Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1888-04-13
THE HOMElY GIRLS DAY.
Handsome Typewriters No Longer Popu
lar in the Metropolis.

M obc VI biic " peWTlblnB
schools in town you often see as many as
eight or ten young women on the benches
in the outer Office, waiting to see the
proprietor, of whom they want to get
employment as pupils or secretaries to
business men. When he comes in you
will always notice that he sees them
without regard to the order in which
they came, picking out one here and one
there, taking them into his office each by
herself until only one or two remain on
the seats. If you studied the subject
day after day you would soon discover
that the more prepossessing a young
woman is the less time she has to wait,
and that it is always the plain ones who
are left to the last. Poverty, especially
when it entails the necessity for young
girl to go out and earn her living, is hard
and bitter, and many time and oft you
will see that the homely girls, left sitting
on those benches, have unfathomed the
proprietor's secret and are biting their
lips and even suffering moisture to flood
their eyes as they note how certainly q
beautiful face and stylish attire command
attention.
The other day went to that school,
and l witnessed the neglect of plain
girl who evidently found it difficult to
conceal her modification. I was in the
room with the proprietor when he asked
her to come in.
81 suppose there is no use my asking
you, sir" she said; "but since l have
waited l will say that am seeking &C.
cupation as n typewriter"
''Do you understand the business2" he
asked.
81 am said to be very rapid" said she;
81 have been five years at the calling"
"Will you accept SIS week to act as
stenographer and typewriter to vice
president so and SO of the - oil COM
pany?"
Her eyes changed color. They bright
ened almost into flame.
Fifteen dollars!" she said; II only
got so, sir, and then only for a year
before the firm was with failed"
The arrangement or bargain was
quickly made. Before she left the girl
asked, "Will you tell me why you saw
me last though l was the first to conner"
I'D rather not, said the employer.
odd all the others secure placesy'' she
asked.
u.
She went away wondering. When she
had gone the proprietor turned to me and
said THAT is both sensitive and SEN
sible girl. She thought she was left to
the last because her face and dress are
plain. She is right. This is the day of
the homely girl. The beauty, the belle,
the dressy girl, are all at discount in
this business, and we have resolved never
to employ another pretty girl if we can
get homely one.
"Theres no mystery about it," he con-
tinued. Its plain business. There are
now 5000 or 1000 girls at work in
mems offices down town, and while their
entree into commercial life is always
spoken of as a feminine revolution, the
truth is that it has created a social stir
deeper than either one sex has felt.
When girls were first mt4le use of on &C
count of their quickness with their hands,
the suitability of the work and the low
price at which they could be got by
reason of the large number seeking work,
the craze was for pretty girls Every
man wanted belle to sit at his desk and
take down his letters and memoranda.
1t was natural. There were plenty of
|
not prefer beauty to plainness. Men who
are in my business naturally tried to get
only pretty pupils and beautiful adopts.
We scanned the girls dresses, judged
them by their stylishness and insisted on
general attractiveness. If we ever took
up plain girl we were apt to be sorry
for it, for we had hard work to place
her. Now all that is changed. l can
show you scores of letters in which bust
ness men ask me not to send pretty girl.
In fact, the only offices where we can
place a pretty girl are very large ones
where the employer chooses the girl and
details her to go with others in some de-
partment or to assist male chief clerk
or private secretary. Those and the
offices of the bachelors in business are
the only places where we can get work
for pretty girls.
1.-The reason is as plain as the nose on
your face" he continued; 1.-THE wives
have interfered. Every married man is
visited at his office by his wife more or
less frequently If she finds him elbow
to elbow or face to face with a pretty
coquette every time she comes, she is
certain to make life more or less unpleas-
dut lOl lIlll. AopLlc NOIlltIl Ill Sucn
cases take it out at home as the saying
goes, but have had men tell me that
their wives were forever popping in on
them and practically never missed day
without call at their offices. These
business men, nearly all men pick up a
bouquet, or box of candy, or some little
knickknack now and then to gladden.
the life of the girl at their elbow.
Imagine the state of the wife who finds
that the flowers she sees on her husbands
desk were put there by him when he has
told her ten thousand times that he has
hated flowers from infancy Oh, no;
there is no show for the pretty girl in
business in New York today. Those who
got places long ago are now being crowded
out and no new ones are now taken on"
-"Clara Belle" in New Orleans Times
Democrat
A Baby Beavers Dam.
A college professor in Maine tells how
he convinced a friend who did not be-
lieVe that beavers could huild dams He