"Ten per cent.," answered the principal. "Fifty per cent. will go into stores as cash-girls and wrappers, or take up the study of stenography. The remaining 40 per cent. will find employment in factories or in dressmaking or millinery shops as apprentices.
The country over, only one girl out of every hundred entering the elementary schools completes the high school course. This means that 99 out of every 100 leave school at the expiration of their last year in the grammar schools, or even sooner.
What becomes of the ninety and nine? For a time, at least, the vast majority pursue some gainful occupation and then marry. During the period of wage-earning, the ninety and nine want to secure the highest possible pay.
In the last sentence lies the excuse for this book. It has been written to meet the needs of the American girls graduating from grammar or high school and facing the problem of self-support. It has been written to answer the question: "How shall I earn my living?" a question which is hurled at every school-teacher, every writer for women, every editor of a magazine or newspaper in the United States to-day.
For the past five years I have been answering that question in personal letters written to more than ten thousand girls. These answers, and the result of five years of investigation, I am
