The Savannah morning news., 1903-06-28
BY JULIET VANCY.

what becomes of the saleswoman
you lay off in hot weather."
The question was addressed to the
superintendent of the employees in
large department. store. His reply came
without hesitation:
Judging from present indications
a large number will marry. 1t seems
TO be a marrying year. We have two
booms in weddings each year-when
we reduce the force in midsummer
and after the holiday trade begins to
fall off. This is easily explained, A
girl naturally prefers to be married at
the end of her business season rather
than at the conclusion of her vaca-
ton, because, in the first case, she has
whatever money she may have saved
to spend on her trousSeau.
mot that the girls we prefer TO let
out are always the ones who marry,
but those who do marry leave vacan-
cies for the less competent girls who
otherwise would be laid Off
"One of the most complicated tasks
that confronts a conscientious super
vacation schedule. Some firms make
this out exclusively from their own
point of view. Others consult the en-
ployes, giving them the preference as
to the weeks of rest suited to their
personal or family conditions. The
most pitiful cases we have to deal
With are the men or women of family
who cannot afford to take any vaca-
ton, and are too proud to confess the
fact.
Every firm of standing gives its
employees two weeks vacation on
pay, and if the force is to be greatly
reduced during the hot weather the
less desirable employees are requested
10 take two, three or even four weeks
more.
This naturally entails actual dis
tress for the low-salaried girls depend
ent upon their own efforts who can
barely live even on their weekly sti-
pend. Thus it often happens that a girl
who is reasonably sure of being laid
off seeks other employment during
the summer season.
CLERKS seeking out-of-town employ
ment may be divided into two distinct
classes-the high grade, desirable sales
woman who is eagerly sought by shop
keepers in Fashionable summer resorts,
and who carries with her from the city
a certain amount of trade; and the
girl who will accept a nominal wage
for the sake of summering at some
cheap, nearby resort.
The first class includes clerks who
can handle lingerie, neckwear, trif1es
for women's wear and smart adjuncts
of the toilet for young society men,
hair dressers and manicurists-in fact,
the class that caters to the whims and
eXtravagances of what is known as the
smart set. You generally find that
these are girls graceful, we'll formed
and pretty and they have a certain
air of Well-bred distinction that stamps
the shop.
Regular cottagers at such resorts
as Saratoga, Newport or Bar Harbor
can tell tales of Cupid's partisanship
of these same pretty clerks. Hardly
a season passes that some scion of a
wealthy family does not paralyze his
family by falling in love with one of
the pretty faces behind the counter of
a summer resort shop. Some of these
girls have social ambitions and are not
above angling for a wealthy sutton.
Theye live quietly board at some we'll
known cottage, dress in quiet but ele-
giant taste and land their fish before
the summer passes.
sorts, corresponding to Coney Island,
where tiny shops and booths spring up
like mushrooms. There are the lake
resorts near Chicago, Detroit and other
inland cities. st. Louis and Denver
have their parks, with innumerable
shops and booths, and a wide-awake
clerk can not only earn a small salary
during the summer but can incre ca Sc
her value to her winter employer by
learning to cater to more varied class
of customers than she meets in the
regulation store trade.
Between these two classes there is
a smaller division composed of young
men and women who regularly spend
July and August at the seaside re-
sorts, working for eight, ten or twelve
dollars a week. They might get plenty
of work in town, because they are
good sales-people, but they want to be
at resorts like Long Branch, Asbury
Park, Atlantic City and Cape May
during the hot season. Their hours are
longer than in town, but they have ev-
cry other night off, and can enjoy the
bathing, the board walk, the hops and
other pleasures of a summer by the
sea. You will find scores of them
working as clerks at the small hotels.
Some of them go back year after year
to the same shops, the owners Of which
need extra clerks during what is
known as the season. July and Au-
gust only.
Another feature of shop life to-day
which helps the poorer clerks is the
employment of girls who really do not
need to work, but aspire to financial
independence. For instance, we have
in our suit department two sisters
whose father left his widow comfort
ably well off. The mother is a bit