Page:The Girl Who Earns Her Own Living (1909).djvu/170

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waitress because you would be one of the servants. You think you could not endure clerking in a store because you would be compelled to serve customers who are personally offensive to you. You think you could not work in a factory because you have heard that foremen and forewomen are domineering and callous. Well, all of these drawbacks and more you will find in the life of the manicurist, hairdresser or masseuse in the so-called beauty shop.

The first time that a customer tells you to "keep the change," you will realize that you are on a plane with the butler, the footman, the public waiter. The first time that you decline to serve a customer who, though elegantly dressed, may be foul of speech or under the influence of liquor, you will be asked to find work elsewhere. And your first lesson from foremen or forewomen in the shop will be that, while there are tricks in all trades, at the beauty shops there are more tricks and more downright dishonesty than you, in your innocence, ever dreamed of. When you have read this chapter, I hope you will have no illusions about the trade and its tricks.

To begin with, if you are the average girl who knows little or nothing of the various trades or lines of business for your sex, you imagine that you can go to a school of manicuring, hairdressing and massage in New York