Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1893-05-07

tastes than men.
Consequently their pilferiag is in
smaller sums, less difficult of detection,
md. in cases OF discovery, punishment
is mitigated because they are women.
Discharge Is certain, but the employer
rarely interIeres with q woman's Oh
tanning another situation by publishing
her guilt.
1t is because the average man shrinks
from furnishing a woman, and also from
fear that the one reliable girl will affect
her associates, that this discharge IS
quickly settled upon when suspicion OF
dishonesty is aroused.
A proprietor of one OF the largest
stores in the city said of the compare
| tive value of men and women In bust
ness. that the average woman was
Smarter than the average man, more
conscientious, quite as capable, and had
more nerve and cunning in carrying on
her small p~ilferings.
Exceps ia the silk department and In
cloths, where the training required
amounts almost 10 d profession and de-
mands special practical experience, wo-
men are equally as capable as men, while
In the cloak department and in ready
made garments OF all descriptions for
women, sc the glove counters and no
ton counters, in the handling OF ribbons
and laces aud millinery, women have
practically crowded men out Of the
business. In many OF the stores the
same scale OF wages is paid to women as
to men.
Three dollars per week is the lowest
salary paid, and from S25 TO $50 is the
maximum for regular saleswomen. One
woman who does the foreign buying for
a large firm has q salary OF $4,000 a
veal and q few heads Of departments
in other frst-class shops receive even
higher salaries than this. Salaries of
$4,000 and 81, 200 ars not uncommon for
capable women in charge OF dress
making departments, and in some stores
women are employed as cashiers and
floor walkers at a generous figure.
No regulation is generally enforced In
New York with regard TO the dress OF
the girls, though the uniformity OF col
oring sometimes noticeable among shop
girls Is the result of an unwritten law
In every establishment, as well as OF
the good taste OF the women them
selves. So long as genteel black, sim
ply made, is the business dress or the
superiors, the other women will model
their costumes on the same lines.
Obviously cash girls must wear the
made over garments Of older people,
. and stock girls on small pay often need
10 make a Sunday gown do service as a
business dress during It's second season,
but the prosperous saleswoman chooses
the garb OF black, and always wears 1t,
though is would not answer TO make
this dress arbitrary.
"Why have the employers a right TO
interfere with what we wear or where
we live?" said a pretty girl with a def
ant toss OF her head. This isn't an
ASYLUM. We are not charity wards. The
proprietors don't take care Of US. We
are Just as independent as they are. We
earn our money and they earn theirs.
We work and they work, and l don't see
that they have any right to dictate to US
where we shall live or what we shall
wear.
you don't refuse to employ q teacher
because she boards and hasn't a home.
You don't tell her what color 10 dress
in. People seem 10 think a shop girl is
a sort OF machine that everybody has a
right TO experiment with and inquire
into and find out about. The fashiona-
BILE ladies would make dear little pets OF
US, and are offended when we won't en-
terrain them with our personal affairs.
The newspapers write sensational
gossip about our trials and wrongs. The
philanthropists get out their magnify
ing glasses aud study us as microbes or
specimens, and put US all in one class;
and I suppose IL there should be another
food they'd march q pair of us into the
ark along with the other animals TO pre-
serve the species. We are women, just
like other women, only %shrewder, per-
hapS, from seeing human nature with
Out It's best clothes on.
cit Is the customers, not the employ
ers, that are hard on us. Our hours are
long, but il women wouldn't shop up TO
Straight s o'clock, how quickly the shops
would close at 5 o'clock and give US a
chance TO get home and wash up for din
ner instead OF putting sway stock until
$50. We have TO stand, but il we sat
down the Office would be flooded with
complaints from women who thought
we were negligent.
''You see, every woman is tired, and
hurried and cross when she is shopping.
She comes in on a catcE-a-train hustle.
Probably she hasn't eaten any break
fast or any luncheon, except a cup OF
tea and an eclair, her head aches and
things don't match, aud her change
doesn't get back, aud she sputters and
scolds, never realizing that we've had a
procession Of just such women fretttng
at US all day.
off we aren't awfully interested Ia
her particular sample, off she goes with
a complaint, and that may mean a fine
or a discharge to us. II l was a man
and wanted to see what kind of a dispo.
sition a woman had before l married
her, I'd go shopping with her just a
day.
''Some OF the men that think their
best girls are angels ought to see them
when they are trying TO match ribbons
and things. They'd be surprised to see
how nasty they can be. Ladies, too,
they call themselves.
''And then there are the women that
don't buy anything, and don't intend TO.
They are the worst. l know one woman
who goes into the stores and tries on
ready-made dresses TO get an idea how
TO make her things every year. The
girl loses q good customer while she is
doing this, you know.
"Half the woBen do the same with
hats; they keep agirl trying on hats for
an hour, and then, without even thank
ing her. rush of for fear they'll forget
the style, buy the materials in a cheap
place, and make 'em up themselves.
But even they aren't so bad as the wo-