Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1899-04-05
THE oAsH1En LADIES.
Young and Pretty-Can Do TIVE
Things at Once.

xounS and Eretty-Can DO 1--WE
Things at Once.
THE editor wants me to write some
thing about girls-girls who do some-
thing with head and hands-who
work, and so l will talk about what
a jani5or in a down town building
calls the cashier ladies"
AT a place / know there are six of
them, sitting in "a row, like peas in
pod, with a maze of electric wires
running almost to their fingers. You
would think they would grow con.
fused sometimes when the metal cash
boxes come clicking into place, faster
and faster, when the money accunlu-
lates, and checks multiply, but not a
bit OF III. They sit easily erect, work
ing rapidly, but without hurry or
fuSter, and as l peer through the
wire cage at the young things, /
think What pretty, silky ribbons they
wear, and what bewitching coiffures
outline these young heads. 1t might
almost be called a study in hair, for
the waves and twists and catchy
little curls would grace any opera
stall on a first night.
These cashier ladies are all pretty
There is not a. ihomely one among
them. Their faces are young, unlined,
and their eyes shine, and mouths
| laugh, as if subtracting 20 and SO and
S1.G9 from 81, So, or $40 was pure fun.
| with no arithmetic whatever about it.
And it is not "a slight thing to do-to
stamp shecks and make change, and
detect the counterfeit from the true.
1t takes fine silky fingers, and acute
eyes and ready brain that do not sink
into fogs or get becalmed.
And withal, they talk. These cash
Ter ladies have developed a curious
sixth sense, and they can do two
| things at once, and do them fast and
| well. AS I watched them-between
| the chink of change and rustic OF
bills and whir of wires, stray bits OF
| talk came ITO my ears, full of non
sense and fun, and they ran some
| thing like this:
II say q withhold the name) I'm
coming to your house to dinner Sun.
day, don't you KNOW
And the answer: alright. We are
| going to have our little black dog,
Sunday, for dinner. Meats too high. -
"A little laugh and silence for a
| space. Il saw you out with Willie
last night. What did he say to you
! now?"
ooh, never you mind what he said
| WilIie's all right. He said I could
pack my shoes in his trunk any time
| I chose
ellis trunk isn't big enough"
And SO ON and on, for hours, while
THE crowds below multiplied their
bundles, and money came in Like gold
from Klondike, in bills and silver, anG
even gold.
| Once in a while cash girls presented
ends of paper which were mysterious
| iy stamped and the children sped
| away again, and once the wheels
which in some occult way kept the
| eletric roads in racing order, stopped
short, like my grandfather's clock,
and refused to go, and someone
climbed lottery step ladder and
pushed and pulled and coaxed it into
line again.
And once a mans blonde head APP
peared at the head of the steps, and
he asked "a question.
where's that Smith order, you
girls?"
Its gone down, long ago." one
said, without turning her head or q
perceptible pause.
TT hasn't, no such thing, and
they're having fits down there over
it,"
cit has all gone, tell you, all
right" two or three chorused all to
gether, and the head disappeared, anc
the stamping and checking and
clicking went on again.
And while at was all lively anG
cheerful and full of gay fun, anon g
these young things, among the hun
dreds of cashier ladies in this bic
city, there are brave, wise little
women who know care. There are
homes where, if it were not for the
cashier ladyis flying, sure fingers
| little brothers and sisters would &c
! without shoes and hoods and waisr
4 things. One girl educates a Little
| brother, another tenderly guards az
! invalid mother and a third-welI
down at her home, there is man
that drinks, and it takes a wise head
| and cool Judgment to keep the bal
1 ance even.
| So all honor to them, working moi
/ only to adorn their own hssome fig
ures and fatten their own small peck
etbooks but the family pockefbool
as we'll
| I left them at o'clock THAT Satur
day night, their sleek heads still
poised at their work and not an eye
dimmed, not a cheek pale.
| Truly these little women are wise
| in their generation.