The record-union., 1895-09-28
SAME old Smile.
It Always Adorns the Features of the
FIoorwaIker.
A Necessary Adjunct of the Large
Stores Who is q Creature of
Evolution.

Evolution.
| He looks up amid clouds of lace and
piles of ribbon. towers over mount
aims of silks and beams on you from afar.
His hair is parted exactly in the middle,
his side whiskers are startlingly stiff and
his necktie is of surprising whiteness.
| He is the fioorwalker says the Chicago
! Chronicle, and as the ground floor repre-
sentative Of the powers upstairs, whose
names appear on tine sign. he is looked
upon with awe and venerRtion by the
rest Of the help. By the public he is
looked upon and used as guide book to
the store and handy reference manual
as to street. cars, halls and public build
ings. And through it all he smiles and
rubs his hands.
No one has been able to discover just
who was the first fioorwalker or who
taught him his business. Searchers af-
ter knowledge In this direction can only
imagine what the mental struggles the
first toorwalker must have had trying to
remember on what floor the hosiery
litters. With no master mind to guide
him and no predecessor to teach him
things, how he must have worried
| when some one asked him TO teno a
baby while the mother went upstairs
to see the corsets. But the floor
walker of to-day is a creature OF evo-
luton. He is the product originally OF
the larger dry goods stores, which were
the forerunners of the great department
stores, and in the latter establishments
the fioorwalker is an absolute necessity.
His job is peculiar one. In the first
place, he has to struggle along through
life under a misnOmer. There Is no
palpable, cogent reason why he should
he called "tioorwalker" any more than
a policeman should be called q sleeper.
| Both do other things at times. The floor
walker might be called usher or director
or steerer with much more reason and
| Dropriety. But someone began II by call
ing the first one a ioorwalker, and since
then the class must bear the name until
such time as the EloOrwalkers' Protective
| Union shall rise and demand that 8
change be made. But in the dry goods
store. as an offset 10 the depressing title
the 1ioorwalker has the perquisite of be-
ing called Mr." while the clerk in the
notions is simply "IhomDson." This is
regarded as a distinct advance In the So
cial scale in the store, and Thompson,
while he hates MIR. Smith," looks for
ward longingly to the time when he will
| be Mr." Thompson and have stiff side
whiskers and a white necktie and 9
smile.
The duties Of floorwalkers are not laid
down in any code or copy OF rules and
| regulations. They are not limited; nc
one, not even the floorwalker himself
knows just where they end. They are
by no means confined, as the thought
less might suspect, to walking the floor.
The fioorwalker ia ex pected 10 smile con-
stantly and to rub his hands as often and
az steadily as is consistent with his other
duties. He is a general guide to the es-
tablishment, be it 100 feet square or six
teen stories high. Ii he doesn't know
where the department that you ask for is
located he is TO smile, wave his hand in
definitely, and say: Third floor, to the
right; take elevator" In all disputes
arising between employees and customers
he is the board of arbitration. and his
powers in this regard are broad or linn
tied, according to whether or not the pro-
prietor is out to lunch. If he is, the
question is promptly settled, and there is
no appeal from the dictum of the floor
walker. If he is not, the autocrat of the
notion counter sometimes condescends to
let him know what is going on, and to
offer him advice.
But the manifold and peculiar duties o.
the foorwalker do not end here, by any
means. He is also a detective. Besides
being guidebook, judge and an ex-
pert on prices, he is a wise and wary
Sherlock Holmes. He is supposed tC
keep an eye open for shoplfters. anc
while he is smiling his blandest and rub
bing his hands he may be piping"
suspect, as the detectives do III dim,
novels.
When the floorwalker has made up hi.
mind that some one has his or her owl
designs upon the stock, he just forgets
few other thing and watches the suspect
Usually the t1oorwalker is right, Tor they
get to be experts after awhile, and tn,
woman with the long cape will be seen Il
pick up something from a counter anC
pass swiftly along in the crowd. But th'
tlOorwalker is after her, and before sh
gets out he says: Excuse me, madame
will you XII ndly step into the manager
office?'
Then it is all off. She kindly steps il
sometimes. and then again she max es
fuss and threatens to have them all ar
rested and hanged, but the manager get
the property, the shoplifter is ar
! rested, and the hoorwalker resume
his smile, gently rubs his hands together
and returns to his place TO tell peopl
that the crockery is in the baseme ent ant
the yarns are on the third floor.
ana lner6 are Otn6r trOu DleS galore 10
the man of the smile and the eagle eye
If one OF the young women clerks has
picnic party on hand and thereupon be
comes suddenly ill, the foorwalker ha
} 10 see that her place is filled, and tina
} her salary Is docked for one day. Ant
} when the forewoman gets married, which
is the only cause of vacancies in the DIR,
goods stores, the Hoorwalker is expected
to recommend clerk for the place.
When business is dull the tloorwalke
is expected to keep the young women
especially the pretty ones, from CROWN,
tired by chatting gayly about his younge
days and what gay young man he wa
} in the ribbons.
Now and then f1oorwalk or gets mar
ried, and there is one clerk less in tb,
store. for, OF course, no self-respectins
floorwalker would go outside of his owl
establishment to seek wife. The affaiI
usually begins by the little chats Owe
the showcase becoming more frequent
and before long he begins to take her t
her car every evening. In the course O
} time he gets on the car and pays her fare
and sees that no one steals her before sh,
gets home.
Then they begin going out to lunch to
gether at noon, and the other clerks lool
wistfully at the proceedings, or declare
that she Is a bold, forward thing, and ha
been trying to catch him ever since sh,
came to the store, and the Lord knows it
time she caught some one. And no
much time goes by until there is yer,