The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1884-11-29
STEPPEIsS.
n OF Feat Horses, But Girls Who Clean
steps.

The steppers of whose haunts and
customs we here propose to give some
account are doorstep cleaners known
among themselves and their own class
as shoppers, and to their employers and
others cogniEant Of their existence as
step-girls. They are a humble folk,
belonging to what it has become to
speak OF as the "outcast" classes.
Though it is their misfortune and not
their fault that such is the case, they
are coarse and vulgar, while their oc-
cupation touches about the lowest point
OF the commonplace and drudgical.
The steppers, as body, range from Is
to IS years of age, and they are Of nee
essity robust girls, for only those who
are strong can stand the work for any
length Of time.
The pursuit of their calling involves
being out in the streets in all weather
for hours at q stretch, while the actual
work is, perhaps, the most trying in
the whole range of household labor.
Throughout the winter months the
hands and arms of the steppers are
chapped from tinger-ends to the elbows;
and during the same period their hay
ing colds is moro the rule than the e1-
ception, SO that in every way their
money is hardly earned. With regard
to manners, it can scarcely be said
of the steppers that they have none
at ALL but those they have are GER
tainly more pronounced than desir-
able. Many people would be disposed
to esteem robust as to mild word
whereby to characterize steppers, and
it must be confessed that their style is
decidedly masculine. They assume a
manly gait and bearing, address each
other as mate" and by way of friend
" greeting exchange not good-day,
but What cheerp" They are habitu-
ally slangy in their discourse, and are
not altogether guiltless of the use of
the big, big d. They may be seen I'M
abashedly performing breakdown
dances in the streets, partially on the
plea of keeping themselves warm, but
more for the love OF the thing; from
fancying themselves steppers in the
dancing sense of the word.
Though there are those among them
who can and do whistle, 1t can scarcely
be said of them, as body, that they
whistle as they 60 for want of thought,
but they do frequently enliven their
way by trolling out snatches OF the pop
ular music-hall songs of the day. AS a
trade the steppers, although not for
mally organized, are, in practice,
strongly unionist. Should labor
dispute run very high among them,
they are wont to resort TO ordeal by
battle against those whom they hold to
be "knob-sticks, - and certainly it is
not a pretty spectacle to see two girls
even step -girls--toss off their hats
and jackets and "go' for each other in
pugilistic fashion. This, however,
though not an unknown occurrence in
steppers' circles, is 4 comparatively
rare one, as they generally manage to
settle their differences by mea of II
slanging match. In short, the steppers
are Of the streets strecty. 1t would be
unfeelng to say that this is rs it should
be, or not wish it We're otherwise. sun,
under all the circumstances OF the case,
it is only what might naturally be ex-
pected, and, with the exception of the
disposition to iisticuils, there is, after
all. nothing in the manners of the step
pers that need greatly shock any, save
the hypercritical or ultra-genteel. ILL
the Year Round.