Page:The Girl Who Earns Her Own Living (1909).djvu/50

 teaching, for painting. Well, why not for buying goods in a modern store? Remember that when you sell goods at five, six or seven dollars a week you are being trained as a buyer, and at the firm's expense. That training ought to be one reason for gratitude. If you never become a buyer, if you remain in the class of store drudges, it is no one's fault but your own. The firm is ready to do its part, if you do yours.

Many of these suggestions apply also to girls from small cities or even country villages who wish to secure positions in city stores. There is no prejudice against country girls in the big city stores. Several superintendents have told me that, all things being equal, they prefer the out-of-town girl to the city girl, because she proves more earnest in her endeavors, largely because she has more at stake.

The out-of-town girl must expect a rigid cross-examination at the hands of her prospective employer. He will want to know with whom she intends to board, and what she will pay. This, because he knows just what salary he can offer and how she must make that stretch to cover nourishing food, presentable clothing and incidental expenses. If he is more than ordinarily impressed by her appearance, he may add a dollar a week to the salary he would offer the city girl who lives with her parents.