These boys and girls have no regret at leaving the schools, and are, as a rule, glad to get to work. The tragedy of life, however, begins when they become wage-earners, for they are only fitted for unskilled and poorly paid positions. A little fourteen-year-old girl finds it difficult to obtain a satisfactory occupation in the teeming workrooms of New York. She, or some member of her family, eagerly searches the advertising sheet of one of the daily papers. Most of the "Wants" are entirely beyond her crude powers to supply. An unskilled worker is perhaps desired in some business house, but the applicant finds that hundreds of other girls are flocking to obtain the same position, and her chance is too remote for hope. Or perhaps, after weary days of wandering about from place to place, she is recommended to the boss of some shop, and finds herself in the midst of machines which rush forward at 4,000 or more stitches a minute. She assists a busy worker on men's shirts, her duty being to pin parts together, to finish off, or to run errands. From early morning to late afternoon, with an interval for lunch, she must be ready to lend a hand. She can get at best but $2.50 or $3.00 per week. No rise is possible in this shop unless she can work well on a machine. Her fellow-workers are too busy to teach her, for each moment's pause means reduction in their little wage. Perhaps she does persist and finally can control a machine. By learning to do one thing rapidly she can obtain a better wage, but two or even more years in trade often pass before she can earn five dollars a week. After several seasons spent in doing the same process thousands of times, her desire for new work becomes deadened, and she is afraid to attempt anything different from her one set task. She usually refuses to try more advanced work, even if offered a good salary while she is learning, for she has lost her ability to push ahead.