Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1875-09-23
City Clerking.

h.
afraid OF manly, honest, hard work Is
well directed by judgment and intellicenaali
it will bring its certain reward. WeInOne.
there is temptation to leave the farm soa
the glitter and style and apparent ease 'o %
the city. Thousands of young men n,
contented with the farm work Of M Hts
fathers, have an ideal city life in thei thu,
minds, where the young man cayi.
trigged out with fashionably-cut cloths
ana Jewelry, makes stunning appearance
and seems to be free from ordinary human
cares. A recent letter from Chicago To
the Compartment gives picture Of
clerical life which has valuable hint in
it to those who long for such emplovmen,
to enable them to escape the more labor
Gus work of the farm. A short extrac, i
given to show how thoroughly the ind
viduality and the manhood must ho
crushed out to give place to the mecban
ical obsequiousness Of the clerk:
. 1t is estimated there are 20 900 in chi.
cago. The salaries of these animated an
donations range from six to fifteen dollars
seldom as high as eighteen dollars nor
week; and how under heaven they make
the legendary two ends meet is one nj
the mysteries. The salaries of those who
gain their livelihood by their shane,
rather than by brains and Drawn have
been cut down since the fire fully 100 Der
cent. There has been no reduction in iiv
ing expenses consequent upon high rent
which has been very generally man.
tanned. These clerks are compelled TO
lose their individuality completely, and
have become, in consequence OF their vir
tual slavery, veritable puppets. Supposing
there was not the constant terror of loss Of
situation-and there is, for an advertise.
ment in the Tribune for any manner of
a clerk will bring from 500 to 1000 an.
plicants, each able to bring the very best
OF references and we may say the clerk
receives the muniticent pittance of twelve
dollars per week, which is certainly the
average salary. To get board at as low a
price as six dollars per week, and this will
only procure the vilest of hash, he must
live from two to four miles from his place
of business. As he must be behind his
gorgeous counter-money is put in fur
nishings, not salaries, in Chicago-at
80 O'Clock promptly, it necessitates the
expenditure Of sixty ceLts a week for car
fare. His lunch is not often included in
this dyspepsia producing boarding-house
itSiutC, anu VIC dOlIul tIlQ lily GEMS III
least must be expended during the week
for restaurant dinners. His washing will
cost one dollar more, for his linen must
be spotless, and his absolutely necessary
incidental expenses will swell his total to
ten dollars, leaving two dollars per week
with which to array himself in costly
apparel, for he must be taultlessly dressed
When it is true that more clerks receive
ten than twelve dollars per week, and the
fact that many have families to support is
considered, a picture ofexquislte MISERY'S
furnished that should prompt some artist
to achieve renown by portraying these
miseries and making the clerk their EN-
bodied type.
But these are not all his mseries. The
hOor-walker' or foreman has an eagle eye
for delinquents, and the slightest derelic-
ton is visited with a singing reprimand,
a Kissed curse or that consummation ofall
horrors, dismissal; and so fearful of this
do these clerks become, and so groyeling
are they obliged to be in consequence,
that have stood by in disgust and seen
them chew prints i'll proof of their fast
color at the suggestion of ladies( p. Man.
illness, sentiment, consideration are all
evolved Labor is valued in these huge
establishments at just what it will bring,
and 500 employees are morally so much
machinery. The caprices of women with
time on their hands to kill; the petulance
of women who carry their shrewishnesS
into their inquiries for tape and tarletan;
the whimsicaities of grandmothers and
the virulence of spinsters; the torment OF
women who want forty dozen samples to
send to a sick cousin in the country but
who are really making patchwork and
quilts; the thoughtlessness of girls who
end a raid on a department with the re-
mark: Guess mall have to Gomez snlck-
ering women, terrible women; handsome
women, ugly women; holy women, THEY
ing women; and all the countless con
temptible little exhibitions of snob0lsh-
ness on the part ofall women who mistake
them for evidences of womanhood ana
caSte-all have to be overcome ana
smoothed away by the despairing CLERK,
or Judgment day comesn