The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-05-01
ODD Jobs" FOR WOMEN.
WINDOW GAZERs AND SHOPPERS
HAVE QUEER WORK TO DO.


girl" is the most conspicuous employe in
the big retail stores. there are in each one
dozen women employed for special and
peculiar services whose salaries would
easily pay the wages OF more than 100
girls who stand behind the counters, this
being exclusive of the floor walkers and
regular heads of departments.
First. there is the buyer, who is a per-
son of distinction among the employees,
and who is treated with marked considera-
ton by her employers. She receives a sal
airy varying from $1,000 to $1,000 a year,
according TO her experience and proved
ability. She must be woman of tact, of
taste. and of discrimination in selecting
her goods, and. what is even more impor-
tant, she must possess the business
sense that will enable her to gauge the
public demand for certain articles and the
trend of coming fashions and fancies, as
well as those that already exist
She has to be able TO foresee how high
a certain rage will run, when it will prob
ably come to an end and what amount of
goods they will be able to work off on
their trade while it lasts Most stores
now employ about an equal number OF
men and women as buyers. The latter
purchase exclusively infants wardrobes,
lingerie and all the dainty and delicate
wares that are essentially feminine.
A number of the stores have had their
best women buyers abroad recently select
ing the most attractive things that France,
Belgium. Germany and Great Britain man.
ufacture for the spring trade. Shopping all
over Europe with the purse of a millionaire
business in ones hand IS a thought to
breed envy in the breast of the ordinary
woman. The responsibility attendant upon
this wholesale buying expedition. however.
of what is going on takes the edge off the
pleasure to some extent and causes the
buyer to earn every cent of the goodly sal
airy and expenses paid out for her.
Then there is the detective in the store
who makes from $25 to $50 per week. She
has to be a woman of varied resources and
talents and unerring instincts, carrying
with her an accurate estimate of every
thing in the store, its arrangement and
value, being ever on the alert and yet
seemingly unconscious.
She must be able to read character, too,
TO discriminate between apparent and act.
ual guilt; to know the professional from
the amateur shoplifter, and to have a COM
bination of firmness and gentleness in APP
preaching those of whose guilt she is sat
isfed One mistake on her part may be
overlooked, but more than that will endan-
ger her position. Her eternal vigilance
must be mixed with a large ingredient of
caution and good judgment.
'Our detectives never make a mistake"
said one of the heads of a large dry goods
house. "They let many a guilty one es-
cape rather than make possible false ac-
cusa ton, and when they detect any one
you may be sure that they have abundant
proof of guilt before they take a step"
The superintendent of a still larger store
declared that, while they had half a
| dozen women detectives scattered among
| their acres of merchandise, they had lit
tie trouble with theft and that there was
far less of it than is generally supposed.
In the comparatively rare cases that they
do encounter the articles taken are often
of such small value and the person who
takes them is evidently so far from being
a professional thief that the matter can
be settled quietly.
1--WE find it the best policy to err on the
side of leniency," he added land we never
expose any one unless it is an extremely
aggrava ted case. l think we lose little
in the course of the year through what is
termed 'shoplifting.
Another kind of detective is the woman
in the guise of wealthy customer, goes
about 10 rival stores and observes the de-
tails of their current business the lines
upon which they are making special runs,
their qualities prices and other facts,
which may be of use 10 her employers. As
well-dressed customers with well-flled
purses are often hard to please, she
arouses no suspicion by seeming to be
very fastidious, plying the clerks with
4 4 inc 10 hO1
stock before making a selection.
"A part of the shoppers duty consists in
visiting fashionable modiste, finding cut.
what gowns and wraps are being made for
prominent society women and perhaps get
ting a glimpse of some exclusive designs.
She has the privilege of ordering, being
measured and fitted for an elegant gown
for herself; but alasi that is the limit of
her glory. It must straightway find its
way to the house that employs her. where
1T serves for model, which is speedily
reproduced in dozen gowns for their own
trade.
she does get Aomething more
than this empty satisfaction out
of her work, however, for she
is provided with a home in a suitably
fashionable district while posing as a swell
and ordering her wares TO be sent to her.
and she is also fitted out with the finest Of
underwear, in order that she may appear
to be of the proper class and condition in
life when she is being fitted. Her salary
is about the same as that of a. good detec-
tive.
In some stores the duties of shopper are
assumed by the regular heads of depart
ments although IL is not so easy for them
TO get such exhaustive information, as they
soon become known, and are less obliging-
ly waited upon than the supposed-to-be ex-
traVa cant customer.
An even more peculiar occupation Is that
of the window gazer." She is not an en-
ploye of the high-class stores, but of their
more lowly rivals who have to make up
for their disadvantages of location etc,
by resortng to all kinds of schemes o at
tract customers. Their windows have
been arranged so as to display their best
wares and most fetching bargains to~tne
utmost, the window gazer' begins her
work.
She looks ike an ordinary well-to-do
shopper, and makes her way along the
street in an inconsDcuous manner until
she gets in front Of the store by which she
is employed. Then she stops so suddenly
that the crowd behind her stops also. She
let's her gaze wander, as if irresistibiy