Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1891-04-02

Out of this they are only obliged to pro-
vide their clothing.
LESS PAY BUT MonE FREEDOM.
A shop girl in New York would think
she was doing pretty well to receive from
81 20 s12 week over and above her living
expenses even if she did have to wear
black silk dresses every day when she
reached the f70 grade The shop girls
here having her clothing to purchase has
a big advantage over her sister in the
United States. The purchasing power of
a dollar SO far as clothing is concerned is
| double here what it is in our country.
But | imagine that our independent Am
erIcan girl would prefer to struggle along
with the meagre salary most of them re-
celve, with the power to come and go as
| they pleased, rather than te live in a cock
loft over the store and have no care as to
what she shall eat and where she shall sleep
but be obliged to live up to certain rules
and be In the house every night at eleven
o'clock
From every standpoint the women who
wait behind the counters and tend the
lunch stands at the different railroad sta
tionS or hand liquor over the bar are bet
ter off than the woman who is obliged to
labor in the United States. The shops
here do not open before nine o'clock in
the morning and close early in the even
ing. Thus the hours are shorter with the
English shop girls and the work as a rule
lighter.
Having her home under the same roof or
adjoining the place where she works, there
are no expenses for car fare and a dozen
other little ircidentals that are imposed
upon the American working girl Having
no concern as to food and lodging and be-
ing able to purchase her clothes at very
low price, her 500 a year or all the way
up to $3.50 enables her to live comfortably
and always appear gentle and happy.
Unless family drains take all she can make
it easy. Being paid weekly. they can
get the best results out of their earnings
and keep money always III hand for pleas
ure and necessities. In shops of the lower
order, where women are employed and not
housed and fed by the proprietor, the rate
of wages runs from S. to $40 a week.
which means double that amount of
money in our land of freedom.
DARK SIDE, TOO.
Spiers and Pond, who have all the rail
way stations in the United Kingdom,
keep some six thousand employees. A
thousand OF these are girls who wait upon
the lunch counters as the trains comes in.
They have nice rooms for their accommo-
dation fitted up over the depot, and they
can have whatever to eat or drink they
please. Between trains they can read, %
to their rooms and lie down, or do what
ever they please if they apportion their
work out properly among themselves,
They are favorite class of employees, and
receive 81 so week over and above their
living expenses, to say nothing of a tip
now and then.
While these higher classes of female la
Dor are we'll paid here and we'll cared for
there are many sad stories Of struggle and
wrong that greet you on every hand in an
investigation of these phases of English
life. Many classes of working women are
not only paid a pittance, but are sadly i'll
treated. The women who do the real
drudgery in the workrooms of even the
large stores have long hours and hard
WORK. The stories of misery that could
be told of many an attic in this great city
would fill volumes There are thousands
upon thousands of women. young and DID,
working here for less than enough to keep
soul and body together. Sweating" is
practiced more freely in this crowded mart
than in any of our large cities. Compe-
tition here is exacting to the cruelty point,
and the poor who have to labor, suffer suf-
fer in consequence. FRANK A. BURR