Why Roy Was Chosen

1916

By E. L. Andrews.

"I'm going to hire an office boy," said Mr. Russell to his wife, as they sat at the supper table.

"How would one of the Wade boys do?" suggested Mrs. Russell. "They are such manly, businesslike boys."

"I was considering them," replied Mr. Russell. "I think I shall hire one of them, but I don't know which to choose. I want a boy who will stick to a task until it is finished. I pay my boys well, and I expect their best." As he spoke Mr. Russell arose from his chair. "I think I'll go over and talk to the Wade boys," he said. "Perhaps I can decide then which one of them to hire."

A few moments later, Mr. Russell opened the front gate of the Wade home. The two boys, Jim and Roy, sat on the lawn with the hammer, nails and boxes before them.

"Hello," called Mr. Russell, "what are you making?"

"Hello," answered both the boys, and then Jim, who was a year older than Roy, added, "We are building a tool box to put in the barn."

"And I have pounded my thumb three times," volunteered Roy, holding up that bruised member.

"You'd better tie it up," counseled Mr. Russell, examining the thumb.

"Oh, it will soon be all right," returned Roy, with a shake of the head; "it doesn't hurt a bit."

While Roy spoke, Jim was quietly gathering boards and nails into the box. "Let's quit for tonight, Roy," he said in a whining tone. "We can finish this tomorrow."

But Roy continued to pound nails. "I'm going to finish this tool box tonight," he said quietly.

As Jim disappeared around the corner of the house, Mr. Russell's face glowed with excitement. "Roy," he said, "I'd like you to be my office boy this summer. Would you like the work?"

"Like it!" echoed Roy. "Oh, Mr. Russell, I'd be so glad to have the job!"

So the bargain was sealed. As Mr. Russell walked home through the dusk, he said to himself, "I've found the very boy I'm looking for." And Roy, finishing the tool box on the lawn, paused in his work thoughtfully, "I wonder how he came to choose me, when Jim could have done his work just as well as I can do it." — King's Treasuries.

Note: That's a nasty story, as there's no reason why it'd be wrong to finish the project tomorrow. But it obviously hinges on Jim's "whining tone," and Roy's diligent persistence as to why Mr. Russell chooses Roy.

Greeley's Thoughts on Home Life

1915

Horace Greeley, the noted editor, once wrote, "I think we all, as we grow old, love to feel and know that some spot on earth is peculiarly our own — ours to possess and to enjoy — ours to improve and to transmit to our children. As we realize the steady march of years in the thinning of our blanched locks, the deepening of our wrinkles, we more and more incline to shun travel and crowds and novelties, and concentrate our affections on the few who are infolded by the dear hut, our home."

"The ax is the healthiest implement that man ever handled, and is especially so for habitual writers and other sedentary workers, whose shoulders it throws back, expanding their chests and opening their lungs," Horace Greeley wrote. "If every youth and man, from 15 to 50 years old, could wield an ax two hours a day, dyspepsia would vanish from the earth and rheumatism become decidedly scarce. I am a poor chopper, yet the ax is my doctor and delight."

Horace Greeley said: "I should have been a farmer. All my riper tastes incline to that blessed calling whereby the human family and its humbler auxiliaries are fed. Its quiet, its segregation from strife and brawls and heated rivalries, attract and delight me. I hate to earn my bread in any calling which complicates my prosperity in some sort with others' adversity — my success with others' defeat. The farmer's floors may groan with the weight of his crops, yet no one else deems himself the poorer therefor. He may grow 100 bushels of corn or forty of wheat to every arable acre without arousing jealousy or inciting to detraction."

Seeking to Help Wounded Veterans Regain Lives

1915

No one has yet computed the sums which have been contributed by this country to the relief of war victims in Europe. The list of the official relief societies grows daily and the contributions run into seven figures, while placards announcing teas, dances, bazaars, fashion reviews and theatrical performances meet us on every hand. And still the insistent appeal goes on, in changing form to catch the attention of the generous. The greatest artists turn orators to beg for their pitiful, starving compatriots, and every ship brings an emissary with another earnest plea which cannot be resisted.

The latest of these emissaries is Mme. Charles Le Verrier, wife of the head of the College Chaptal, the great Lycee, or boy's school, of Paris, which is now, like all the others, a military hospital. She comes to the United States as the accredited representative of the Federation des Jouets, which has been formed for the benefit of the mutilated soldiers of the republic.

"Something had to be done to bring together individual effort and save the waste of funds and energy which comes from the lack of cooperation," Mme. Le Verrier says. "Wonders have been accomplished, but there is still so much to be done that we cannot afford to lose the smallest amount of time, strength or money. We found that we must organize, affiliate with the relief work of the provinces, and all pull together toward a definite end. The Federation des Jouets is one of the results of this attempt at organization.

"One of our greatest problems is the maintenance of disabled men after the war is over and during its course. We cannot consign them wholesale to institutions. There are too many, in the first place; France would become one vast institution if she attempted to care for all the wounded, the widows and orphans, and the destitute in that way. Besides, family life, the very foundation of the nation's life, would be in large measure destroyed. How to leave the wounded soldier in his home, how to provide him with a means of livelihood so that he may remain there with his family, is our great problem. Obviously he must first be taught to make something, and then a steady market must be secured for his work.

"We naturally thought of toys. Years ago the dolls of France had a great reputation, but we allowed Germany to learn from us how to make them, and then apply her genius for organization to take our market away from us. But we are going to win it back. The education of the men has already progressed wonderfully. While they are still helpless on their backs in the hospitals they are given wood and tools and models, and they dab at the bit of wood, happy in their hopes for the future. I have brought some of these tentative efforts with me, not that their crudity is interesting or attractive, but to compare with their later work as examples Of the rapidity of their progress. They learn very quickly indeed, and their delight in their own achievements is touching.

"More difficult than the teaching of the men is the finding of a market for their work. Europe doesn't want toys."

Ship Rigger Braves Death

1905

His Vocation Is One of the Most Perilous There Is

Men who delve deep into the bowels of the earth and those who rear buildings to great heights in the skies represent the extreme in perilous endeavor. The men who work downward, according to statistics, face far greater danger than those who toil slowly skyward. Yet here is an altitudinous calling fraught with peril every minute, says the Detroit Free Press. It is the ship rigger's job, and, compared with steeple climbing, it is much the more onerous.

The men engaged in it are as well trained as circus athletes, though in the rigging of a ship the performers are carefully safeguarded. The ship rigger, however, does not know at what minute a rotten bit of timber or a worn rope may give way and precipitate him to death. With a wider use of steam vessels the decline of sailing ships is a natural result, so that now the rigger does not find as much work to do as in the palmy days of the fast clipper when American commerce whitened every sea.


Test Weldless Chain

There have been sent to the navy yard, Boston, for testing, several samples of a new kind of chain, in which the links are made of thin steel and molded without welding. It is believed that this weldless chain is stronger than the other chains now in use in the navy, and if the tests prove this it will probably be generally adopted for use by the bureau of equipment.

Gossip About Women – "The New Woman"

Feb. 1896

Ella Wheeler Wilcox believes in reincarnation.

A training school for waitresses is a new Philadelphia institution.

Miss Helen Culver, of Chicago, has presented the University of Chicago with $1,000,000.

Mrs. Livermore has explained that when she called newspaper reporters a "pestiferous set" she spoke in a Pickwickian sense.

Victoria Morosini-Schilling, who started the fashion of eloping with coachmen, is now in St. Joseph's Convent, in Rutland, Vt.

Twenty-one sculptors competed for the statue of Sarah Siddons to be erected in London. The model chosen is by a Frenchman, Chevalier.

Mrs. Anna R. Aspinwall, a millionaire recluse of Pittsburg, Penn., has just died in Edinburgh. Her property is estimated at $4,000,000.

Annie Besant was a religious enthusiast in her early years and was inclined to become a nun, but compromised by marrying a clergyman.

Girls of sixteen are called "under buds" in fashionable designation, and have occasional social relaxations the way of a dance or a matinee theatre party.

E. W. Clark, of Nevada, Mo., tried to make Mrs. Caroline Stewart pay him $50,000 for declining to marry him, but the jury decided that he was undamaged.

The Society of the Daughters of the Holland Dames, Descendant of Ancient and Honorable Families of the State of New York, has been incorporated at Albany.

Two contemporary miniatures Joan of Arc, now in a private collection at Isenheim, in Alsace, are said be portraits of the Maid of Orleans, taken from life.

Miss Clara Barton is going to Armenia herself, to head the work of the Red Cross Society in relieving the distress of the Armenians. Five million dollars are asked for.

For several years a woman has driven the stage between Mancelona and Bellaire, Mich. She handles the reins as well as any man in that region, and has never been troubled with stage robbers.

It is reported that the Home Secretary of the British Government has consented to reopen the Maybrick case, and the friends of the unfortunate woman have high hopes of her at last gaining her liberty.

Mme. Dandet, wife of the French novelist, has a beautiful voice and thinks that this fact has caused the rumor that she was an actress before her marriage. She has never sung outside of her own salon.

The new woman is very much in evidence in Marcellus, Mich. The Town Council is composed of women, the local barber is a woman, the undertaker is a woman and many of the business houses are run by women.

Miss Melvina M. Bennett, a graduate of Boston University, has been appointed to the chair of Public Speaking and Vocal Interpretation in that institution. Miss Bennett is the first woman to gain a professorship in the university.

Girl ushers have just been appointed in the Arkansas City (Kan.) Opera House in place of men hitherto employed, There are six of them, and they are alleged to have been chosen from among "the handsomest young ladies in the city."

The Dowager Empress of China has been much affected by the Japanese war. She used to be a rather loud and violent person, who imagined that the whole world was created for her special benefit, but now she is quiet and humble and listens to advice from those who formerly dared not address her. She shows signs of aging rapidly.

Women in Hungary will henceforth be allowed to enter the Budapest University and become doctors and apothecaries, or study in the philosophical faculty. They must pass the same high school examinations as the men, however, and for that purpose the Government will provide them with opportunities to study Latin and Greek.

The Confidence of Youth

1920

There are some moments in our lives when obsessed by discouragements and failures we have made, we think with bitterness of the time when we looked forward with eager eyes, and glowing hearts to the opportunities to demonstrate our ability to carve out a great success for ourselves. We recall almost with contempt the joy we felt when we first arrived at the dignity of finding a position and the satisfaction of knowing that we at least stood upon our own feet and were not dependent upon others.

We did not become discouraged because perhaps we were forced to begin at the foot of the ladder, and even when we found the climbing hard work and the setbacks we received surpassed our successes we did not murmur, but pushed upward as far as we could. We thrilled to the young blood that flowed through our veins and warmed us into action; we could not realize our experience and because this was so we dared heights which later on proved beyond our reach, and when we achieved a failure instead of a success we did not grow discouraged.

There is a certain buoyancy of spirit and elasticity of hope in our early years that carry us forward over the roughest of roads to approximately our goal, and it is these qualities, says the Charleston (S.C.) News and Courier, that make life-in-the-making so happy a season for the majority of persons. It is only when failures pile up, and discouragements grow, and one ambition after another are denied fulfillment that we begin to lose that faith that has kept us alive, not alone faith in the ultimate achievement of our hopes, but also faith in ourselves without which we cannot expect to do very much.

—Saturday Blade, Chicago, Feb. 28, 1920, p. 6.

Thrifty Females Making Work For Themselves

1901

There Are Many Remunerative Occupations For Women

One thrifty woman who had watched the vegetables and fruit rotting by day at her grocer's, and which were a dead loss to him, proposed that they enter into an arrangement in the future whereby she should preserve and pickle his entire surplus, either for regular pay or upon commission, in the latter case he furnishing the sugar and spices. Another woman, with sharp business instincts, a butcher's wife, made up soup stock, and found a ready sale for it to many overworked housekeepers.

Still another, who knew but one thing thoroughly, and that was cookery, called every morning at certain physicians offices and formed a list of families in which sickness prevailed. To these families she offered to come every day for an hour or so and prepare in their own homes mutton broth, beef extract, chicken jelly, panada, gruels, fruit and herb drinks, wine whey, custard, etc., furnishing her time and labor cheaper than the articles could be bought at restaurants or women's exchanges.

Some women are specialists in one branch, such as handkerchief embroidering, lampshade making, fan painting, feather curling, glove cleaning, and the like, or can make beautiful neck scarves, or launder fine laces. Such can easily make their specialty pay, some by the aid of friends, some by the patronage of dealers in such goods, some by a house to house canvass made by themselves.

A young girl in one of the large eastern cities was recently puzzled by finding herself left almost helpless and homeless, with no talent in any one direction. There was but one thing of which she never tired, and that was of children, all of whom seemed to adore her; so this young girl went out at so much an hour to amuse sick and irritable children. Many a worn-out mother found her presence a most grateful repose. She was indefatigable in inventing new games and perfecting old ones, and her naturally retentive memory came also to her aid as a story-teller.

It is the woman who takes advantage of opportunities, the woman who can plan as well as execute, whom the world wants and for whom it will push its ranks apart to make place.

An Actress Tells About Health and Good Looks

1900

Something Useful May Be Learned From Her Experience

One of the most admired of American actresses, both for her grace and comeliness, has been divulging some of the secrets by which she has preserved her beauty.

"Vigilance," she says, "is the first requisite. I am ever on the alert and when I discover traces of fatigue or any other beauty-destroying symptoms in my face or figure I set about remedying it at once. I don't attempt to be anything but a professional woman during the theatrical season. I don't receive and I don't go to other people's houses, I simply haven't time, and I don't make it.

"My mode of life is very simple. I sleep nine or ten hours as a rule — never less than eight. I eat regularly and heartily, and avoid everything that would be apt to give me indigestion. Indigestion is a powerful foe to beauty, a greater foe than age, as great even as worry. I walk every day, rain or shine, and I wear a corded corset waist and stout flat-heeled boots. I try not to worry, no matter what happens, and I never tire myself unnecessarily.

"My method is so very simple few women would care to try it. It has no balms or diets, and I don't even go in for fancy baths. A warm bath at night and a cold bath in the morning are good enough for me. On Sundays I don't have to go to the theater, but I don't devote it to lolling or receiving visitors. I have my usual amount of exercise and then devote most of the day to manicure and hairdresser. When one's hair is five feet long and very thick it is not an easy task to have it shampooed.

"How do I keep the same weight all the time? Why, by vigilance and determination. If I gain a pound I immediately stop drinking water at meals and give up sugar for a while. If the bones in my neck begin to show I eat bananas and cream and put an extra spoonful of oil in my salad. It's so simple, but, of course, it precludes much pleasure."

No Equal Suffrage Movement in France After the American Fashion

1920

By Mme. Clemenceau-Jacquemaire, in New York Times

So far as I have been able to observe, there is no equal suffrage movement in France in the sense that you in America regard a movement. From earliest times the women in France have always held a high position in the community. They have taken an active part in business projects, and the professions have always been open to them. They have been prominent in literature, science, and art. Indirectly they have exerted great influence on the political life of the country. Consequently there has been no pronounced movement for equal rights in France such as has been started elsewhere.

The women of France are not anxious to vote or to be elected to office. Therefore I am not of the opinion that suffrage will gain headway in my country. Nevertheless I am watching with great interest the progress of the women of other countries. We admire your progressiveness and are interested in the experiment of sending women to congress, of giving them seats on the bench. This is, of course, in line with your advancement and liberal ideas. But our own traditions, our social and racial conditions, are very different.

I find no cause for anxiety regarding the competition of the sexes in business. Women who had taken men's jobs on the outbreak of the war are gladly relinquishing them, and peace adjustment is coming without bitterness.

Was it not Ellen Key who avowed that even if the suffragist was striving to be free she was making a mistake if she thought the vote would free her from the limitation of nature? Women cannot pass beyond those limits without interfering with the rights of nature and the potential child. Woman, of course, has a right to avoid marriage, and to allow herself to be turned into a third sex, provided she finds in this her greatest happiness. But when all is told, motherhood is the central factor of existence for most women.

What a Good Circus Rider Can Make

1907

They Earn Good Salaries, but Their Careers Are Short

A man horseback rider receives from $75 to $125 a week, and his career as a principal rider lasts about ten years. It is short not so much because these men get stiff and lose their agility as because they lose their nerve. Nearly all circus folk marry young, and with their added responsibilities comes a lively sense of danger which they ignored in younger days.

A man rider who cannot turn a somersault on a horse cannot command more than $50 a week. A woman rider who can perform this feat gets from $150 to $200 a week if she is a finished rider.

This isn't much when all the disadvantages of the calling are taken into consideration, but it should be remembered that all the expenses are paid, including the care, feeding and of course the transportation of their horses. All they have to provide is their own clothing. For the men riders clothes do not constitute much of a factor, and the women nearly always make their own, except those provided by the management.

Florence Nightingale Dies — "Angel of the Battlefield"

1910

Heroine of Crimea

"Angel of the Battlefield" Revered by All Soldiers

Florence Nightingale's Life Was One Long Sacrifice for the Cause of Suffering Humanity — The First Army Nurse

London. — A woman whose name for over half a century has been a household word throughout the civilized world and who was universally loved and revered as few women have been, was claimed by death when Florence Nightingale passed away in her London home. She had been an invalid for a number of years. During recent years, owing to her feebleness and advanced age, Miss Nightingale had received but few visitors. On May 13 last she celebrated her ninetieth birthday and was the recipient of a congratulatory message from King George.

"The Angel of the Crimea," "The Soldiers' Friend," are titles which were conferred upon Florence Nightingale for her memorable service in behalf of the wounded and dying in the Crimean war. The last honor to be conferred upon her by a grateful country was in 1908, when the freedom of the city of London was bestowed upon her. Before that, in 1907, she received from King Edward the English Order of Merit, the most exclusive distinction within the gift of the British sovereign. She was the only woman who has ever received that honor.

Miss Nightingale was born in Florence, Italy, May 12, 1820, and it was in honor of the "city of flowers" that she was named. She was the daughter of a wealthy English landowner and returned with her parents to England when a child. She early displayed an inclination toward philanthropy, and was the first woman to follow a modern army into battle as a nurse. Although her father was a very wealthy man, she insisted on learning all that there was to be learned about the profession of nursing and became famous as a "probationer" in London hospitals. Later on she went to France and subsequently to Germany. A few years later she was in Africa nursing Arabs with such effect, says one of her biographers, "that the Moslems were almost convinced that the woman had a soul."

When the war of the Crimea broke out the British army sent to the front to help the French in the struggle with the Russians was not accompanied by the usual corps of women nurses. The struggle had been going on only a few months, however, when "Bull Run" Russell began sending to his English newspaper heartrending accounts of the frightful conditions that prevailed in the British hospitals and the horrible state of the wounded men. Instantly all England was in an uproar, and for a time the British ministry seemed tottering. Then, almost at the same moment, for their letters crossed each other, Florence Nightingale volunteered to take a corps of nurses to the front and Herbert Sydney, the secretary of war, suggested to her such a commission.

October 15, 1854, Miss Nightingale set forth on her errand of mercy at the head of a corps of 34 women nurses and equipped with most of the material for setting up a first-class field hospital.

Establishing herself on the heights of Scutari, near Constantinople, Miss Nightingale and her aids began the organization of a field hospital. At one time she had four miles of wounded — four miles of cots, side by side — with only 34 women to nurse her patients. Soon after this letters began coming in hundreds into the homes of England Which established permanently in the hearts of the people the supremacy of Florence Nightingale among all English women. She was the "angel of the battlefield," "the angel of the Crimea."

In August, 1856, Miss Nightingale returned to England. A grateful country would have welcomed her royally, but she had no desire for public praise. She arrived in England when least expected and went to her home. The queen, however, was not to be denied. She sent for Miss Nightingale to visit her at Balmoral and decorated her with her own hand. The sultan of Turkey made her a valuable present. The English government, on behalf of the people, was very practical in its expression of appreciation and presented her with $250,000.

Perhaps the greatest good that has resulted from her noble life has been the setting in motion of a force which has led thousands of women to devote themselves to the systematic care of the sick and wounded.

Florence Nightingale — Born May 12, 1820, Died Aug. 13, 1910.

Using The Telephone – Some of the Travails of "Hello Girls" (Operators)

1878

They All Carry Hard Questions to 'Hello' Girl

Do you know how to use a telephone?

It would seem that everyone knows how to manage a small instrument so much in service as the telephone, but the central girls are of the opinion that there are several who have but a small conception of what a telephone is for.

Information, the young lady who tells you what others want, is probably the most unfortunate of these "hello girls" so far as being subject to the inexperienced patrons is concerned. One girl who had sat in information's chair declared she was tired of having the lady at No. — ask her what her washwoman's phone number was. The gentleman at some other number is forever demanding to know what was the matter with his phone, declaring that he could hardly hear.

About the time she gets through answering his question, a lady from another part of the city wants to know when her train leaves and just how many steps it is to the depot. Hundreds of others will ask other people's phone numbers instead of looking in the phone book, or ask for street addresses. Some inquire of people who never exist — "hello" girls say.

Then at the close of a hard day's work, information has all her troubles topped by a growled request that should have been submitted to an attorney or a doctor.

Telephone girls would endorse the opening of a school to teach people the use of a phone, what to ask information for, how to get the best service, and how to make life itself half enjoyable for the operators.

—The Ada Weekly News, Ada, OK, Oct. 27, 1921, p. 11.

Use of Typewriter Still In Its Infancy, Will Definitely Grow

1901

WRITING BY MACHINE

EMPLOYMENT OF TYPEWRITER YET IN ITS INFANCY.

Use Will Increase Until Every Hotel Will Provide Them for Guests, and All Business Men Will Use Them Themselves, Not Depending Upon Others.

Bicycling was a fad, but typewriting is a fact. The typewriter it, he, or she — is in the same class as the telephone, telegraph, and linotype. As to usefulness and universality, typewriting is in its infancy. Thus far it is used only by those who cannot get along without it. The business man puts in a writing machine as a luxury, and regards it as expense. A young woman who learns to use a typewriter feels called upon to explain that she may have to earn her living, and she can equip herself more quickly in this way than in any other. A superintendent or principal who advocates the introduction of typewriting into the schools feels obliged to prove that it is due those who may have to earn a living.

The attitude of business men and school people toward typewriting must change entirely, and the time for such change is already here. Where one writing machine is used now there will be ten in use in the near future. The only trouble up to this time has been that business men, superintendents, and principals rarely use the machine personally and advantageously. The typewriter is a servant, a helper, doing what the proprietor would have it understood that he is above doing, whereas the difficulty is that he cannot do it.

As a Yankee, I venture the guess that in the not-distant future the ablest men and women in home and office, in hotel and train will use the machine. To-day, away from home, if one wishes typewriting, he pays a dollar an hour or more for the service, but soon every first-class hotel will have all the writing machines which their patronage requires in the writing room and free to all guests. Already every first-class new hotel has a long-distance telephone in each room and a man has its use at any hour of day or night at the same rate that he would pay if he went out and sought a "pay station." In the same way one will be able to say when he registers at any first-class hotel, "I would like a room with a writing machine." At first he might have to pay fifty cents a day extra, as he does for a room with bath and lavatory appointments, but that will soon pass away, as the extra charge for the bath is going. Already it is appreciated that a bath is as important as a washbowl, and so the necessity of the writing machine will be early acknowledged.

In a word, the future of typewriting is with the schools. Teach it as universally as you teach penmanship, not for the sake of the girls who are to be typewriters, but for the greater advantage of the boys and girls who are to be the leaders in social, business, and professional life; not for the purpose of helping a poor girl to be independent, but for making rich and poor alike independent. The time has come for a universal and emphatic demand for the writing machine in every upper grade of the grammar school, and in every high school, academy, seminary, college, and university. — A. E. Winship, in Normal Instructor.

The Early Day of Modeling: Pretty Girls in Demand

1903

Pretty Girls in Demand

They Can Make Good Money Posing For Advertisements

"Pretty girls were never in such demand as they are today," said an advertising agent, "We need them to pose for photographs for almost every article that we advertise.

"We have found, you see, that nothing catches and holds the eye of the public like a good, clear photograph of a pretty girl. Hence, in I don't know how many thousands of advertisements you behold a charming young woman smiling at you.

"Are you advertising a camera? Then you must have a pretty girl taking pictures. Are you advertising a shoe? You photograph a pretty girl tripping daintily across a muddy street on a rainy day. Are you advertising a corset? Then you must have a pretty girl to wear it, and you are careful here to see that her arms and neck are beautiful. In fine, whatever you are advertising, the picture of a pretty girl will help more than anything else to bring you trade.

"Do you know that there is a firm in the West whose sole business is the photographing of young women, for advertising purposes? In this firm's stock are young women riding bicycles, playing pianos, skating, driving, combing their hair, bathing, doing a thousand things. Whatever you desire in their line they will send you almost immediately on receipt of your order.

"I tell you, in these days a pretty girl has no need to be short of money. If doesn't mind exhibiting her face and figure in advertising photographs she can get all the work at posing that she wants to do." — Philadelphia Record.

This From The Post Office: Female Mail Carriers

1916

FEMALE "R. F. D." CARRIERS

It Is Estimated That We Now Have One Hundred and Fifty

The post office department itself is not aware of the actual number of woman carriers in the rural delivery service, but it estimates that there are about 150. This is a very trifling percentage of the total number of carriers, 43,652 in 1914; but it seems safe to say that a high percentage of the romance which the rural delivery service is supposed to contain will be found along these 150 routes.

Possibly, just possibly, these faithful messengers of the government are not much concerned about the romantic side of their calling, the Christian Herald remarks. To them it is doubtless a very business-like proceeding, and they are willing to leave the flowery notions about the work to us who think of the R. F. D. service as symbolized by a placid white horse, a comfortable looking, enclosed and easy-going conveyance and a daily jaunt through leafy lanes and over purling brooks, with occasional stops at cheery farmhouses.

We who are strong in imagination, however, do not trouble to visualize these leafy lanes when the trees are bare, the fences hidden by snow, the brook a winding streak of ice and the farmhouses maddening suggestions of warmth and cheer that rural mail carriers cannot stop to share.

The Cost of a Cocktail

1916

The Drink a Young Business Man Had to Have Before Lunch

In New York city there is a man who once paid $6,000 for a cocktail. He did not know it then, and he never will know it unless he happens to read this story.

A certain prosperous manufacturing company needed a new departmental manager. The salary was $6,000 a year. The officers of the company considered a great many candidates and at last decided to offer the position to a clever young man of unusual business ability. He seemed to be exactly the man for that particular place. The president and general manager invited the young man to lunch with them at a downtown club, ostensibly to talk over a less important business matter. They wanted to "look him over" just once more.

The man met them at the appointed hour, and the president, anxious to make the occasion a pleasant one, ordered an elaborate luncheon. The waiter was a long time in bringing the first course, and the guest began to appear ill at ease. He seemed absentminded and uninterested in the conversation. He twisted about in his chair and tapped his finders nervously upon the table. Finally he turned toward the president and said almost desperately "Would you mind very much if I ordered a cocktail?" Then he flushed a little and offered a laughing apology for making the request.

The other men exchanged surprised and significant glances, but they called the waiter and ordered the cocktail. When it came the guest drank it eagerly. In a few moments he had become another man — the man of keen vision and quick mind, who could be so useful in their great business. There was no more preoccupation in his manner, no shifting about in His chair. He was alert, eager, clear headed.

But as the luncheon went on neither the president nor the manager mentioned the real object of the interview. Each was thinking the matter over seriously, and neither could be sure of the other's secretly formed opinion. The situation became awkward. Finally the president excused himself on the pretense of going into the library to speak to a friend who had just entered. But after speaking to his friend he went straight to the desk and wrote a message on a telegraph blank. He gave the message to a uniformed attendant and went back to the dining room.

In a few minutes a page brought a telegram to the manager, who read it hurriedly, while the president finished telling their guest about a shooting trip in Maine. This is what the telegram said:

The job is too big for a boozer. We can't run our business by cocktail power. — Youth's Companion

—Stevens Point Daily Journal, Stevens Point, Wisconsin, July 29, 1916, page 6.

To Teach, Or Not to Teach

1922

Teaching as a profession because of its traditional "gentility" is no longer. Today girls enter that profession because they have a genuine love for the work. Yet, despite the innumerable avenues that have been opened to women during the last few years, we still hear mothers advising their daughters to go in for teaching in preference to the more difficult jobs in other lines of work.

Teaching is not easy. The very principle of it makes it difficult. And in figuring out the advantages of choosing it as a career in preference to some other line of work for which the girl may have a natural talent, it is well to look at the other side of the seeming simplicity.

Children do not like to be taught. It is natural for them to love play and shun any influence that tends to curb this natural instinct. So that the premier difficulty the teacher finds is to get her class into the right frame of mind. Her own mind must be so constructed that she no more questions the value of what she is doing than a bird wonders if it is worth while to build a nest. She must possess enough lasting enthusiasm to make her pupils believe in the importance of education; to make them like what they naturally dislike.

Effort, self-control and love of learning are not universal human traits like receiving mail, dancing, skating and shopping. And yet it is this that the natural teacher must sell as her ware. To avoid the colorless existence of the drudge, the successful teacher must be endowed with a natural aptitude for this very technical line of work.

The long Summer vacation, the Saturdays off, the 9 to 3 hours all look attractive. Yet the other side of the picture ought to be taken into consideration. For it is the drudgery that comes from being forced into the wrong kind of work that frazzles out the nerves every year of some of our finest young women.

—Appleton Post-Crescent, Appleton, Wisconsin, January 3, 1922, page 12.

The Girl on the Job – "Nursing"

1921

The Girl on the Job

How to Succeed — How to Get Ahead — How to Make Good
By Jessie Roberts

NEED FOR NURSES

There are not enough trained nurses to meet the demand. On the other hand nurses are saying that they cannot make both ends meet unless their pay is increased. Many women who might take up the work are deterred because of this fact.

To meet this, the alumni societies of the training schools are combining with a view to settle on a proper advance. The new rate of pay would be $6 a day for 12-hour periods, and $50 a week for contagious cases.

Nurses are going to be asked for by communities to do public work. District visiting and prenatal care at the expense of the community, where circumstances demand, will be put into the hands of trained nurses. It will be worth doing, and sure to appeal to certain types of women who like nursing, but who do not care for private or hospital work.

A girl who wants to study for this profession should select her hospital with care. She will have to expect to do hard and disagreeable work. But in a number of institutions the eight hour schedule is being adhered to, more salary is being paid, and other matters that have given rise to discontent are being improved.

A trained nurse is one of the most important members of the community. There is now a great need for more of her. Most hospitals accept only college-bred women, and no women without the equivalent of a high school training will be accepted. If you who read this feel a call for nursing, get the address of a good hospital, write to the matron of nurses there, and follow her directions. You cannot enter upon a finer walk of life.

—Mountain Democrat, Placerville, California, October 29, 1921, page 6.