The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1885-01-01
SHOP.GIRLS.
How They Live and Why They Marry
Their objection to the Kitchen.

/ ferS DfQl0u WHICH, IO"S VI 0olhSSlS
/ danced attendance upon capricious Gus
/ toners. .It is cheap, at least" he ad-
ded, :" in the dry-goods business. Peo-
pie generally know that the women
who work in the shops are ill-pald. but
| how pitful 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 50
a week-the head of departments get
that. The saleswomen, who constitute
the great majority of the female en-
ployes, get only 50. so; and the cash.
girls are thought to be well paid at
81. week. l am not surprised that
you ask how it is possible for woman
to live on so small an amount as So. 80
a week, but it is not so mysterious after
all. You see, among the poorer class
of people, to which the women who
work in the shops belong, each member
of the family is bread winner-all but
the very little ones-and although the
earnings of each may be small, vet every
little helps. The family of which that
pretty girl at the ribbon counter is
member lives very comfortably indeed
in pretty little house on the North
Side. Beside herself there are two 9TH
er sisters and two brothers. They all
work in the shops. The father earns S13
a week as a salesman in this establish
ment, and one of the other girls is en-
ployed here as a cash-girl. The third
sister is at the head of department in
another great bazaar like this. The boys
make SO between them. Thus you see
that the aggregate amount covered by
the family is no less than S32 a week,
or more than 81 800 a year-a very de-
cent 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 beaux. The bread-winning
being distributed in such manner, no
ordinary accident, such as loss of en-
ployment by member of the family,
could cause them distress. These are
the sort of people who have the tenden-
cy to something better, and although
they are not ashamed to work in the
shop they will surely rise above it.
speaking of the marriages of shop
women reminds me that l 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 they wore trousers. But it is I'M
! questionable that in this class of society
| 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 mar
ry some one. The fact is that the aver
age 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
drudge for a selfish and brutal husband,
or is compelled to 60 back to the shop
to support him. 1t is very sad.
ut is hardly possible, as you say"
continued the floor walker, .'for a wo-
man to live by herself and support her
| self on $3.50 a week. OF course the
necessities from which these women suf-
fer are constant temptation, especial
ly to those of them who are young and
| attractive. Nevertheless, as class,
shopwomen are respectable and vir-
! tuous, despite all one hears to the con-
| trary.
Tho principal proprietor of the estab-
| lishment is something of philanthro-
pist. One day l asked him if he did not
think it would be charitable thing to
raise the pay of all the female employees,
say 81 week all round. My dear sir,
| said the old gentleman severely, pur-
sing his lips, You are evidently una
ware of the first principles of political
economy. 1t would give me great pleas.
IRE from the philanthropic point of view
to pay higher wages to all my employees,
but the labor market must be upset in
a lamentable manner were | to do as
you suggest Labor, like anything else,
| has its market value, and if | pay more
than is paid in other stores for the same
labor, the employees of the other stores
would at once raise a clamor for ar
equal advance, and there would be gen.
eral discomfort. l advise you to study
John Stuart Mill" SO it appears that
true philanthropy can only exist or
politico-economic principles.
The life of a shop-girl has, despite
its drawbacks, peculiar fascination.
There was very pretty little French
woman here who sold pins and needles
and thread at the same counter for near.
| ly seven years. One day she told me
In great glee that she was going to be
married and get away from the pins
and needles forever. And, Monsieur,
she said, my husband that is to be is
quite well of, and need never do any
more work So she went away and
was married: but six months later she
came back again and told me that she
had felt so lonely while her husband
was away in the daytime and missed
so the roar and hustle and life of the
| shop that she preferred to come back
to work
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 a woman employed as domes-
tic is quite as good as that which shop
girl receives, and she gets her board be-
sides as well as her lodging. She is bet.
ter fed, and perhaps more comfortable
in every way. But the secret of this
lies in the love of liberty and independ-
| ence which is a dominant instinct OF
the human heart. The shop-girl, though
she be slave during ten hours of the
| day, Is free when the clock strikes 6.
She can 60 to theatre with her young
man, or do whatever pleases her, and
there is nobody to say her nay. But the
| domestic is 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 insurrec.
ton at Mays, the great New York
| dry-goodS bazaar because of an attempt
| on the part of the management to
transfer number of girls from behind
/ the counters to the restaurant attached
! to the establishment to serve as wait
resscs. They considered it decidedly
below their dignity, and threatened to
: leave in body if it were attempted to
/ enforce the order.
The lot of woman entirely depend
ent upon her resources, who earns her
living behind the counter of shop, is
indeed pitiable. Just think of trying
to exist on such a pittance as $3.50 a