Page:The Girl Who Earns Her Own Living (1909).djvu/40

 this practical talk on salesmanship for ambitious, inexperienced girls.

When I told an acquaintance that I intended to advise the untrained, unequipped girl in need of a position to seek one behind the counter, she gave me a glance which held both pity for my ignorance and scorn for apparent indifference to the fate of the girls who will read this article.

"Well, if you knew the work as I do you would never advise any girl to go into a store. I've been in this store seven years. I'm getting ten dollars a week, and I'll never get any more. It's just drudgery, cross customers, spiteful floor-walkers, and no appreciation or thanks from any one."

Now it just happens that I have stood behind the counter and know just what I am advising girls to do. Ninety saleswomen out of every hundred will echo the sentiments expressed by the girl quoted above. The other ten have either secured promotion or see it looming up joyously in the near future.

Any sort of wage-earning may degenerate into drudgery. We make our lives, in shop or store or office, drudgery or pleasure by the way we tackle the work. The secret of finding either drudgery or pleasure in work lies in ourselves.

Given average intelligence, good health and a brave spirit, and yoai can transform the drudgery of life behind the counter into success. But