The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1911-11-26

This slogan has been made famous
by the National Consumers League
which, actuated by humanitarian rea-
sons, has fought to modify the un-
necessary hardships incident to Christ
mas shopping. For two weeks before
Chritmas most department store do
capacity business" and the pressure
is intensified at every point. Anthem
tic records from the lives of clerks, de-
livery boys and wagon drivers show
that as result the season of Christ
mas festival and of charity for the
lame, the halt, and the blind reduces
to Illness and exhaustion the young
and faithful who serve US, seen and
unseen.
A kind of meanness in human rela-
tons was witnessed by Miss Johnson,
an inquirer for the Consumers League.
who worked in one of the stores dur
ing the week of Christmas good will.
Her actual experiences are told In
volume entitled Making Both Ends
Meet" by Sue Ainslee Clark and Edith
Wyatt, of which the Macmillan Com
pany is the publisher.
The rush had begun when Miss
Johnson was transferred in this
Christmas week from the neckwear to
the: muffler department on the first
floor of one of the cheaper stores. All
the girls stood all day long-from
eight to twelve and from one to eight
at night on the first days; from one
at noon to ten and eleven at night, as
the season progressed and, on the
last dreadful nights, from noon to the
following midnight. The girls had IS
cents supper money. Except for that,
all this extra labor was unpaid for.
The work was incessant. The girls
were nervous. hateful. spiteful with
one another. The manager, beautiful
and extremely rough girl of nineteen.
swore constantly at all of them. The
customers were grabbing, insistent,
unreasonable. from morning to- even
ing, from evening to midnight. Be
hind the counter. with the advance Of
the day, the place became an inferno
of nervous exhaustion and exaspera
ton. In the two weeks of Miss John
sons service one customer once
thanked her, and one tipped her five
cents for the rapid return of parcel.
10th these acts Of consideration took
place In the morning. Miss Johnson
said that this was fortunate for her
as, at one word Of ordinary considera-
ton toward the end of her her long
days work, she thought she must have
burst into tears.
There was a little bundler in the
department. Catriona Malatesta, a
white, hungry looking little North
italian of fourteen with a thin chin
and a dark Swallowed, worried face.
She had an adored sick sister Of four.
besides six other younger brothers and
sisters, and a worhiped mother, to
whom she gave every cent of her wages
of three dollars and a half a week An
older brother, day laborer, paid thu
rent and provided for all of them.
Every other family expense was met
by Catriona's three dollars and half
so that she was in the habit of spend
ing only five cents for her own lunch
and the nights 0f OVnr-ft0oe FIVE
cents for her own dinner, in order 70
take home the extra thirty cents; and
every day she looked whittier and Older
AT the beginning of the week be-
for Christmas. the store raised Ca
triona's wage to four dollars. Her
extra half dollar for herself TO
Christmas. Though Catriona had
worked for some months, this was the
first money of her own she had ever
had. With pride she told the depart
ment how it was to be spent. She was
going to surprise her mother with a
new waits for Christmas, a waist Ca
triona had seen in the store marked
down to forty nine cents. A ten PEI
cent discount was allowed to en-
ployes, so that the waist would cost
forty five cents. With the remaining
five cents Catriona would buy her sic
Rosa doll. All her life Rosa had
could have one.
MOn the day when she received the
money, Catriona kept it close at hand
in little worn block leather purse, In
shabby bag hanging from her arm
and not out of sight for an instant.
Her purchases were to be made In
the three-quarters Of an hour allowed
for supper. The time Catriona con-
sumed In eating her f1ve-cent meal
was never long. so that, even allowins
for prolonged purchasing, her absence
OF an hour was strange.
D your soul, where in hell have
you been all this time, Catie?' the
manager screamed at her, angriIy
without glancing at her, when she
came back at last.
"Catriona looked more anxious an6
white than ever before. Her face was
stained with weeping. I lost my
purse she said in a dazed, unsteady
voice. 1t was gone when I opened my