The Vancouver independent. (Vancouver, W.T. [Wash.]) 1875-1910, 1882-07-06
Girls In the City.

wonder if the oppressed human race
will ever find Bergh.
had occasion to go into great store
one noon. 1t occupies as large O plot as
the Continental Hotel, employs some
eight hundred people, and is packed
from morning till night. There are
about five hundred girls there, ranging
from ten to twenty-four years of age and
getting weekly pay of from 50 to So 30.
They are on duty from eight in the
morning until six, seven, eight, nine and
sometimes twelve at night. They are
expected to wear becoming clothes, to
dress their hair neatly and to be tidy in
general appearance.
Can they do it.
1 presume the little girls live with
.heir parents, but how about those who
pay board, buy clothes and shoes and
medicines, and occasionally ride in the
cars, and now and then need half-sole
on their boots? From the standpoint of
an employer such compensation appears
to me taunt and suggestion. En-
ployers must know that good whole
some board in decent lodging can't be
had for less than SO week, and I don't
see how anything can be got for that.
But assuming that the IS do furnish
lodging, fuel, board, light and "home
comforts" there remains to the best of
them but half dollar for clothes, medi-
cines, car fares and ''luxuries."
What of it?"
Well, I'll tell you. Ninety in every
hundred of these girls dress neatly,
prettily, and, in many instances,
showily. They wear imitation diamonds
in their ears, rings on their fingers and
fancy ribbon on their hair. They APP
pear contented, Aippant, jolly. Their
outer wraps are snowy, if not costly, and
they present picture of gaudy cheap
ness on the street.
How can it be helped?
That's the question. When Bergh be-
gan his crusade dumb animals had q
tough row to hoe. Calves, with their
four legs tied together, were heaped in
carts. Often their heads hung over the
sides and their brains were knocked out
by the wheels or their necks were cut to
ribbons. He stopped that and now
calves are carted in comfort. Lame
horses, with sore legs, were sold and
driven by ragmen, dustmen and ped
dlers. He stopped that. Why won't
somebody be q Bergh to the girls in
these huge shamblesp To the District
Messenger boys? To the little wretch,
who, under pretense of peddling matches
and fruit, emulate the EXTREMIST vices of
their older associates?
Tough job?
Ofcourse it is. The girls are satisfied
perhaps, but isn't that the worst feature
of it? They must have more money and
with it they will dress. The little waits
who float about the ferry house, march
boldly into gin mills and make bedlam
of Printing House Square. are of as
much consequence as my children are,
but they haven't the same chance in life.
I often think when 1 see supercilous fat
women driving in the park, their dogs
in blankets, and their noses in the air,
"who are you?" So far as any merit or
work or source of theirs is concerned
they might as we'll be in the kitchen.
Good luck has made them the wife or
daughter of fortunate man and they
are spending his money. "It's the fruit
Of his brainy industry which enables
them to wear silk and satin instead Of
trundling baby carnage and to live in
idleness instead of working for the
worlds comfort. This is queer world
at the best, and we who have all that
mind can conceive and the heart desire,
know very little Of the care and worry,
the fret and fever OF the others less fort
unately placed. - Philadelphia Press.