e better of those who know nothing, and their victims more often
than not are ladies. It is easy to fall a prey to rogues and sharpers if
one is ignorant of business, especially when nature has made women
kind-hearted and experience has not rendered them suspicious. As a
protection, there is nothing like being a business woman.

Perhaps someone may say that "business woman" has a hard sound, and
stands for a character precise, selfish, and uninteresting. That is not
what we intend by it at all. Is a girl to be less loveable, less gentle,
less charming, whenever we cease to say of her, That girl, in regard to
all the ways of business, is a perfect simpleton? On the contrary,
business is a fine training-school for many virtues; and of all good
women, a good business woman may be reckoned the very best.

Our articles are intended to be of use to two classes of girls. The
first consists of those who either have or are likely to have a little
money of their own, and need to know how to manage it and how to
regulate those affairs which money always brings in its train. By
ignorance of business many a useful life of this class as been marred.

The second is made up of girls who have to earn their own living and
make their own way in the world. These have a special need to know
something about business. People as a rule are valuable in proportion to
their knowledge--those who know nothing being simply worth nothing.

One great reason for the work of girls and women being poorly paid, is
that few know anything about either the principles or the practice of
the most ordinary business affairs. We shall try in these articles to
put girls in future on a better footing, and to make them in business
equal, at any rate, to any average men. In this way there is a good
chance of doubling their usefulness and value, and of more than doubling
their independence.

Nothing is done all at once, and in business, as in everything else, if
you mean to build high you must begin low. A girl who wishes to be a
business woman must start with accumulating the same sort of knowledge
as an office-boy. We shall therefore try to deal with the subject simply
and from the very beginning. You may sometimes be tempted to say, "Oh,
we knew that before," but another girl may not have been so fortunate,
and her ignorance must be taken as our reason for pointing out what
appears to be familiar facts.

We begin with the subject of business letters, and the f