The Worcester spy. [volume] (Worcester, Mass.) 1898-1904, 1899-07-16
The SHOP GIRL,
The Summer vaca-
ton is a Luxury
to Her.
~
MEANS SELF-DENIAL.
MEANS SELF-DENIAL.
Twenty Dollars Will Buy
1t, Fifty Dollars is
Better.

gowns, mother ana the servants cOl1-
bine to pack her trunks for her, ard
when at last she is ready, she takes
the train for her destination with an
easy mind and as much money in her
purse as she can comfortably spend.
A journey or visit is to her mere
incident, and she can stay away as
long as she likes. from May to Novem-
Der, if she sees fit, and no one will say
her nay.
But with the shop girl in the Main
street store, or the saleslady, as she is
sometimes called. the case is different.
Her summer vacation is little bright
spot in a year of weary, monotonous
duties. For months ahead she saves
and plans for it. And even then, it
comes hard sometimes, for on So or 81
a week one has to save pretty strenu-
ously in order to hoard enough for the
summer holiday
The number of girls who systemat-
acally hoard for this purpose is very
numerous.
One sees them swirling out yards of
ribbon at the bargain counters, selling
side combs, hat pins, yelling and mo
TONS" Many are the expedients they
resort to in order to save money
Lunches are brought down in the morn
ing to save the expense of a noon meal
at restaurant. Worn skirts are re-
modelled into waists, ties and neckwear
are made from unused dress trim
mings.
Jaunts to the lake are curtailed. for
the dimes count up, and ice creams at
Rebbolis and sodas at Easton's and
college Ices at the candy kitchen have
all to be foregone that one may enjoy
the luxury of sea-shore or mountain
for ten days. Besides, there are disap-
pointments, and the worst of thee IS
that one can seldom see ahead and
meet these. One may be sick, for in
stance, and squander on a doct )r Ghe
patient savings of twelve months, or
member of the family may be ill, and
the vacation be spent in nursing Then
again, a girl sometimes gives up her
vacation involuntarily for some uaseif-
ish reason or because she would rather
spend her money in some other way.
Last year one girl, after saving her
holiday expenses for months, changed
her mind at the last moment and spent
the money on a wheel. This year she
figures that she has saved enough on
car fare to warrant a months yaca-
ton.
In a few of the stores, vacations are
compulsory, that is to say, the girls are
regularly laid off, when the slack sea-
son sets in and taken on again when
business starts up again. There are
millinery shops or suit and garment
stores, where custom is not expected to
be constant throughout the year. To
be obliged to take three weeks off in
February and the same time again in
August is little short of calamity to
many girl who has to help with her
earnings to support her family. Vaca-
lions seldom begin before July; by the
first of September everybody is back
again behind the counter. AS a rule,
regulations as to pay differ in various
establishments. One large store,
for instance, does not pay its
employees wages during their va
cation. Another pays is men employees
ten days wages, but obliges its women
help to lose their income while they
are out of the store on a holiday
It is difficult to account for the dis
elimination between the men and won =.
en- in this respect, except on the ground
OF the old prejudice that men deserve
larger wages than women because
they have families to support
while women have not. But the time
has long since passed when the rank
and file of women workers worked for
when woman Wage-earner has not a
mother or some other relative, some
times whole small family, dependent
IN all or in part upon her exertions.
AND, alas! coal and beefsteak, house
rent and -four cost woman just as
much to buy as they do man
To conclude, another store gives
Its employees their wages for a certain
length Of vacation, provided they have
been in the employ of the firm a given
period, and in this it makes no dis
ainctfon between men and women. In
the smaller dry goods stores, however.
a girl loses her salary for whatever
length of time she may absent her
self.
Girls at the glove, lace. hosiery and
other departments receive from IS to
$40 week. In the cloak department
they get from $40 to 500 week. For
them the problem of a summer yaca-
ton is considerably easier of solution
than to the lower-priced girls. The
saleslady of the comic weekly is rare
"a Worcester-she who makes a grand
Two weeks splurge at the seaskore and
then sinks back into oblivion behind the
handkerchief counter. Worcester shop
girls look forward to two weeks Of
genuine pleasure, without pretense or
snatni The time is too precious to be
wasted in such nonsense.
ttAt tHS vacation season, the shop
girls OF Worcester scatter in every
direction, Some camp out at the lake
others go to Princeton and Paxton !.
rev York and Asbury park and
Soney Island allure some. and Boston
and It's suburbs and superb beaches are
another fayorite haunt. Nova Scotia
claims some. The number of girls who
SIMPLY stay at home or visit friends and
Teiallves IN the city is large. The Y. w.
"A mn lf.
work vacation home at Princeton.
ano many girls who might not other
wise nave had much Of a holiday. are
every year given weeks of happiness
there. The saleswoman can have q two
weeks holiday on $40. or you can easily
spend $50 on it, but undoubtedly q
cnange and rest are beneficial to every
one, ana what may seem like extrava-
gance al hrst sight may prove to have
been wise relaxation and tonlng I'M
or the system without which a serious
sickness would have been entailed
A CASE FOR MISS BLACKWELL,
"A Gentleman Traveller" writes n
the London Telegraph: II had secured
berth in the sleeping car by last
nights Rapide from Marseilles to Paris
To my surprise two other places in my
compartment were let to two ladies'
who entered the car | made a orotes;
to one Of the officials on the platform
but he said gentleman could not pro-
test against ladies in the compartment
although ladies could protest against
the presence Of gentlemen. OF. course
as gentleman, / declined to travel I'd
Paris under the circumstances / have
5ust named and am put to the extra
expense Of staying at Marseilles for the
night"
2a4tEtt