New-York tribune., 1903-03-13
BEHIND THE COUNTER.
Danger for the Womdn There Who
Tries to Dress Like the Purchaser.

There are social grades among the working
classes said Professor Robert Erskne Ely In a
lecture before the League for Political Education
Yesterday as distinctly marked as those IN any
other walk of life. The vender Of peanuts stanos
higher in the scale than the operator OF the
mechanical piano. and the shop worker taxes
precedence over the factory worker. while ootn
are more highly regarded than the domestic ser
want Therein lies OF the greatest attractions
of shop life
The shop worker" said Professor Ely, lis well
dressed and well hammered. and clothes anect the
woman more than We always reaIlzs- n
woman particularly, finds In good clothes some
compensation for otherwise hard lot, not from
vanity but because they give her certain position
In the shops also, there is a contact with the
world which gives a certain interest to life. and
there are OPPORTUNITIES for comradeship that are
unknown in factories. The hours tend to be little
longer than those OF factories. but the work ts
teadier The distribution of goods being less subject
TO ductuation than their manufacture The work Is
also easier learn
All this 1t would seem, sufficiently accounts for
the preference OF many young women for shop
life, but of its great attractions Is also DAN
ger. The woman behind the counter wants to dress
as well as the in front Of it. and this brings
the temptation to sacrifice the physical needs OF
the body TO its adornment From this cause arise
many unsuspected tragedies
The average wages OF the woman shop worker.
Professor Ely stated, are S. week 1t is mani
festy Impossible that she should live on this, and
ur;.uy EMPLOYERS are accustomed to ascertain be-
fore engaging a young woman that she lives ar
home This simply that her family pays
part OF her wages, and the same is true OF those
phfIanthropic institutions that provide rooms and
hoard for such workers at less than the market
price
AT the same tune Professor Ely added. a
woman may rise from the position of cash girl
~ s. week a position in which she gets $-'Uo'
8 year and a trip Europe every season .
in two branches Of the distributing trade, the
lecturer said the conditions of service were very
had namely. 4. drug stores and groceries one
might better be q street cleaner than a orus
clerk and the conditions in groceries, with tne
exception of very large establishments, were
EQUALLY bad In some branches OF the orys0oos
rrade on the contrary, the wages were exceuent
and the chances of advancement astonlshlngIy
zood On the whole, the life behind the counter
was representod d which tends more ano more
ro demand ability and to give corresponding
In conclusion Professor Ely said that employers
would be fair in the treatment OF tnsir EN- m
ployes the purchasing public would let them oe:
with the uurchaser-the person who buys cheap
and nasty TIN les being the one who creates
demand for them. l.. 49, o,-,o
The next ana concluding lecture in the course
will be on 'rNewsboys and Messengers Inc SaI-
lrday lecture will be given by the Rev Anna Gar
IN Spencer ins cad q by President Jacob g. Schur-
man OF Cornell who has been detained oy the
outbreak Of typhoid at Ithaca Her subject VIII
he New OCCUPATIONS Open to Women On MOT
day evening George Tate Biackstock, OF Toronto
viii lecture on Canada and the Canadians