ture on this subject, for example, has resulted in the published findings of two investigations undertaken during the past two years by organizations such as the Federation of Settlements and the International Sunday School Association: "Young Working Girls,' by Woods and Kennedy, and "The Sunday School and the Teens," by

Alexander.

But until recently the lack of printed material especially relating to the girl would seem to indicate that this work has in general been held in light esteem. Authority tells us that one-third of the entire population of America is made up of adolescents, over onehalf of whom are girls. Society is awakening to the fact that it owes a distinct obligation to this part of its citizenship, and it is of marked interest to follow the ways in which this need is being met. At the meetings of "The Men and Religion Forward Movement," a conspicuous banner was displayed on which ran the slogan for boys' work, "Formation while growing up, rather than reformation when grown up." Is this not equally applicable to growing girls? Happily the Young Women's Christian Association is keeping abreast of the recent girls' movement, if, indeed, it may not be said to be in the vanguard.

Among the recommendations passed at the biennial convention at Richmond, there was one which, if it is put into effect in local Associations, is bound to mark a new epoch in girls' work. It is of such importance and significance that it is quoted verbatim :

the

"Realizing that in proportion as problems of the adolescent girls are solved, the problems of later life are diminished, and acknowledging that the Association is answerable for the debt it owes to the adolescent girl, it is recommended:

1. That the name Junior Department be changed to Girls' Department.

2. That the aim of this department shall be to promote activities of all kinds among girls of all classes between ten and fifteen years of age inclusive.

3. That the Girls' Department shall receive the same emphasis accorded to the work for young women in point of trained secretaries, suitable equipment, efficient

committees, and the co-operation of all other departments in the Association.

But the mere passing of a recommendation will not alone work the miracle. Until the importance of girls' work is given full recognition, in local Associations, it will continue to be inconsequent and of little permanent value. It is, however, most gratifying

to find that this recommendation is

rapidly being put into actual operation. Instead of irregular and untrained workers, we are coming to see that the girls' work must have the very best of trained secretaries to develop and promote its interests. Generous equipment in the way of proper rooms and other facilities for carrying on the work are clearly as essential for the younger as for the older members. Picked women with qualifications which fit them for this particular responsibility are being chosen to serve on the girls' committees.

The co-operation of all of the other departments, such as the physical, religious work, educational, and extension departments, is being enlisted for the furtherance of the work for the en

tire Association membership, which, we

scarcely need to remind ourselves, includes the younger as well as the older members.

May we not regard it as a mark of special distinction that we are honored in having been given, almost exclusively, this special New Year's number of THE ASSOCIATION MONTHLY for

consideration of the various phases of girls' work.

In recognition of all these causes for thanksgiving, the Girls' Department is eager to prove that it has much to give as well as to receive from the Association. It is to the girls who are now in their early teens that we may shortly look for our loyal, trained volunteers and our active membership. not only in the city, but also in the country and student work. Special emphasis is being laid upon the value of developing initiative and responsibility among the girls themselves. The eagerness with which they respond to

I

T makes all the difference in the world how you ask the question. One girl, with a toss of the head, a chip on the shoulder, and other indications that she lives on Mount Defiance, flings forth, "Who's afraid?" -and the answer everybody knows. Another girl, while confessing to a feeling of anxiety, still retains the sense of values which is indispensa

* Mrs. Keeler writes from her experience in conducting the girls' department in a leading magazine.

ble. "Who's afraid?" may be a challenge, or it may denote a dispassionate investigation of conditions from which will ensue increase of power to cope with obstacles. Fear can not be banished, utterly, from the Land of Self-Support, nor from any other realm where men and women live. The very ability to look before and after, without which we would not be sibility of sometimes, as the newsworth our salt, carries with it the pospapers express it, "viewing with

alarm." But if we are justly to appraise an object we must view it from all sides, and with discerning eyes. Many of us are short-sighted.

Furthermore the fear is father to the thought; the ogre that loomed up ahead and seemed to be making straight for us turns out to be something entirely different, and also turns away long before it reaches us. A girl once wrote me that she wanted to be a nurse, and yet was afraid to try. The work itself appealed to her, but she had heard such terrifying stories of the struggles of trained nurses to make both ends meet when they were unemployed that she dreaded to run the risk of meeting a similar experience. I told her she was guilty of that most unbusiness-like proceeding borrowing trouble, and at high rate of interest. And then I quoted to her: "Some of your griefs you have cured and the sharpest you still have survived, but what torments of pain you endured from the evils that never arrived." This was supplemented by the statement that an efficient trained nurse, thrifty, tactful, and endowed with a pleasing personality, did not need to worry about what possibly might happen between cases. rule such a nurse found restful intervals all too brief; at any rate, it was foolish for Miss Apprehension, who had not yet even entered on professional training, to look so far ahead. One step at a time is all that concerns us, and by taking that step nrmly we develop ability to meet any condition that in future may arise.

As a

Another girl, who had consulted me about a certain field of work, in her second letter said that she feared to enter on the course of training I advised because two years before she had attempted similar preparation. and through discouragement abandoned it. In her own words she "studied hard, but failed." In answer I suggested that she study harder this

time and succeed. Technical training is absolutely essential for remunerative work, and no matter

what mistakes the past has held there is always time, while life endures, to turn failure to success. We can do it if we will!

But leaving out of consideration the troubles that are fortunately sidetracked en route, you may insist that evils a-plenty do arrive. One young woman writes to me: "The now glares at me with a fixed, relentless stare." I am wondering if she glares back! Many of us do attempt, more or less vindictively, to look fear out of countenance; others adopt the ingratiating attitude of the child who sings softly in the dark; and many others are steadied in emergencies by the consciousness that they are needed. They stand calm just because they must; and it's the standing calm that counts. Whatever fear oppresses us, if earnestly we seek divine guidance and flinch not from following it, we shall conquer fear. Not all at once; don't buy your banners now. But surely, if slowly, victory will come, for poise and patience are invincible.

And what is your definition of poise? For me poise no more means being made of iron than it means partaking of the nature of the jelly-fish. What helps some to banish fear would hinder others. Each of us must reckon with the limitations imposed by temperament, but the reckoning must be accurate; to run up an enormous bill of emotions and charge it all to temperament is morally dishonest.

Thus the girls who tell me that they have inherited certain fears and antipathies and that therefore they should not be blamed for giving way to them are shirking their personal responsibility. If for instance all the women of your family, as far back as the record runs, have burst into tears whenever any one found fault with them it is high time that you, if you expect to last long in commercial life, should break with tradition once for all. She who mingles sobs and stenography and weeps into. the office telephone, has frequent

recourse,

but in vain, to the "Help Wanted" advertisements. The young woman who reaches a position of reward and responsibility is usually dry-eyed.

One of my young friends is employed by a man who, she says, is feared by every one in the establishment. "I tremble in his presence," she declares, “not because I cannot do my work, but because he rules us with a rod of iron. He glories in his power over all of us, not seeming to know or care that we would do far more for him if he would only give us a word of appreciation now and then."

Of course we all like appreciation. It does much to lighten toil and banish weariness. But if praise is not forthcoming it is the part of wisdom to ignore that fact, and do our work. faithfully, irrespective of the attitude of any one. An efficient manager knows who are the able, conscientious members of the staff, and if from no better motive than business shrewdness, will in time do justice to them. There are instances, I know, where workers suffer hardships. Good nature is sometimes imposed upon; recognition is too long delayed, remuneration for good work is inadequate. But in high class concerns, whose number is constantly increasing, employees have opportunity to state their grievances. The complaints of a chronic grumbler are discounted in advance, but a patient, efficient employee is listened to attentively, and many tangles which beforehand seemed hopelessly confused are often, when approached in the right spirit, smoothed out satisfactorily. Many a chasm has been bridged by a quiet talk.

Under other conditions different measures must be employed. A young woman who had been parlor maid in one family for four years wrote me that circumstances for which she was not in the least to blame had arisen in the household and that her mistress threatened to "fire her without a line of reference." The maid in

sisted she had done no wrong. But she was fearful of results. It seemed to me that if she was not at fault, and if her employer, too, was the right sort, recommendation should not be refused. There was the possibility that in the opinion of unprejudiced persons who knew all the facts the maid might be considered culpable; if so, no testimonial would long avail to help her help herself; nor on the other hand would lack of recommendation from an unjust mistress be for a good servant a lasting detriment. So I suggested to the maid that she seek another place in the small town which knew them both. She did so with success, and was inclined to agree with me that when we ourselves do right, and when we are also able and alert, no one can permanently injure us.

The over-anxious are always underwise, while calm acceptance of calamity-as distinguished from kicking against the pricks-means using the emotions to feed the energies, thus sooner or later bettering conditions and perhaps ultimately transforming them to the full measure of an ideal realized.

At all events the arena of the Land of Self-Support invites-demandsthe best. If clad in the mantle of bravado, whose underside is cowardice, you endeavor to do battle with antagonists, it needs no prophet to foretell results. Equally futile and even more regrettable is complaint. Who are you that life should make an exception in your case? With lofty heights to reach who stoops to the meanness of self-pity? If it is inevitable that you must face an adversary twice your size, face him then, give the best account of yourself you can -and let it go at that! What concern of yours is the world's estimate of so-called "failure" or "success?" The work's the thing. In the long run good work always wins. So labor bravely, persistently-and let not your heart be troubled. Who's afraid?

A

LL secretaries of the Young Women's Christian Association need very much the same things. You know what any secretary must be. She must actually care about girls and know how to get into their lives, the whole of their lives. She must make them see that life is not a whole without Christ. Her heart must understand their needs, and find a way to meet them. She may use such means as athletic contests, devotional meetings, cooking and sewing classes, or libraries, but the real sec

retary realizes that these are only means. Did that basket ball game teach Merle how to keep her temper? Did the series of cooking lessons make Annie realize that cooking is not drudgery? Did the meeting at the church cause Minnie to forget herself and enter into God's bigger world? The county secretary needs all these things that every other secretary needs; yet, just as you cannot take a city church, or school, or Young Women's Christian Association, and put it into the country, just as it is, so you cannot put a city pastor, or teacher, or secretary into the country to work just as he did in the city. There are some things that, while they are needed by other secretaries, yet are peculiarly needed by the county secretary.

In these pioneer days in county Young Women's Christian Association work, there must first of all be in every county secretary's heart a sure

ness of the need for county Young

Women's Christian Association work; a sureness that an Association can meet this need as no other organization can; a sureness that in the next hundred years, as the county develops, the Association will be needed more and

Miss Graham, whose interest in county cork is a direct result of a college Eight Week Club of which she was an undergraduate member, is secretary of the Coryell County Association in Texas.

more. Consider for a little while the county that you know best. Suppose the country schocls in this county should reach the highest standard of efficiency; suppose that they are really used as social centers by a community; suppose that the churches are doing their work; that the county has a wideawake community spirit and is seeking growth in every way. Are you sure that in such a county there is a Christian Association, sure that there place for a county Young Women's many who will not be at all sure. will be no duplication? There will be When we were investigating our county, preparatory to organization, a minister who had under his supervision all of the churches of one denomination in the county, said to me, dollars, and get people mightily in"Yes, you can raise your thousand terested; but it will soon die out because there is no need for it; there are too many organizations already." Then, when I gave up my high school position here to take up the county secretaryship, the superintendent of the school said, "You'd better stay with the high school. I'm afraid you are making a mistake, leaving a greater work for a lesser." In the face

of all this can you be sure of the need; can you know that before the year is over that superintendent is going to come to you and say, "It's a great work. I see in it unlimited possibilities?" Just to-night he stopped me as I was coming home and said, "Come up to the high school and let's talk about that great woman that you brought us. I want to give you a check for the Young Women's Christian Association."

The county Young Women's Christian Association is the organization in a community which connects the whole of life. The four parts of a girl's life must have balance, unity,