The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1891-06-09

THE FIGURE SPEAKS.
WHAT THE GIRL WHO TRIES oNr
HAS TO SAY ABOUT HER WORK.

Wearing Fine Clothes May Be Pleasant,
but the Degree of Satisfaction Depends
on Whether You Own Them or N6t.
Conversation of a Figure"
81 sometimes wish nv good looks was in
ny face" said the pockmarked girl. ''It
would be awful nice 70 have my eyes blue
instead of green, and my mouth little in
stead of big. However, since that wasn't
to be so. Pm glad | amt so scrawny as
some girls that amt bad looking in the
face Folks try TO comfort me by saying
that there are dozen pretty faces TO one
real good figure, but the best consolation /
get is the twelve dollars a week that my
figure brings me in, now that I've got 4
place. If / was just one inch taller I'd
have got one without any trouble; but
though | wear the very highest heeled
shoes / can find, still amt tall enough to
suit some OF them Who are theml Why
the bosses in cloak places. OF course. You
don't think pose for art classes, do yon,
Not much, ! don't I'm figure, not a
model
Cannot add cubit TO my stature?
don't want to add a cubit, whatever that
may be, TO my stature, but I'd like 10 be
Just an inch taller. I'm all right in other
matters-thirty-eight inches in the bust
and twerty-three inches in the waist, with
nicely sloping shoulders and long enough
neck-short necks are the trouble with a
good many that would like 70 be figures,
and good many more are all right except
for their big waists.
Now, some of the girls say I'm laced
tight because my waist is SO small in COM
parison with my shoulders, but il isn't so;
nobody ever saw me puff and pant as girls
do who tie one OF their corset laces TO the
bedpost and pull for all they are worth on
the other.
IAN easy berth I've got? Well, yes, it is
easy work in comparison with what some
other girls have to do for half the money;
but l have the care OF the fine stock, and
it weighs on my mind, can tell you, to be
held responsible for all them high priced
sacques and wraps. And then the con-
slant trying onl It's true my hours are
only from till 5, but / earn my salary as
well as the black satin dresses that l wear
in the shop. Yes, of course they furnish
the dresses. I'd like TO sec myself, with a
salary of twelve dollars week, buying my
own silks and satins, for they wear out
awful quick under the constant putting on
and pulling off of sacQues aud wraps.
COMMENTS OF BUYERS.
"No, don't do any trying on in the
workroom. Figures are expected TO do
that in smaller establishments, bat in our
place it is as much as l can do to try on for
customers. Sometimes there will be as
many as five ladies standing around wait
ing 20 see how sacques that they have
tal- 20 lrrNL-
o'clock till it is usually try on and try on,
with hardly any let up. and sometimes Pve
been nearer fainting than any would think.
but Pve stood it out, because / knew that
fainting folks amt wanted in business
No, don't have 70 stand still.
81 almost always walk up and down the
room to show off the things, and while the
| customers are looking at me and passing
remarks, l am expected to look just as
sweet and smiling as one Of the wooden
dummies in the window, no matter what
| they may be saying. Not always compli-
mentary1 You just ought to hear 'eml
! Sometimes they will say that everybody
can see am made up figure or wouldn't
| be so stiff. The square shouldered sort say
| that my shoulders slant too much, and
| what would fit me wouldn't ct them.
should hope notl
THE stout ones say that it is fnhuman
to keep me laced up SO tight-that I'd have
a twenty-eight-inch waist If | was let
alone. The awful tall ones say they can't
tell what a cloak really looks ike when
they see it on such a squatty figure, and
| some who walk like cows themselves say
they could form a better judgment of q
cloak if they saw it on graceful person
"Id like to know if anybody but an act
ress could walk natural with SO many
| folks staring at her all at once. Frown
'em down! Idarsn't A figure has got Ia
| look just as pretty as she can or she'll be
bounced, and as matters stand it makes
against me. can tell you, that amt nc
better looking in the face.
| NOT ALL TUN.
"Our business booming, you think
| Well, it amt bad. but, Of course, you know
| there's a dozen cloaks tried on for one that
| is sold, and sometimes for none that's sold
| Time and again I've tried on cloak after
cloak for customers that had no more ides
of buying 'em than / have Of buying the
moon. You may say it is all in days
work, and hadn't ought TO mind it, but
| when the buyer scolds the salesl&dies foE
not selling more .cloaks, some Of 'ern has 4
way of blaming it onto me, telling him
leave all the talk to them about their be
ing warm and comfortable and a. ths
same time light and stylish.
''I'd feel like it, wouldn't l, say on a hot
day IN September, praising up Newmarket
and sealskin sacques and such things that
| I'm nearly suffocated inl Yes, we ars az.
ful busy in September selling our imported
articles TO the buyers for small stores, ard
my work lasts on later into the summer
| than you might think, so many folks bay
when the season Is over, so as 10 get things
| cheap.
| hardly ever go on my vacation before
the last week in June. Some Of the girls
in our place say don't need no vacation,
and it's only fun TO be wearing fine clothes
all the time, or at least all day. rs l DO, bg;
I don't see where the fun conez in. Ike
| fne clothes as well IA other folks. but there
amt no satisfaction in putting EN- on Il
| they don't belong 70 me, and having az
| sealskin wrap On my back doesn't maze
me forget that my Sunday sacque cost only
| ti5, and If ! buy silk dress this year j.
viii have 70 DO ne another winter. "--Ses
/ York Tribune
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