The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-12-16
SHOP GIRLS XMAS MONEY.
THE SAVINGS OF MONTHS NOW
BEING SPENT WISELY.

One Branch OF the Work OF the Penny Pr0yt-
dent Fund savings Encouraged Also
for Vacation Time and for Other
Purposes Girls Who shop Wei.
II was early in the morning. before the
Christmas shoppers had begun TO thronR
the department stores, that a foresighted
suburbanite sailed forth, smiling to her
self as she thought OF the ease with which
she would do her purchasing. and rejecting
that as the saleswomen would have nothing
to do at that hour she would be quickly
waited upon. She was mistaken.
Never were the saleswomen buster.
They were doing their own Christmas
shopping. From counter to counter they
fitted, pricing, examining, exclaiming,
studying, buying, just rs their customers
would do later in the day. Singly and in
parties they passed from one department
10 another, consulting lists and crossing
of articles as they made their purchases.
As. the suburbanite watched them, and
noticed the things they were selecting, and
the prices they were paying for them. she
was surprised.
Why she exclaimed to a companion,
how can they afford it7 Surely none Of
these girls gets a very big salary, and yet
] Just saw one girl select a handsome fur
boa, another buy a handbag that was
marked at $685., and another ordering
twenty yards Of silk. They are buying
much nicer presents than l can afford to
buy, and what l n see is where they
get the money to do it,"
Her friend smiled. She had lived in New
York many years and knew some things
that the s~uburbanite did not.
-Wait a while and I will show you
At II O'Clock the friends met again and
soon afterward were conducted by one of the
anage through the press of shoppers
into the lunch room set apart for the en-
ployees. At a table in a corner sat a little
woman with a book before her and a big
brown bag on a chair by her side, and around
her buzzed the girls. each pressing eagerly
forward with a small book.
what are they doing2' asked the SUBJ
urbanite. What is she giving them2'
Money" replied the friend.
Money? But why7"
1T is their own. The little woman is a
collector for the Penny Provident Fund
and she is only giving back to the girls the
money they have saved up for Christmas.
Some of them have been saving for a
year Oll ~ IIoiltllF diAu bOlH OAlAg lOE
a month or two. but they have all laid aside
a little out of their weekly pay to use for
their Christmas shopping"
Really? What a splendid ideal" ex-
claimed the ~suburbanite, smiling at a little
girl with shining black yes and a big POM
padour, who was turning way from the
table with radiant face. thrusting as she
did so a fine, fat roll of bills into her pocket
book.
1T is a splendid iden, " said the manager,
and we find that il is a good thing for the
girls in many ways. In the first place it
teaches the girls to ave their money
and to be careful and economical in spend
ing it; and then il develops in them a spirit
of thrift and enables them to nave many
comforts and pleasures they could not
otherwise have.
~You see, few OF the girls could keep a
savings bank account, for they go to work
in the morning before the banks are open
and get away ut night after the banks are
closed. And even if they could get to the
banks they might not care TO deposit the
few cents which often is all that they can
spare. But here our good Penny Provi-
lent friend comes in.
Every week she comes around on pay
day, n is here in the lunch room from