Girls and Women

and Women, by Harriet E. Paine
(AKA E. Chester}

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Title: Girls and Women
Author: Harriet E. Paine (AKA E. Chester}
Release Date: January 15, 2007 [EBook #20362]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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AND WOMEN ***

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The Riverside Library for Young People

NUMBER 8
GIRLS AND WOMEN
BY
E. CHESTER
(Harriet E. Paine)
[Illustration: Publisher's logo]
Copyright, 1890,
BY HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN & CO.
BOSTON AND NEW YORK
All rights reserved.
The Riverside Press, Cambridge, Mass., U. S. A.
Electrotyped and Printed by H. O. Houghton & Company.

CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
I. AN AIM IN LIFE 7
II. HEALTH 24
III. A PRACTICAL EDUCATION 38
IV. SELF-SUPPORT.--SHALL GIRLS SUPPORT THEMSELVES?
49
V. SELF-SUPPORT.--HOW SHALL GIRLS SUPPORT

THEMSELVES? 63
VI. OCCUPATIONS FOR THE RICH 82
VII. CULTURE 99
VIII. THE ESSENTIALS OF A LADY 116
IX. THE PROBLEM OF CHARITY 127
X. THE ESSENTIALS OF A HOME 136
XI. HOSPITALITY 154
XII. BRIC-À-BRAC 165
XIII. EMOTIONAL WOMEN 173
XIV. A QUESTION OF SOCIETY 187
XV. NARROW LIVES 201
XVI. CONCLUSION.--A MISCELLANEOUS CHAPTER 218
GIRLS AND WOMEN.

I.
AN AIM IN LIFE.
For the sake of girls who are just beginning life, let me tell the stories
of some other girls who are now middle-aged women. Some of them
have succeeded and some have failed in their purposes, and often in a
surprising way.
I remember a girl who left school at seventeen with the highest honors.
Immediately we began to see her name in the best magazines. The
heavy doors of literature seemed to swing open before her. Then

suddenly we heard no more of her. A dozen years later she was known
to no one outside her own circle. She was earning her living as
book-keeper in a large five-cent store! She led the life of a drudge, and
that was not the worst of it. She was a sensitive woman, and there was
much that was mortifying in her position. All her Greek and Italian
books were packed away. She knew no more of science than when she
left school. At odd minutes she read good novels, and that was all she
had to do with literature. Those who had expected much of her thought
her life was a failure, and she thought so too.
Yet there is another side to the picture. The aim she had set for herself
in life was not to be an author, though that idea had taken strong hold
on her, and she tried to realize it in spite of great discouragements. This
was her minor aim, but the grand aim with her had always been to lead
the divine life at whatever cost. It proved to cost almost everything. Her
utmost help was needed for her large family, which was poor. Unusual
as her success with editors had been, no girl of seventeen could depend
on a large income from magazines. A good salary was offered her as
book-keeper, and she accepted it.
She tried to continue her favorite occupation by rising early, but she
was not strong enough to go on long in that way. She sometimes had an
hour in the evening, but when she saw the wistful look in her mother's
face she would not shut herself up alone. At the rare times when she
was still free to choose she went back to her books and her pen, but she
could not do much, and at last she felt it would be better not to try. It
was simply a source of vexation, and she needed a serene mind above
all things.
The only way her life could open towards beauty or happiness at all
was by putting the true spirit into her daily work. With a resolute heart
she did this. No books were ever more beautifully kept than hers; every
figure was clear and perfect; every column was added without a
mistake. In short, she did her work like an artist.
To the sales-girls she was like a guardian angel. She might have written
good stories all her life without helping others half so much. Little,
weak, frivolous girls became strong, fine women simply from daily

contact with her. She did not realize that. She only knew that she loved