The herald and mail. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 1873-188?, 1875-10-01
City Clerking.


BOYS. saws the Kansts Farmer, dom
be afraid 6f manly, honest hard work
If well directed by Judgment and intel
! Jieeiice, it will bring its certain reward
We kil8~ theFe is a temptation TO leave
the farm for the Glitter and style and ap-
parent ease of the city. Thousands OF
t6hHe men, discontented with the farm
work of their fathers. have an ideal city
life in their minds where the young man,
gayly trigged out with tashionably-cut
/ clothes aHd iewelry, makes stunning
| appearance and rcens to be free from or
dinary human cares. 4 recent letter
| from Chicago TO the Coufier-JCurnal
gives picture of clerical life which has
a valuable hint in it to those who long
for such employment to enable them to
escape the more labOrious work of the
farm. A short extract is given to show
how thoroughly the individuality and the
manhood must be crushed out 10 give
place to the mechanical obsequiousness
of the clerk:
at is estimated there are 10000 in
Chicago. The salaries Of these animated
automatons range from six to fifteen dol
lars, seldom as high Ms eighteen dollars,
per week; and how under heaven they
make the legendary two ends meet is
one of the mysteries. The salaries of
those who gain their livelihood by their
shape rather than by brains and Drawn
have been cut down since the fire fully
100 per cent. There has been no reduC-
ton in living expenses consequent upon
high rent, which has been very generally
maintained. These clerks are compelled
TO lose their individuality completely,
and have become, in consequence of their
virtual slavery, veritable puppets. Sup
posing there was not the constant terror
of loss of situation-and there is, for an
advertisement in the Tribune for any
manner Of d clerk will bring from 500 to
| 900 applicants, each able to bring the
very best of references and we may
say the clerk receives the muniticcnt pit
tance sf twelve dollars per week, which
is eettainly the average salary
TO get b6atd at IA low price as SlN
dollars per week, ah1 this will only pro-
cure the vilest of hash, hs must live
from two to four miles from his place of
business. As he must be behind his gor-
geous counter-money is put in furnish
ings, not salaries, in Chicago-at 7.3O
O'Clock promptly, it necessitates the eN-
penditure Of sixty cents a week for car
fare. His lunch is not often included in
this dyspepsia producing clearinghouse
regime, and one dollar and fifty cents at
least must be expended during the week
for restaurant-dihners. 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 10 array himself in costly APP
pareI, for he must be faultlessly 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 of exquisite mis-
cry is furnished that should prompt some
artist to achieve renown by pOrtrayng
these miserics and making the clerk their
embodied type.
But these are not all his mia0rics.
The foor-walker, or foreman has am eagle
eve for delinquents, and the slightest de-
is visited with a stinging rcpri-
mand, hissed curse or that cOnsumma-
ton of all horrors, dismissal; and 80
fearful of this do these clerks become, and
so groveling are they obliged TO he in con-
seq uCHCe, llldl j nave HtobA ~ III hl7Eu-N
and seen them chew prints in proof of
their fast color at the suggestion of la
dies(?). Manliness, sentiment, consider
alton are all evolved. Labor is valued
in these huge establishmentsa just what
it will bring, and five hundred employees
are morally 50 much machinery. The
caprices of women with time on their
hands to kill; the petulance Of women
who carry their shrewishness into their |
for tape and tarletan; the whim- !
sicalities of grandmOthers and the viru- !
lence of spinsters; the torment of women |
who want forty dozen sumplcs 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 remark; |
Guess mall have to come snickcring |
women, terrible women; handsome wO- |
men, ugly women; holy women, thicving |
women; and all the countless, contempti-
BILE little exhibitions of snobbishncss on |
the part of all women who mistake them |
for evidences of womanhOod and caste
all have to be overcome and smOothcd |
away by the despairing clerk, or judg-
mont daV Comes y