Pullman herald. [volume] (Pullman, W.T. [Wash.]) 1888-1989, 1891-04-11
SH0P-GIRL SLAVES.
The Disgraceful State of Affairs Disclosed
by an Investigation.
Minneapolis Tribune.l


and chief executive officer of the Work
ingwomen's Society, of New York, has
been making a personal investigation
into the condition of the saleswomen of
that city. The discoveries she has made
are simply appalling. In telling her
story, in part, today she said that she
found that the hours in the stores are ex-
cessive and that overtime is not paid
for. Hours are not specified when an
employe IS hired. A child, on 81 a week.
is obliged to work sixteen hours a dav at
certain seasons of the year, and is forced
to 60 long distances through question
able localities late at night. The SAM
tary conditions in most of the stores are
wretched. In a certain fashionable store.
Miss Woodbridge says, the women
cashiers are in the basement-Or rather
cellar, for it is nothing else. In the
center of the cellar a room is walled up
and in it are seated fifteen or twenty
cashiers. The automatic carriers are
the arrangement was first made, and in
the fetid atmosphere, in the strong
glare of the electric lights, with hun
dreds OF carriers pouring in upon them
with noise so deafening that two wo-
men seated side by side could not hear
each other speak without shouting, the
situation was too much for the strong
est man. Girls tainted day after dav,
and came out of the cellar looking like
corpses. Finally, as the intense heat of
summer came on it became unendur-
able, and the air-tube, which came to
the surface a long distance away, was
opened in the cellar. Even then the Their
mometer registered 80 degrees on the
coolest days. No slaves ever underwent
such torture. She declares that the
toilet arrangements in many stores are
simply horrible, yet the board of health
apparently takes no notice of the fact.
In the manufacturing department of one
OF New GOrk's largest stores the same
wash basin and towel has to do for a Il.
On visiting the store she was struck by
the fact that large number of children
were suffering from granulated eyelids
As this disease is e--Sanious, it is easy
to see how it could spread from that
single towel. Moreover, women and
children have to make personal applica-
tons to the floor walkers for the KEYS to
the toilet rooms. The general condition
IN the stores of the city may be Judged
from the fact that one of the saleswomen
told Miss Woodbridge that the toilet
room in this particular store was better
than she had seen in any store where
| she had been hitherto employed.
Miss Woodbridge says that a great
many children under the age of fourteen
years are employed. The poor little
cash girls are treated shamefully in
many instances. Long and faithful ser
vice does not meet with consideration
On the contrary it is, in many instances.
customary to make frequent changes in
employees lest they get the idea that
they are entitled to better wages for con-
tlnued falthfulness. The wages paid to
women average 81 and $3.50 per week.
which is often reduced by unreasonable
and excessive fines. The fines of sales
woman in Sixth avenue house from
ESeptember l to January l were $15. A
cash girl, getting - a week, has some
times TO pay fines amounting to 90 cents.
The law requiring seats for saleswomen
is generally ignored. In a few cases one
seat is provided at counter where fiji
teen girls are employed and in one store
seats are provided according to law. but
a saleswoman is fined if she is caught
sitting down.
Miss Woodbridge said, in conclusion;
1T is simply impossible for anv woman
to live without assistance on the small
salary saleswoman earns without de-
priving herself of real necessities. 1t is
certainly most difficult matter to deal
with from the fact that the character of
the pure and upright, who form the vast
majority of the women, might be in
jured, and also from the fear of Offend
ing the sense of delicacy and good taste
of the public. But there is a necessity
of facing the question. In Paris it is an
understood thing that women who are
employed in shops cannot exist without
assistance from other questionable
sources, and unless something is done at
once that must also become the case in
our land, where we pride ourselves on
our respect for honest toll"