity, and her entire wardrobe may have to be renewed, piece by piece, before the promised raise in salary is forthcoming. If she comes to the city unprovided with a black dress, and works in a store, her first expenditure will be for a black skirt and waist. In nearly all city stores the wearing of black and white is obligatory.

Figure this out, item by item, and you will see that the life of the inexperienced and untrained girl in a great city is drab-colored indeed. It will be months before her income will permit her to purchase the pretty clothes of which she dreamed before leaving home, or to indulge in the small pleasures which she pictured as part of every city girl's life.

On the other hand, if a girl has the right sort of business ability behind her ambition, if she can deny herself many little luxuries and for a time devote herself exclusively to mastering the line of work she has chosen, the city holds wonderful possibilities for her. There is always room for the girl with an idea, for the girl who does one thing well, for the girl who is willing, nay, anxious, to learn and to work. But a girl