St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1888-09-09
GIRLS THAT LABOR.
The Woes Of One Who Sought
to Conquer Stern
Fate.
She Masters Stenography and
Then Receives Experience !
as Her Salary.
TypeWriting in New York City
and the Salaries Paid to
Women.
Employers Who Kindly OBJ
serve Sick Employees. and
"Doek" Their Wages.

All sorts and conditions of working
people are being discussed in the pa
pers. The laundry girls, factory girls,
shop girls, sewing girls, servant girls
all these and many other classes of girls
who labor for the meat that perisheth,
and then get very small piece of the
meat, are having their rights and
wrongs brought before the public. But
who hears anything about the woes of
The typewriter girl? Is she all right?
We occasionally see a few verses written
by some young poet about the "charms
of the pretty typewriter GIRL" in which
she is represented as having a salary of
SIS week, and scorning the proffered
heart and hand of her condescending
employer, who, it may be, is a million
aire banker. OF course, people think
that girl who has SIS week, with the
privilege Of marrying any unmarried
CrGSus she may work for, thrown in,
has TO need of sympathy. Perhaps
there was, once upon time, handsome
typewriter girl in New York, who
got SIS week in a brokers' office;
and possibly. her red-faced, big-necked,
enough to suppose that the girl to
whom he dictated letters for two hours
every morning, would feel highly
pleased and hOnored to accept his
dictatorship for twenty-four hours a
day all the rest of her earthly life.
And that girl had the impudence to
refuse him! Well, that was one type
writer girl; but typewriter girls are as
numerous as the candidates before
political convention, and the eighteen
dOllarS-a-week girl is about as scarce
an article as is harmony at the same
place.
In the days of yOre, when Stenograph-
erS and typeWriterS were not so abund-
ant as they now are, and when, in the
sweet secluSlOn of female boarding
school, there came to ME rumOrS of the
immense salaries that were COM
manded by expert stenOgraphers, i
determined to learn that worse than
CHINESE SCRAwL,
and unlike the rest of my unambitious
companions, who expected to become
only shoOlma'ams, locked forward to
the time when, cut loose from books
and seminary rules, L would be writing
letters and copying briefs for some re-
nowned lawyer, earning S25 a week,
keeping large bank account and in
vesting in real estate.
chose New York city as the base of
my operations, and looked six months
for a position. Every one to whom l
applied said there was a hundred appli-
cantS to one position, and, besides, they
all wanted an experienced person. AS
l wanted experience, and as they
seemed averse to giving it to me, the
outlook was not bright. AT last kind
hearted lawyer said he would give me
ahn nd off NaIn itnh nc
Office, my salary to be experience. |
was to have fOrty-two hours experience
a week. The position was of course
accepted. l worked five weeks and
then left, and emigrated to a more
frigid cline, with all my five weeks
salary in a lump. | have no doubt
that the benevolent lawyer will receive
q future reward for all his trouble in
"breaking i'll green stenographer."
Besides my experience in shorthand
and typewriting, had considerable
knowledge of life in New York among
the working girls. L had studied all
the stenographers l came in contact
with; asked them numberless ques-
tons about their work, their employers,
their salaries. and the way they lived.
| asked one girl where she boarded, and
as she told me she lived on the most
fashionable part of Lexington avenue,
| unwittingly exclaimed: 20, my! How
much experience, and what salary
you must! Doesn't it cost SIS a week
to board there?" | was astonished be-
yond measure when she looked terribly
insulted and replied: Its none of
your business how much get, or how
much l pay. You little spyr | col
lapsed into silence, and after that rebuff
| stood in great awe of that girl and her
diamond ear rings, and although kept
up hard thinking, talk less and
asked fewer questions.
There are several classes of typewrit-
ers in New York. There are the ordi-
narily intelligent girls who get salary
of from S. to $40 week, and live at
home. Some extra bright girls who are
experts in their business, earn from
twelve to
SIXTEEN DOLLARS PER WEEK.
in railroad Office, and are able to live
very comfortably. There are some who
get very small salaries and yet manage
to board at the ''swelF' places by get
ting money from other sources. OF this
last class there are many in New York.
1t has been stated that over half the
girls employed in offices there belong
to this class, but this is probably too
large a proportion. Very often this
i'outside help" comes from the en-
plOyerS themselves, and sometimes it is
from other parties. 1t is no uncommon
thing on any Sunday afternoon to see
pretty typewriter girl riding through
Central park in the SWEETEST of turnouts,
sitting beside man who can be easily
recognized as Wall street broker or
prominent lawyer. Some of these girls
live with their parents or friends, and
werk only to keep up an outside show
of responsibility, but the majority of
them are girls who are alone in the
city, thrown on their own resources, and
after year or two of struggle for some
thing to eat and something to wear
they become discouraged and careless,
and conclude that as no one cares for
them they need care for no one, and
the outcome is only natural cOnSe-
sequence.
But typewriting in New York and
type-writing in st. Paul is vastly differ
EN- in many respects, and, though the
I life of the st. Paul girl is no heaven, it
is to be preferred to that of the New
York girl. For the past few weeks l
have endeavored to find out something
of the average salary and the way of
living among the girls in st. Paul who
|. follow this business. Many of them
have homes in the city, or relatives,
with whom they live and to whom they
may pay small sum for board each
week. and still have enough money left
to clothe themselves on. These girls
are, as a rule, bright and intelligent.
They have been sent to school until
they were sweet sixteen, and then with
the independence OF American girls