Omaha daily bee., 1899-06-27
MERCHANTS IN A QUANDARY
Do Not Know whether to Close SAT-
urdny Night or Open Later
in the Morning.

LINCOLN, June 26.-(Special. )-The mer-
chants of this city will hold meeting Tues
day evening to decide what action shall be
taken towards obeying the new law pro-
hibiting the employment Of females more
than sixty hours a week or ten hours in any
one day. All OF the proprietors of the large
stores in the city have expressed themselves
on this subject and are generally in favor
OF reducing the number of working hours
on Saturday to ten or even less. The firm
OF Miller G. Paine, one OF the largest dry
goods stores in Lincoln, has already de-
cided to close during the next two months
at O'Clock every evening and to remain
closed Saturday evening. 1t has grown to
be the custom for people to postpone their
pnopping until Saturday evening and to
supply this demand the merchants find it
necessary to keep their stores open until
very late in the evening. This is quite
hardship TO the large number of girls en-
ployed in the stores, but as the practice has
grown to be custom so universal the mer-
chants saw way TO remedy the evil until
the passage of the law. While the propre-
tors Of the stores are glad of an opportunity
to reduce the number of working hours Of
their employees they nevertheless are some
what undecided as to whether TO close
Saturday evening or open later than usual
Saturday morning W. D. Fitzgerald of the
Fitzgerald department store said in speak
ing OF closing at o'clock Saturday evening:
"A considerable portion of our business
is done Saturday evenings and there are
many who have no other evening in the
week to shop and these would go to the
smaller establishments where only few
clerks are employed. Besides this 1t would
give an opening for several small stores
to exist. The keeping open of the stores
and the lighting UP of the rooms attracts
many people down town and is very good
advertisement for the city. With the
saloons open Saturday night not an incon-
siderable portion of the money now spent
for necessaries and a few luxuries would go
into the tills of the men who run them
Men who are accustomed to going shopping
with their wives Saturday evening might
find the seductions Of the saloon a pleasing
substitute"
Several merchants have decided to open
one or two hours later in the morning and
remain open at night, but an attempt will
be made to form an agreement at the
meeting Tuesday evening.
No time has been specified as to when the
house recently purchased by the state for
governors mansion will be ready for occu-
pancy by the governor. Mr.. Thompson, the
original owner, is now in Mexico and Will
not return for a week. Mrs. Thompson is
still occupying the house, but is willing to
move out at any time.
| local branch of the United Brotherhood
of Leatherworkers on Horse Goods was or
ganized in Lincoln Saturday evening by
Charles L. Conone, secretary and treasurer
OF the international union. Mr.. Conone has
headquarters at Kansas City and has re-
Gently devoted much of his time to organiz-
| ing local unions in cities of the northwest.
The local branch starts out with a member
ship of thirty five, practically all OF the
harnessmakers in the city uniting with the
order Nearly all of the manufacturers of
the city have signifed their intention of
recognizing the union and that they would
not dispute the wage question.