Omaha daily bee., 1890-05-04

be ruinous TO Mr.. Schoelply's business III he
should close his house and the other mer-
chants continue TO keep their stores open un-
till Q and 10 o'clock
Will Nash Of William N. Whitney's-Mr.
Whitney was one Of the first men to suggest
the idea OF carly closing and all Of his clerks
appreciate his efforts in their behalf We
realize that 1t Is not a question Of dollars and
cents with him but IL Is for the
purpose of showing the people we are
men instead Of slaves and are entitled to some
respect and consideration. OF course, the
clerks are for early closing and, TO make up
for the three hours, we would be given, we
would be perfectly willing to work much
harder during the day. As 1t is now we are
in the store from Z o'clock in the morning
until o o clock at night, with barely time TO
step out and get our lunches. When we are
through work IL is so late or we are so tired
that there is no pleasure in going out among
people and so we become hermits. 1t may
not come this year but before long the time
will come in Omaha when not only the Biil
shoe stores but the dry goods, the clothing
and even the grocery stores will close early
in the evening. IL Is just as convenient for
people to do their trading early as IL is TO
wait until after dark. They talk about the
evening trade. II is true there is some
of this trade but not one time in n hundred
do we sell pair of fine shoes after night. In
buying good shoes men and women will fol-
low the same rule as in buying dress goods or
clothing. Instead of making their selections
at night they will wait until daylight.
Aaron Zunder of Zunder & Harris-The
firm by which / am employed signed the petit
tion to close at u o'clock, and will stand by IL.
have talked with the members and know
they are in favor of such n movement. They
have no desire to keep their clerks in the
store for fourteen hours daily. They also re-
alize that If the stores all close at d o'clock
the trade that comes to them after night
would come during the day. and that they
would lose nothing by the change, though for
a time it might be hard to educate the people
to purchase their goods during the day.
Some of the people argue that, if early clos
ing were put into operation, the retailers
would lose the trade of the laboring men, but
this is not true If these men understood
that the stores were closed early they would
make arrangements to buy during the day.
This argument of losing trade is only pre-
text to get more work out of the men for the
same amount of money.
Robert Rosenzweig of A. d. Morse's-I, as
well as my fellow-clerks, would be only too
glad to be allowed to work harder and close
at o'clock. think the firm would not lose
any trade by the operation, as | believe this
evening trade we now get would come in the
Mr. Morse closes his store at s o'clock,
which is an improvement on the old
rule, but still, we would be far
better satisfedif we could get out ate o'clock
eat our suppers and have our evenings to our
selves All of the clerks look Mt this matter
in the same light and favor early closing. We
did not sign the petition for early closing, be
cause when il was presented, we understood
that Mr.. Morse would adopt the o'clock
closing plan and at that time we did not feel
that we could ask for more than this"