The Irish standard., 1906-10-06

because she asked every customer how
to spell name and street, no matter
how common the words, such as
Graves, Manhattan and Convent. The
checker must know how much three
eights Of yard il in inches, or she
cannot stamp a sales slip. She must
be able to figure up sales slip and
verify the work of the clerk. Time
and again women shoppers come back
with slips on which they have been
overcharged; on reaching home, they
have added UP the slip and found the
girls mistake. The customer trusts the
addition to the salesgirls and verifies
it at home. If girl has not learned
how to add, subtract and multiply at
school, We have not time to teach them
here"
Tho Largest File Of Applications was
Labelled "Hopeless" the Smallest 20.
X"
The firm that had advertised for
written applications had force sorting
a huge mail. Hopeless" medium"
fair" and 20. K" were the four piles
into which the letters were tossed. And
the largest pile was hopeless" the
smallest 20. K"
Often letter would start out brave
ly, but as the handwriting deteriorated.
the spelling followed suit.
A young man who desired a post as
stenographer wrote that he had had
two years in the high school. six
months in business school. and new
all about business forms and 'stile."
Said the manager of a store which
needs at this moment 200 young men
and women, to start at salaries vary
ing from IS to 81 per week (this to in
experienced, not tried help, you UNDER
stand):
The Failures Are fron, the Public.
sohooIs-The Successful from the
ParoehiaI Schools.
'"I was SO discouraged with letters
and application blanks written by grad
yates from our public schools that
decided to try the parochial schools.
went first to the priest in charge of
st. Joseph's parochial school, at Sixth
avenue and waverley place, Father
Spellman by name. I thought would
like to set boys from that parish be-
cause it is so close to the business Sec
tion.. Father Spellman was courteous,
but he could not oblige me. Every one
of last June's graduates has been placed
in store or Office, and every graduate
in the class of June, 1907, is spoken
for by some business man in the Wall
street or wholesale district. I am not
a Catholic-but believe in the old
fashioned three r system followed in
the parochial schools. sent two of
my men to uptown parochial schools
and found the same conditions pre-
vailing-every boy has place waiting
for him. / am a good American, too,
but 1 must confess that the best boy
for the business man to select today
as beginner is the lad who is fresh
from Ireland, with his common school
education. He cannot do gymnastics,
he has never seen pot of flowers or
a bowl of goldfish on the window
ledge of his schoolroom, he cannot cut
out paper boats or knit reins for his
little brother, but he can write leg
ible hand, spell correctly and figure ac-
curately. Furthermore, he regards his
elders with respect, not as joke"
"What makes the market crowded
with incompetent stenographers?" in
quired the head of a well-known busi-
ness school, mot our system of teach
ing stenography. We have nothing on
which to build. The girl or boy who
comes to us to be trained for business
cannot spell common words, has ABB
;solutely no foundation in English. We
have spelling lesson each day, out
that cannot undo the mischief of care
less work through the grade schools
and perhaps part Of the high school,"
Five thousand positions yawning
wide open in Greater New York. Fiji
teen thousad young people answering
advertisements, interviewing employ
ers-and failing to write an intelligent
and Ineligible letter of application or
to fill out an application blank prop
erly.
PROPAGATION OF THE FAITH.
Audience Of the New York Diocesan
niraa$or with Dons Din. "