two seasons without pay, and if she is being well taught she should be
satisfied. In places where living expenses are high, as in large cities,
girls are often allowed a small sum per week while they are learning.

The young milliner's first work is learning how to make bands for hats and
to make and sew in linings. Making frames for hats follows--the frames are
of wire and buckram. The girl has next to learn how to cover frames with
materials of different kinds--silk, velvet, lace, chiffon, etc.--and she
as a result learns to know intimately and to handle skilfully delicate
and costly fabrics. From being an apprentice she becomes an assistant
maker and then a maker of hats. She may then be promoted to the work of
a trimmer. The work of the trimmer is considered one of the most difficult
stages in the creation of a hat. The girl who aspires to this work must
have an eye for beauty of line and she should know how to harmonize the
trimming to the shape of the hat. In smaller establishments the trimmer is
also the designer. The girl who has original ideas is always the most
important in an establishment. For this reason the designer commands the
highest salary.

Assistant milliners may earn wages varying from seven and eight to fifteen
and eighteen dollars a week. In an exclusive business a first assistant may
get as much as twenty-five dollars a week, but she will need to be a good
saleswoman and a successful manager in the workroom. The milliner in charge
of a department or one who is managing an exclusive millinery shop of
recognized standing, receives a high salary. As a rule the woman who buys
abroad and does so with judgment and skill is in receipt of the largest
income that is given to a milliner. These cases are all exceptional. A
moderate millinery establishment owned and managed by a woman is likely to
produce an income of one thousand, fifteen hundred, or two thousand dollars
a year.

Experience shows that ability to sell hats counts for almost as much as
ability to create. Tact, skill, patience, must be combined with the genuine
gift required to find the hat which will be most becoming to a customer, or
to know how to alter a hat so that it may suit the taste of the purchaser.
Once it is proved to a customer that the milliner has this gift, her custom
is assured.

A point of the first importance to the girl who means to be a milliner is
the fact that millinery is a seasonal trade. The spring and fall trade m