The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1896-06-18
BILL ARP'S LETTER.
HE is IN FULL SYMPATHY WITH
THE SHOP GIRLS
And Heartily Commends tho Move
ment for Their Relief.

Let the good work 60 on. The shop
girls of Atlanta are now allowed to sit
and rest their weary limbs for brief
time when not waiting on customers,
and their working time is out at
o'clock in the evening. This is re-
sympathetic people will all thank the
Chamberlin house for starting it. The
girls have not demanded it, nor have
they uttered word of complaint, but
we know they get tired, very tired,
and sometimes they are sick and some
of them have work to do when they
get home. But they never strike-no,
they had rather suffer and endure and
always look CHEEKY and try to be happy
and contented [ have wondered why
they did not organize and choose their
leaders and sometimes get on strike
ald walk out and make demands on
their employers like the men do.
No, they will not do that.
1t is not their nature, and
for that reason, if no other,
those who employ them should be all
the more considerate. Every shop
girl and every shop woman has an in
dividual history, and could tell tale
of sorrow or misfortune, and some of
them would be intensely sad and pa
thetic if written and published Many
of them belong to that class who have
seen better days-many are orphans
some have a widowed mother or an in
valid sister to support. All are depen-
dent and have no bright prospects of
bettering their condition in the years
to come. Some of them are not
strong, and often go to their work
with a headache, or a heart-ache
but they must not complain -
sad faces or sick faces or very homely
ones are not wanted. know four sis
ters who are shop girls at different
places. The eldest is only sixteen.
They have neither father nor mother
nor brother, but they live together and
work by day and comfort each other
by night.
Some merchants are hard task
masters; "only a shop girl' is their
motto, and their service is worth what
it will bring-that much and no more.
They fix the price and keep it there.
There is no promotion in wages. I
know one who kept girl down to $40
month. She was refined, diligent,
conscientious and popular, and had
been reared lady in all respects, but
she was only shop girl, and out of
meager wages must pay for her board
and clothing. Not an hour did she
ever lose-but by and by she was offer
ed $50 by another house, and then,
and not till then, did her employers
propose to increase her wages to the
same amount. Why did they not do
it before? I knew another large,
wealthy house that gept young man
for three years, promising at intervals
to raise his wages, bat it was
only a promise. At last he qui.
and sought other business, and
then they offered him nearly double
what he had been getting if he would
come back. That is what the prophet
calls grinding the faces of the poor. "
Why wear poor girls life and health
away by feeding her on hope until it
turns to despair? Only shop girl |!
A young lady who had once been in
dependent was forced by the common
calamity of these hard times to become
shop girl-and she told me that the
hardest thing to bear was the stately
coldness of her former friends-the
lack of familiar, social recognition i;
when they traded at the counter they
hardly knew her-they said good morn
ing, but not in the sweet old way.
After Job had lost his property, he
said: "But now they that are younger
than [ hold me in derision-whose
fathers would have disdained to set
with the dogs of my flock
1t is the same old story of social in
sincerity. A man never knows who
are his friends until misfortune over
takes him. Thank heaven there are
some exceptions to this rule, and these
shop girls do sometimes find some
body to love them and share their sor
rows. There is nothing more unbe'
coming to woman than her disposition
to rule money into her social set ant
rule poverty out. No real, well-bred lady
will do it. My observation is tina
this foolish vanity is generally in
dulged in by the shoddy aristocrats-
those who have nothing else to thei
credit except money-those who's
fathers got rich by questionable means
Pearhtree is lined with many such, ant
so are the fashionable quarters of al
cities. This folly is mainly a feminin
one; the men are not given to it; n
man dares to snub another because @
his poverty, or his humble origin
With men there is no aristocrac
except that of intellect. 1t is r.
lated that when Douglas and Lir
, coin met for the first time on th
, hustings, Douglas, who was gret
aristocrat, said he had not had th
honor of an acquaintance with his Of
ponent, and, in fact, had seen him br
once, and that was when he was sellin
whisky behind the bar in cross-roat