She paid $4 a week for board and a tenement room shared with another
girl. She had been obliged to go in debt to her landlady for part of her
long idle time, after her savings had been exhausted.
During this time she had been unable to buy any clothing, though her
expense for this before had been slender: a suit, $18; a hat, $3; shoes,
$3; waists, $3; and underwear, $2.50. She looked very well, however, in
spite of the struggle and low wages necessitated by learning a secondary
trade.
The dull season is tided over in various ways. A few fortunate girls go
home and live without expense. Many live partly at the expense of
philanthropic persons, in subsidized homes. In these ways they save a
little money for the dull time, and also store more energy from their
more comfortable living.
On the horizon of the milliner the dull season looms black. All the world
wants a new hat, gets it, and thinks no more of hats or the makers of
hats. On this account a fast and feverish making and trimming of hats, an
exhausting drain of the energy of milliners for a few weeks, is followed
by weeks of no demand upon their skill.
Girl after girl told the investigator that the busy season more than wore
her out, but that the worry and lower standard of living of the dull
season were worse.
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