, 1891-12-01
HUMAN SHARKS.
How They swIndIe Young Women Typ
writer Operators in New YORK CITY.

How They swIndIe Young Women Typ
writer Operators in New York city.
Good day. Miss Morton, l will send
you word if | find your work s~atisfac-
tory"
She was a young, slender girl, not
over seventeen. and a moment before a
smile of expectancy had beamed upon
her face. The smile died away as she
heard the words addressed to her. They
were a lash of cold water upon her
hopes. Tears stood in her eyes, and see
ing them he added:
Il feel quite sure your work will suit,
Miss Morton. You may expect to hear
from me in a day or two. VIII you
leave your address,
The young lady brightens up at this,
leaves the desired address, and trips
homeward, hope again cheering her
heart.
Miss Hattie Morton belongs to the
army of typewriters and stenographers
seeking their living in this great city. 1t
is said this army is 100000 strong, and
10000 are young women and girls.
Miss Morton lives with her mother and
little brother in a fiat with two windows
facing on Tompkins square. There are
no signs of luxury in the Morton fiat.
The mother is an invalid, but as she lies
before the window in a reclining chair
her hands are rarely idle. With her
needle she has clothed and fed Hattie
and John and sent them to a neighbor-
ing school. Hattie she has also been able
to send to a night school where the girl
was taught st~enography and typewriting.
And now the teacher had said that Hat
tie might look for a position.
She advertised. and among the an
swers was one from a lawyer at Broad
way and Park place. Lawyer Charles
Wildron wrote that he would give the
applicant a days trial and that if her
services were satisfactory she would be
permanently engaged.
Typewriters as a rule prefer legal
work, and so Miss Morton laid the other
answers to her advertisement aside and
started for the big building on Broadway.
Mr.. Wildron told her that if he EN-
gagged her he should expect to pay fit.
teen dollars a week. He required a
thoroughly competent steuographer and
typewriter, he said.
The young girl began the test. Brief
after brief was given to her, and when
Albut NhllAt lltl htdl was ulLLN anu htE
hands benumbed. But hope still had
possession of her heart.
That will do, l think" said Lawyer
Wildron.
Hattie put on her hat and jacket and
waited to learn her fate. Mr.. Wildron
did not look up as he spoke the words
that sent a chill to the young girls soul;
but he heard the. bitter sigh that the
girl could not suppress. And then he
saw that she was crying.
Scenes We're not to his liking, so he
fastened to speak a word of encourage
ment. And Hattie went home to tell
her mother that very soon the needle
might be laid away.
Days passed. and mother and daughter
waited anxiously for the letter that
never came.
Lawyer Wildron belongs to a class OF
SO called business men in this town who
get their typewriting lone for nothing.
They answer advertisements, stating
that they will take the applicant on u
days trial. No matter what her quail
~ications are, the applicant is ready to
stand n test.
Men like Lawyer Wildron have plenty
of valuable work for the applicant to
do. They do not experiment on copy
that they mean to destroy as soon as
they have inspected it.
Miss Mary f. Seymour, of The Won
ans Business Journal, employs a mum
Der of stenOgraphers and typewriters at
her Office in the Potter building.
1t is an outrage to trick ambitious
young women IN this way" she said
yesterday when the reporter pslled her
attention to the S of Mis- Morton
II never think of takinda an applicant on
trial without compromising her for all
the work she does. Sometimes 7 will
test an hour only, somdtiues a day, or
possibly where she comes to me as an
expert l prefer to prolong the test to a
week. But l always pay for every hour
of service"
Y. Snyder, manager of the employ
ment bureau in connection with the
Remington Typewriter house of Wyck-'
off, Seamans & Benedict, said:
Yes, this scheme of testing young
typewriters where there is no intention
of engaging them prevails to a certain
extent. Men who will thus take advan-
-tage of young women deserve TO get
tarred and feathered and ridden out Of
town on a rail-
Miss Jennie Nicols, of 374 West Sew
enteenth street, gave an entire week of
service to a Cedar street firm that is try
ing to float some mining scheme and has
deluged financial circles all over the
country with typewriter circulars. Ac-
Cording to her statement at the end of
the week the head of the firm told Miss
Nicols that her work was not up TO the
standard required by them, and conse-
queutly she would not do.
They never so much as paid for my
luncheons," declared the young lady in
~dignantly. "To say those circulars
didn't suit, when every afternoon l saw
them seal up hundreds of them and send
them to the mail!-New York journal.
An astonishing increase has taken
place in the profits assessed to income
tax under Schedule D" in the city dur
ing the past ten years. On comparing