Chapter 31

THE BEST KIND OF WORK

Summing up what we have been able to learn, and what the world has learned, about employment, it is generally agreed that hard work is best. By hard work is meant work which requires from us the putting forth of all our energies and which calls for all our gifts. Work is very beneficial. As a man has said, "It takes the nonsense out of people," not the fun out of life, but the nonsense out of people, foolish, wrong, mistaken ideas which make people disagreeable to work with or play with or live with. It is not until our work, and methods of doing work, make use of all our ability and capacity that we know how fine work can be. You remember the story in the Bible which tells how Jacob wrestled with an unseen adversary until the breaking of the day. Then when Jacob was asked what he would have, he answered, "I will not let thee go except thou bless me." So work when we do our best with it blesses us.

Musicians speak of "technic" in playing and artists of "technic" in painting. Technic is skill, but it is more than skill. It is skill and individuality joined together. There is technic of a certain kind which we all may acquire in our work. Perhaps a story will explain best what this technic is. A beautiful girl who had all the gifts of a great actress but was untrained once made an extraordinary success in one of Shakespeare's plays. Later she failed utterly. She had not had that patient unceasing practice which makes every performance a high level of acting. When she felt inspired, she could act; but when she was dull or tired or out of sorts, her inspiration failed her, and she had no technic or skill in acting to fall back upon.

The good cook practically never fails in what she makes. She may not feel like cooking her best every day, but she knows how, and all her good work in the past stands by her skilful hands and makes her cooking a success every day. In the same way, the practised writer can rely on a certain technic or skill in writing even when he is dull and jaded and yet there is work which must be done.

In your work, no matter what it is, do your best every day as far as you are able, and by and by this skill in work will stand beside you like a friend and will help your hands and mind.

Have you ever noticed how a mother who has brought up five or six children of her own, takes a baby up in her hands? Such skill in handling an infant is one of the most beautiful things in the world. The mother can do it well, because she has done it often, with all her heart.

We often hear of success and failure in work. Good work is made up of both failure and success. One failure may spur us on to do better work than we have ever done before. A failure may teach us a great deal if we will learn from it. Do not be cast down because of failure. Find out what its lesson is. Do not be too much uplifted over a success. It may turn out a hindrance if we grow conceited over it. Both success and failure are temporary phases of good work.

We should learn not to try too hard, or be over anxious about work. Once an old gentleman who had taken up golf late in life said that his caddy had taught him a great lesson. "You are too anxious." the little boy said. "Just do as well as you can and don't be so anxious. You would play a better game that way."

We do not always believe when we are learning that work will be enjoyable. We have to learn _how to work_ before we can get the full enjoyment from our occupation. You had to learn how to skate and how to dance before you enjoyed skating and dancing. Trying to skate and trying to dance and being awkward, and not knowing how, does not give one the full enjoyment of skating and dancing. But when we do know how and have become skilful, how delightful these recreations are! When we know how to work, work also is full of enjoyment.

It is well to remember that work is a permanent part of our lives. Do not think of it, therefore, as a harsh or unfriendly part of life, but realize the meaning of employment as one of our greatest possessions. It is a means by which we can enter into the full enjoyment of our own faculties and which helps us to understand the importance of life. The comradeship of work is very real and lasting. The girl who goes forward, therefore, into her life's work with a determination to do her best, while she will often meet hard problems, is certain to find usefulness and happiness in her employment.

LIST OF OCCUPATIONS

Accompanying, see music.

Accounting.

Acting.

Advertising.

Anaesthetist.

Architecture.

Auditing.

Banking.

Basketry.

Bee-keeping.

Blouse making.

Bookbinding.

Bookkeeping.

Business managing and owning.

Butter making.

Buying, see store employment.

Candy making.

Canning.

Care of children.

Catering.

Cheese making.

Chemical industry.

Children's clothes making.

Children's nurse.

China decorating.

Chiropody.

Civil service.

Commercial traveller.

Companion.

Composition, see music.

Comptometer operating.

Concert singing and playing.

Confidential clerk.

Cooking.

Costume designing.

Dancing.

Deaconess.

Dentistry.

Designing fabrics, wall papers, etc.

Dictaphone operating.

Dietetics.

Domestic science: Cook, special cooking, dietitian, manager of clubs, hotels, restaurants, tea rooms and cafeterias, lecturer, teacher, writer.

Domestic service, see house employment.

Draughting.

Drawing.

Dressmaking: Designing, sewing, buying, machine operating, managing and owning.

Embroidery.

Employment expert.

Enameling.

Entertainer.

Etching.

Expert in flour testing.

Factory employment: Machine operators, designers, forewomen, stenographers, bookkeepers, nurses, dietitians, welfare workers, travellers, managers and owners.

Farm work for women: Farm managing, bee-keeping, plant growing, flower growing, poultry and eggs, butter, milk and cheese, vegetables, fruit growing.

Farm managing.

Florist.

Flower growing.

Food demonstrating.

Fruit growing.

Governess.

Hairdressing.

Handicrafts: Basketry, book binding, china decorating, embroidery, enameling, jewelry making, leather work, metal work, pottery, stencilling, weaving, wood carving.

Home making.

Hostess, in hotels, clubs, etc.

House decorating.

House furnishing.

House employment: Cook, laundress, housemaid, children's nurse, seamstress, ladies' maid, companion, mother's help, housekeeper, household manager and organizer.

Illustrating.

Instructor in wireless telegraphy.

Insurance.

Investigating, see social work.

Jewelry making.

Journalism.

Landscape architecture.

Landscape gardening.

Laundry.

Law.

Leather work.

Lecturing.

Library work.

Machine operating.

Manicuring.

Map making.

Massage.

Medicine.

Metal work.

Milk farming.

Millinery: Making, designing, selling, managing, owning.

Missionary work.

Mother's help.

Motor driving.

Munitions.

Music: Accompanying, composition, concert playing and singing, teaching.

Nursing: Institutional, private, military, public health, schools, superintendents of hospitals and training schools, managing and owning private hospitals.

Office employment: Stenographer, typist, bookkeeper, confidential clerk, secretary, billing clerk, cheque clerk, fyling clerk, dictaphone operator, comptometer operator, librarian, manager.

Painting.

Pharmacy.

Photography.

Police woman.

Postal clerk.

Pottery.

Poultry farming.

Proof reading.

Real estate: Agents, rent collectors.

Salesmanship.

Sculpture.

Seamstress.

Secretarial work.

Sewing by the day, see seamstress.

Shampooing.

Shopping expert.

Social work: Secretaries, statisticians, visitors, lecturers, dietitians, doctors, nurses, field workers, investigators, parole officers, officers of institutions, superintendents.

Statistical work.

Stencilling.

Stenography.

Store employment: Messenger girls, parcel girls, markers, assistants, stenographers, shoppers, house furnishers, assistant managers, managers, assistant buyers, buyers, advertisers, nurses, dietitians, welfare workers, employment experts, owners.

Teaching: Public schools, high schools, colleges, private schools, music, dramatic, domestic science, kindergarten, arts and handicrafts, lecturing, teaching handicapped children, manual training, sewing, millinery, dressmaking, physical training, gardening, commercial subjects, governess, tutor, secretary, supervising.

Telegraphy: Morse operating, automatic machines.

Telephone employment: Operating, supervising, private switchboard operating.

Vegetable growing.

Vocational advising.

Weaving.

Welfare work.

Window decorating.

Wood carving.

Work for the girl at home: Blouse making, children's clothes, candy making, sewing, dressmaking, millinery, bread making, cake and jam making, pickles, marmalade, catering, shopping, embroidery, laundry work, mending, making underclothes, canning, raising fruit and flowers, poultry and eggs, vegetable growing, managing a lending library, teaching, mother's help, house work for neighbours, doctors' and dentists' secretary, visiting bookkeeper, visiting housekeeper.

Writing.

BIBLIOGRAPHY.

Art of Right Living, The, by Ellen H. Richards: Whitcomb & Barrows, Boston (1904).

Business of Being a Woman, The, by Ida M. Tarbell: Macmillan, New York, 1916.

Careers: Women's Employment Publishing Company, London, 1916.

Classified List of Vocations for Trained Women, by E. P. Hirth: The Intercollegiate Bureau of Occupations, New York, 1917.

Commercial Work and Training for Girls, by Jeannette Eaton and Bertha M. Stevens: Macmillan, New York, 1915.

Cost of Cleanness, The, by Ellen H. Richards: Wiley & Sons, New York (1908).

Cost of Food, The, by Ellen H. Richards: Wiley & Sons, New York (1901).

Cost of Living, The, by Ellen H. Richards: Wiley & Sons, New York (1899, 1905).

Cost of Shelter, The, by Ellen H. Richards: Wiley & Sons, New York (1905).

Democracy and Education, by John Dewey: Macmillan, New York (1916).

Domestic Needs of Farm Women. Report No. 104: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Washington, 1915.

Domestic Service, by C. V. Butler: G. Bell & Sons, London, 1916.

Economic Needs of Farm Women. Report No. 106: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Washington, 1915.

Economic Position of Women. Vol. I, No. 1. Proceedings of Academy of Political Science: Columbia University, New York, 1910.

Educational Needs of Farm Women. Report No. 105: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Washington, 1915.

Fatigue and Efficiency, by Josephine Goldmark: Charities Publication Committee, New York, 1912.

Food and Household Management, by Helen Kinne and Anna M. Cooley: Macmillan, New York, 1915.

Home and the Family, The, by Helen Kinne and Anna M. Cooley: Macmillan, New York, 1917.

Household Administration, edited by Alice Ravenhill and Catherine J. Schiff: Grant Richards, London, 1910.

Increasing Home Efficiency, by Martha Bensley Bruere and Robert W. Bruere: Macmillan, New York, 1913.

Industrial Democracy, by Sidney and Beatrice Webb: Longmans, Green, London, 1897.

Intercollegiate Bureau of Occupations, New York. Reports. 1911-1913, 1914-1915.

Life and Labour of the People of London, Vol. 4. Women's Work, by Charles Booth: Macmillan, London, 1902.

Life of Ellen H. Richards, by Caroline L. Hunt: Whitcomb & Barrows, Boston, 1916.

Living Wage of Women Workers, The, by L. M. Bosworth: Longmans, Green, New York, 1911.

Long Day, The: The Century Company, New York, 1905.

Making Both Ends Meet, by S. A. Clark and Edith Wyatt: Macmillan, New York, 1911.

Minimum Cost of Living, The, by Winifrid Stuart Gibbs: Macmillan, New York, 1917.

Minority Report of the Poor Law Commission, Part 2. The Unemployed.

New Era in Canada, The, edited by J. O. Miller: J. M. Dent & Son, London and Toronto, 1917.

Profitable Vocations for Girls, by E. W. Weaver: A. S. Barnes Company, New York, 1913.

Report of The Ontario Commission on Unemployment, 1916.

Road to Trained Service in the Household, The, by Henrietta Roelofs: National Board Young Women's Christian Associations, New York, 1915.

Saleswomen in Mercantile Stores, by E. B. Butler: Charities Publication Committee, New York, 1909.

Shelter and Clothing, by Helen Kinne and Anna M. Cooley: Macmillan, New York, 1915.

Social and Labour Needs of Farm Women, Report No. 103, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Washington, 1915.

Survey of Occupations Open to the Girl of Fourteen to Sixteen, by H.H. Dodge: Girls' Trade Education League, Boston, 1912.

Trade Union Woman, The, by Alice Henry: D. Appleton, New York, 1915.

Vocational Mathematics for Girls, by Wm. H. Dooley: D.C. Heath, Boston, 1917.

Vocations for Boston Girls. Bulletins. Telephone operating. Bookbinding. Stenography and typewriting. Nursery maid. Dressmaking. Millinery. Straw hat making. Manicuring and hairdressing. Nursing. Salesmanship. Clothing machine operating. Paper box making. Confectionery manufacture. Knit Goods manufacture: Girls' Trade Education League, Boston, 1911, 1912.

Vocations for Girls, by Mary A. Laselle and Katherine E. Wiley: Houghton, Mifflin Company, Boston, 1913.

Vocations for the Trained Woman, Vol. 1, Pts. 1 and 2. Women's Educational and Industrial Union, Boston: Longmans, Green, New York, 1910, 1914.

Wage-Earning Women, by Annie Marion Maclean: Macmillan, New York, 1910.

Ways of Woman, The, by Ida M. Tarbell: Macmillan, New York, 1915.

Welfare Work, by Dorothea Proud: G. Bell & Sons, London, 1916.

Woman and Labour, by Olive Schreiner: T. Fisher Unwin, London, 1911.

Woman--Bless Her, The, by Marjory MacMurchy: S. B. Gundy, Toronto, 1916.

Women and the Trades, by E. B. Butler: Charities Publication Committee, New York, 1909.

Women and Work, by Helen M. Bennett: D. Appleton & Company, New York, 1917.

Women in Modern Industry, by B. L. Hutchins: G. Bell & Sons, London, 1915.

Women's Educational and Industrial Union, Boston. Reports, 1913, 1914.

Work-a-day Girl, The, by Clara E. Laughlin: Fleming H. Revell Company, New York, 1913.

Youth, School and Vocation, by Meyer Bloomfield: Houghton, Mifflin Company, Boston, 1915.

INDEX

PAGE

Accompanying 92

Accounting 94

Acting 93

Advertising 90

Anaesthetist 102

Architecture 91

Art 90

Babies 84

Bank account 114

Banking 94

Bee-keeping 67

Best kind of work 138

Biography 123

Blouse making 78

Boarding house management 104

Bookbinding 90

Bookkeeping 19, 80

Book reviewing 89

Books 123

Broker 105

Business college 15

Buying a house and garden 114

Canadian Government Annuities 115

Candy making 78

Capital 65, 69

Care of children 84

Cataloguer 73

Catering business 101, 104

Changing about 8

Chemical industry 96

Children's librarian 74

Children's nurse 44

Circulation librarian 74

Citizen 135

City girl as neighbour 134

City, town and country wages and expenses 108

Civic duties and responsibilities 133

Civil service 19, 97

Cleanliness 118

Commercial traveller 105

Comptometer operating 19

Concert singing and playing 92

Conductor of foreign tours 105

Consulting a dentist 119

Consulting a physician 119

Cook 30

Co-operation as applied to work of home 85

Co-operative housekeeping by girls 131

Co-operative principles 86

Country girl as a neighbour 134

Country walks 120

Custom dressmaking 48

Dancing 93

Deaconess 98

Dentistry 96

Departments of Domestic Science 32

Designing 90

Designing costumes 45

Dictaphone operator 19

Dietitian 98

Difference between home and work 20

Difference between school and home 20

Division of family income 113

Domestic Science 28

Dress 17

Dressmaker 45

Dressmaking, qualifications for employment, 46 training, 46 wages 48

Dressmaking as a business 48

Dressmaking as a factory trade 48

Embroidery 90

Employment department 9, 105

Employment expert 105

Entertaining 105, 119

Estimate of yearly income 109

Examinations 35

Exercise 118

Factory employment, qualifications for, 6 training, 4 wages 6

Fair wage 109

Farm work for women 65

Farm managers 65

Festivals 120

"Field" work 98

Financial adviser 105

Flower growing 66

Food 25

Food demonstrator 102

Franchise 133

Fresh air 119

Friendships 27

Fruit growing 79

Getting on with fellow workers 21

Girl who really wants work 23

Girl's accounts, The 113

Girl's reading, The 121

Girls' Clubs 131

Girls with intellectual gifts 94

Going into business for one's self 99

Good Samaritan, The 135

Good thoughts 120

Good times 26, 119

Government employment bureau 2

Hairdresser 61

Hairdressing and manicuring, qualifications for employment, 61 training, 61 wages 62

Hairdressing and manicuring as a business 62

Handicrafts 90

Hard work 138

Headings for girl's account book 113

Headings for private account book of business woman 112

Health 116

Health as an aid to good employment 116

Health and beauty 117

Health exercise expert 104

Helpers in finding work 2

High character of teaching as a profession 36, 38

History 123

Holidays 119

Home employments 82

Home gardens 85

Home girl's advantages 77

Home girl's allowance 77

Home maker 84

Home maker a necessary worker 127

Hotel manager, hostess, chaperone 104

House decorating 91

House employment, qualifications for, 30 training, 29 wages 29

House furnishing 91

House worker 28

Household accounting 83

Household expert 102

How to choose place of employment 5

Humanizing work (preface) iv

Illustrating 90

Improving one's work 106

Incomes of professional women 97

Increasing one's wages 111

Institutional nursing 44

Insurance 94

Interests outside work 13

Investigators 105

Investing 114

Investing in an education 115

Jewelry, handwrought 90

Journalism 88

Journalist 88

Keeping other people well 82

Kindergarten 37

Knowing how to keep well 24, 82

Knowledge of nursing required by average girl 26, 83

Landscape gardening 91

Laundry work 104

Law 95

Law and social work 95

Learning after the position is found 20

Learning from others 22

Learning how to be a good neighbour 133

Learning how to work 140

Lecturer 37

Librarian 71

Library work, qualifications for employment, 71 training, 72 salaries 74

Life insurance 115

Limited hours for house worker 30

Living expenses 107

Living wage 107

Luxuries 127

Magazines 122

Making one's own clothes 53

Management of clubs, hotels, tea-rooms, etc. 32

Managing a tea-room business 100

Managing money 25, 83

Manicuring 62

Manicurist 61

Marketing 104

Maxwell, Sara 38

Medicine 95

Mending 25

Milliner 50

Millinery, qualifications for employment, 50 training, 50 wages 51

Millinery a seasonal trade 52

Millinery business 51

Money and wages 107

Mothers 139

Music 92

Music teaching 92

National character 136

Nature of a home based on right human relations 84

Necessaries of life 126

Necessary work 126

New employments in food, clothing, and home-making 102

New work 102

Newspapers 121

Nursing, qualifications for employment, 42 training, 39 salaries 43

Nurses' registries 43

Nurses' training schools 41

Office building management 105

Office employment, qualifications for, 16 training, 15 wages 17

Organization for comradeship 129

Other occupations for milliners 52

Outdoor clubs 131

Pageant mistress 105

Painting 90

Pharmacy 96

Photography 90

Piece work 7

Plan for spending 112

Poetry 123

Poultry farming 69

Preserving and canning 79

Private hospital 99

Private nursing 43

Privilege of voting 133

Probationer 41

Producer of plays 105

Proof reading 90

Proper division of family income 113

Provincial and national franchise for women in Canada 133

Public health nurses 44

Public marketing expert 104

Public stenographer 18

Publicity writer 105

Qualifications for the successful home maker 83

Qualifications that help to ensure steady employment 23

Qualities of the successful business woman 99

Questions the girl should ask herself 2

Reading circles 131

Reading on one's work 122

Real estate agents 105

Real wages 107

Recreation 26, 131

Red Cross nurses 42

Reference librarian 73

Remunerative work for the girl at home 76

Rent collecting 105

Reporting 89

Research work 96

Responsibility 99

Rest 26, 118

Richards, Mrs. 113

Righting a wrong 136

Routine work 71

Rules for reading 124

Safeguarding employment 127

St. John Ambulance 42

Saleswoman 9

Saving 112

School nurses 44

School of salesmanship 10

Seamstress 48

Second employment 128

Self-support 20, 109

Sewing by the day 48

Shopping expert 104

Skilled work 4

Social and economic questions 124

Social engagements have no claim on working hours 23

Social work 105

Special care of children 104

Special cooking 32

Spending 112

Standards of living in different employments 108

Statistician 105

Stenographer 15

Store employment, qualifications for, 9 training, 10 wages 11

Success and failure in work 139

Sunshine 119

Superintendents of training schools and hospitals 44

Taking stock of one's position 106

Taxes 134

Teachers of special subjects 37

Teaching, characteristics of girl who should become a teacher, 35 training, 34 salaries 36

Technic 138

Telegraphy, qualifications for employment, 59 training, 59 wages 60

Telephone employment, qualifications for, 56 training, 56 wages 57

Telephone girl 56

Telephone school 56

To read well 121

Town girl as a neighbour 134

Trained nurse 39

Training for home making 83

Typist 19

Understanding each other's work 129

V.A.Ds. 42

Vocational adviser 105

Voting by women 133

Wages 107

Wages, explanation of figures quoted 3

Wages for skilled workers 107

Waitress, qualifications for employment, 64 training, 63 wages 64

Weaving 90

Welfare work 98

What every girl needs to know 24

What is harmful to health and happiness 120

What one girl can do for another 129

What the home maker needs to know 84

What wages should give 107

Woman's page 89

Wood carving 90

Work necessary to health and happiness 3

Young Women's Christian Associations 2, 11, 42, 70

End of Project Gutenberg's The Canadian Girl at Work, by Marjory MacMurchy