The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1885-07-18

with their backs to you. In every New
England city of any size the women
physicians are working into good prac'
ticc. And it must be confessed thai
they are often excellent physicians.
Some men employ women doctors, and
treat them professionally as if they were
doctor books, incapable of blush. II
looks as if the male man was tagging
snperiluous on the stage. A woman
rights paper suggests that girls would
make good street-car conductors. Well,
the boys would ride most Of the time il
the girl conductors were real pretty!
At the restaurants the girls are get
ting to have large share of the wait
ing business. They even tend cigar
stands; and firm of girl BARRIERS puts
its attractive photograph out of doors
as sign. Every afternoon a petit
coated mob takes possession of the
shopping part of Washington street.
Winter, fremont, and Sumner streets,
Men look lonesome in this whirl of erin
oliue.
If the girls got good pay the dis
charged young men would not growl so
much. Four dollars week is fair
salary for Boston shop-girl. A case
came out the other day where sick
young girl acknowledged that her en-
ployer remembered her with Is cents a
week. That chaps sentence on the
judgment day will probably be to take
up his eternal residence in a tilbert
shell, quite big enough for his diminu-
tive soul | should think his soul would
have room to spare in a cherry pit.
Seventv-iiye cents will buy oatmeal
enough to keep stout girl, provided
she bankers for oatmeal. But it won't
pay room-rent, nor street-car fare, noI
rccompense the cobbler for repairs on
much worn shoes. 1t is sad sight fol-
the physicians 10 see our overheated
shops filled by young girls who ought
some day to become mothers and nurse
healthy babies. A physician said, the
other day, This close employment OF
young girls, just as they are maturing,
is terrible evil. Our civilization will
rot fast when the mothers of the race
start at such q disadvantage.
Now you can see some reason why
the young men of New England dream
dreams of ranch life, of broad prairie
farms, of windy plains. and galloping
mustangs. The advent OF the army of
women and girls into every avenue OF
employment in our big eastern cities is
as good as decree of Punishment for
young men. The tendency of the price
of labor is downward. The merchant
reasons with himself: "Why should |
pay $40 week to John Jones when |
get Miss Smith for 81. My competitor
has Begun to get me at disadvantage.
He has discharged his young men, pat
in girls, and has cut prices below what
can at present afford. | must follow
suit or shut up shop" And he always
follows suit.
The rage for bargains has taken pos
session of the community. Nobody
cares who goes to the devil as long as
shirts can be had for 60 cents apiece
and trousers for 81 pair Women s
Undertaking sells so cheaply here that
it is conceded to be folly to make it up
at home. 1t is the boast of the keepers
of the gigantic shops that they sell
everything woman's outfit demands.
From bonnet to shoes, they can supply
her. Two weeks of general boycotung
would close these big, overgrowu shops,
but nobody thinks of that, nor is it pos
sible in community which is all in
partnership to get things 'cheap." In
this struggle for existence the weakest
90 to the wall. Polite euphonism for go
ing straight to the devil, People must
live, must have food in the stomach, a
place to sleep in, and some amusement.
Men who prey on human weakness and
seek opportunity to wreck women take
advantage of this hard struggle of the
people for existence.
And it is not wholly the fault of the
supertluous woman that the young men
are crowded out, can't get money
enough together to achieve matrimony,
and strike out for the west Our busl-
ness men hold on till pneumonia or ex-
haustion overtakes them and they are
carried to the cemetery. No one thinks
of retiring from business. The pile
gained must be made bigger. "Mer-
chants don't retire rs they used to,
said one the other day; they have got
into the way of working right up to the
moment the angel of death comes
around and says: You're wanted. "
The competition of social life is so keen
that the old chaps think they must keep
in business to get money enough to go
on cutting big swell. So the ambi-
tious young man gets tired of waiting
for advancement and partnership. Bhe
wholesome western idea of getting out
of active work at so has no hold here.
At SO the New England business man
has become settled in the nut OF routine.
He is on the make-the grab would be
better.
This Is New England business life.
No chance on the ocean, little chance