New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1899-01-29
CASHGIRL'S MARKET VALUE.
THE RESULTS OF THE TH2EE-CENT-AN-
HOUR WAGE.
"a PARTIAL REMEDY FOR THE EVIL MAY BIZ
FOUND BY TRAINING YOUNG WOMEN

heart-hprOic quality 10 meet u HtTO II d P''''-
| lege and It recently my good fortune TO en-
| counter an heroic soul In the prosac person of
| laundress" said Mrs Runtz Rees to Tribune re-
| porter Yesterday. Her CHEEKY expression the
alert face framed In snow-white hair. arrested my
attention when. having carefully put down her oas-
| ket OF clean clothes she turned to her employer
| and in answer to question as TO her WISH io'
| payment replied: Any time. any time
| "'But surely In Christmas week you want all
! the money you can get.'
Indeed then It might come in convenient and
| upon receiving It she added, her face beaming.
| You are very thoughtful. ma'am. I'm sure
"A few questions inspired by her CHEEKY, sunshny
face brought her history. given In quiet tone
perfectly free from bitterness or complaint give
| II In brief:
"she is n widow who until her husbands death
never knew want. She has had eight children ana
| lost five and now, after eight years at the WASH
tub considers herself prosperous. She has never
been beholden. she expresses 1t. to any one IL
was very hard work at first TO get along, out she
was lucky enough TO obtain work In boarding
house and now rents four rooms high up IN a
tenement house The three children left to- her are
all girls and they all work II was ut this point
that the market value OF human life was made
clear II seemed heartrending to her hearers, OUT
| was matter OF course to her. Her cheeriness
never failed as she told OF the elder girls working
night after night until II, one OF them never In
| bed before midnight and at her work again al
7:30 In the morning.
This was hard. but It was when she spoke OF
the youngest n child OF fourteen, that her hearers
experenced a sort OF 'toothache In the heart This
girl Just out OF childhood Is cashgirl at one OF
the best known OF our city stores. She earns the
munifcent sum OF 81 Is week; that Is to say she
gives her time for ten hours a day-sixty hours
week-for a wage of less than three cents an hour
| subject TO fines for unpunctuality, MISTAKES OF
s,ctness and added the mother. cheerlly, II she's
| faithful at the end Of six months they'll raise her
a quarter Ye gods!
Even when fidelity is thrown in with her market
value IT will only advance fraction. Doubtless
the proprietors Of this store family men; they
| probably have fourteen year-old girls OF their own
growing up into young womanhood; one wonders
what their market value is. This little girl. whose
| value In slave market is rated at less than
three cents hour. must ride to her work In pad
weather; she must appear neat, her feet must De
| shod, and she must take a. luncheon with her.
Summing up the mother said: 1T don't leave much
Margin but It's better than running the streets
Possibly It may be- undoubtedly 1t ought to be-
Perhaps said one of her hearers. 1T may lead
to something better
well said the optimistic mother. 1T may. but
she amt very strong Perhaps across her mind
foated the thought of those other five children not
very strong and laid peacefully away.
Fourteen years OF age and worth a fraction less
than three cents an hour in a land Of opportunity.
in one Of the richest cities in the world, where
fortunes made by the help Of such children run up
into millions. And how absolutely futile Is our
| heartache at the facti Doubtless there are lower
wages sti for the firm employing this child Is one
Of high respectabllty ana pays undnesuOna tbt
the makt Price 6%t a on or an
unpersona responsibility and rests upon the proaa
cannot affect it, pubic opinion can do little, al
! though II may have certain Influence II IS re-
80 ia' Rey viii not take
OF others to their detrment. but we can hardiy
| hope for this before the millennium.
POOR CHILDREN TOO NUMEROUS.
THE children Of the poor are a glut the market,
! and must take the consequences. The only way
| out for them is TO reduce their number and so in
crease their value. But we can hardly advise kill
| ing them of any more quickly than Is now being
| done For every who drops out dozen,
score. n hundred stand ready TO take the three
cents an hour. two cents, or one cent. or maybe
run for nothing in the hope OF eventually earning
| the cent. How can a state OF things 80 tragic be
| amended? We must not forget that this condition
city life is not only disastrous for these little
| ones: its evil begins but does not end with them.
| The ill-fed overworked overtasked condition OF our
fourteen yearold girls Is menace 10 the National
lie for the survivors among cashgirls are the
future mothers OF a large part Of our race.
| TT u.s. of course, always easier to recognize an
evil than remedy II. especially an economic evll,
for which there is only remedy and that
usually an impossible one 10 decrease the com
modify which has reached a very low market
| value. We cannot In this instance kill the chill
dren off any faster than we are doing, but 1t may
be well TO consider the possibility OF thinning tnelr
| ranks without more wholesale murder The first
remedy that suggests Itself is to send them on 10
the country. but this falls for more reasons than
at answers partially in the OF boys, because
their love OF adventure overcomes their dislike to
leaving the city and boys. as a result. stand
higher marketable commodities than girls. but
In the OF the latter two objections rise FIRST
they do not want to CO. and, second the country
people do not want them Girls are drugs in the he
homework and tend chickens, but most country
he0pe TAKE cars S te G% ar IN must mus ana
a different outlet.
} p oyjd he an an arnest cooner 40
ton among wel-to-do women who are kindly dis
posed, and who are. moreover, looking out for an
opportunity TO serve their kind.
IF every prosperous woman In the city would
ready to earn her living into her kitchen and
extent lessen the evil There would be one girl
to this plan. The girls would object. the servants
course of time If such plan we're faithfully car;
ssre oS NO s anSs M might osGt but
girls in the cas- cashgir market. The sun will in
cipaton when the cry shall go forth. I cannot get
w eapshgiri as S,day It is cannot get COOK
cook market Il prosperons women Ue were faithful
1T Is. however. obviously unfair TO state only
ward Mstresses Of well-to.do homes would justly
Kind 1T often gr Snu, to TAXI in their
siby from Unfortunate environments sam, there
are only two absolutely essential qualities for a
girl beginning life in kitchen. She must be
clean. and she must be honest; Well, these re-
quirements apply also to cashgrls. They
In the main clean They I'm the main
honest Their own objection to entering upon
the career of domestic service would be over
come after short experience OF a cashgirls
weary feet md red-out body. The certainty that
II they were faithful they would be earning
real wages would also be incentive And yet
If fully alive to the difficulties OF every
attempt 10 better the economic condition Of the
breadwinner that sucn suggestion the above
IL put forth hestatingly.
Training schools are proposed Instead, and train
ing schools good. and relieve the prosperous
housekeeper OF the care and responsibility OF a
girl In the home; but aft all. Is not n sense of
responsibility the test Of character. and should
dur cultivated and influential women shrink from
obvious duty We still do hesitate to
| L.. unl.Illl