Helena weekly herald. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1867-1900, 1886-06-24
THE WORKING GIRL.
HOW SHE APPEARS AND HOW SHE
LIVES IN NEW YORK.
Going to Work and Coming HOme-Her
Poor Food and Poorer Wages-The
Summit of Her AmbitiOn-How She
Spends Her SUNDAYS.

Poor Food and Poorer Wages-The
Summit of Her Ambition-How She
Spends Her Sundays.
Especial Correspondence
NEW YORK, June THE working girl of
this city is heroine without knowing it.
She works harder, gets less pay and has
fewer comforts than the working girl in any
other spot over which the Stars and Stripes
wave. You can see her on the elevated
railways at o'clock in the morning, going
to her work, with cheerful face, as tidy a
toilet as she can afford, and possibly flower
on her breast. You will see her again in the
svening, going home, pale, disheveled and
weary, swinging to a strap in the
car while the fat brokers, lazy lawyers,
and silk-hatted gentry monopolize the seats.
1t might then occur to you that American
men are not the "most gallant in the world, !"
though tradition has said they are. You
will lose faith in traditions veracity at
once But you will remember little later
that they are not all Americans. Many of
them came from countries where gallantry
is not a national virtue, and others are de-
scendants of foreigners. New York has not
much that's American to boast of, save the
soil it stands on.
You may notice the working girls dress.
1t will show service, but has strong leln-
ing toward style Her slim waist will be
fitted into a jaunty basque and there will
be that about her costume, poor as it is,
which shows that she knows how to make
herself look up with the times if she only
had a chance Whatever the style is she
approximates it in her poor way. She will
have a little bonnet, or toque, made of the
material of her dress, cheap and poor, to be
sure, but with the fare of fashion about it,
and she will wear it with an air, too. She
is pretty, sometimes, but it is rarely last
ing beauty. 1t is too fragile. 1t fades early
and reaches the break down period soon.
You will notice. too, perhaps, how slender
are the wrists as the sleeve slips away from
the hand that clutches the car strap. You
may wonder why she dosen't sew up the rent
in her dress She hasn't time. She wears the
dress until she is ready to lie down to sleep,
and then she is so very tired, she thinks she
will let it go till morning, and when she
wakes up she finds that she has oversight,
and hasn't a minute to spare. She must
catch the train during Communication hours,
for sine can't afford to pay ten cents for get
ting down town, and the street cars are too
slow So the tear is not mended until
SUNDAY.
Tired she always is, but cheerful She is
young and has hope. What does she doc
She sells dry goods, candy, cigars. She is
in box and shirt factories. She irons in
laundries, she writes wrappers and folds
circulars, she operates typewriters, she
sews at large wholesale dressmaking estab-
lishments, she is in tailor shops and glove
ha iS 1ain "
hands are needed and can be obtained for
small pay.
How and where does she lives Very poorly,
of necessity In a cold and comfortless hall
room in some decent boarding house. if she
can afford even that poor luxury. If not,
she clubs with three or four others like her
self and hires room i'm tenement house,
where they cook. sleep. and see all the life
they see outside of their work. ex-
cept on Sundays when they go to
the park, or get invited to Coney Island.
Sometimes she has parents. and it is often
doubtful whether she is better or worse off in
consequence; often the family is large and
they all live in cramped quarters. Some
times she has mother who mends her
clothes, does her washing, and has a place
for her at the family table Then she can
dressi have a case in mind. She addressed
envelopes and got S. week. She paid sixty
cents for car fare and So SO for her board,
at home. which included her washing and
mending. Out of the rest she clothed herself,
and at the end of two years bought the silk
dress-a poor, fiimsv thing at fifty cents
yar1 and not worth that-but it was the
realization of her dreams, it represented self
denial and industry, and for that reason it
was, perhaps, not an iniudicious purchase.
Of course the mother made this girls clothes,
otherwise she could not even have been re-
50 .ctably dressed, for she was too fatigued
10 work at night, and she could not have
paid for having her sewing done.
She reads nothing to speak of. How could
she's Her whole life goes by in toll She
knows little something about the races
and keeps track of big accidents and muir
ders. She is posted about the prominent
stage people, but not by close reading She
doesn't know the uses of many newspapers
One is as good as another to her. She reads
the personals" and the "Help Wanted" but
she doesn't know an editorial from a sheriff's
sale. She merely knows that "the paper says
So" That is authority enough for her. She
is ignorant about almost everything not
found within the hard little round of her
life The presidents name she has heard,
but all other officials are as good as non-ex-
istent to her. 1t is doubtful if she could give
a very straight account of how the Fourth
of July came to be red-letter day.
She is CHEEKY and smiling through it all
She pays her nickel for car fare as an en-
press would bestow royal favor She ex-
pends few cents for luncheon and divides
the purchase with her companions. Poor
food is her portion, morning, noon and
night. The unhealthful merchandise Of
cheap restaurants constitutes the bulk Of her
bodily sustenance. Soggy pies, stale sand
wiches, greasy doughnuts, these are the
luxuries she indulges in, because nothing
else is offered low enough for her to buy.
What pay does she gets Anything from
s. to $40, but oftener not over S. and not
infreouently less than that. If she has
room to herself, ever such little coffin-like
one even, it will cost her 81 to $3.50 a week.
Out of the small residue of her salary she
must pay all her other living expenses. She
is glad when summer comes, for summer
clothes cost less than winter ones, and she
can look well on comparatively little She
can even wear long silk gloves and pretty
hat on Sundays, and then she will be sure
to be invited to Coney Island occasionally.
Altogether, the sumner sweetens life in spite
of its heat and discomforts.
The working girl expects to be extricated
some day. So she will be, but it will be
mere difference of the kind of .oil, for she
will be obliged to work harder than ever.
Marry she will, of course; and since she has
only few in her own sphere to choose from,
she marries man who earns at thu most
$12 or SIS week. They live, but they
rarely rise. How can theys There is nothing