The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1883-10-25
Seeking Work.

Seeking Work.
"There are fully five thousand men
now looking for positions as bookkeepers
in the city," said the manager of we'll
established employment company which
advertises almost daily for men to fill
this or that position. They are men
of all ages, but mostly between twenty
J five and thirty-fiye. But L should say
that fully ten per cent. of them are
men who are well on with or already
beyond the middle age. These are the
! hardest to find places for. They are
too much set in their own notions of
business to adapt themselves readily to
others notions, and then those who
want bookkeepers prefer younger men
who can grow with the business. These
elderly applicants have, as general
thing, seen better times. Many of them
have been in business for themselves
and failed, or have been by accident
thrown out of good positions in which
! they failed to lay something by for the
rainy day. NV estimate of the number
of would-be bookkeepers is careful
one, and is based upon long expert
ence in this line of business. There arc
twenty-three thousand bookkeepers en-
ployed in the city, and more than a
| quarter as many more unemployed.
You would be astonished to learn the
number of able-bodied men who could
work at hundred different things if
they had mind to. but who will per-
sist in either keeping books or keep
ing idle. Young men, with q lifetime
ahead of them and the whole range of
ordinary vocations TO chose from, will
hang around town for months, and run
into debt, while waiting chance to
keep books. The time has gone by
when good penmanship will necessa-
rily secure a man living. There are
too many good penmen now, and j
know for a fact that there are some
business houses where expert penmar-
ship is discounted, and where one who
is able to write too well is suspected of
incapacity in other respects. Of course
don't pretend to indorse this, but it is
one of the factors which prevent clever
penmen from at once securing employ
ment. And what do you suppose a
good book-keeper gets a week, any
how ?''
i Twenty or twenty-five dollars, said
the reporter, at a guess.
'tWell, there are very few book
; keepers in New York who earn twenty
five dollars week-very few. There
! are not many who make twenty dol
lars. The average pay of an ordinary
book-keeper is from fifteen to eighteen
dollars week. / will undertake to
furnish hundreds of good book-keepers
at from twelve to fifteen dollars a
! week" tta
"Why, that is only two dollars a
day."
Precisely, and there are not many
of the 5000 unemployed book keepers
who would not take it. Yet it was only
/ three months ago that / read in the
, public prints that it was not possible to
secure competent policemen on the
Brooklyn bridge at two dollars a day. !"
"What is the condition of things in
other lines of employment"
81 can speak for the number of or
binary laborers, for we seldom have
7 applications for them. The other bust
> ness men who want help send to us,
} and we have continually on our books
| number of applicants who say that
1 they can do this thing OF the other
J thing, and if we cannot fill the bill
, from those we have on hand we adver-
. tise. Our fee comes from the man en-
l ployed. The fact is man must pay a
! fee before going on our books. He
: then has chance for certain length
7 of time for getting employment through
7 us. He may or he may not get it. 1t
does not pay him to say he can do a
certain kind of work unless he really
| can do it. If he says he is bar-keeper
and pays us fee for getting him such
position, and is afterward discharged
for ineompetency you can see that he
| gains nothing by the operation except
/ experience, and he will probably come
} to us and say that he is willing to go
as assistant bar-keeper and learn
the business. We have great many
applicants and great many places to
fill in the bar-keeping line. The appli-
I cants are mostly Germans, and the en-
: ployers generally prefer Germans. A
few years ago nearly all the bar-tend-
ers were Irish. We get runs on the
, different nationalities at times. During
the dynamite season few months ago
} we found it was very hard thing to
find berth of any kind for an Irish.
man, though am not sure that dyna-
mite had anything to do with It. After
book-keepers and bar-tenders we prob
ably have most applicants for porters;
5 yet there are ten times. rs many appli-
eants for the places as there are porters
} wanted. Indeed, every line of employ
ment is overcrowded and has been f0r
, two years. IN Y Herald.
1t is difficult to imagine ldofe