Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1912-10-20

g 90 49, biazoned with the
figure and milady of the moving
picture parlor was on the job.
Almost invariably mi1ady is pretty
and the fact is not due to coincidence. but
to painstaking design on the part of tine
manager or owner of the thcater, who
knows fun well that the more attractive
the cashier the larger the volume OF the
days reteipts-or 10 get into the YER
nacslar of the show world, business.
For it's all business.
There's reason for the high pink pol
ish on milady's wonderfully manicured
nails, and for the almost mathematical
exactness of her couture.
Milady always looks as though she had
Just stepped out of bandbox. Go over
her costume in the minutest detail While
you viii find nothing expensive-her sal
AIRY, If such it may he called makes the
most rigid economy not "a virtue but the
most absolute of neceSsities-yet YOU will
find everything in good taste and the
whole effect distinctly pleasing.
::
Also clever is m.ady that her cos
tune looks though it cost about six
times much as ii did even. to a MEM
hcr of her own sex. unless she looks too
closely And as for mere man. how can
he be eNpt Cted tn tell good imitation of
linen or machine embroidery from the
real thing? All he knows is that the
cashier always looks neat and trim and
generally pieasinS-and, mayhap, if he
be family man. he Will be visited by
ilcetins Wish that his own daughter,
whose clothes probably cost many times
rs much. would observe and emulate.
.rsoushly speaking, there are about GOO
moving picture parlors in Washington.
y few OF them charge IL cents admission,
hut the vast ma jority arc nickel
houses. And all but Il scant bakers
dozen employ girl cashiers. In "a few
rare instances the post may be occupied
by the wife of the proprietor of the par
Tor OF his daughter. Usually, however,
il is young girl. rarely less than
eighteen or older than twenty.
Five dollars d week is the stock
salary for a moving picture cashier. II
she be extra industrious she may get
six or even seven. and there are n few
rare cases in the downtown districts
where the work is unusually arduous
where miiady receives high so
weekly for her services. Such places,
however. are few and far between, and
their holders objects of envy throughout
all the local world of moving picture
cashierdom- Five, as already stated. is
the usual SALARY, and for this milady
alternately gives seven and four hours
services daily. week by week, her time
being regulated according to whether she
be on the day or the night shift.
If, this week, she works during the day,
she comes on at 10 o'clock in the morn
ing and works through until , o'clock in
the Afternoon, usually bringing her
lunch with her and eating it before the
eyes of all who care to see, in her house
Of glass Then, next week. on the night
shift. she VII report for work at clock
in the evening and dole out tickets until
the conclusion of the final performance,
which usually comes about IL o'c.ock
The day shift. it will be seen, lacks but
one hour of being twice as long as the
night work-yet. in nearly every instance
give mi ady her choice and she Will
choose it in preference to the latter.
-
Il like to have my evenings to myself"
said one of them, in exp anation- cot
course you have TO work longer during
the day. but you don't have to work
nearly as hard. There isn't hardly any
business in the morning, and not much
in the early afternoon. And then there
isn't any place TO go in the day time. If
you're off. everybody else you know is
working. In the evenings it's different.
You can so lots of places. Where? Oh,
1 don't know; maybe TO some other pic
tUre show. Every now and then I like to
go and see the show from the inside.
The nearest l get to knowing what's 60
ing on inside when I'm on duty here is a
look at the autographs out front"
But the moving picture world of com
edy and tragedy that goes on behind the
lady in the glass house is no more varied
than the world which passes in front of
her reaching harris clutching five-cent
pieces up 10 the little aperture and with
drawing them with the precious card
hoard slips of admission. The hands
themselves tell stories. Some are plump,
Smoothed and beringed. Some are thin
and wrtnkled, also beringed. but the
stones in those rings are of glass or
paste, tawdry jewelry, representing "A
craving for luxury and beauty forced 80
be satisfied with the cheapest of imita-
tions.
Again the hands are those of the man
VINO earns his living at manual labor.
Again they bear the ink stains OF the
school girl, or the street dirt and crime
az the newsboy- In the course of her
days work. or more properly speaking.
of her nights work. for it is during the
evening that she reapS her real harvest
OF nlckelS. she sees hands representing
every type. almost every age And the
hands are only small part of il.
IS result of all this, milady of the
moving picture parlor is usually a keen
student of human natUre-her work
makes her so. willy-nilly. The world
l""is queer from the high stool OF the
Htue glass house. \ Kaleidoscope parade
or human beings is constantly passing.
Going snto the theater. coming out, or
stopping idly 10 look at the gaudy Iitho-
graphs. Snatches of conversations drift
into the cashier. In one ear sound the
light; of two girls barely in their teens
as they search their pocket books for the
required cents admission, while in the
othe' sound The awed comments of two
street urchinS who have been inside"
ard are now discussing the wonders of
;he drama of thc far west which they
hav" inst seen portrayed.
outside under the hundreds OF cleo
.trie lights with which the arched dome is
studded--no moving picture parior is
worthy Of the name. unless it boasts an
eloctrtc-st studded dome. painted either IN
white and gold or the fieriest of Grim
son-two shop girls are earnestly debat-