Page:The Girl Who Earns Her Own Living (1909).djvu/57

 The girl who cannot indite a legible, well-spelled, clearly-phrased letter has little or no chance of receiving an application blank. A training-school for nurses is not the place in which to study the rudiments of English and arithmetic.

The girl who is slovenly about her person or her clothes need not waste money on carfare to the city where the hospital-school is located. Untidiness clips the wings of a probationer as quickly as a physical defect. The strong, straight-limbed, full-chested girl who carries herself well, and whose skin is clear and well kept, whose clothes are immaculate, whose every movement is alert, is the girl for whom the superintendent is looking. The girl who is given to violent intimacies, followed by violent quarrels, is not fitted for this work. The trained nurse must be self-contained to the point of being secretive. She must study the art of keeping to herself and her work. Neither is the training-school for nurses the place for the high-strung, emotional girl, who overestimates her importance. The path which leads to a diploma holds for a girl absolute self-effacement. Sheis only a very small part of the great hospital system with which she casts her lot. Her personality is merged into one word—"duty."

Having decided that you are fitted for the