New Ulm weekly review. [volume] (New Ulm, Minn.) 1878-1892, 1886-10-06
THE SHOP GIRLS OF PARIS,
'aris Letter in Philadelphia Press.

IL IS the gay daWning OF a summers
morning on the boulevards. Over the
asphalt fit hundreds OF well dressed,
tidy girls Of any age from Is to 25.
They all, or nearly all, have the clas-
sic palor OF the Parisienne, and the
musical step and inimitably graceful
gait-the peculiar characteristics OF
that queenliest OF queenly women,
Mostly these girls are bareheaded Il
haveoften seen the darkest of tresses
laden with the virgin snow, and the
pretty damsels were actually smiling
under the burden!); their locks are
usually fastened in wavy coil ON the
summit of the head, and they run
along speedily hither and thither,
satchel in hand, to commence the toll
and labor of the day. These are the
shop girls of Paris-the tender, little,
bewitching white slaves of the great
metropolis on the banks of the Seine!
The Partisan shop girl stan Dis behind
the 'counteror fits along the boutique
from z A. NJ. to 9 P. NJ, almost unin-
teri uptedly. Habit has wreathed her
face with smiles, for it is the rigid rule
of the establishment that she must
smile as graciously. as possible on
every customer that comes along
Her heart may be laden with the
heaviest and darkest SORROW, and she
may, OF course, have many troubles
of her own to ponder over, but, never
theless, she must coax winning look
to her face;and the merry'ogling glance
to Ter eyes; otherwise the proprietor
is sure to get angry and give her her
walking papers. Whether in such
monster warehouses as Louvre and
the Petit St. Thomas, where the en-
ployes number several hundred, or
where a solitary twelve square feet
nook and corner in one of the by
streets, the shop girl is always courte-
Gus and :affable. She has on every
occasion a spic-and-span politeness
about her which ,favorably impresses
foreigners.
She may be classified in two catego-
ries. Shells either the daughter of
comparatively poor but hard-work-
ing parents, who take especial care of
her and save her from moral wreck
and ruin, or she keeps the company
of some young man who pays her
lodging for her and takes her out to
the suburbs for.a walk every Sunday
If she belongs to the first category she
is shy and reserved in conversation,
and if shebe really prude, she must
assume prudish airs, or run the risk
of being reported to her parents by
the patron for misconduct. I had oc.
casion, while in Paris, to know the
parents of several of these shop girls.
One Of these parents was a man of
some so years of age, prematurely old
and feeble. His spouse was q sickly
little creature of the same age. They
had an only daughter, Adele, who was
half mile distant from the paternal
home. For the seven years she was
thus employed shew never allowed
to 60 to or from her place of business
alone! Every morning, winter as we'll
las summer, the-sire would escort her
to the shop door, and every evening
at 8 o'clock sharp:h he would he found
at his post-punctual as a roman SEN
tinel-to bring her backunder the roof
tof the parental apartment. One day,
two years ago, i met him On the boul-
.evard as happy :as: a man could be.
"What is the matter?" Iasked "Have
you fallen in for the 500, 600 francs of
the Tombola des Beaux Artist"
'No," was the,answer; '':but I have
got Adele married at last" and he
chuckled and rubbed his little wither-
ed hands feverishky as he spoke. II
got her married to a railway clerk
who was not too sexacting as .Adele's
fortune was only 1920 francs-her
own earnings-and 1 Was too poor to
add anything to dot myself" "How
longd it take herto earn that sum-"
Iasked. SWELL" said he, .'iust seven
years, at q salary varying from 40 to
10 francs a. month. She commenced
'towork at fifteen, and she was twenty
two on her marriage day. Itwas l."
:hecadded, "that forced her to get mar
?ried, as the rheumatism WAS torment
;ing:me so much that 1T was with diff
1iculty I could take her ito the shop
;and tfetch her back, and unless her
mother or myself COULD do the escort
ing business, why her reputation
would be gone, and she,oould never
So that lis thereason,
monsieur, why you see me in such
good spirits to-day
Another paterfamllias assured me
that.were it not for his daughter, who
was;a shop girl, he and ihismife should
lhetcompeAed to beg tfaairlbread Both
weRe octogenarians, and ,the damsel
hefselfwas over 80 yeans of age. She
canned 2: frnncs a day behind the coun-
ter, .and when returned home every
ewening she,would hastily sdispose 'ofa
fragal dinner and sit DOWN to ;a1table,
where >ahe, wrete circular addresses for
the remuneration of CENTS per 900.
She would dispose of a hundred inian
hour, and worked till l I'm the morn-
ing canning 10 cents during thesfve
hounsl &he ,esuld earn frame and
some odd <eentinaes every Sunday over
this operation, as she had nothdng else
to do tEat day. Such devoted at
tachment is by noaneans rare in Paris.
Virtlle stiM lives ,Or rather vecetAfAs