Morning journal and courier., 1880-07-05

| system adopted by most shop keepers is of great value. It curbs the spirit of impatience and impertinence, and keeps girls from temp- tation. In these respects it does almost as much good as system, of fasting would do, and as 1t would be impracticable to compel | girls to go without eating, it is probably the best substitute for starvation that could be
 devised. a sa sa There is another great advantage in com polling shop girls to stand It reduces their numbers, and hence gives employment to many that would otherwise obtain no em- ployment. The shop girl who is forbidden to sit down during business hours does not last very long, All physicians are agreed that the effect of standing up from eight to twelve hours must be in many cases the de- velopment of acute diseases, and in nearly all cases the breaking down of the constitution. When the shop-girrs health fails she is promptly discharged, for anything less valu- able than a sick girl could hardly be imagin- ed. Her place is then taken by another girl, who is thus made happy by obtaining em- ployment. Were the shop girls now in ser vice to live forever, how would any other girls obtain employment behind the counter The rapid consumption Of shop-girls under the system now in use is of incaleulable bene- fit to poor girls as a class and if they kuew anything of political economy they would at once admit the truth of this assertion. While the intelligent philanthropist has thus abun-
 
 shop-girls are treated, weak sentimentalists affect to disapprove it, and exclaim that the girls who are forbidden to sit down are treat ed like slaves. This is, of course, nonsense.
 Were the shop-girls slaves they would soon
 be provided with seats. It is ridiculous to
 suppose that if shop-keeper had to pay
 eight hundred dollars apiece for supply of
 healthy girls he would proceed to injure his property by forbidding them to sit down. On the contrary, he would supply them with
 seats, and insist that they should use them.
 When, therefore, we hear silly people re- marking that because shop-girls are forbid den to sit down they are treated like slaves we can at once refute the absurd compari- son.
 In this just punishment and careful moral training which the shop-girls undergo there is nothing cruel. We can feel sure of this, for were there any cruelty in the system our ladies would instantly compel the shop-keep- CTS to abandon it. If no lady would patron ize the shops where the girls are forbidden to sit down, the shop-keepers would buy chairs for their girls tomorrow. Our ladies are ender-hearted and unselfsh, and to sup pose that they would day after day permit shop-girls to be ill-treated is, of course, inn possible,
 Very likely the girls themselves do not like it. They cannot see that they deserve to be punished for being girls, and they cannot un- derstand that the slow torture which they un- dergo IS TOT tnelr Dod1ly ana splrlCua good Such is the obtuseness of the shop-girfs mind that she refuses to see that the shop keeper makes her stand because it is good for her. There are even men who are so igno- rant and prejudiced that they share the shop girls view of the matter, and look upon them as the helpless victims of dull brutali ty of which an intelligent man would be ashamed It is sad to see wise benevolence thus misunderstood but the shop-keepers should not grow weary in well doing because their motives and conduct do not receive uni versal appreciation.