The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1876-07-16
WOMEN BEHIND COUNTERS.
THE HISTORY AND the NATURE OF
THEIR EMPLOYMENT
Their Wages, Hours II w orb. Discipline and
Hnbits-The Responsible Positions which
some OF them iioid-Whnt Merchants Snv.


dry goods stores there Is to-day considerable
representation of the energy, quick calculation,
and self-supporting ability Of tho women Of tho
city One firm. Ridley & Co., employs 800 sales
women Macy has 200, Kinney 100 Stewart & Co.
perhaps $780, u. Altman I25, M. Altman had 100,
II. O'Neill 81, Mcarcs Is, Enrich 70, lie Doutiiler
80, and Arnold & Constable .. These figures are
true of the busy seasons, which are from April
until the Fourth Of July, and from September
until Christmas. In the interim many stores
dispense with many OF their clerks always hav-
ing those whom they retain either by continued
employment or by holding their positions for
them until the opening OF the next season.
First-class stores employing the smaller num-
bers generally continue the same force the year
round, and from year to year. The average pay
OF these women is about eight dollars week.
Six dollars Is an ordinary price, eight dollars
Is fair" ten Ia good" and twelve very
good - while fourteen up to eighteen Is the re-
alization Of only the most successful and com
petent. Yet there are exceptional instances OF
valuable women who are paid as much rs thirty
i've dollars week. A store in Sixth avenue has
three such. Noviccs get four or three dollars,
They are said by the merchants TO pick up the
business quicker than young men, and some
times are In the second yoar advanced TO six
dollars. Three years IL considered the reason
able time for a thorough apprenticeship Learn
crs do little but the general work They dust
stock and put 1t away. Some large stores, and
all the most fashionable ones, take no learners.
Twenty years ago women were, as now, the
petty purchasers, but they bought their ribbons
and tape. their dresses ali unmadc, of calico and
silk, their buttons and laces, all from mon. Wo-
mans business Ia dry goods store was only TO be
cry that clerks were counter Jumpers, 'meas-
urers Of tape" cfeminate. or at least hold ef-
Terminate positions that women naturally held
the scissors. that this avocation was a very OBJ
Nious Illustration Of fallacy In the then conven-
tional propriety OF men occupying nearly all the
places OF money-getting. there being little but
the labor of the servant or the school teacher for
"A woman to do.
woMAN's CHANCE.
Mr. Thomas lie Boutillicr, now Of Fourteenth
street. Is generally referred to by atorekeepers
as the first merchant Of Importance who In New
York gave women employment as clerks lie Is
the New York one OF the three 10 noutillier
lirothers who have stores in Philadelphia,
New York and Cincinnati, His New York store
was then where the fashionable retail trade
tended south, and opened again on Canal street
The sixth and Eighth avenues, without much
women The street ,pe and Other ri
stores, and In time the democratic hut not very
innovating bowcry followed the example
broadway was slower to adopt the practice, and
even now almost all the broadway stores have
more statesmen than saleswOmen. The latter are
found sometimes In only ono or two depart ments
Women, as an indispensable part of n large dry
goods establishment came in only with ready
made underwear and ready suits: Certain
more appropriately handled by men than by
women. Such are the domestics, shrting, sheet
Ing, and tho hosiery. Even Mt Macy's, where
woman has always been In predominance, men
sell the china and other housefurnisliing goods ;
and at kinzcy's. where woman Ia the supcrin-
tendent pay master and manager, while the pro-
urietor goes on summerng. the counters OF
weighty cloth are attended 10y men. Men are here
also the arKus-cyed " Aoor-wslkers.' but they are
responsible 10 the little woman at the desk This
young lady, Miss Cushman. neat brunette with
short hair, linen dress and leather belt COM
han ali la frlr laur af
Mays, and WAS there twelve years WAS adj
Nanced from one position and salary 10 mother
and for the last siX years she was n buyer She
portion OF his stock and only when he began to
buy abroad and import, she went TO kinzey's to
be superintendent. Of her salary she only says.
" 1t satisfies me- know that a man In my place
would not get any more" She ia well-lcok ing,
sensible. disciplined she could not be other
wise with such experience is nearly thirty years
Of age, and graces the superintendent's place.
WHAT THEY ARE CALLED.
1t takes but short time among the drv-goods
stores In all parts Of New York city. and con-
every grade TO settle on what term has been
adopted and Is the only one that is by custom
term Ia sales lady" Especially at Rsiley's
great beehive and al Waller McSorley's n per
son feels awkward who has Inadvertently uttered
the word saieswomani and ms Tor the term
" shop girl, applied to the responsible employee,
at the counter. the term Il abhorred. Even the
poll shed mistress OF the measuring tape and un-
crring scissors at Madame Dcmorest' :, who is an
intellectual woman and could never be mistaken
for less. indicated In feeling argument the pro-
priety OF the term sales lady; saying also that
So long rs in this country dry goods stores are
not called shops. their employees are not shop
girls Yet they divide their visitors into two
olas~cs which they can distinguish 1T glance.
One class are customers. and the others are out
u shopping A. r. Stewart Co.'S superin-
tcudent did utter the word "sae,women.'
Most of the lnrg" stores have dining room
where the salcswomen take their often rapid
lunch. 80 many Of them as chose to bring it, a.
i. stewart Co and many other houses keep a