The Toledo chronicle. [volume] (Toledo, Tama County, Iowa) 1873-1924, 1876-10-05
Female Clerks.

COurier-J Journal.
Female Clerks.
WE are glad to see that there is an
agitation in regard to the well-knOWn
cruelty practiced toward the clerks in
our fashionable StOreS-We mean the
cruelty which forbids them to sit down
While on duty.
"Oh," says the uninitiated, tive
never mind making them trouble!
they have nothing else to do, standing
there all day dressed up and bejeweled !;
it is an easy life, and if | had to work
for my living should like it above all
thingsW
"Where ignorance is bliss tits folly
to be wise," says the sage; but we can
not help wishing that some people we
know of could spend month behind
some of our city counters, and gain a
little knowledge of the actual duties
and requirements of female clerk.
4 girl to be acceptable as clerk
must be young. She must be either
pretty or stylish. She must have a
good address, and be capable of keep
ing her temper, and of wearing a smile
under all circumstances, and upon all
occasions.
She must be quick to understand,
alert in her movements and a good
Judge of character. She must know
when to fatter a lady customer into
buying what she does not want; and
she must have discernment enough not
to risk a word upon the merits of an
article, when customer appears who
knows Just what she wants, and can
tell the article when she sees it.
She must keep her mouth shut as to
the faults of any piece of merchandise,
and she must not hint that anything
has been kept over, or that the style is
going by. .. --.,
She must always be well-dressed. A
negligent or dilapidated style of dress
inc would lose the best of clerks her
place in almost any of our fashionable
stores. Ladies, say the shopkeepers,
will not patronize a store which can
not afford to keep well-dressed clerks.
Questionable clothes are not toler-
ated. We know young lady in one
of our large Northern cities who was
discharged from a. prominent dry
goods house because she persisted IN
wearing decently wide skirts, and re-
iected the modern pull-back. -.. .
The lady clerk is expected to be at
her post upon the stroke of the clock.
No matter how far she has to walk, or
what the state of the weather is, she
must be there, looking fresh and
bright, and not tired and bedraggled,
as most of us would be likely to look
under such circumstances.
! And now we come to the worst TEA
ture in the life of the female clerk.
She is expected to remain ON her feet
during her hours at the store. NO
matter how weary she may be-no
matter how her feet ache, or how loud
ly her overtaxed spine may cry out
for the refreshment of sitting mo-
ment-it cannot be! it is against the
rules.
Hour after hour, these tired girls
must stand there, waiting for custom
ers, and they must not sit down for
feN customer may come, and find
them not in readiness. 1fE .I
Have you ever tried standing all
day? -...
How tired you have been while rid
ing few blocks in street car, and
how you have anathematized the i'll
bred men, who have kept their seats
and allowed you to stand! What a
hard thing you deem it TO be obliged to
stand through half hours lecture in
some crowded hall or popular church!
How emphatically you declare you
will never go to a lecture again with
out reserved seat!
And if it is hard to stand while some
popular lecturer is holding your atten-
tion, and interesting your mind, how
much harder must it be to stand
through the long day, in the close at
mosphere of the crowded store, with
nothing more interesting to engage the
mind than selling two yards of ribbon
to Mrs. A., and some thread lace to
Mrs. B., and spool of silk to Mrs. c.,
and so on? Ns
There is no reason why the clerks
should not be allowed to sit when they
are not showing goods to customers.
The operation of rising does not oc.
cupy much time. There are great
many moments through the day when
business is quiet, and the stores are
completely deserted, and at such times
the clerks might just as well be sitting
as standing. Kate Thorn, in N. Z.
Weekly. ~