Snippets of Victorian advice from Young Woman magazine (#1)

Curiously addictive as well as a useful resource for researching Victorian life, these responses were given to girls who wrote in to Young Woman magazine in the 1890s. The original enquiry letters were not printed.

ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS

EDITH J. – Your best plan would be to acquire a business training for such occupation as you are likely to find remunerative. In the business world a reference from a Sunday-school teacher is not usually accounted valuable. To gain any situation by advertising, it would be necessary to allege some previous experience. If you have any talent for dressmaking, I know of no better opening than it offers to the qualified and capable. A good dressmaker, willing to go out by the day, can easily earn, with board, 12s. to 18s. per week, combined with a life that is not arduous, and that, in a quiet way, has a great deal of variety in it. Everything of the nature of a clerkship is more difficult of attainment, and in many cases ultimately not so remunerative. It was stated recently that employment at 5s. per week (errand boy’s wages) was offered to a lady at a newspaper office, and there were over 150 applicants crowding the stairs and passages long before the office opened. An advertisement for a visiting dressmaker would probably not have had two replies.

J.H. – The Model Foot Co., of 86 and 87 Strand, have a very useful appliance for curing the enlarged joints which are so painful and troublesome when they occur on the feet. The evil no doubt arises from wearing short or pointed boots. I am glad to be able to introduce you to so valuable a remedy.