St. Landry democrat., 1882-03-18
Shopping.

In rather sharp article in the new
paper, Our Continent, Miss Kate Field
takes occasion to censure quite severely
the saleslady, or, as she particularizes in
this instance, the '.cheap young lady !"
who stands behind the counter. There
is nothing new about the details. The
cheap young lady made mistakes in her
reckoning, was Lisagreeably pert when
questioned, probably looked over Miss
Fields shoulder when spoken to, and if
she had been handed letter would have
perused it then and there while her Gus
toner waited. Miss Field apologies
for'her on the questionable ground Of
want of breeding, and in soliloquy asks
and answers few pertinent questions.
"Why are shop manners in America
the worst in the World?'
'Because the employees are generally
of the humblest origin and are too ig-
norant to appreciate the virtue of cour-
tesv.'
This is a sweeping assertion, and it is
in the main incorrect. Thirty years ago
shop-girl might have been looked on
with contempt, because it was only the
"woman who dared " who filled any
responsible position in public life in this
new country, but to-dayit is the woman
who makes the position respectable, not
the position that subjects the woman to
its domination, and the best blood of the,
nation flows to-day in the veins OF shop
girls In their ranks may be found the
daughters ofclergymen, of generals of the
army, Senators, and the penniless heirs
to pedigree for which the members of
the new dynasty would gladly exchange
some Of their superfuous wealth. And
Miss Field is on the. wrong side of the
counter to Judge of their politeness.
She has lived abroad long enough to in
dulge in such speculative ideas as this:
ssThe effect of Democracy upon vulgar
men and women is to initiate them with
the idea of equality-an equality which
they attempt to assert by treating their
superiors in station as no better than
themselves 1t would probably be an
assumption" if the shop-girl should
rise up and tell the experience gained
on the inside of the counter-of the
women who want to buy and can never
make up their minds what to get, who
would tumble dozen boxes of lace to
select one yard of another kind, who
question the shop-girl about the goods
as if she were personally responsible for
their manufacture, who cheaper and
sharpen and deceive. and reveal their
fine ladyhood in a thousand contempti-
BILE forms. How would one of these
grand American women look in her gor-
geousness if the shop-girl should re-
mark on the tineness of the day, or
venture to assert herself as anything
less than a. machine? Strange as
it may seem, it would be possible
for even shop-girl to have thoughts
beyond the narrow range of boxes which
comprise an endless masquerade of shop
pers who keep her standing all day
long-she may even s'dare' to be i'm
pertinent and answer question with a
rising infection of the voice, but she
runs more risk of harm than can posi-
bly, befall the customers risk of
losing her bread and butter-if she can
afford any. The prosperous woman
whose carriage waits, can surely afford
to be patient and forgiving to sister
who has so little and works so hard for
that.
There is another side to this q1es-
ton; the personal magnetism of sex.
Let a man wait on ladies and vice
versa. Unfortunately, though, men do
not shop-happy beings! A man
knows he is as much out of place in a
dry-goods store, unless he is a dry
goods man, as a bull is in china shop,
and he keeps away, and lets his woman
kind wrestle with it.
And the majority of women love to
shop. 1t Is meat and drink to them.
They sniff the hattie from afar off and
rush into it with an ardor that never
abates until the last cent of allowance is
gone, then they retrench and retreat
without loss, only to hasten back to the
fray with renewed vigor. Detroit Post