The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-07-01
From the London Chronicle.

'
 prejudice against women folk in
 X the business world. They are diff ficut-so it Is said-even discoutreous; they fall i'll, they stay away on slight pre- text. As public servants they are short in manners-so the objection runs-and as employees of the private individual, or in offices. they lack discipline.
 These drawbacks are what weigh in the scale against a consciousness, honesty and intelligence often greater than that of the masculine worker of the same grade. Add to the virtues cited the ques- tionable ones from another standpoint, of superior cheapness and weak resist ance to unpaid overtime-and behold considerable balance in favor of feminine employment in the many clerkly and con- fideutiaI capacities for which they are pre-eminently suited Statistics and per sonal knowledge bear out that, spite of all, women in business life have come to stay, though they may be unwelcome in the sphere ofxcompetition, and unpopular because comparatively new.
 Novelty In the serious walks of com- merce and finance is omething of crime in itself. The frou-frou of skirts, the light tones of a girlish voice, the willful straying curl and the erartic hairpin do not fit in with the old and crusted tradi- tions of Tellsons and the Borthers Cheerbyle's modern descendants. But the newness lies even deeper at the cause Of the bushes womans imperfections than a preiudiced world understands. For it Is not too much to say thot the worst or her faults exist because she has not yet learned to dissemble.
 The young girl entering into the secre- tarial, clerical. or counting house career is almost crudely natural. She is impa- tient and shows it. Who, 19 years old and unsophisticated, having tennis tour nament to play at o'clock and lovely fresh muslin waiting at home-could lose the PAP train Saturdays only) with contented air. while & tiresome fogey- master though he be-hummed and hawed dctating letters? A lad of the same age wouldn't like it, but he would remain out wardly imperturbable as he took down details in the fascinating cipher which designates Liar" and lawyer" by the same sign.
 Girls, too, are not at present broken into the hours of monotony which youths endure phiosophically for the sake of 'the good time coming week-ends and after closing time. The youth may be passively bored by long spells of stamp or ticket vending, bookkeeping, typins, or the mechanical filling in, sticking down. or tearing off of printed slips. Never theless, he Is not 'nervy''' with 1t. Evo- lution has furnished him, as business animal, with a professional mask. The maiden is actively bored. She feels it, looks it.
 Where the public has women under ob- mentary inference from her obvious bore dom is resented. And the case is aggra- vated when that injured air is added which greets inquiries interrupting a re- freshing conversation on the new sleeve or Jacks intentions. Approach her brother clerk and he will serve you as if this duty-albeit dull duty-is the main reason of his being. Any remarks with which he may sweeten routine on spOTt, duNeHtuIc UT hiHuTeu tOplcS are resumed at leisure. certain acquired economy has also trained him in taking slack time. He can novel read and med- itate and chaff, learn a part or write a letter in the enforced leisure most of- fees know. The keen woman worker will chafe and fret while she must kick her heels. To her the idea of being tenn porarily paid for nothing is rather ob- noxious To him-if he thought about It it would be a trifie humorous. He IS acclimatized to the bushes world. She is not. There lies a gulf between.
 Dirt" runs familiar maxim. lis mat ter out of place. Emotion out of place in the prosaic dealings for which one is paid-how shall 1t be described? Woman is A little slow to learn that the last posi- ton for a workers heart-even heart for her undertaking-is on her sleeve.
 The complaint that discipline sits hard lv on woman has some foundation. After all. is it surprising that whole code of social usage canpot be reversed ! in an instant in the mind of Miss So-and- So, merely because she has been put on the salary list?
 !. A girl enters the employment of firm.