The Pulaski citizen. [volume] (Pulaski, Tenn.) 1866-current, 1885-01-01
sHoP-elRLs, WORK AND WAGES.
Their Pitifpl Remuneration-why They
Marry-objec to the Kitchen.
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Their PiafuI Remuneration--why The,
Afarry-objectiOn to the Kitchen.
lchicago Tri51ne.l
''You say that flesh and blood is
cheap, said the floor walker in melan-
eholy way as he paused in his monot-
onous promenade and gazed about him
at the endless perspective of counters be-
hind which rows of damsels danced at
tendance upon capriIious customers.
1t is cheap, at least, he
added, in the dry-goods business.
People generally know that the women
who work in the shops are ill-paid,
but how pitiful the remuneration they
get in reality is you can hardly be
aware. There are probably $50 women
and girls employed in this establishment
and the highest pay they can attain is
So a week--the heads of departments
get that. The saleswomen, who consti-
tute the great majority of the female
employees, get only 50. so; and the cash
girls are thought to be well paid at 81. so
week I am not surprised that you
ask how it is possible for woman to
live on so small amount as SO. so a week,
but il is not so very mysterious after ALL
You see, among the poorer class OF peo-
pie, to which the women who work in
the shops belong, each member of a
family is q bread winner--all but the
very little ones-and although the earn
ings of each may be small, yet every
little helps.
''The family of which that pretty girl
at the ribbon counter is a member lives
very comfortably indeed in pretty lit
tie house on the north side, Beside her
self there are two other sisters and two
brothers. They all work in the shops.
The father earns $13 a week as a sales
man in this establishment, and one of
the other girls is employed here as a
cash-girl. The third sister is at the
head of department in another great
bazaar like this. The boys make
50 between them. Thus you see
that the aggregate amount covered by
the family is no less than $32 a week, or
more than 81, 500 year-a very decent
income for humble folks. The mother
stays at home and manages the house.
The girls are all pretty, and will some
day marry well, for they have plenty of
peaux. The bread winning being dis
tributed in such manner, no ordinary
accident, such as loss of employment by
a member of the family, could cause
them distress These are the sort OF
Utility DtODiC WIZ nave a IGnQClCJ "
something better, and although they are
not ashamed to work in the Shop they
viii surely rise above it.
Speaking of the marriages of shop
women reminds me that have fire.
quently been astonished to see really
sweet, pretty, and refined girls marry
the most disgusting specimens in the
way of men, about whom there seemed
to be no possible attraction beyond the
fact that they wore trousers. But it is
unquestionable that in this class of so
ciety the women are far superior to the
men both in refinement and intelligence,
and of course the women have to take
the best they can get, since they
must marry some one. The fact is that
the average shop-girl regards matrimony
as the only possible avenue of escape
from the counter; and she is only too
ready to take the first opportunity that
offers of marrying Usually she either
changes her mode of existence to become
a druge for a selfish and brutal husband,
or is compelled to go back to the shop to
support him. 1t is very sad.
''People frequently ask why it is that
women of the class who work in the
shops prefer such drudgery to earning
an easier livelihood as domestics. The
pay of woman employed as a domestic
is quite as good as that which shop
girl receives, and she gets her board be-
sides, as well as her lodging. She is
better fed and perhaps more comfort
able in every way. But the secret of
this lies in the love of liberty and inde-
pendence, which is dominant instinct
of the human heart. The shop girl,
though she be a slave during ten hours
of the day, is free when the clock strikes
6. She can go to the theatre with her
young man, cor do whatever pleases her
and there is nobody to say her nay. But |
the domestic is a Servant, and |
the shop-girl looks down upon her with |
all the hauteur of a social superior. Two |
or three years ago there was an insur-
rection at Macy's, the great New York |
dry goods bazaar, because of an attempt |
on the part of the management to trans
fer a number of girls from behind the |
counters to the restaurant attached to |
the establishment to serve as mattresses.
They considered it decidedly below their /
dignity, and threatened to leave in a
body if it were attempted to enforce the
order.
''The lot of a woman entirely depend !
ent upon her own resources, who earns /
her living behind the counter of a shop, /
is indeed pitiable. Just think of trying |
to exist on such pittance as $3.50 q, I
week-50 cents a day. Why, it is star
vationp'