St. Paul daily globe., 1895-06-03
CASH GIRLS
Have school of Thetr own In th
Big store.

Chicago Record
Few persons would look for an edu-
catioHal institution in Bis depart
ment store although it is we'll known
that most other things can be found
there; but one department store in
Chicago does contain a regular school.
The managers of the store would con-
slider their equipment incomplete with
out it. 1t is no toy school, either, but
a real school; and the pupils are all
cash girls. There are no vacations
The school is in session for two hours
every morning, six days in the week
and fifty-two weeks in the year.
All the cash girls who are under
fourteen go to this school, and when
they tease to stay in school after they
are fourteen the managers sometimes
let them.
The schoolroom is in one corner of
the big restaurant. There are no walls
to separate it from the rest of the
store. but merely some low screens
running along one side. There are no
blackboards. except little one which
hangs in a window On Mondays and
Saturdays, when the restaurant is
crowded at lunch time the school
desks are dining tables. The rest of
the time they are just plain oak scnool
tables with neat pile Of books and
states on each.
School begins at O'CLOCK in the
morning, as soon as the cash girls
get to the store and before the busy
part of the day commences. Every
morning about 100 uniformed cash
girls. sometimes more and hardly ever
less, begin their days work by study
ing the spelling lesson. 1t is hard work
to sit still and study, because there are
four girls at each table and every girl
is full of whispers. But at $50 the
study hour is over. Then after short
blackboard exercise the spelling lesson
begins, and when it is finished the girls
who didn't study all the time have to
stand up in a row and study the lesson
all over again. The teacher calls them
up by their badge numbers. for how
could any teacher remember so many
names?
After all the words in the spelling
lesson have been spelled out on 100
states, more of less, it is time for the
reading lesson. Some of the girls are
in the third reader, and some are in
the fourth. On the days when the
third-reader girls read aloud the
fourth-reader girls spend the time
studying their reading and geography
lessons for the next day. The girls who
read walk out to the middle Of the
schoolroom one by one as their num-
bers are called, and try to make them
selves heard above the din of traffic.
rir1y
rest of the girls raise their hands to
show that they know how it should
be pronounced.
Then comes the arithmetic. The
teacher calls out numbers, and the
pupils add. subtract. multiply and d.
vide on their states. 1t is all very
good practice for cash girls, who may
be cashiers some day.
The girls don't like geography very
well. the teacher says, and SO there
isn't much geography, but the iris
write little of it on theia slater5. big
words and all.
The mornings work In the school
room closes with singing. The girls
like to sing, and they have sweet
voices. The few minutes that are de-
voted to singing are always a pleas
ure to pupils and teacher and 10 the
shoppers who pause to listen. ben
Bolt" is the fa@orite song with the
girls. Another favorite Is:
Down in that dear old village church.
yard,
Often stray all forlorn.
For there is no one left to love me.
Now that my dear mothers gone. =
After two or three songs The girls
sing Home, Sweet Home" from begin
ming to end; then, at 10 o'clock. they
march out through the restaurant to
the elevators. report to their depart
ments and run cash" until o'clock
at night.