The Saint Paul globe., 1904-04-30
EEN GOD sirioin steak. about two
II pounds? Yes. ma'am"


(EIN OOD Slr1oIn steak, about two
IT pounds? Yes ma am"
The butcher girl turned to a
| huge piece Of beef on the block in front of
her, welded the keen knife with a strong.
IIrm stroke and separated a fine looking
sirIoln from the joint: She trimmed off
the fat and threw the steak on the scales.
says the New York Press.
Wo pounds and quarter she said
F0rty-tW0 cents, please. Pay at the
cashiers desk"
There were eleven more butcher girls
Just like her in a market in West One
Hundred and Twenty-fifth street All Of
| them wore black gowns with white aprons
suspended from the shoulders and tied in
a huge bow at the back They were very
girls in restaurants. The market was full
OF customers. and the butcher girls worked
swiftly and silently. There was no shout
| ing Of Cash and no running to and fro.
as girls in department stores sometimes
do. Every butcher girl was expected to
stick to ner own particular block
The man who employs them has spent
two years training them to do it. He
began with two girls and found them
such success that he increased the num-
! Der to twelve, and persuaded butchers
down town on the East and West sides
and in Brooklyn to follow his example. IN
cidentally he has stirred up hot fight
with the Amalgamated Meat Cutters and
Butcher Workmen.
There are now about 500 butcher girls
steadily employed in New York and
Brooklyn. They receive from IS to $10 a
week, as compared with 81 and SIS
week paid to young men for the same
work.
w. c. weIlman, business agent of the
Amalgamated Meat Cutters, who has an
office In First avenue, near FOrty-SiXth
street, says the butcher girls are lower
ing the wage scale in the trade. He has
begun steps to OuSt them. The Meat
Cutters union is affiliated with the Amer
lean Federation of Labor. and can, Mr..
Wellman says, make matters warm for
the butcher girls. Francis X. Butler.
counsel for the Meat Cutters union. says.
that the organization concerns itself main
ly with the affairs of men in slaughter
houses, and that the butcher girl queS-
tiOn has not been put up to him as le-
gal proposition vet.
None of the girls in the Harlem shop or
in shops on the East side would talk
about the Lady Meat Cutters and Sales
ladies' Protective association they are get
ting up They declare that Mrs. E. Julius,
who is their organizer and corresponding
secretary, had instructed them not to talk
until the organization was complete. They
said that Ms. Julius had no office, and
they did not know where she lived. But
she visited around at the various stores
where butcher girls are employed. and
reported that the new SaleSladieS union
was getting along SWimmingty. Mr.. Well
man said he knew that. although he did
not know Mrs Julius. But the butcher
girls were getting so formidable he was
going to make it his business to get ae-
Quainted with her.
The butcher girls are organizing on the
quiet" said Mr. WeTlman. They send
out girls to invite other girls to their
meetings. There is no diSputfng the fact
that butcher girls are becoming popular in
New York. At some of cur local unions
we have received complaints from men
that their places were filled by women.
They alleged that whenever a man was
compelled to work overtime. or in any 9TH
er way to conflict with union rules. he was
discharged and his place filled by a wOm-
an we have investigated five stores, in
which women We're employed and md
that the complaints OF the men are just.
The butcher girls are large and strong.
They can lift and cut meat as we'll as
man Employers have confessed to US
that women meat cutters draw Gus
tom and build up trade.
The Harlem man who employs Twelve
butcher girls says Mrs. Julius will never
get a chance to talk to the girls in his
store if he sees her first
MY girls are cOntented, ne said
They are not required to lift a side Of
beef or do any of the heavy work. A girl
does not have to work so hard in
butchers shop as she does in a bakery
or in a deIicatessen She makes far more
money than she could salesgirl in a
dry goods store or in a factory. The idea
was novel one. When | started IL had
some difficulty in getting girls to fill the
place. But they soon got used to it.
The chief difficulty was in preventing
them from wiping their hands on their
white aprons. Look at that girl over
there. She is beginner. Her apron
looks as though she had been in the
ShanbleS. Inc 00OrWalher VIII De along
in a moment and tell her to change it.
She has to pay for her own washing. That
is the chief charm of the girls with Gus
tomers-their neat appearance"
Two pounds of chopped steak, please"
said the customer "and don't use the
machine My folks like it chopped with
a knife
The butcher girl weighed the meat
tossed il on the block and beat tattoo
on the steak with cleavers as rapidly and
as skillfully as man could do it.
"0ni0n?' she asked terselgE.
Might as WE'LL replied the customer.
The butcher girl did not go to the other
side Of the market for her onion. She
sent boy for IL. and chopped it into
@eelaa- meat. Then she wrapped il up and
wiped fi1T hands on a towel behind the
block. IL took H1e two weeks to rcls1em-
ber that, she said with n smile.
In Hudson street near Tenth. there is a
butcher who married one Of these butcher
girls. He met her in n shop in First ave-
nue. when he was going to the kosher
Killing abattoirs. The wife acts cashier
unless customers begin to accumulate fas-
ter than they can be served. In that case