The Washburn leader. [volume] (Washburn, McLean County, N.D.) 1890-1986, 1891-06-20
THE FIGURE SPEAnp,

WHAT THE GIRL WHO TRIES ON"
HAS TO SAY ABOUT HER WORK.
Wearing Fine Clothes May BE Pleasant,
but the Degree Of Satisfaction Depends
on whether You Own Them or Not.
D Conversation Of . ''Figure."
II sometimes wish my good looks was in
my face" said the pockmarked girl. ut
would be awful nice to 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 a dozen pretty faces to one
real good figure, but the best consolation l
get is the twelve dollars a week hat my
figure hyinss me in, now that I've got a
place. II ! was just one inch taller I'd
have got one without any trouble; but
though l wear the very highest heeled
shoes | can find, still l amt tall enough to
suit some of them. Who are them? Why,
the bosses in cloak places, Of course. You
don't think l pose for art classes, DO your
Not much. | DON'T Pm a figure. not a
model.
Cannot add a cubit to my stature' l
don't want to add a cubit, whatever that
may be, to my stature, but I'd like to be
just; an inch taller. Pm all right in other
and twenty three inches in the waist, with
nicely sloping shoulders and u long enough
neck-short necks are the trouble with a
cool many that would like to be figures,
and a good many more arc all right except
for their big waists.
Nov, some of the girls say I'm laced
tight because my waist is 80 small in COM
parison with my shoulders, but it 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 goti Well, yes, it is
easy work in comparison with what some
other girls nave to do for half the money;
but | 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 o till 5, but l earn my salary as
well as the black satin dresses hat | wear
in the shop. Yes, Of course they furnish
the dresses. I'd like to see myself, with .
salary of twelve dollars a week, buying my
own silks and satins, for they wear out
awful quick under the constant putting on
and pulling off Of sacques and wraps.
COMMENTS OF BUYERS.
mo, l don't do any trying IN in the
workroom. Figures are expected to do
that in smaller establishments, but in our
place it is as much as I can do to try on for
ar,c%o~,or, Co,ottnnn, &ho.o mill In No
many as five ladies standing around wait
ing to see how sacques that they nave
taken Il fancy to will look on ME. From 0
O'Clock till $ it is usually try on and try on,
with hardly any let up, and sometimes I've
been nearer fainting than any would think,
but I've stood it out, because | l Knew that
fainting folks amt wanted in business.
No, l don't have to stand still.
IL almost always walk up and down the
room to show off the things, and while the
customers are looking at me and passing
remarks, | am expected to look just as
sweet and smiling a ono Of the wooden
dummies in the window, no matter what
they may be saying. Not always compli-
mentaryf You just ought to hear 'em!
Sometimes they will say that everybody
can see ! am amade up figure or l wouldn't
be SO stiff. The square shouldered sort say
that my shoulders slant too much, and
what would fit me wouldn't fit them.
should hope notl
1.-THE stout ones say that it is inhuman
to keep me laced up so tight-that I'd nave
a twenty-eight-inch waist il | was let
alone. The awful tall ones say they can't
tell what a cloak really looks like when
they see it on such q squatty figure, and
some who walk like COWS themselves say
they could form a better judgment of q
cloak if they saw it on a graceful person.
"I'd like to know il anybody but an act
ress could walk natural with 80 many
folks staring at her all at once. Frown
'em down? Idarsn't. A figure has got to
look just as pretty rs she can or she'll be
bounced, and as matters stand it makes
against me, | can tell you. that l amt no
better looking in the face.
o ALL FUN.
Our business booming, you thinki
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 II again I've tried OH CLOAK after
cloak for customers that a no more idea
of buying 'em than l have of buying the
moon. You may say it is all in a days
work, and l hadn't ought to mind it, but
when the buyer scolds the salesladies for
not selling more cloaks, some of 'em has 9
way of blaming it onto me, telling him
leave all the talk to them about their h
ing warm and comfortable and at II
same time light and stylish.
"Id feel like it, wouldn't l, say on al
dayin September, praising up Newmark
and sealskin sacques and such things t
I'm nearly s~uffocated int Yes, we are Aw-
full busy in September selling our imported
articles to the buyers for small stores, and
my work lasts on later into the summer
than you might think; so many folks buy
when the season is over, SO MS to get things
cheap.
hardly ever go on my vacation before
the last week in June. Some of the F.
in our place say ! don't need 10 vacaE0.,
and it's only fun to he wearing fine clothes
all the time, or at least all day, as I do, but
I don't see where the fun comes in. like
fine clothes as we'll as other folks, but there
amt no satisfaction in putting 'em on il
they don't belong to me, aud having a e300
sealskin wrap on my back doesn't make
me forget that my Sunday sacque cost only
s15, and If buy a silk dress this year it,
- ~ W.