d. "I understand the oil business."

e. "Judge the human heart by oneself."

f. "What is the use of trying that?"

CLASS-LIBRARY READINGS

FINDING ONE'S WORK

1. "Vocations," K. L. Butterfield, in Opportunities of To-day, 11-20. 2. "Where Boys Learn to Earn a Living," K. Woods, ibid., 40–45. 3. "Preparing the Boy for Industry," L. L. Park, ibid., 46–54. 4. "Farm Management," W. J. Quick, ibid., 85-91.

5. "Journalism," H. L. Smith, ibid., 92-101.

6. "The Practice of Medicine," H. L. Smith, ibid., 103-109.

7. "The Girl of To-morrow," B. R. Andrews, ibid., 174-184.

8. "Wage-Earning Occupations for Women," M. S. Woolman, ibid., 196-203.

9. "Interior Decorating as Work for Women," M. Robinson, ibid.,

273-274.

10. "You and Your Boss," G. H. Lorimer, in Stories of the Duy's Work,

61-68.

II. "When a Feller is Out of a Job," S. W. Foss, in A Vocational

Reader, 87-89.

12. "Benjamin Franklin, Printer," P. Pressey, ibid., 127–138.

13. "The Return of Rhoda," S. Glaspell, ibid., 201-210.

14. "How I Became a District Nurse," L. Dodge, ibid., 222–228. 15. "Where Mark Twain Got His Stories," E. T. Brewster, ibid., 228-236.

16. "The Aerial Acrobat," in Careers of Danger and Daring, 255–292. 17. "Pictorial Story of the Fishing Industry," Wonder Book of Knowledge, 325–330.

18. "Up the Cooley," H. Garland, in The Promise of Country Life, 142-188.

19. "What Shall I Do for a Living?" Compton's Pictured Encyclopedia, 9: 3653-3657.

Read this narrative to find characteristics of success not mentioned in the earlier selections of this unit. As you find them, enter them in the Applicant's List suggested on p. 422.

On the night before the memorable day when Mary Jones was to seek employment, the family gathered in council, and the prospective saleswoman was so filled with advice that her inexperienced mind was quite bewildered by the multitude of "don'ts" designed to safeguard her against errors that were supposed to be fatal in hunting a job.

When the morning arrived, this youngest daughter was brushed and polished to suit the critical taste of her family, and long before nine o'clock was waiting in the office of the employment bureau of a large department store in New York. Other applicants came in one by one until there were seven hopeful members in the party.

Then the ordeal began. A pleasant young woman gave each applicant a blank form to fill out. Mary could not write much on the sheet, except that she lived at home and had finished high school; she gave as her references the names of her minister and an old family friend.

Half an hour later Mary was asked to step into the office

of the employment manager, where she met a tall, dark, polite young man who requested her to remove her hat, and then asked her many questions, most of which appeared to have no bearing on the work in hand. Mary failed to notice the glances the employment manager cast toward the mirror, where, quite unknown to her, he could scan the image of her face and hair.

Right here the young applicant came near meeting defeat. She did not know that one of the chief requirements for a saleswoman in a high-class store is neatly dressed hair. Only that morning Mary had accepted the suggestion of her older sister, and instead of her usual simple braid, had dressed her hair in a barbarous style that was a sort of cross between the coiffure of a Hottentot and a Fiji Islander.

Mary did not know that the man she faced was a college graduate with years of experience in the study of feminine types and their adaptability to the business of selling merchandise. Little did she realize that he was trying to form a picture of how she would look with her hair modestly dressed, nor did she know that if she got the job the first action of the manager would be an order to one of his women assistants tactfully to request her to reduce the area occupied by her fluffed hair.

The manager completed his survey of the new applicant, and turned her over to a young woman, who conducted her to a room where further strange questions were asked. Once more Mary was puzzled; she did not know that she was in the hands of a young woman from a great university whose profession was vocational psychology. Even if she had known that she was now in a laboratory where human qualities are tested very much as chemicals are analyzed, the knowledge would have meant little to her.

But Mary was in earnest, and readily complied with all the requests of the examiner. It was apparent to her that they wanted to test her eyesight when she was asked to read words of diminishing size on a large card twenty feet distant.

But it was all Greek when they gave her a pencil and paper with a column of strange words, each one of which seemed to be nothing but a jumble of letters. She was told that the words were the names of animals, and was asked to see how quickly she could write the correct names beside the words with the misplaced letters. The first letters were niol, for which she quickly wrote lion. Then came tgrei, and she wrote tiger. But farther down the list, where the words were longer, the words were not so easy. It took her several seconds to discover that cireoicdo spelled crocodile, and she was only half finished with the column when she was stopped by the examiner, who unknown to her had watched the time and had allowed ninety seconds for the test.

Mary next started on a list of cities in which the letters of each word were again scrambled. This time she showed her smartness by skipping several difficult words on her way down the list, and by so doing managed to get to the bottom and had finished reconstructing several of the hard names she had first omitted before the allotted time was up. That the examiner was pleased with her effort Mary could plainly see; her hopes were again restored by this show of encourage

ment.

Next she was examined in naming colors, then in checking numbers, and in other tests designed to grade her intelligence. She passed the physical examination successfully, and a little later was called to the desk of the employment manager, where she signed the employee's agreement to perform her work faithfully and to become a member of the company's Mutual Aid Association. Before leaving she was given a manual of information which she was asked to read carefully, and was told to report in the morning.

All that afternoon Mary studied the book of information about the store. She learned that if she were neither late nor absent for any part of a day for four consecutive weeks she would be allowed one half day's summer vacation. This meant that if she could keep up a perfect record until the fol

lowing summer the company would grant her an additional week's vacation with pay. But she also found that if she were late four times in any four consecutive weeks the penalty was one day's suspension. In case of sickness she was to notify the Mutual Aid Association, and prompt assistance would be rendered by one of the nurses or doctors who were in the regular employ of the company.

After noting carefully the instructions about the color and style of clothing and shoes she should wear at business, Mary studied the remarks on unnecessary waste. She was informed as to the proper use of twine and wrapping paper, the handling of delicate fabrics with soiled hands, the throwing away of useful lengths of cord or rope, the careless dropping of fresh wrapping paper to be trodden upon, and the waste from using paper to protect one's sleeves. Other rules warned against loitering about the store, chewing gum, reading books or letters, leaving a department without permission, and taking cloaks, hats, umbrellas, bags, and lunches to the department where the employee worked.

The manual stated also that promotion was sure to follow a display of ability and willingness, for the policy was to fill all vacancies, when possible, by the advancement of the company's employees. In the case of an opening in any department, the plan was to post a notice to that effect, and all employees were invited to apply for any vacant position they believed they could properly fill. Each month three prizes were given to the employees who made the best three suggestions for the betterment of store service. Boxes were located in convenient places, into which the ideas intended for the contest were to be dropped. The first prize was ten dollars, the second five dollars, and the third two dollars.

Nothing interested Mary more than the description of the department of training. She found that a part of every day was devoted to class work, where she would be instructed in store system and salesmanship. If she preferred, she might learn to operate an adding-machine, a dictating-machine, or