Page:Side talks with girls (1895).djvu/36

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
24
Side Talks with Girls

at home I shall feel that all my thought has not been in vain, and if one girl is convinced that, by staying at home and helping with head and heart, living out her life as it is planned for her, she is doing right, I shall feel so glad that extra thanks will go up to Him who careth for all, and before whom the rich and the poor are equal.

THE GIRL IN THE GREAT TOWN

A girl, who, one year ago, came to New York from a country town, obtained a position in one of the big shops, is well liked by her customers and the people in authority over her, works from eight o'clock in the morning until six at night, with half an hour's intermission for luncheon, and earns exactly six dollars a week. She is considered extremely fortunate, for girls who are near her, and who work for the same length of time, are only earning four or five. The six dollars a week in a small town sounds like a great deal of money. In New York it barely keeps girls from starvation, or worse. I will tell you how the money goes. My friend pays four dollars a week for her board, and occupies a room with another girl; her washing costs her fifty cents a week, her car fare fifty more, and she has one dollar left, out of which to dress herself, to buy the little necessaries of life and, God help her, to get her pleasures. She tells me